At Cannes, BYD and the Superyacht Industry Charts a High-Tech Future

At 25.5 meters (84 feet), and with a price available only on application, the Italian shipyard Sanlorenzo’s new yacht, SHE, made its public debut at this year’s Cannes Yachting Festival earlier this month in a setting more renowned for its film festival and beach clubs. Held ahead of the industry’s flagship trade show in Monaco, this “show before the show” offers an early indication of where the superyacht industry is heading.

Meanwhile, SHE’s understated, glamorous aesthetic for ultra-wealthy owners marks another chapter in Sanlorenzo’s “Road to 2030” pathway. This involves a new strategic collaboration with Chinese auto giant and electric vehicle battery maker BYD on energy storage, while exploring material and fuel alternatives to preserve the yachting experience for an extremely discerning customer base.

Take SHE’s deck, where Sanlorenzo has eschewed the traditional choice of teak for a synthetic replacement that’s cooler underfoot on hot days. Perhaps more significantly, the brand has also completed testing of a bi-fuel engine that runs on methanol, and is supporting the development of a biomethanol production facility in Sardinia. 

“We fully understand that the infrastructure to deliver the methanol to you is not ready. Storing it is like diesel, but I don’t find any petrol station where I can choose methanol! But we are sure it is coming,” Sanlorenzo Group CEO Tommaso Vincenzi told Observer.

The major initiative of Sanlorenzo’s “Road to 2030” strategy is to work with BYD on onboard energy storage. The partnership could have far-reaching effects, much like EVs have had on the automotive industry. The technology operates on a similar principle, so the diesel engines of future Sanlorenzo yachts will charge a generator that can serve as a silent propulsion or power system. After all, no one purchases a multimillion-dollar vessel to be woken by a diesel engine idling noisily in the middle of the Ionian Islands at 3 a.m.

“We don’t think that you could sell a fully electric boat to the market yet,” Vincenzi said, “but we saw what BYD was doing, and how its growth in the battery industry was huge. We reached out after hearing it was very interested in finding a partner to apply its technology to the shipping industry at large, so it was a natural fit for us.”

Such a system can run the air conditioning, ovens, refrigerators and wine coolers, while reducing fuel consumption and carbon emissions. As Sanlorenzo and others see it, the challenge is not implementing change so much as rethinking the infrastructure needed to support it.

As conspicuous symbols of wealth, superyachts have often been easy targets for criticism. Powered by diesel or gas-turbine engines, whether underway or at anchor, their carbon footprint is also significant. Meanwhile, the bigger these yachts are, the more fuel they use. A 2026 study published in Applied Sciences puts the global fleet of active superyachts longer than 30 meters at nearly 6,000 as of early 2024.

While the recreational boating sector produces only 0.05 percent of global emissions, or 16 million tons, the investment available in the industry could help innovation thrive. Important discoveries could then be scaled to potentially power, say, large container vessels shipping goods from Guangzhou to Southampton around the clock. Hybrid engines from firms such as Volvo and Yanmar have helped, but change needs to happen much faster and reach the market sooner.

The Cannes Yachting Festival Innovation Awards also highlighted other developments in the marine industry, including Millikan Boats’ M.10, an electro-solar catamaran featuring solar panels on its roof that deliver up to 35 kWh of power per day and a cruising speed of up to 8 knots (9 mph). Such steps are to be encouraged, but they can only work if the infrastructure at ports and harbors keeps pace with owner demand.

It’s an area where Richard Lambert, senior partner at yacht broker Burgess, is seeing scant signs of buyers looking to buy or charter more consciously. “There is an awareness in the market, and I think it’s trying to minimize that footprint, but it’s hard to eradicate it, especially for owners who want to buy a yacht that’s usable and, more importantly, resellable,” he told Observer. “It also requires a shift in mentality. Many superyacht buyers are from countries that are more pro-fossil fuels than others, so there needs to be a whole reset in how people approach boating.”

Lambert mentioned the example of one yacht on its books: The Idler, a fully electric superyacht with solar skins powering a 500 kW lithium battery bank and hydro regeneration, and Feadship’s custom-built superyacht, Breakthrough, whose owner insisted it was completely powered by hydrogen. Such outliers might nudge the needle, but they are still far from being a bellwether for change in this sector. As Lambert indicates, change is also required of the buyers themselves, who, like some car drivers, still value speed over greener performance methods. This demographic and outlook are shifting subtly, though.

Stewart Campbell, managing director of superyacht magazine Boat International, concurs. “Many of the owner classes are idealistic, and many of them have children,” he told Observer. “The younger generation is now thinking, ‘I can’t justify going out on this boat that’s burning 150 liters an hour,’ so there’s a lot of pressure there, but there isn’t one magic bullet to make these boats super-efficient overnight.”