The days of plugging your boat into an electrical outlet in your garage to recharge its batteries alongside your other EVs are not far off. According to Forza X1 Executive Chairman and Chief of Product Development Joseph Visconti, “The evolution of sustainable boating is here.”
Visconti’s brainchild, the Forza F22—a 22-foot center console powered by the company’s proprietary 180-hp electric outboard—launched at the Forza F1 Electrified Event in West Palm Beach, Florida, in July. He credited Elon Musk with inspiring his mission to build a fully integrated, all-electric production boat with the looks, feel, comfort and performance of a traditionally powered boat. “The roadmap was there with Tesla,” he said.
Visconti, who also is CEO of power-cat builder Twin Vee, began working with his team to develop this concept several years ago. He founded Forza X1 Inc. as a separate brand dedicated to building EVs in November 2021. The company went public last year. Forza X1 has also broken ground on a facility in Marion, North Carolina, where its electric boat and engine production will be consolidated.
Currently, the two components are being built separately. Design and manufacturing for the engine is taking place at the Forza X1 Tech Center in Old Fort, North Carolina. The boat is being built utilizing closed-mold construction at the Twin Vee factory in Fort Pierce, Florida.
The Forza X1 design team developed plans for a variety of electric boats, including a pontoon and power cat, but ultimately decided to take the 22-foot center console to market first. It was a good call: This past June, boat dealer OneWater Marine put in an order for 100 of the Forza F22s.
I took the boat out for a sea trial in Fort Pierce. At first glance, it looked just like a traditional center console, apart from its electric green Forza X1 wrap. Forza X1 is building fiberglass and carbon fiber-composite versions of the F22, and I tested the latter. It was attractive, sporting a nicely finished matte-black hardtop and seats covered in quilted upholstery with electric green piping to match the hull.
The F22 had all the requisite features for a center console of its size, including a V-shaped bow seat with removable backrests, a forward-facing seat with a cooler in the base, a two-person helm seat with armrests and flip-up bolsters, and an aft seat that folded up into the transom. Fishing features included a 26-gallon transom live well with an 800-gph pump, gunwale rod racks and plenty of rod holders. I didn’t see anything unusual about the F22 until Nate Belcher, chief EV technician for Forza F1, pointed out the electrical inlet in the transom for recharging the boat’s two 104-kWh lithium-ion batteries. This process requires 220-volt current.
This article was originally published in the October 2023 issue.
