Riva El-Iseo
- LOA: 8.24 m
- Beam: 2.50 m
- Propulsion: single Parker electric motor
- Power: 250 kW continuous, peak beyond 300 kW
- Battery: approx 150 kWh, 800 V lithium
- Top speed: approx 40 knots, cruise approx 25 knots
- Design: Officina Italiana Design
- Segment: E-Luxury, Riva's first fully electric boat
The first electric Riva
The El-Iseo opens a new chapter for the marque as its first fully electric boat and the founding model of Riva's E-Luxury idea. At a little over eight metres it sits beside the combustion Iseo in the runabout family, aimed at the owner who already keeps a larger Riva and wants a jewel to run straight off the swim platform. The concept is disarmingly simple. Take the most photographed shape in yachting and fit it with a motor that makes no noise and no fumes. What arrives is a day boat you can enjoy at six in the morning without a soul knowing you have left the dock.
The lines come from Officina Italiana Design, the studio of Mauro Micheli and Sergio Beretta that has drawn every modern Riva. The hull keeps the low predatory stance of the range while a carbon fibre substructure holds weight down to protect both range and pace. Polished steel details, a wraparound screen and the signature mahogany accents mean nobody mistakes it for a science project. It reads as a Riva first and an electric boat second, which is exactly the trick the studio set out to pull.
Glamour drawn in carbon
Seen from the dock the El-Iseo is unmistakable, all long foredeck and taut shoulders falling away to a low freeboard. The famous aquamarine hull colour is on offer, along with a palette that lets an owner match the boat to a mothership or a shore villa. Chrome cleats sit flush, the deck hardware is jewellery grade and the mahogany is laid by hand in the old Sarnico workshop tradition. Up close it invites you to run a hand along the caprail.
The proportions are honest to the runabout heritage that made the name, with a driver set low and close to the water. A neat folding hardtop can shade the cockpit when the sun climbs, then vanish to keep the profile clean. Everything visible has been detailed to be touched, not merely admired. This is a boat designed to look magnificent from a beach club terrace and better still from behind the wheel.
Riva's first electric runabout keeps every gram of the glamour and adds silence.
Two worlds in eight metres
For all the engineering the El-Iseo stays a boat built around pleasure. The cockpit uses a convertible layout, with a sunpad forward and an aft dinette that drops down into a second sun lounge the moment the anchor bites. Stowage is worked in cleverly so towels, ice and a picnic all disappear from view. Two or three couples can spend a whole day aboard without ever feeling perched on a tender.
Materials are pure Riva, with hand laid mahogany, polished metal and soft leather set against a bright gelcoat. A compact helm keeps the driver near the water and the switchgear uncluttered. A small bathing area aft brings swimmers close to the surface for an easy return after a dip. Each surface has been chosen with the same care Riva gives a forty metre flybridge, only in miniature.
Silent power, real pace
Under way the El-Iseo answers the obvious question at once. A Parker electric motor gives a continuous 250 kilowatts with a short peak beyond 300, enough for a top speed near 40 knots and an easy cruise around 25. There is instant torque off the line and none of the vibration or drone that colours a petrol runabout. Guests talk in normal voices at speed and hear the water instead of the exhaust.
Energy comes from an 800 volt lithium bank of about 150 kilowatt hours, liquid cooled and sealed for life afloat. Owners treat it much as they treat a car at home, plugging in overnight so the boat is full by breakfast. Riva is candid that this is a coastal day boat for bays, lakes and short hops, and used that way it delivers a full day of swimming and sundowners on one charge. As harbours tighten their rules on noise and emissions, that quiet capability starts to look like freedom.
Who it is for
The El-Iseo suits the owner who already has the big boat and now wants the most desirable small one, a craft to run to a lakeside lunch or slip out for a dawn swim. It rewards the host who cares that guests remember the light on the water and not the racket of an engine. Buyers on the great protected lakes and inside emission zones will find it opens coastlines that a combustion tender cannot.
It is a poor fit for anyone needing long offshore range or a boat to cross open water for hours at a stretch. This is a jewel for short, beautiful passages close to home. For the collector who wants to own the first chapter of Riva's electric story, it is a natural choice.
Who it is for: The owner of a larger Riva who wants the most beautiful small boat afloat and a silent, emission free way to enjoy protected bays and lakes.