Group Beneteau and Fountaine Pajot Group have appointed Philippe Hamon as president of their joint venture, Elektra Marine, and confirmed JOOOL as the commercial brand for its technical solutions.
In addition, five months after announcing the 50/50 marine electrification partnership, the two French shipyards have expanded the number of boats, brands and other shipyards involved.
The update was presented at the Cannes Yachting Festival, where the shipyards said the venture is intended to pool expertise, development work and production volumes in order to offer standardised and competitive electrification systems to the wider boating industry.
The stated objective is to contribute to the electrification of 10% to 15% of the global sailing market by 2030.
Hamon joins the venture with nearly 30 years of experience in the automotive industry, including at Valeo, a sector that has already moved through large-scale electrification, component standardisation and platform sharing.
His role will focus on structuring the product offer, supporting growth and rolling the systems out across more brands and models.
Reliable energy management systems
“Given my experience in the automobile industry, I am convinced that standardisation and platform strategies make it possible to offer reliable energy management systems at competitive prices,” he said.
He added that JOOOL already had significant experience in boating electrification and that the Beneteau-Fountaine Pajot partnership would help accelerate standardisation for other partner shipyards.
JOOOL combines propulsion, energy storage, conversion, energy management, interfaces and services within a platform designed to be adapted to different boat sizes and uses.
The partners say the offer builds on 28 years of marine electrification experience, more than one million hours of operational data at sea, 44 hybrid sailing boats operating across five continents and several existing shipyard users.
Rollout continues
Bruno Thivoyon, chairman of Group Beneteau, said the partners were ‘building on proven solutions to create a robust, standardised and scalable offering’, while Mathieu Fountaine, deputy chief executive of Groupe Fountaine Pajot, added that wider decarbonisation in boating would require the industry to move beyond individual initiatives.
The rollout now covers eight brands: Beneteau, Jeanneau, Lagoon, Lagoon Signature, Excess, Fountaine Pajot, Fountaine Pajot Yachts and Dufour. Groupe Beneteau has four models involved, while Group Fountaine Pajot has ten.
Three additional shipyards — Leopard Catamaran, RM Yachts and Chantier de l’Arsenal — are also working with JOOOL.
