The Maldives Are Getting a Fleet of Emissions-Free Water Taxis
- Jun 9
- 2 min read
The fleet of 100 electric boats will be used to ferry tourists and residents around the archipelago. Entirely appropriate for an island nation at the forefront of the impact of climate change.
Navier, the San Francisco-based start-up will soon deploy the super-quiet electric vessels across the Maldives to enable emissions-free travel between airports, resorts, and local islands.
Currently, conventional internal combustion engine ferries and boats are the primary mode of transportation in the Indian Ocean archipelago, carrying passengers to locations spread across 35,000 square miles of ocean. Navier’s battery-powered water taxis represent a substantially cleaner, more efficient alternative for getting around the roughly 200 islands that are permanently inhabited by the local population, plus approximately 150 islands that have been developed exclusively for high-end tourism.
Navier said it signed a contract valued at approximately $100 million with JIH Global - a Dubai-based investment firm behind some of the top hospitality projects in the Maldives. Navier’s flagship, the N30, is a 30-foot electric foiling yacht that can carry up to eight passengers and a driver. It glides four feet above the water on three carbon foils that boost speed and efficiency while minimizing wake and drag.
“The Maldives has always been at the frontier of luxury tourism, but as an island nation on the front lines of climate change, we also have an opportunity to help define what the future of waterborne transportation looks like,” says the chairman of JIH Global. “With Navier, we see the potential to build not only a cleaner, more seamless network connecting airports, resorts, villas, and islands, but a scalable blueprint for sustainable maritime transportation, extending beyond the Maldives to island nations and coastal cities around the world.”
