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Electric Boat Startup Arc to make a big splash

Electricity and water don't mix well - well, actually, they mix really well. Though, a thought of electric boat may seem risky but a new California start-up called Arc is going to try to shred that perception, starting with a limited edition 24-foot water sports boat that will cost around $300,000. It is company's first project, which expects to bring to a commercial stage by the end of this year. 

Structure of Electric Boat

Arc already has a prototype. The vessel is made of aluminum, which allowed to reduce the weight of the structure, and the battery is planned to be made a structural element of the electric vehicle. It will be 7 meters long and it is claimed that the boat will be able to move through the water at speeds up to 70 km/h.

The boat will have a 200kWh, 800-volt battery pack - roughly double the capacity and voltage of Tesla's current top-tier pack - and an electric motor with at least 475 horsepower. It will have a top speed of around 40 miles per hour and run for a total of around four hours. 

Features of Arc

Like Tesla, Lee says Arc is going for a high degree of vertical integration. One more key portion of Arc's style and design is that it is developing aluminum hulls. Most boat hulls are made of carbon fiber or some other composite material. It is said that aluminum will be less labor intensive and cheaper while still being light enough.

In addition to the hull, the start-up is designing its own enclosures for the battery packs, as well as the cooling system. It's developing the software too, which it plans to tweak and improve via over-the-air updates.

Advantages

Since, electricity can be a lot cheaper than marina fuel prices, and it makes a lot more sense to charge a boat at home than to do it with a car. While Arc's first boat may not achieve full par with a gas powered boat, that is the goal, and Arc CEO Mitch Lee thinks it is achievable.

Also, the boat will throw a wake behind it, meaning it will be fun to use for water sports like waterskiing. This is rare in the nascent electric boat market because it takes a lot of energy to move through water. Some companies use hydrofoil to reduce drag, basically eliminating the wake altogether.

Arc Boat first announced itself and received $ 4.25 million in support of the project from Andreessen Horowitz, a well-known Silicon Valley financial foundation. Most of the top executives at Arc Boat are from SpaceX.

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