Maserati Tridente Electric Boat Review

Three-Pronged Attack

The Maserati Tridente pulls from the expertise of three different brands to deliver a successful marine debut for a fabled Italian automaker.

The Hotel Stresa, a boutique retreat nestled on the shores of Northern Italy’s Lake Maggiore, is glamorous enough as it is. Surrounded by Alpine peaks capped with year-round snow, its facades sparkle in the evening as a low Piedmont sun refracts off the surface of the lake, lighting up each crevice of its construction. Now add to the mix an army of 542-horsepower Maserati GranCabrios in its circular driveway, painted every color imaginable—rose gold, bright yellow, cherry red—engines howling like a pack of hungry mountain wolves. Then for good measure throw in an 818-horsepower electric GranCabrio Folgore model and you begin to get the picture of the celebratory atmosphere surrounding the rollout of Maserati’s first boat, the all-electric Tridente. Fast cars and fast boats have always been inextricably linked in an arena where many connoisseurs adhere to the motto: “He who dies with the most toys wins.”

Maserati is far from the first auto manufacturer to dip its toe into the marine world. Indeed, just as many boatbuilders gaze with envy at the beautiful designs and wide margins flaunted by carmakers, many carmakers look back across the road at boatbuilders and think, “well damn, doesn’t that look like fun?”

What sets the 34-foot, five-inch Tridente apart is that, unlike many similar projects wherein a prototype was developed without much further investment, this boat is actually meant for production, with ten hulls slated for construction, and perhaps more after that.

Maserati’s famed trident symbol was inspired by a statue of Neptune and his trident in Bologna, where the company was founded. There are a few obvious symbolic overlays then with the Tridente, not the least of which is that the boat represents a collaboration of three different companies from three disparate parts of the world. Maserati, of course, is the storied, 110-year-old brand that lent not only its badge but its passion for the avant-garde; Vita Power—based in Southampton, England—brought to the table the boat’s electric drivetrain and a fast DC-charging system. To bolster its first-in-industry tech, Vita Power has been building its own infrastructure, with charging ports in places like the French Riviera, San Francisco Bay, and happily, Lake Maggiore too. (Vita claims the possibility of up to an 80-percent charge in less than an hour.) The third member of the Tridente’s triumvirate is Maine-based Hodgdon Yachts. With 200 years of experience, the sixth-generation company is known for building some of the finest yacht tenders on Earth. Its inclusion here makes sense, as the Tridente’s primary raison d’etre is its envisioned use as a tender.

For Audrey Hodgdon, managing director at Hodgdon Yachts, this project presented an interesting and welcome challenge. “We’ve never built an electric boat before,” she said. “So for a 200-year-old company to do our first one, and with a company like Maserati, that was a really cool experience for us, and something to be proud of.”

As the Tridente slid into view, I heard myself whistle like a wolf in a cartoon. Lake Maggiore was a dark, gun-metal gray, and the custom matte gray paint job on the boat made it look like a dollop of quicksilver all but melting into the water.

The lines here are nothing earth shattering. They should be familiar to anyone who has seen Dolce Vita-inspired runabouts. However, there is something just a tad different, just a bit more modern to this boat’s aesthetics that make it pop.

In a previous conversation, Maserati’s head of design, Klaus Busse—a German, interestingly enough—explained the difference between German and Italian car design. “If you look at the lines of the Porsche 911,” he said, “you can see the Germans evolved it little by little over time—as if they are on a road to the idea of perfection. But with Italians, every ten years or so, they break everything and start with something fresh and new.”

I would say that in this case, Busse, who designed the Tridente, skewed more towards his German roots than his new home in Italy. He did a lovely job with it, too. The boat’s twisting form flows from a marked flare in the bow back to a gorgeous tumblehome section aft with an ever-so-slightly rounded stern.

Stepping aboard with a gaggle of auto journalists in tow, I was able to check out the boat’s decks as we took a short cruise over to Isola Bella (meaning “beautiful island”) to tour a 17th-century palazzo that had belonged to the Borromeo clan, an aristocratic family that once produced a Pope. Conversation flowed unabated, even at speed. “One of the big things about electric boats, besides them being cleaner, obviously, is that they are quiet,” Hodgdon said. “Without a combustion engine rumbling away, the only noise is the wind and the water, and you can hold an actual conversation without shouting while the boat is underway.”

The layout here is of the dayboat-standard popularized by the Riva Aquarama, with a sunpad for three aft, U-shaped seating amidships, and a seat for the captain to starboard and another guest to port. There is a small cabin down below, though I foresee very little use of this space other than for stowage. As might be expected of a Hodgdon-Maserati mashup, the fit and finish on this boat is up to megayacht-tender standards. The leather is supple, the stitching is intricate and drum-tight, and everything feels exceptionally solid. Belowdecks, even in out-of-sight places, the finishing was very visibly tended to as well. Maserati also chose Esthec—an innovative bio-based flooring—for the decks, which will be cool to the touch even in the hot sun, and easy to clean for the crew.

After a tour of the island, we ripped back to the docks and got ready for an incredible pasta and seafood meal at a mountaintop trattoria overlooking the lake. It was heady stuff, and had the other journalists raring for a celebratory drink or three after dessert, but I had other plans. I was to get back onboard the boat at 7 a.m. for a proper sea trial.

After a shot of espresso, I walked through the morning silence toward the lake where the boat floated on the glassy stillness with nothing but the contraltos of the birds to accompany it. Normally, revving up the engine would have drowned out the sounds of nature, but with this Maserati, we simply glided away from the dock in silence. Out on the water, I pushed forward on the controls and the boat really took off. I actually felt some G-forces gently pinning me to the seat, a pleasant surprise after testing a handful of other electric boats that were decidedly sluggish. The Tridente’s giddyup is almost entirely thanks to Vita Power. The marine-technology company opted for a Konrad duoprop sterndrive. They chose well. The boat whistled through S-turns and hardovers at a 25 knot cruise, and when I pinned it she bolted up to a very respectable 40 knots—despite carrying four battery arrays whose 252 kilowatt hours of energy weigh a combined 3,200 pounds. Maserati and its partners decided to build the boat entirely in carbon fiber to offset the weight. With an 11,400-pound displacement, the Tridente is actually a full ton less than a similarly sized petrol-powered Italian boat built with fiberglass.

At this point, I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention my other test drive during this trip. Alongside the Tridente, Maserati had also rolled out its new Folgore, the electric version of its GranCabrio. The Folgore nails two of a sportscar’s most important attributes—and shares them with the boat. Both vehicles have Centro Stile-penned lines that are nothing short of gorgeous, and the acceleration is positively thrilling. If the Tridente is the zippiest electric boat I’ve ever wheeled, the Folgore’s giddyup is reminiscent of time travel—the car rockets 0-60 in a mere 2.7 seconds. Unlike the Tridente, Maserati actually piped in V-8 engine noise via speaker, so the Folgore doesn’t miss a note—of course, purists might nitpick the facsimile roar. Regardless, when I whipped the Folgore through the narrow ribbons of Alpine asphalt she was no less a joy to drive than the Tridente. And when we careened back into town near the hotel, a group of Italian schoolchildren stopped and let their jaws drop before bursting into a raucous round of applause. Bravo, Maserati!

As with cars, range with electric boats is always a sticking point. Yet at at 25-knot cruise, the Tridente can gallop a fairly respectable 43 nautical miles before needing a charge. Such numbers might be a dealbreaker for some, but remember: The Tridente is designed as a megayacht tender. Her main duties are to exit the belly of a mothership and zip silently into some chic Mediterranean port, delivering her owner to their favorite coffee shop or dockside restaurant. At 7.5 knots, the Tridente’s range climbs a bit—to approximately 50 nautical miles, for about 7 hours of autonomy (At 8 knots, the boat is starting to climb up the bow wave, which results in reductions in range for very small increases in speed). So slow speeds will net you a nice day’s cruising along most of Lake Maggiore’s 40 miles, should you be so inclined. Truly long journeys are a moot point for this dayboat, and thus its very essence deftly sidesteps one of its inherent weaknesses. It’s this kind of elegant thinking that embodies the Tridente’s high-minded goal, which is to be thought of as so much more than just a toy.

Maserati Tridente Specifications:

LOA: 34’5”
Beam: 9’2”
Draft: 3’11”
Displ.:11,400 lb.
Cruise Speed: 25 knots
Max Speed: 40 knots
Power: 2/252-kW Vita Marine (600-hp total)
Range: 43 nautical miles at 25 knots
Price: $2.7 million

This article originally appeared in the November 2024 issue of Power & Motoryacht magazine.

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Source: https://www.powerandmotoryacht.com/boats/maserati-tridente-electric-boat-review