{"id":1612,"date":"2023-05-13T06:46:57","date_gmt":"2023-05-13T11:46:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/itparadise.net\/2021\/05\/13\/electric-boat-startup-arc-wants-to-make-a-big-splash\/"},"modified":"2023-02-19T01:39:48","modified_gmt":"2023-02-19T06:39:48","slug":"electric-boat-startup-arc-wants-to-make-a-big-splash","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/itparadise.net\/?p=1612","title":{"rendered":"Electric boat startup Arc wants to make a big splash"},"content":{"rendered":"<p id=\"DLPxtz\">Electricity and water don\u2019t mix \u2014 well, actually, they mix <em>really well<\/em>, which can be problematic for humans. So the thought of an electric boat may seem risky. A new California startup called Arc is going to try to shred that perception, starting with a limited edition 24-foot watersports boat that will cost around $300,000. <\/p>\n<p id=\"lnwhib\">That\u2019s an incredible amount of money. But Arc \u2014 which is coming out of stealth mode today, boasts a handful of SpaceX expats, and is backed by Silicon Valley powerhouse firm Andreessen Horowitz \u2014 plans to work its way down from that price point once it\u2019s producing and selling boats, just like Tesla once did for electric passenger cars with the Roadster, followed by the Model S and X, and then the Model 3 and Y. <\/p>\n<p><q>\u201cWe are using [Tesla\u2019s] playbook almost verbatim.\u201d <\/q><\/aside>\n<p id=\"VLnfxJ\">Electric boats have far fewer moving parts, meaning that they <em>should <\/em>deal a big blow to maintenance costs, one of the biggest headaches of owning a boat. What\u2019s more, electricity can be much cheaper than marina fuel prices, and trickle charging a boat at home makes far more sense than doing it with a car. While Arc\u2019s first boat may not reach total parity with a gas-powered boat, that\u2019s the goal, and Arc CEO Mitch Lee thinks it\u2019s readily attainable.<\/p>\n<p id=\"zoVXuS\">\u201cWe are starting up-market, we are working our way down as quickly as we can \u2014 we are using their playbook almost verbatim,\u201d Lee tells <em>The Verge <\/em>in an interview.  In other words, the limited sales of the $300,000 Arc One boat will help finance the R&amp;D required to make a more affordable version of that Arc, one that could sell \u201cin the thousands,\u201d Lee says.<\/p>\n<p>      <button data-ui=\"grid\"><br \/>\n         Grid View<br \/>\n      <\/button><\/p>\n<p>      <button class=\"c-image-gallery__viewer-prev\" data-ui=\"prev-image\" aria-label=\"Previous image\"><\/p>\n<p>      <\/button><br \/>\n      <button class=\"c-image-gallery__viewer-next\" data-ui=\"next-image\" aria-label=\"Next image\"><\/p>\n<p>      <\/button><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>      <button class=\"c-image-gallery__thumbs-prev\" data-ui=\"prev-page\" aria-label=\"Previous thumbnails\"><\/p>\n<p>      <\/button><br \/>\n      <button class=\"c-image-gallery__thumbs-next\" data-ui=\"next-page\" aria-label=\"Next thumbnails\"><\/p>\n<p>      <\/button><\/p>\n<p id=\"WPF3S9\">Running Tesla\u2019s playbook while also trying to disrupt the boating world with electric propulsion technology makes it easy to collar Arc with the \u201cTesla for boats\u201d moniker. Arc wouldn\u2019t be the first, and it won\u2019t be the last, but Lee says he\u2019d rather leave that decision up to the media and the public. <\/p>\n<p id=\"01e3IK\">\u201cFrom a branding person, why I hesitate is everyone is going to call themselves the \u2018Tesla for boats.\u2019 It\u2019s like, everyone aspires to that,\u201d he says. \u201cWhat matters is how well are you executing against that playbook.\u201d<\/p>\n<p id=\"t9e13S\">Arc\u2019s first boat is simple, but something of a marvel \u2014 at least on paper. (Lee says Arc has one prototype already.) The boat will have a 200kWh, 800-volt battery pack \u2014 roughly double the capacity and voltage of Tesla\u2019s current top-tier pack \u2014 and an electric motor with at least 475 horsepower, Lee says. It will have a top speed of around 40 miles per hour and run for a total of around four hours, which Lee says should cover a day\u2019s worth of boating. <\/p>\n<p><q>A 200kWh, 800-volt battery pack, and 475 horsepower on tap<\/q><\/aside>\n<p id=\"lIBDeW\">Better yet, Lee says, the boat will throw a wake behind it, meaning it will be fun to use for wake sports like waterskiing. This is rare in the nascent electric boat market, Lee says, because it takes a lot of energy to move through water, so other companies have looked to reduce the forces that create a wake. Some are using a hydrofoil to reduce drag, basically eliminating the wake altogether. <\/p>\n<p id=\"15JtsF\">This is a big reason why the battery pack will be so energy-dense. \u201cWhen you\u2019re moving through water, power draw is cubic to your speed,\u201d Lee says. \u201cIf you want a boat that can go 40 miles an hour, you need a very large battery to be able to handle that.\u201d All that extra energy on tap will help the boat \u201cplane\u201d at higher speeds, too, which is when it essentially skims across the water, reducing drag.<\/p>\n<p id=\"Ax1QUx\">\u201cBoats are actually really good at floating \u2014 that sounds silly but like it\u2019s not hard to make a boat that could carry a huge load,\u201d Lee says. \u201cThe hard part is if you want to plane, or you want to move quickly. [That creates] this exponential power draw, because you\u2019re moving through something much more viscous than air.\u201d<\/p>\n<p id=\"2iNslx\">Another key part of Arc\u2019s design is that it\u2019s building aluminum hulls. Much like when Ford adopted aluminum for its pickup trucks half a decade ago, Arc is bucking convention here. Most boat hulls in this class are made out of carbon fiber or some other type of composite material. Lee says aluminum will be less labor intensive, less expensive, while still being light enough that Arc can commit most of the weight to the battery pack.<\/p>\n<p id=\"mrLk46\">While the pack will be big, it will be spread across the bottom of the boat and integrated into the structure of the hull \u2014 something that will inevitably draw more comparisons to Tesla, which is working on structural battery packs for its future vehicles. Also like Tesla, Lee says Arc is going for a high degree of vertical integration. In addition to the hull, the startup is designing its own enclosures for the battery packs, as well as the cooling system. It\u2019s developing the software, too, which it plans to tweak and improve via over-the-air updates. Arc <em>is<\/em> sourcing the modules and cells that make up the pack, and the electric motor (Lee declined to name the suppliers). <\/p>\n<p><q>Arc is bucking a lot of conventions and promising a simpler ownership experience<\/q><\/aside>\n<p id=\"29PsqC\">Arc is also pulling in some outside consultants to help with the 800-volt technology since that\u2019s something that is still rare even in the world of high-performance electric vehicles. (Porsche has an 800-volt pack in the Taycan, and GM is working on 800-volt battery packs for its Ultium-powered EVs.) Again, Lee cautions, that doesn\u2019t mean there\u2019s reason to be worried. There\u2019s precedence for high-voltage electrical systems on boats, though they often power the so-called \u201chotel loads\u201d \u2014 basically all the creature comforts not related to propulsion. <\/p>\n<p id=\"aOlwCn\">\u201cWe are novel in that this is going to be our powertrain \u2014 we\u2019re using these high voltage batteries for this particular usage,\u201d he says. \u201cOur entire team is dedicated to making sure that we are doing this intelligently and safely. So there are some extra closeouts that we\u2019re doing and the testing process we\u2019re using is ridiculously rigorous, to make sure that we\u2019re bringing this system online safely.\u201d <\/p>\n<p id=\"byn1du\">Ultimately, Lee believes the massive theoretical upside of an electric boat will transcend any wariness about what\u2019s powering it. He\u2019s so bullish on the idea that he says he hopes to one day get Arc\u2019s boats to require <em>zero<\/em> maintenance. (Sound familiar?)<\/p>\n<p id=\"Y7y7fT\">\u201cBoating is amazing. Boat ownership is awful, and we want to solve all the awful parts about boat ownership, and expand the boating market,\u201d he says. \u201cIf we make a boat that, yes, is premium to the market, but it lowers the headache of boat ownership and amplifies the magic of being out on the water&#8230; I think that\u2019s a big selling point for us. And if you kind of pair that with all the macro trends of everything going electric, all of that I think sets us up for the right product, the right market fit, the right time.\u201d <\/p>\n<p id=\"NjmZHS\">\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Electricity and water don\u2019t mix \u2014 well, actually, they mix really well, which can&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1613,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2],"tags":[38,45,42,49,43,47,39,36,41,37,40],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/itparadise.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1612"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/itparadise.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/itparadise.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/itparadise.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/itparadise.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1612"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/itparadise.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1612\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2013,"href":"https:\/\/itparadise.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1612\/revisions\/2013"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/itparadise.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1613"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/itparadise.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1612"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/itparadise.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1612"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/itparadise.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1612"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}