Last year, a team of former SpaceX engineers launched Californian marine startup Arc with a plan to develop a luxury electric cruiser with "far superior range, acceleration and performance than any boat in its class." Now a pre-production Arc One has spent a day of testing on Lake Arrowhead ahead of deliveries to the first customers later in the year.
The first boat out of the company's factory in Los Angeles is being aimed squarely at the luxury end of the market, and will be produced in very limited numbers.
The spec sheet for the Arc One is actually pretty thin, but the development team has recently upped the power of the electric motor to 500 hp (373 kW) for a top speed of 40 mph (34 knots/64 km/h). The battery size has also been increased by 10 percent to 220 kWh – that's "three times the capacity of a Tesla Model Y" and is reckoned big enough for users to stay out on the water for between three and five hours per charge, though high speeds will drain the battery quicker than cruising at lower speeds.
A warning will alert users if the battery starts to get low, at which point the boat would need to be operated slower to safely get back to shore before running out of juice – though the company does note that "if you're in the middle of Lake Tahoe, you can get back to any other point on the lake with less than five percent of power." The Arc One supports Level 1, 2 and 3 charging, uses a CCS1 port and comes with Level 1 and 2 cables.
Elsewhere, the 24-ft (7.3-m) craft currently wears two-tone colors with tan decking and gleaming white upholstery, can carry a maximum of 12 people – most of whom will be seated on the U-shaped padded benches behind the cockpit – and offers 60 ft2 (5.5 m2) of storage space. And the aluminum hull is shaped for high-speed performance on freshwater lakes or rivers, with the sport boat throwing a healthy wake behind it for wakeboarders and water-skiers to enjoy (the company notes that the cruiser can be taken out on saltwater, but will need more effort to keep it clean).
The Arc One is being released as a very limited edition luxury leisure cruiser, though exactly how many will roll off the production line has not been revealed at this point.
The price tag is US$300,000, which includes "everything you need to operate the boat," including a trailer, life jackets and a cooler too. Reservations are currently being accepted and delivery is scheduled to begin in the Northern Hemisphere summer. The video below shows the pre-production prototype on the water.
Future plans call for additional models to be produced that will be aimed more at mass-market price points.
Product page: Arc One
