Electric Pontoon Boat Manufacturer Coming To W.Va.

Gov. Jim Justice announced that the Pure Watercraft company will build electric pontoon boats in the Northern Panhandle’s Brooke County.

Speaking at the West Virginia Chamber of Commerce annual summit at the Greenbrier on Wednesday, Gov. Jim Justice announced that the Pure Watercraft company will build electric pontoon boats in the Northern Panhandle’s Brooke County.

Justice said the company will set up an 80,000 square foot facility on a revitalized steel plant site at the Beech Bottom Industrial Park.

The company expects to invest at least $5 million in the plant, creating 100 full time jobs by 2025.

“I like the fact that they’ll go to a maximum speed of 23 miles an hour,” Justice said. “So that way, I’ll be safe at all times.”

Pure Watercraft, out of Seattle, Washington, is a direct-to-consumer provider of high-performance electric boats. The company will produce the Pure Pontoon Boat here in West Virginia, being developed in collaboration with strategic investor General Motors.

Recreational Boating Deaths Decline in W.Va.

  Statistics released Wednesday by the U.S. Coast Guard show three people were killed in boating accidents in 2013. That’s down from four in 2012, eight in 2011 and 2010, and 15 in 2009.
 
All three fatal accidents in 2013 were drownings.
 
Twenty people suffered nonfatal injuries in eight accidents in 2013.
 
There was only property damage in another five accidents.

The total number of boating accidents declined from 19 in 2012 to 16 last year.
 
Seven accidents were collisions. Other causes included flooding or swamping, skier mishap, capsizing and carbon monoxide.
 
Nationwide, 560 people were killed in recreational boating accidents in 2013.

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