Vision Marine Technologies plans to move beyond boats to become a technology company at the forefront of the electric marine propulsion market in every aspect.
Vision Marine Technologies, formerly the Canadian Electric Boat Company, today announced the closing of its Initial Public Offering of 2,760,000 common shares at a price of US$10.00 per share, which includes 360,000 shares sold upon full exercise of the underwriter’s option to purchase additional common shares.
The gross proceeds from the offering, including the exercise of the over-allotment option, were US$27,600,000, before deducting underwriting discounts, commissions and offering expenses.
The electric boat company was founded in 2012 in Quebec, Canada and has built and offered a variety of electric boats since then, ranging from the classic cruising style Fantail to the Volt 180 and Phoenix 290. They are also involved with a number of electric boat rental companies.
Vision Marine developing new electric powertrain
The Volt 180 hit a speed of 30mph (48kmh / 26 kts) to set a record for the electric boat competition in the famed Lake of the Ozarks Shootout races in August last year. The Phoenix, a 19 foot, ten passenger open boat, was introduced at the Miami Boat Show back in February 2020.
Both of the high speed boats have been powered by Torqeedo Deep Blue outboards, and the company also uses motors from Piktronik, ePropulsion, E-tech and Minn-Kota – but in the prospectus for the IPO Vision Marine outlined plans for its own electric outboard powertrain, the E-motion.
The first of the E-motion electric outboard systems will have a peak power of 135kW / 180 HP and continuous power of 9kW / 120 HP. The motor itself will weigh in at 188 kg / 413 lbs and will be powered by lithium batteries. It appears that the powertrains will be assembled using components from different companies, with the motors purchased from UQM Technologies and Dana TM4.
The business plan is to market the powertrains to Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) rather than the public, and they have received Letters Of Intent from OEMs for 186 powertrains in the first year of production growing to 504 powertrains for the year ended August 31, 2024.
Credit: Plugboats