MALDIVES TO GET ELECTRIC WATER TAXIS TO BOOST CLEANER ISLAND TRANSPORTATION

Thu 18 June 2026:

The Maldives will receive 100 electric water taxis over the next three years in a boost for a “cleaner, quieter, and more scalable” model for island transportation.

It will also help the island nation, known for its rich luxury tourism, reach its goal of carbon neutrality by 2030, according to a statement by US-based Navier, a maritime technology company, which is collaborating with the UAE-based JIH Global Investment for the project.

“The partnership will establish the Navier Network in the Maldives, a software-driven sustainable maritime corridor designed to connect airports, resorts, private villas, and local islands through a fleet of high-performance hydrofoil vessels. The broader partnership represents an expected fleet value of approximately $100 million,” said the statement released early June.

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The island nation will see the initial rollout of five Navier N30 vessels in 2026, as well as up to 95 additional vessels to be deployed over the next three years.

Sampriti Bhattacharyya, founder and CEO of Navier, said: “Nearly every guest, every worker, every resort, and every island depends on boats or seaplanes. That makes the Maldives the perfect place to prove that maritime transportation can be cleaner, quieter, standardized, software-driven, and dramatically better for the guest experience.”

“We are not just deploying boats. We are building the first sustainable luxury transportation network on water,” said Bhattacharyya, who has worked as an aerospace engineer at NASA.

“The Maldives has always been at the frontier of luxury tourism, but as an island nation on the frontlines of climate change, we also have an opportunity to help define what the future of waterborne transportation looks like,” said Mohamed Ali Janah, chairman of JIH Global Investment.

The statement said the Maldives “will serve as the blueprint for scaling modern water transportation across island nations, as well as premium coastal markets.”

-Source: AA

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