Get Hotcars Premium. Start your free trial today
The Orca brings the best aspects of an EV into something truly remarkable, with infinite fun on the water.
In North American lakes and coastal areas, personal watercraft (PWCs) are everywhere. Along with the steady popularity of these water-bound recreational vehicles, electric cars have proliferated in sales to record numbers. In 2015 and fresh out of college, Samuel Bruneau took notice of these developments and co-founded Taiga Motors, a startup aiming to deliver recreational and utility vehicles with electrified powertrains.
Besides personal watercraft, the Canadian firm focused on developing a range of summer and winter vehicles. Taiga's lineup includes three snowmobile variants: Ekko, Atlas, and Nomad. The Ekko and Nomad are the more rugged ones, offering more utility and storage features. The Atlas takes the cake for the best performance with a blisteringly quick claimed 0-62 mph run of just 2.9 seconds. Each offers between 61 and 87 miles of range and starts at $17,499.
Taiga's most hyped entry isn't a snowmobile; instead, it's the Orca. The Taiga Orca is the first mass-production electric personal watercraft. PWCs are almost entirely powered by two and four-stroke internal combustion engines. While the noisy and polluting two strokes have been generally phased out in favor of four strokes, they still aren't cheap to run.
Most PWCs use around 3-4 gallons of gasoline per hour, according to Jetdrift. If owners plan on driving their PWC for just 1 hour a week, fuel could easily cost north of $700 for an entire year with today's fuel prices. Plus, add on annual maintenance like oil changes and replacing spark plugs, and ownership may be more of a costly mess than fun. But owning a recreational vehicle doesn't have to be like this.
RELATED: A Detailed Look At The 2022 Taiga Nomad Electric Snowmobile Compared to internal combustion powertrains, electric powertrains are far less complex. EV powertrains have two main components: the drive motor and battery pack. This simplicity allows for a very robust system needing virtually zero maintenance. Translate this setup into a PWC, and the result is a compelling offering with impressive performance and reliability.
On a sunny July afternoon, I arrived at the Ferry Dock Marina in Burlington, VT, to give the Taiga Orca the first ride. As the sun glistened across Lake Champlain, I fixated my eyes on several Taiga Orcas, all outfitted in a Carbon Fiber body. While these carbon fiber models were the highest level of the Orca available, Taiga Motors also offers it in two other trims.
The base Sport model starts at $17,490 and offers 90 horsepower, a 56 mph top speed, and a plastic composite body. Upgrade to the $19,490 Performance model, and it features a 160-horsepower motor, a 65 mph top speed, and a plastic body. The final trim is the Orca Carbon, starting at a hefty $26,500. Like the Performance variant, the Carbon has a 160-horsepower motor, but it resides underneath a carbon fiber shell.
The Sport model offers three included exterior paint options along with black upholstery for the seats. The Performance ups the game with four additional premium colors, running at $900 extra. Moreover, the Performance includes two more seating colors, but with a small up-charge. The Carbon trim offers all seven colors as standard and four included seating options. Under the shell, all models have a 28-mile range (up to 2 hours of riding) derived from a 24kWh battery pack. The battery pack is about the same size as an original Fiat 500e or Nissan Leaf.
RELATED: Ferrari Made A Boat, And It Cost $70,000 For charging, the Orca has a 6.6kW onboard charger and is also surprisingly capable of DC fast charging. Via a standard U.S. 120V outlet, Taiga estimates a full charge will take 14 hours. A full charge on a level 2 240V socket should take a more reasonable 3.5 hours. But most importantly, on a level 3 charger, a 0-80% charge should take a mere 30 minutes. There is little level 3 charging infrastructure currently available, but Taiga is presently working on employing its own network with the help of ABB. But the good news is that the Orca uses the North American standard EV charger, so owners can use any generic EV charger!
After unplugging and hopping on my test model, it came to my attention that the Orca had a very low center of gravity due to the batteries sitting down low in the hull. Its low center of gravity means the Orca doesn't tilt as much when getting on. Once I got situated, I turned it on and headed off. The second thing I immediately noticed was its incredibly quiet powertrain. Unlike an internal combustion PWC, the only sound one hears is the humming of the electric motor. After getting out of the no-wake area, it was time to see what the Orca was capable of.
The Performance and Carbon trims offer three driving modes: Range, Sport (90 horsepower), and Wild (160 horsepower). But for our drive, Taiga said they disabled Wild mode for safety reasons, so I only had 'Sport' at my disposal. After switching to Sport mode and giving the accelerator a go, I quickly realized that just the 90 horsepower in Sport mode was plenty.
Like most EVs, the Orca's acceleration is instantaneous, and it feels all the more insane in an open-air watercraft. My driver's display unfortunately suffered from technical difficulties (said to have been caused by the heat), so I couldn't tell exactly what my velocity was— but it sure felt fast. Besides the straight-line performance, the Orca's instant torque allows it to turn on incredibly sharp angles, making for an engaging ride. Many petrol-heads may say that electric powertrains suck the excitement away, but in an electric PWC, it makes the experience so much better.
After spending some time behind the handlebars, I feel as if I have experienced the new standard for water-bound vehicles. With quick charging and little required maintenance, the Orca brings the best aspects of an EV into something truly remarkable. If you want the same thrill as a Tesla but on the open water, there is simply nothing else out there that yields a similar experience.
Andrew Lambrecht is an engineering student from North Carolina. In addition to HotCars, Andrew is a freelance contributing writer at InsideEVs, Forbes, and Business Insider. He also runs an EV blog called 'The Current Review' and co-hosts 'The Plugged-in Podcast.'