BEIJING – I’ve found plenty of fun and strange EVs for this Awesomely Weird Alibaba Electric Vehicle of the Week column, but the electric houseboats have always been some of the most outlandish. This time though, the houseboat actually looks like something that you could conceivably live in.
Largely surrounded by glass walls, the houseboat helps avoid that claustrophobic feeling and gives you an unobstructed view of the water… or the trashcans on the dock you spend most of your time tied up to.
The main living space appears to be a combined living room and kitchenette.
There’s a beautiful-looking porch off of the living room that could double as a swim deck. On the opposite end of the boat is a smaller porch off of the bedroom.
What interests me most is the electrical system, but the Alibaba page doesn’t give us much information there. We know that an electric outboard powers the houseboat, though we don’t have any details on the model or power of the motor.
There’s similarly very scant information on the battery bank, though it’s likely a series of SLA batteries that double as a stable ballast.
Then there’s that solar panel array on top. Again, there’s frustratingly little information on the power of the panel array, though it does look quite large and thus is likely sufficient to provide all of the necessary power to run the daily needs on the boat.
To read more, click on Electrek
