Image Credit: Captain Electro.
When Candela first popped up on the horizon, I was skeptical. They came up with this swanky speedboat for the seriously wealthy bunch and I thought we'd see these things on very rare occasions. I was wrong. Candela quickly realized the best business approach was to turn its flying boat into a bus and offer it to every city in the world that still uses waterways for transport. It was a stroke of genius.
The boffins at Candela just bagged themselves another $32.8 million in funding. At times when investors are clutching their wallets like a nervous grandmother on a crowded bus, that brings their total kitty to a sizable $141 million. Even the World Bank's International Finance Corporation chipped in $8.7 million. The World Bank doesn't usually hand out cash for toys, so clearly, something serious is afoot.
Image Credit: Candela.
The star of this watery show is the P-12 - an electric ferry. Calling it a "boat" is like calling a space shuttle a "glider." Most boats spend their lives fighting the water, pushing it out of the way like a grumpy shopper at a January sale. That's incredibly inefficient. The P-12, however, uses computer-controlled hydrofoils - basically underwater wings - to lift itself clean out of the drink, wherever you happen to be.
By flying above the waves, the P-12 reduces drag by 80%. That's not a wee bit better - that's the difference between a jog and a supersonic sprint. Because it's not dragging a massive hull through the sea, it uses a fraction of the battery power. It produces zero wake, too, which is lovely for the ducks and even lovelier for the people on the shore whose tea won't be spilled by a passing wave.
Image Credit: Candela.
Don't think this is just some fancy prototype for billionaires to play with while wearing silly hats. This "boat" is already working for its living in Stockholm, Oslo, and Gothenburg. It turns out that when you stop fighting the water, you go faster. A lot faster. In Mumbai, they're planning to use a fleet of these to turn a soul-crushing two-hour commute into a breezy 35-minute hop.
Of course, Candela isn't building these one by one in a shed. They're opening a second factory in Poland to start "serial production." They're treating boat building like making cars - using carbon fiber and shared platforms to keep costs down. It's a "platform-based approach" - they've simply figured out how to make lots of them without going bankrupt. That's why everyone wants to invest in them.
Image Credit: Candela.
The best bit isn't only that it's green - I mean, it is, and that's grand for the polar bears - but it's actually cheaper to run than those clunky, soot-belching diesel ferries we've been using since the dawn of time. Transit operators love a bargain more than a Scotsman likes a free buffet, and with over 65 vessels already on order, the world is clearly waking up. By the end of 2026, these flying ferries will be popping up in the Maldives, Saudi Arabia's NEOM project, and Thailand.
It's a rare thing to see a "futuristic" gadget that actually solves a problem rather than just creating new ones. Usually, electric transport involves a lot of waiting around and apologizing for being late. But here we have a Swedish flying machine that's faster, cheaper, and won't leave a trail of dead fish in its wake. It's almost enough to make me stop being cynical. Almost. But - it's still a boat, and if you fall off, you're still going to get very, very wet.
Image Credit: Candela.
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