Vision Marine Technologies, Inc. (Nasdaq: VMAR) (“Vision Marine” or the “Company”), the global leader in the electric recreational marine propulsion industry serving OEMs, is proud to announce an historic milestone in the boating industry by shattering the 100 MPH speed barrier on an electric watercraft. The event, in its 34th year, catered to a plethora of onsite and online video streaming viewers.
A consortium of several important world renowned players needed to come together to achieve such a feat. Vision Marine, in partnership with Hellkat Powerboats, gave birth to the V32, a 32′ catamaran hull specifically designed to accommodate the necessary battery banks to power a pair of Vision Marine’s flagship E-Motion™ electric outboards with the sole intention of breaking new ground.
The V32 was entirely designed from the ground up by Vision Marine’s internal engineering team and Shaun Torrente of Shaun Torrente Racing (“STR “), who was also in charge of rigging, setting up, and testing the V32 in Florida throughout the course of several months.
To power this behemoth, a uniquely designed battery pack was developed by Vision Marine in partnership with Octillion Power Systems, which also acted as a sponsor for this race. Nextfour Solutions supplemented the vessel’s monitoring systems, and Pat Weissman of Weissman Marine engineered the outdrives.
As expected, on August 28, 2022, at the most significant performance boat competition in the United States in Lake of the Ozarks, Missouri, over 100,000 people in attendance witnessed 5 time UIM and current F1 H20 World champion pilot Shaun Torrente take the V32 to the water. He officially reached a new world record speed of 109 MPH, shattering the previous 88.6 MPH world record held by Jaguar on its lightweight Vector V20E.
Vision Marine CEO and co-founder Alex Mongeon stated: “I am grateful for this accomplishment. I feel blessed to have worked with world class personnel such as Shaun Torrente, Pat Weissman, and Dave Dewald. Shaun Torrente’s unequaled talent has once again proven the feasibility of performance electric motorization in a marine environment without compromising speed. Mr. Mongeon continued, “this 109 MPH record is groundbreaking, to say the least, and will surely put Vision Marine and its E-Motion™ technology in the boating world hall of fame. We are here today to instill a new legacy by proving once again that a transition to electric power in the marine industry is at arm’s reach. We are this much closer to eliminating the colossal carbon footprint our planet is experiencing due to continued usage of ICE engines.”
Vision Marine Xavier Montagne CTO & COO stated: “The results we observed from this weekend’s race are only the tip of the iceberg. This accomplishment is the fruit of many years of close technical collaboration with our European and American partners. We worked hard on optimizing the electric motors, the 700V batteries, the cooling circuitry, and the hardware and software integration, all of which are quintessential to our success as a leader in the electric marine propulsion industry.”
STR’s Shaun Torrente added: “It has been an amazing experience to push the boundaries of what people thought was impossible. In the past two days, we proved that the limits of electric propulsion are only in the minds of those that have not followed Vision Marine and our project. With this result, they cannot pretend we are not here anymore.”
Paul Beach, President of Octillion Power Systems, stated: “We are at the forefront of revolutionizing the boating industry; we are pushing the limits with our innovative technology. I praise Octillion’s engineering team, who worked closely with Shaun Torrente and Vision Marine’s in-house R&D team to design a state of the art battery pack to nourish the E-Motion™ propulsion system rigged on the V32. “
Vision Marine’s focus lies not only in racing. Its management strongly believes the commercial boating market is in dire need of a performance electric outboard that can accommodate a wide range of vessel applications.
In July 2022, Vision Marine Technologies (VMAR-Nasdaq) entered into a partnership with Groupe Beneteau (BEN-Euronext), which will integrate the disruptive E-Motion™ onto various models across Groupe Beneteau’s brand portfolio. The first collaboration between the two companies will be the launch of the world’s first fully electric powerboat, the sporty and elegant 22′ Four Winns H2 OB runabout. The two companies will present the Four Winns H2 at the upcoming IBEX boat show in September 2022 in Tampa, Florida.
