Electric boat maker Arc debuts $258,000 premium wake sport model

Arc Boat Company began sales of its second electric boat model in just three years this week. The new $258,000 Arc Sport is designed for wake sports enthusiasts and follows the company’s earlier Arc One, a limited edition luxury cruiser.

While the startup produced fewer than two dozen of those earlier boats, it is gearing up for continuous production of the new model it unveiled Tuesday.

The 23-foot Arc Sport can carry up to 15 people at a time. It boasts a large battery with enough power to last for 4 to 6 hours and has a top speed of 40 miles per hour. At its price, it will compete with high-end models sold by traditional boat manufacturers such as Nautique, MasterCraft and Malibu.

Arc is one of a handful of promising startups aiming to electrify boating for sport and leisure, including GM-backed Pure Watercraft and Stockholm-based X Shore.

Traditional fuel-powered boats contribute to significant environmental problems, including noise pollution, smog and water pollution visible in the water around them.

Arc co-founder and CEO Mitch Lee said he spent his younger years jet-skiing, kneeboarding and wakeboarding in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta near Stockton, Calif., and always noticed the stench of burnt diesel in marinas and runoff from engines.

He wanted to do something to reduce the negative impact of these sports and partnered with former SpaceX engineer Ryan Cook, who is the company’s CTO, to make this and the “better boating experience” a reality.

Arc’s management team also includes veterans from boating, automotive and transportation companies, including Tesla, Rivian, ElevatorBrunswick and MarineMaxwhich helped the electric boat maker convince investors that their design and technology could work.

About $110 million in early-stage funding for Arc was raised by a mix of celebrity angel investors and venture capital firms, including the NBA’s Kevin Durant and Klay Thompson, actor Will Smith and venture capital funds Andreessen Horowitz, Eclipse Ventures and Menlo Ventures and other.

Arc was able to design and start building its all-electric boats in a relatively short period of time, under three years, because the auto industry has already invested years and billions of dollars in building a supply chain for components that go into electric vehicles. Lee said.

Sourcing components from trusted suppliers, rather than building many from scratch, as electric car makers Tesla and Rivian had to do in their earliest days, made it possible to go from concept to dock in a few years rather than a decade. emphasized the executive director.

Arc plans to begin shipping its new battery-electric Arc Sport to customers this year.