A new kind of boat is making\u00a0waves on Texas lakes, and its 100% electric-powered.<\/p>\n
Arc, a Los-Angeles based marine technology company founded in 2021, says it’s “electrifying the marine industry” with boats designed and built domestically by former Space X,\u00a0Rivian and Boeing engineers.<\/p>\n
Earlier this year, the company brought its\u00a0EV wakeboat\u00a0to\u00a0Lewisville Lake\u00a0for demonstrations.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Electrification of water vehicles could gain momentum, Petros Ioannou, an engineering professor at University of Southern California\u00a0who researches transportation technology, told the Los Angeles Times<\/a>\u00a0last year.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThe main reason for going electric is really the environment,\u201d Ioannou said. \u201cThe question is whether they are able to solve the technological and logistical problems\u201d presented by electric boats, like range and charging limitations.<\/p>\n Other businesses have explored the potential of battery-powered vessels on North Texas waters,\u00a0like Armada Marine’s electric pontoons<\/a> that are sold at local dealerships\u00a0and Grapevine-based Alloy<\/a> that pitched an idea for an electric, autonomous-driving boat a few years ago.<\/p>\n Arc is confident electric boats are the future of transportation, and locals took notice. The company made more than a dozen sales in Texas in the last few months.\u00a0<\/p>\n Kristen Szost, a customer experience specialist with Arc and the captain during demonstrations, said a lot of customers already electrified most everything else in their lives, including their cars, so they say it makes sense for them to do the same with their boat.<\/p>\n As Szost pushed off from the dock and maneuvered through the marina, she described the “headache-free boat ownership.”<\/p>\n It’s minimal maintenance and no need for fuel or the smell and price tag that comes with it. A full charge in an Arc Sport can last\u00a0up to six hours.<\/p>\n Then, speeding up as she exited the no-wake zone, she showed off the fun aspects.<\/p>\n The speed-adjusted volume rose, and Szost flipped between the three cameras, one on the bow, tower and transom. They can record and take photos.<\/p>\n The touchscreens and software to operate them are made in house, Szost said, displaying navigational maps and bluetooth music streaming.<\/p>\n “It’s still a wakeboat and still familiar, but makes them better,” Szost said.<\/p>\n This reporting is part of the Future of North Texas, a community-funded journalism initiative supported by the Commit Partnership, Communities Foundation of Texas, The Dallas Foundation, the Dallas Mavericks, the Dallas Regional Chamber, Deedie Rose, Lisa and Charles Siegel, the McCune-Losinger Family Fund, The Meadows Foundation, the Perot Foundation, the United Way of Metropolitan Dallas and the University of Texas at Dallas. The News retains full editorial control of this coverage.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A new kind of boat is making\u00a0waves on Texas lakes, and its 100% electric-powered. Arc, a Los-Angeles based…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":305841,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[27,29,28],"class_list":["post-305840","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-texas","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/305840","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=305840"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/305840\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/305841"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=305840"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=305840"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=305840"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}