Beyond Sustainability: How E1 Powerboats Redefine Electric Motorsport

DUBROVNIK, CROATIA - JUNE 12: Rianna O'Meara-Hunt (NZL) / Timmy Hansen (SWE), Team Miami, in action during Qualifying for the E1 Series Dubrovnik GP on June 12, 2026 in Dubrovnik, Croatia. (Photo by Joe Portlock/Getty Images)

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When Formula E launched in Beijing in 2014, it arrived with a clear mission. Electric racing was intended to demonstrate that battery-powered vehicles could be exciting, fast and commercially viable while promoting a cleaner future for transport. More than a decade later, the landscape has changed dramatically. Electric vehicles are now a mainstream product in many markets , China has become the global center of EV innovation, and conversations around climate change have entered a more fractious mode. The newest electric racing championship, E1 , finds itself entering the market at a very different moment. The series, featuring all-electric hydrofoiling RaceBird boats competing in waterfront cities around the world, still promotes clean technology, but its leadership increasingly believes that sustainability is no longer enough to capture public attention. Instead, E1’s future may depend on demonstrating that electric propulsion simply delivers a better experience. I talked to E1 (and Formula E) founder Alejandro Agag, Sports.com Predict Team Miami pilots Timmy Hansen and Rianna O’Meara-Hunt, and Sports.com Predict Team Miami team principal Steve Curtis. They described a championship that is rapidly evolving from an environmental showcase into one of the world's most technically fascinating forms of motorsport.

E1: Creating A Different Conversation About Electric Mobility

Agag has spent much of his career launching new forms of electric motorsport. Having founded Formula E before turning his attention to Extreme E and now E1, he has witnessed first-hand how attitudes towards electrification have changed. “When we launched Formula E electric was the future,” says Agag. “Manufacturers were going full electric. Mercedes came in, BMW, and Audi.”

Today, Agag believes the public conversation has moved on. “Sustainability has really lost a lot of its attraction, which is a pity, because the climate problem has not changed, it's worse than before,” says Aga. “Activists have been incredibly bad for the cause. To destroy a piece of art or to block a highway has exactly the opposite effect. It really repels people. It produces a divorce between the public and sustainability, because those activists wrongly embody environmentalism.”

DUBROVNIK, CROATIA - JUNE 13: RaceBirds sit in the Launch Zone ahead of the E1 Series Dubrovnik GP on June 13, 2026 in Dubrovnik, Croatia. (Photo by Joe Portlock/Getty Images)

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As a result, E1 is no longer trying to build its identity around sustainability alone. Instead, the championship is increasingly focused on technology, engineering and performance. That does not mean environmental benefits have disappeared. Rather, Agag believes electric mobility is now succeeding for more pragmatic reasons, looking towards the personal car market.

“China is not going to lead because of sustainability reasons,” says Agag. “People are not going to buy an electric car because they’re worried about the environment, but because it's so much cheaper and so much better, and those cars are being made in China right now. If you look at Chinese electric cars, they are incredible, and they cost $20,000.” Established manufacturers around the world will eventually have to reach similar standards of price and quality if they want to remain competitive.

E1’s Challenge Electrifying The Water

If electric cars have already become familiar, electric boats remain something of a novelty, although Sweden is trying to position itself as a leader in the field . Marine electrification presents a very different engineering challenge from road transport. Water creates constant resistance, charging infrastructure is still limited, and power requirements are prohibitive for longer distances. But Agag still sees clear opportunities.

“Especially small crafts are going to be all electric,” says Agag. “That’s going to come from regulation, especially in lakes and rivers, where regulations are going to ban combustion, because it’s very polluting. You get leaks of oil, and you get pollution going directly into the water that with electric you avoid. Regulation is going to drive that change, and you need to have the technology ready.” E1, he argues, exists partly to accelerate the development of those technologies by providing a competitive testing environment.

Sports.com Predict Team Miami team principal Steve Curtis, however, offers a more nuanced assessment of the challenges ahead. He is the most successful offshore powerboat racer ever, with nine UIM Class World Championships under his belt, the highest total by any individual in the premier class of offshore powerboat racing. He was the youngest-ever World Champion in 1985, and the first Briton to achieve this accolade.

DUBROVNIK, CROATIA - JUNE 13: Rhianna O'Meara-Hunt (NZL) / Timmy Hansen (SWE), Team Miami, in action during group races during the E1 Series Dubrovnik GP on June 13, 2026 in Dubrovnik, Croatia. (Photo by Malcolm Griffiths/Getty Images)

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Curtis points out that high-performance marine applications still demand enormous amounts of energy. “The problem with electric with a boat is you’re always under load, so you don't get any regen,” he says. “You can't go 100 miles, which is a small journey in a boat. You just can't get the power," which he says makes the fastest categories of offshore racing problematic for electric powertrains.

Yet Curtis is far from dismissive about electric propulsion. Instead, he sees hybrid systems playing an increasingly important role. “If you look at a lot of the big ships out there, they’re diesel electric, so an electric engine pushes them,” he says. “It's more efficient to use the diesel motor as a g...

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