Electric vs Gas Outboard: What Fifteen Years Really Costs in Canada

Servicing a 3.5 hp gas outboard at a Toronto shop costs $5,794 over fifteen years. That is more than the motor costs new, and roughly seven times what you will spend on fuel. An electric outboard deletes almost all of it. Here is the whole comparison on one page, in Canadian dollars, with every number shown.

Where the Money Goes on a Gas Outboard

A well-kept 3.5 hp four-stroke is rated for 1,500 to 2,000 hours before its first overhaul, or fifteen to twenty years at the hundred hours a season a typical Ontario owner puts on it. That life is a condition, not a promise, and the manufacturer publishes what it costs. Whichever comes first, hours or calendar:

After the first 20 hours or one month: engine oil, gear oil and a spark plug check, once the ten-hour break-in is behind you. That first change carries out the metal left from running-in.
Every 100 hours or once a year: 0.3 L of 10W-30 or 10W-40 in API grade SH, SJ or SL; about 180 ml of SAE 80W-90 hypoid gear oil; a new spark plug gapped to 0.8–0.9 mm; a fuel filter check. There is no paper oil filter on this engine, only a metal screen inside the crankcase, cleaned during heavier work; the oil is drained.
Every 300 hours or three years: water pump impeller replaced whether it looks fine or not, carburettor stripped and cleaned, and the anode replaced once it has lost more than a third of itself.
Every autumn: winterization, and fuel stabiliser is mandatory because Canadian gasoline carries ethanol that will gum the jets by spring.

GTA marine labour runs $125 to $145 an hour, and most shops bill flat rate or hold a one-hour minimum, so a forty-minute job rarely leaves the counter under $150. A routine annual service is $170 to $210 all in; an impeller job $150 to $300 in labour plus a $25 to $40 part; winterization $125 to $200, usually discounted when bundled. At the $135 midpoint, fifteen years looks like this.

What	When	Each	Times	Total (CAD)
First service	After break-in	$165	1	$165
Annual service + winterization	Every year	$250	15	$3,750
Impeller + carburettor	Every 3 years	$235	5	$1,175
HST 13%	Ontario	–	–	$667
Total				$5,794

That splits $4,170 in labour and $955 in materials. About $385 a year, every year, whether the boat leaves the dock or not. Add a travel fee if you have the mechanic come to the marina, and it is another $500 to $1,000 across the same period. This is the cheap version, too: in the fresh water around Toronto the housing and anodes barely corrode, so nothing unplanned lands on the invoice.

The service bill is larger than the purchase price of the motor.

Fuel Is the Small Number

At 0.65 L/h in cruise and $1.63 a litre, a fifty-hour season burns 32.5 litres and costs $52.97. The integral tank holds one litre, so that is about thirty-two fill-ups a summer. Fifteen years comes to 487.5 litres and $794.62. Buy at a marina pump instead of a street station and add 20 to 40 cents a litre.

Servicing costs seven times what the fuel does.

Which means the pitch our own industry leans on hardest, that going electric saves you money at the pump, is aimed at the wrong line of the invoice. There was never much money in the fuel. The money is in the labour, and the labour exists because the engine has oil, a plug, a carburettor and an impeller. Fewer moving parts is not a slogan. It is the reason the next table looks the way it does.

What Electric Takes Off the List

Every season	3.5 hp gas outboard	ePropulsion Spirit 2
Engine oil	0.3 L, changed annually	none
Gear oil	180 ml, changed annually	none
Spark plug	replaced annually	none
Fuel filter	checked annually	none
Water pump impeller	replaced every 3 years	none
Carburettor	cleaned every 3 years	none
Fuel stabiliser	mandatory before storage	none
Anode and propeller	checked, replaced when worn	checked, replaced when worn
Shop time	~1.5 h a year, ~3 h every third year	none scheduled
Cost per season	~$385 servicing + $53 fuel	~$3 of electricity

Everything in the middle column exists because of combustion. Remove the combustion and the list does not get shorter; it mostly disappears.

Charging Costs Almost Nothing

The Spirit 2 carries 1,539 Wh. A full charge pulls about 1.75 kWh from the wall. On Ontario rates, all-in delivered:

Charging on	Per full charge	Per season (50 h)	Over 15 years
Ultra-Low Overnight (11 pm – 7 am)	$0.14	$2.71	$40.63
Time-of-Use, off-peak	$0.22	$4.25	$63.68
Time-of-Use, on-peak	$0.36	$6.98	$104.71

Fifteen years of overnight charging costs less than one annual gas service.

The wall socket is not the only option. A solar panel on the deck or a charge point at the slip tops the battery up while the boat sits, which is independence no fuel dock sells. We build those systems too.

Yes, There Is a Battery

It is the one genuine consumable on the electric side, and a replacement is $1,999. Put that number where it belongs, next to the gas column rather than on its own:

A gas owner spends $385 a year on servicing. That is a battery's worth of money every five years.
Across fifteen years, the gas service bill is $5,794, or nearly three replacement batteries.
You buy the battery once, perhaps twice in a lifetime. The service bill never stops.

The Things That Never Reach the Invoice

It starts on a button. No stance, no cord, no third pull with the whole dock watching.
It is quiet. Quiet enough that the fish stay put, that passengers can talk at cruise instead of shouting over a cowling, and that whatever lives under the hull is left in peace.
Nothing leaks, nothing burns. No exhaust, no fumes in the cockpit on a still morning, no film behind the transom, no jerry can rolling around the car. Zero emissions where it counts, at the propeller.
Instant torque. Full pull from zero revs, which is exactly what you want coming off a dock into a crosswind.
Forward and reverse on the same grip. One twist, either direction, either hand.
It splits in two, and it folds. The battery lifts off and the tiller folds into a carrying handle, so you move it in manageable pieces. The gas motor is 18 kg dry in one lump, and it has to be drained first or it empties itself into your boot.
It leaves the water as it found it. Nothing spilt at the dock, nothing unburnt going over the side, no sheen on a lake somebody swims in.

Where Gas Still Wins

Worth saying plainly, because a page that claims everything is worth nothing.

If you do your own servicing. A service kit is about $50, and the job is forty minutes on a bench. That takes the fifteen-year bill down to roughly a thousand dollars in parts.
On the sticker. $1,513 against $5,499. The gap is real, and it is paid on day one.
On the factory warranty. The manufacturer backs it for up to 36 months, which counts for something on a motor you intend to keep for two decades.
On resale. The used market for small gas outboards is deep and predictable. The electric one is young and thin.

So Who Should Buy Which

You change your own oil and boat a few weekends a year. Gas is cheaper, and we sell those too.
You pay a shop. Electric pulls ahead, and the gap widens every season you use it.
You are on the water often. Gas costs scale with hours through fuel, wear and eventual overhaul. Electric costs sit mostly in the purchase, and the purchase is fixed.
You boat where combustion engines are banned. Then it was never a money question.

Browse electric outboard motors or gas outboards. The two motors priced here are a 3.5 hp gas outboard and the ePropulsion Spirit 2. Already own a boat you like? We also handle electric conversions.