One of the first DIY electric hydrofoil student projects started already summer 2008 under the leadership of Prof. Jakob Kuttenkeuler and was called the “Evolo project”. The idea was to develop a water vehicle for one adult person with an electrical motor of about 3 kW and a speed of 15 knots (28 km/h) while minimising emissions, noise and wakes.
Electric Hydrofoil and eFoil news by E-Surfer

An electric hydrofoil is flying above the water. An eFoil is using a wing connected to a mast underneath the board which lets it take off. It is powered by an electric motor.
Since the first eFoil videos went viral in 2017 the trend is not to stop. The beauty of electric foils is that they consume much less power compared to an electric surfboard once they fly and the resistance of the water surface gets eliminated. This has several positive effects. Less power means wider range or less weight of the battery. Smaller batteries make the product cheaper. Not only because less lithium ion cells need to be used but also other components such like the controller need to handle less energy. You can get the latest electric hydrofoils in our eFoil Shop.
Our latest eFoil articles:
We have seen more than 30 people trying an Electric Foil the first time. Some fly within minutes, some need an hour. But what happens if you give an electric…
CEO & Founder Bastian Raithel was visiting us with his Waviator electric hydrofoil to compare it with Lift Foils eFoil. It was a rainy day here in Berlin but we…
At a time where most electric hydrofoil companies are just starting to ship – Lift Foils is releasing new models with updated functionality and improvements. Lift has sold more than…
Summer is here (at least in the Northern Hemisphere), so we reached out to the manufacturers of electric surfboards & hydrofoils to get an update about who is shipping. We…
Fliteboards began shipping after an extensive 3-year development program. Fliteboard is based in Byron Bay, Australia, but has a European subsidiary (Fliteboard Europe s.r.l.) located near Venice in Italy. Fliteboard is…
The Audi e-tron hydrofoil developer team visited us for a tour in Berlin where we could compare the jet-powered e-Foil from Audi with the eFoil from Lift. The Lift eFoil…
As the season is starting the CabraTec EasyGoat 2019 models were presented and the team around Mira send us a few updates. The price did increase from last year about…
Hoverstar is a company from Shenzhen in China who develops the electric hydrofoil board H5 Hover Foil next to some other water-toys. They have an Aquajet which is supporting scuba divers…
The Audi e-tron electric hydrofoil with jet propulsion is a project from Audi’s engineer Franz Hofmann and Christian Roessler from Technical University of Munich. It was showcased at Kiel Regatta & LA…
More about the electric hydrofoil:
Less energy means less heat and this makes things a lot of easier. But of course it is still not simple to build a reliable mass production electric hydrofoil. However, since it is easier to build an e-foil compared to an e-surfboard, you do not only see a lot of companies jumping on this trend within just 1 year, but also a community of DIY e-foil builders. These guys exchange their thoughts on the forum efoil.builders. This is a very good place for anyone who is considering to build a “do it yourself” electric foil.
The pioneer of commercial electric hydrofoils ist Lift Foils who set a trend with their viral Youtube videos in 2017 and who was the first manufacturer who shipped from summer 2018. They shipped 500 products in the first 6 months and were ramping up production in 2019. You can buy the eFoil directly in our Electric Hydrofoil Shop.
It takes an electric hydrofoil manufacturer at least another year from showing the first prototype or even ship to some beta users before he can release a reliable mass production e-foil. So a lot of boards were announced and shown at trade shows, but time will tell when and if they will be ever available for sale. We have already seen many disappearing.
- Liftfoils – As mentioned above the Lift Foils eFoil is available now
- Jetfoiler – Another early electric hydrofoil which was announced in 2017 was Jetfoiler from Kai Concept. The Jettfoiler however has still no release date even 2 years later.
- CabraTec -Cabratec from Czech Republic started to sell their EasyGoat to beta users in 2018 and is expected to sell larger volumes in 2019.
- Fliteboard – So is Fliteboard from Australia. The so called “iPhone of electric hydrofoils” (because its attention to detail and beautiful design) shipped to beta users end of 2018 and is ramping up production for summer 2019.
- Takuma Concepts – The E-TAKUMA from Takuma Concepts was announced end of 2018. It is a modular system where the different components can be also used without battery and motor. For example for Windsurfing.
- Waviator – The German company Waviator has a similar modular concept and was showing its product first time at the boot & fun show in Berlin November 2018
- Flying Rodeo – FR is another company from Czech Republic which wants to focus on custom made e-foils in lower quantities.
- VeConcept – This kickstarter project from Canada wanted originally only build components for DIY electric hydrofoils but now announced a complete board for 2019.
In addition you see more and more brands from China such like Waydoo and Hoverstar. You can compare all these electric foils in our e-Foil comparison.