Arc Boat emerges from stealth

Yesterday, Arc Boats emerged from a 40-day flood stealth mode.

Preorders are open for Arc One, an all-electric, 475-horsepower pleasure craft priced at a mind-boggling $300,000. The rest of the spec sheet: 24-ft. length, 40 mph top speed, 3–5 hours of usage, and a 200kWh battery.

To compensate for that big ole battery, which is 2x the size of Tesla’s largest, Arc is building a bespoke aluminum hull and incorporating battery packs “as structural members of this boat,” CEO Mitch Lee told the Brew. The company wants to be as vertically integrated as possible.

• Of Arc’s 10-ish employees, Lee is the only person who hasn’t worked at SpaceX. The common thread among these rocket scientists-turned-boat makers is that they “specialize in making very lightweight structures,” Lee said.

The target market?

Sustainability-minded millionaires with “life is better at the lake” signs in their second home.

But Arc One is a limited edition, low-volume production boat. The plan is to move downstream to more affordable models by financing their production from Arc One’s cash flow. Tesla, a land-focused EV company, famously took this route with the Roadster.

Bottom line: Electric boats have low market penetration rates—under 2%, according to one boat trader periodical. In 10–15 years, Lee boldly predicts that “every boat will be electric.”

Arc’s real product—and chance to bridge that gap—could be the factory it produces to build boats. The first test will be whether Arc can begin boat deliveries in early 2022, as it has pledged.—RD