Venice’s first electric water taxi
Venice is a unique city on the Adriatic coast, founded over 1,500 years ago on 117 islands connected by 150 canals and hundreds of bridges. There are no traditional streets here: the canals serve as transportation routes, and instead of cars, boats, motorboats, and traditional gondolas transport people and goods. These boats, of which there are approximately 4,000, are used by police, medical personnel, and taxi drivers. Recently, the topic of city health has become extremely pressing, and fully electric and hybrid taxi boats have begun to appear on the water.
On May 22nd of this year, the 29th ADI Compasso d’Oro Awards ceremony, the oldest and most prestigious global awards for industrial design, took place in Milan. An international jury judged projects that define contemporary social, technological, and environmental trends. A special prize, the Honorable Mention, was awarded to the electric water taxi project Lucietta. At the end of May, the boat was on display at the Venice Yacht Show.
The Lucietta project by Repower Group is the first all-electric water taxi in Venice. What’s particularly interesting is that last year, the same project was awarded a similar prize at an extraordinary ceremony held during EXPO 2025 in Osaka, Japan, and before that, the boat also debuted at the Venice Yacht Show.
Lucetta is an electric water taxi, the brainchild of Repower Group (Switzerland), a company with over 100 years of experience in the energy sector and focused on electric vehicles, among other things. The design and engineering were developed by Nauta Yachts Design, a studio renowned for its sailing and motor yacht projects, including the 180-meter superyacht Lürssen Azzam (2013). The boat was built at Cantiere Motonautico Serenella, one of the most renowned shipyards, which has been producing traditional Venetian boats for over 40 years.
Lucetta is a lime-tender with a recycled carbon fiber hull (length 9.3 m, width 2.25 m). Its distinctive features include two cockpits, bow and stern, and a protected midships section. The bow houses the helm station, the stern has passenger seats that can be converted into a sun lounger, and the superstructure has sofas along the sides. The interior features recycled Murano glass and mahogany.
Lucetta’s propulsion system is a 200 kW electric motor powered by a 180 kWh battery; the drive is a Konrad (USA) transom drive with coaxial propellers. The Lucietta can reach speeds in excess of 50 km/h, although Venice has rather strict speed limits: 7 km/h on smaller canals and 20 km/h on major canals. Reportedly, with a full load (14 passengers), the boat can travel for over 16 hours without recharging its battery at 10 km/h; at 20 km/h, it will need recharging after just three hours.
When conceiving the project, Repower specialists surveyed Venetian taxi drivers to understand their needs. The Lucietta is a modern interpretation of the traditional Venetian taxi. Unlike most taxi boats, the Lucietta offers more space on board and, given its dimensions (considering the width of the canals and the height of the bridges), as well as its maneuverability, is perfectly suited for navigation on Venice’s waterways. Therefore, it’s possible that the complete electrification of water taxis in this city will soon begin.
