#612 The Next EV Race Is on the Water | Alexandre Mongeon

Mehmet: [00:00:00] Hello, and welcome back to a new episode of The CTO Show With Mehmet. Today, I'm very pleased, joining me from the US, Alex Mongoen. He's the CEO and co-founder of Vision Marine Technologies. Alex has long experience in multiple fields, and we're gonna discuss, as you can maybe guess from, from the title there, uh, about marine technologies and other stuff also as well, uh, with Alex.

But as I do usually, I don't like to steal much from my guests' time. Alex, thank you for joining. Tell us a little more about you, your background, your journey, and then we can dive into discussion from

there. 

Alex: Yes, with pleasure, and thank you for having me today. Uh, I'm an avid boater and also, uh, for the past 30 years, an electrician by trade, and I've been being an entrepreneur for the past, I would say, 40 years of my life. Um, not 40, probably 35 years of my life. And I've joined and I took over now the, uh, Vision Marine Technologies as early as 2012, and we've been working on changing, uh, the waterways [00:01:00] and the boaters' habit along those past, uh, 13, 15 years, 13, 14 years now, by providing another solution, green solution on waterways 

Mehmet: Great.

Thank you again, Alex, for being here with me today. So at your company, you are tackling a very physical problem, uh, in an industry that, you know, we know like it doesn't change very often, right? So why did you decide that, you know, maritime electrification was an opportunity worth pursuing? 

Alex: Um, I do know that electric boats were existing for over 100 years, and, uh, people are not aware, but a lot of submarine and big ferries and, uh, cruise ships are electric.

And, uh, the real, uh, the real deal happened about in 2013 after a boat race. I was racing a big 46 foot with 6,000 horsepower, and, uh, the sound and the fuel that the racer and I were burning, and it [00:02:00] didn't make sense, and the car industry was taking a big, uh, I would say a big position. Uh, the electric car industry was taking a big position in the market, and I says, "If it's happening in the car industry, it needs to happen at some point in a bigger, uh, bigger size of the market on the, the, the, the boating side."

And from that day, things start changing slowly and as early as after those two years. So I, I wake up in 2013 about that, and we were starting to promote boat races with official electric pace boat to start the race because they were efficient. We were in 2015, so it was like 11 years ago. So it's the fact that on the water, uh, I like going extremely fast, but I also like driving around on weekends with my mom, my dad, my kids, and my nephews, having a good time, speaking, enjoying life.

Uh, and on with those big motors and even any ice engine motors, uh, the social, uh, lifestyle get disturbed by the sound, the smoke, the vibration, not even counting [00:03:00] the spend of the fuel and the maintenance required for those boats. That's just to improve the social environment. And after traveling and looking at what the market was, I've discovered that there's much more electric boats on the water than we think.

Mehmet: Wow. Now, would, would, you know, the motive of having, let's say, more clean, more sustainable was stronger? Or was it- No ... like just, you know, the ability when you were convinced, like, actually we can do this, uh, you know, using, uh, you know, electric, uh, propulsion, you know, it, it gonna give a better option. So wh- which one, like, was, like, the stronger motive, I would say?

Alex: At first it was easy to find trawling motors. Those small trawling motors are used by any fishermens. They have a second motors on their small fishing boats, so when they're arriving at fish, they remove the, the, they shut down the gas motors and they're running a small 12 or 48 volt motors, and they're doing two, three miles per hour to catch the fish because it's quiet and it's [00:04:00] efficient.

Uh, the challenge was actually to bring that same, same type of high performance fishing boats or family boats. And back then there were no, uh, technology available off the shelf. It was more car parts and finding, uh, any good suppliers related to the marine space on the high electric voltage EV space like Tesla was doing in 400 volt back then in 2013.

So, uh, it was a learning curve. I learned it the hard way. I was time-consuming.. So but at first it was more about providing a small electric boats that was doing six, seven miles per hour- Yes

for cruise in lakes and river, and I was developing the high-performance motor. And we, uh, were able to launch it and test it in two- as in 2014. But I met interesting people in my life over the past, uh, 15 years that were actually mentors for me, and they already did a portion of the work. Today, they've passed away, but they gave me the tool to become better, uh, where they left 

Mehmet: I'm sure, like, there were [00:05:00] some moments where- Mm-hmm

you know, as we call them, engineering breakthroughs, right? Um, like, if you can just mention some of these breakthroughs moment. And, you know, as a team, you know, like, how, how do you make sure, like, you are pushing in the right direction? Because, you know, some people, they keep pushing. They say like, "Yeah, we can still do it."

B- but I, I'm sure, like, there is this point where you think, "You know what? Like, no, this is not doable." So w- what have this experience taught you, Alex, and about pushing limits and of course keeping the team engaged while doing that? 

Alex: It probably happened only once over the past 16 years, and it happened when we hit 160 miles per hour on the water.

And after that- Yeah ... I said to my team, "Let's not push now the high speed, uh, the high speed development of the outboard because we've got bigger powers for the, the future of the market. So let's get back." So that was the, I would say, the breaking point on the technology where I have to stop focusing on performance, but providing range to consumer [00:06:00] and also price, uh, network for purchasing, sourcing the product, service, educating the market.

So I was more focusing on that. But it only happened once over the past 15 years, 16 years, where I said, "It's enough. I need to stop pushing the technology." But as I told you earlier, I was trained by Ian Bruce. Uh, I met him in 2014. Ian Bruce is an Olympic sailor and also a naval architect, and he helped me build m- my f- my first electric boat.

Uh, it was called, after him, a Bruce 22. We were doing already 40 miles per hour in 2015, water-skiing in the back of that electric boat that we've built with the system, and that was the base and the launch of what became the e-Motion Outboard. So it was an in- electric inboard system using car parts. Uh, it was working, but it was not, uh, commercialable, so we had to revamp, m- resource the marine parts to make the system, uh, as efficient as we have today and safe as we have today.

Um, but I never had any... I don't stop. Actually, that's [00:07:00] the motto we have is, "Can't stop, won't stop," and I don't, I don't have any... No, I don't f- I don't have any barrier that I s- I need to slow down or stop. Now I, the problem we have today, it's a good problem, is the market had picked up for the past eight, nine months.

We need more inventory It was challenging to sell for the past 12, 13 years. Now the market has changed with the war, the price of fuel, the car industry getting stronger and stronger on the EV side, getting more segment of the car industry, uh, market. Now people are looking into different avenues and they know their habit.

They don't need to do 500 miles on a boat. An average boater does about nine nautical miles every time he takes his boat out. So it's not like a car, and, uh, the grid doesn't exist on the electric boat side with our product. We are using what's available at your dock or at home on if you're using a fast car charger, if you're using a regular power cable, if you're using the shore power from the marina.

So the system is actually coming with an inboard charger. I've developed and [00:08:00] worked to create a product that could be used by anyone because along the way of the development, we've worked in opening rentals operation in the US and I... We did over 80,000 rentals of electric boats. So we have the information from the market and the consumer, what they need and what they're looking for 

Mehmet: So can we say, Alex, that mass adoption is on the way for electric boats now?

Um, because we, you know, a- and I'm happy you mentioned these things because, you know, I wa- I was thinking, you know, when I was preparing like what could be the constraints, let's say, right? So, uh, and you answered some of them. Like, you know, batteries you said it's not the problem, like, uh- Mm-hmm ... charging infrastructure.

Mm-hmm. But tell me about like the other factors, like maybe the range, maybe the cost. 

Alex: It's the education. Um, I don't know if you're driving an electric car or you own an electric car. The day 

Mehmet: that you- Not yet, but soon. 

Alex: And I'm asking you, if I do ask you why are [00:09:00] you not driving an electric car today, maybe you didn't have, you didn't drive the right one, or you were not, uh, no one gave you one for a weekend.

If I give you the nice electric Cadillac or Mercedes-Benz or Rivian for a weekend, you might change your mind because I'm gonna be educating you with the product and on that weekend or on that day that you're gonna try it. So my job now is to make sure that people are actually aware that the product is available.

So if you want, we're running into one of our dealerships today, you're gonna come to buy a boat. We'll try to, to show you what you're looking for, but to show you also the same boat with the electric motor. So that's my biggest challenge is to show that it exists because people don't know that. We are, where we are based in California for our rental operation, there's about 8,000 electric boats driving around in the harbor.

Right. And people s- 8,000? Yeah, it's used to be like 10,000. Now we are about 8,000 because the slips are very hard to get and people have big boats, but it does exist. Once people are driving those small electric boats around or even the [00:10:00] 25, 30-footer boats, it change. So my biggest challenge as we speak today is to educate the market that there's a s- a product for them and it does exist and it's reliable.

Mehmet: When we talk about these boats, uh, Alex, you, you just gave a couple of examples, but from size perspective, I mean, you, you said like fishing boat, like you might, you know, go out just for a fishing trip with, with friends and family and so on. Uh, but we, we know like, uh, I, I'm not expert honestly in this domain, but you know, I had a friend, you know- three years ago who was very big into this, and I start like to learn about the sizes and, you know, the, the purposes of this different type of the boat.

So I saw all, you know, all the traditional small ones. You go just it can take two people for a fishing nearby the shore, all the way to these like very high-ended, very well-equipped one. So are we talking about all these ranges, like any- anything and everything from [00:11:00] every size? 

Alex: Uh, we're focusing on family boats.

Mm-hmm. So between 18 and 32 feet. 

Mehmet: Okay. 

Alex: So I would say 6 meter to almost 10 meters, depending where you're listening to us. Uh, from 5 horsepower to- 200 horsepower. Could be one motor or two motors, depending the size of the boat. And, uh, we like by building boats or selling boats that comes with at least 10 passengers.

Uh, we don't wanna do... Yeah, so it's, uh, we're targeting, uh, families. Um, and actually people are actually looking into doing families activities. So either a bowrider, so it's a boat that's open in the front. You can sit people in the front, in the back. You do tubing, you do ski, wakeboard, or a pontoon. Uh, in Europe they're not very popular, but in the US these are like the big, those big barge that does 30 miles per hour or 45 kilometers per hour.

They sit 12 people, they have barbecues, [00:12:00] coolers, and there's 70,000 of those pontoons sold per year. And we've did at least six different OEMs integration over the past five years, and they're successful. Uh, they're very popular in the US. On the fiberglass side, so like the V-hull side, uh, we're looking into more like the 25, 28-feet, uh, family boats that you could put the dog and eight people and enjoying a full day of boating for about $3 of electricity, $5 of electricity depending where you are, against about $250 to $300 of gas for the same usage.

Uh- Right ... and we'll get charged, we'll get charged overnight with a regular shore power. 

Mehmet: Right. And of course, I, I mean, and this is, will lead to my other question. So there's a lot of room of improvement and innovation there. So maybe on the charging part, maybe on the, the design of the boats themselves maybe, uh, because you just mentioned about the fiberglass and, you know- Mm-hmm

the weight and all this. Um, so where, where are, where do you see like some other, other rooms [00:13:00] for, uh, uh, for, you know, innovating and keep differentiating? I'm not sure like if Alex, how, how the competition looks like for you also as well. 

Alex: Sadly, I had good competition, uh, in the past five years. With, uh, the past two years, competition died.

Mercury went more into the gas motor and engine and slowed down. Yamaha did the same thing. Uh, Tohatsu did the same thing. They were going in, in the right direction with, uh, electric outboards. I was happy because I need those guys to get onto the market. And we own almost, almost all... We are the biggest one as we speak today, selling and providing a good horsepower to push boats.

The, we don't really have a challenge on, on, uh, the technology we have because we are building boats, we are putting our motors on, but we're also selling our motors to manufacturers. So if you're a boat builder, Beneteau is one of them, uh, you've got, uh, Brunswick, who owns different type of boat, Boston Whaler, name the brand that you [00:14:00] want, they are installing 200 horsepower Mercury engine in the back of their boats, or Honda or Yamaha outboards.

They can install the same motors, but electric from our company. So the design- The design is actually something that doesn't really affect the technology. We have crafted parts that fits where the ICE engine parts are fitting, and we're replacing the space used by the fuel tank, we put the batteries in.

Uh, the screen is actually our own screen, but it fits in the Mercury and the Mercury screen space. The throttle's almost the same. So that's the controller for the motor. So we have built something that could be utilized by any manufacturers, and if the manufacturers are not actually buying a lot of motors, by that time we have licensing agreement with some of them, and we can sell their boats with our system on through our dealership.

We did 25 different types of brand-new boats integration. So if you're looking into a pontoon, a fishing boat, a bowrider, or a race boat or... We did, I, I would say, almost everything that was [00:15:00] possible in, uh, style of boats over the past five years, and today we don't do that anymore. We're just at ta- taking orders of the portfolio of what we did.

So today you wanna buy a pontoon, we'll show you what we can do for you. You- Sure ... uh, make your order through our dealerships, and we'll deliver it to you and do the service if there's service need to, needs to be done. And most of the service needs that needs to be done on an electric boat is service, uh, as cleaning and detailing the boat because it's a closed system that you cannot open and fix like your regular gas motor that needs periodic, uh, maintenance every 100 hours.

Mehmet: Right. Now, I can't skip asking about, uh... And I know it's, it's, like, not direct- We, we're not talking about software here. We're not even talking about traditional hardware, but how much, um, you know, AI, you know, was, uh, uh, introduced in, into this industry, Alex? Uh, you know, we've, we're, we're hearing now actually that the software, funny [00:16:00] enough, that people are saying like, "Yeah, software is becoming even a commodity because AI can write code and all this."

And people now are trying to think how I can leverage AI in the physical world. And even like, you know, NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang, like, he's, he keeps mentioning this a couple of times. I'm, I'm following, like, other thought leaders in this space, and everyone is saying like, "Yeah, AI would be more into the physical world where we see, like, something innovative."

So how you maybe currently trying to, to leverage AI in, with, with the, with the current status, and how do you see that, uh, I would say, evolving in the coming years? 

Alex: Uh, first time I start thinking and working on finding solutions to educate the market, I would say in 2016. Uh, I was actually working in AI with the system without knowing that it was coming, so it was about 10 years ago.

Because the first questions people were running into boat shows when I was exposing my electric boats, we've been doing boat [00:17:00] sh- electric boat shows, uh, presenting our electric boats and boat shows in gas boat show, Miami boat show, uh, Dusseldorf boat show since 2013. People were asking about the range, and I was asking, "Okay, sir, you own a boat.

What's the range of your gas boats?" They couldn't know- they couldn't tell me the range of their boats because on boat you don't have range. You don't know. You have a ga- a fuel, fuel, uh, gauge, but you don't know the range. They own a boat for 30 years, they don't know the range. So I had to develop an algorithm with a map that every time that you're running the boat and you increase the power, the kilometers or the miles are decreasing to give you the range.

Mm-hmm. It doesn't exist on boats, I can tell you that as we speak. Mercury, Honda, it doesn't exist. It only exists with our electric system and some now other electric smaller motors that competitors are building, and there's a map with a shadow. So you're doing 20 miles per hour, the shadow is the range that you have.

If you're doing 10 miles per hour, the shadow's increasing. Um, the range you can do, the destination you can hit, the state [00:18:00] of charge of the battery when you'll be arriving, the health of your batteries, these are all also... And also with that, we're keeping track of all the data of the consumer. People are buying a boat with a 200 horsepower motors, but they never use the full 200 horse power because it could not be measured in the past.

Now it's been measured. "Hey, sir, you're buying a boat that with 200 horse power, and we can tell you that the boat you have purchased with the rundown of the measuring we did, you never use more than 100 horse power. It's too powerful. The next boat you should buy it with less." These are information and priceless information that we have on the user that no one has in the world because we ke- we're tracking the habit.

We're not tracking what they say, what they do, but it's more about the motors, how it's been used, the temperature, the mileage, how many hours are you using it every time. Is it more on charge than anything else? It would say that the mo- the boats are mostly on charged and they are being used. People do that less than 40, uh, hours a year.

People think they go boating 10 hours a week for the every week, and they're gonna do 1,000 hours every year. No. It's good for the rentals, but for the, [00:19:00] those numbers, they don't have those statistics. It never was not important in the ICE engine world. So AI was very important for us, and we're keeping filing patents to protect, I would say, software encryptions, keys, data, gathering data of the system and the habits- 

Mehmet: Right Very cool.

Alex, one thing also which, you know, I'm trying to compare, like, how tough it is to be in, in the hard tech business here. Now, software distribution, I'm not saying it's easy, but you know, there are, like, some known, I would say, patterns, processes, whatever you want to call them. So usually you need to execute on, on these plans, which others have figured out over the years.

Like, I'm talking here usually about the SaaS business. But when it comes to, to, to something like what you did, like you mentioned, uh, about, you know, trying to, to get someone to endorse, for example, the company and trying, for example, to, um, to start with, with close [00:20:00] people, but to, to really have this scaling, uh, on a large, you know, uh, large scale.

Uh, what, what was the key for, for making the company successful in scaling the operations? Um, which is usually, you know, uh, people who are in software, they keep few things. We, we know how this goes. So for you, what, what was it? Like, what was the breakthrough in-- from, from business scaling perspective? Let me ask it this way.

Alex: I would say there's at least three to four element that was done over the past five years that created that credibility. Uh, having the rental operation with 80,000 rentals, having no lawsuits, no unhappy customers, gathering their information and making sure they're happy, they're coming back, creating a boat club.

So that was priceless information, what they need, what they worry about, where we receive the customers and we're renting him a boat for a full day or half a day. That was one part. Having McLaren Engineering embracing the dyno [00:21:00] testing for two years. So we signed a deal with McLaren Engineering. They were receiving motors.

They created a, a, an electric cabinet with high voltage, 700 volt dyno testing 24 hours a day, seven days a week for two years, changing motors and because we were testing on the water, and we were giving our feedback, but having someone else, a third party, McLaren Engineering, who's owned by Linamar, it's a 3 billion market cap company who does mass production, it was priceless to get their result from the testing, and we achieve even more power, and we're better than we thought that we were.

That was so. Rentals, uh, third-party validation, and, uh, being actually partnering with Shaun Torrente, who's the number 13 times world champion in the boating space, racing for Mercury. So, and world best boat driver, driving for Mercury ra- winning world championship, but also testing and getting the world champion with our electric system.

So if these guys like asking, uh, Lewis Hamilton or Michael Schumacher, "Test [00:22:00] this electric car and tell me if it's good," and if he tells you it's even better than the gas, I think you're on the right path. Right. So rentals, validation from McLaren, Shaun Torrente, and now having contracts with decent manufacturers and having distribution made, I would say, a good portion of the credibility we have.

So we have retail, service, real boaters testing it, real companies did the dyno testing because Honda, Mercury, Yamaha are using McLaren Engineering for testing of their new generations of motors. The latest Honda outboard was actually, uh, upgraded by McLaren Engineering. So when we were testing, we were seeing the new generation of Mercury, uh, uh, Honda outboards.

So it's not what we did, it's actually what we asked other people to do for us to validate that I was on the right track or the right path. Mm-hmm. And I'm not always, but sometimes they give me the thumbs up. 

Mehmet: Yeah, it's, uh, uh, this is, this is the way we, we, we learn, right? So, um, 100% on that. Now, [00:23:00] we know that globally there is a push for, like, more green technology, sustainable technology, right?

And w- in some countries we're seeing regulations also as well. So- I'm not sure if you have expanded outside of the US, Alex, but you know, if, if you look, if you have a global look, like which market excites you the most? Because, you know, you see like there is customer segments who believe in this, and plus there's kind of, you know, what we call them the, uh, the tailwinds coming from, from regulators and government i- initiatives, uh, that can push your market to a mass adoption.

Of course, you talked about education that w- of course it cannot stay there because maybe some people now watching or listening to us, they'll be surprised, "Oh, really? There is like electric boats." But in general, where do you see the, the, the most opportunity on the global markets? 

Alex: We're lucky we are in the US, but I will tell you that the European market is 10 years [00:24:00] ahead of the US market.

Uh, they are more aware and their need is different. In the US, they only, they wanna go fast, but they don't even go fast. They buy boats with five or six motors. And, um, the European market is actually, say, even 30 to 40 times bigger than the US market as we speak. Um, and, uh, but it's challenging for us, as, I would say, North American, uh, citizen, to open distribution, find the per- proper n- network in Europe.

Uh, if I could partner with a, an existing group that is willing to embrace the EV space, that would be helpful. I found that in the US with Nautical Ventures, top dealership in the US, 10 dealership. I'm good now in the US. I would need to do the same exercise, uh, with the European market, and it would be probably three to four times bigger, uh, in result.

And, but the adoption is already there. They're looking for the product. It's, they're sophisticated. The European market is sophisticated and aware, and they're looking for it [00:25:00] much more than the US market. Even if the market in the US look, likes it, uh, but it's nothing comparable to the European market.

Mehmet: Right. Now, if we want to have, like, kind of a quick look back into the past and coming now, so was there a moment where you were surprised by some assumptions that you have done and you discovered they were wrong? Or vice versa, like something you, you, you thought it's wrong and it turned out that, no, it's, it's true.

Alex: About a year ago, a year and a half ago, when the market had s- stopped selling boats in the US, I was on the way to get major orders from manufacturers. We did integration for them, dealer meeting, presentation. They visit the factory multiple times. They asked me to stock motors because we have a f- a lot of motors in stock.

For them, it was very close, and then the m- market collapsed in 2024 around Christmas, and I thought that it was dead. And I says, "You [00:26:00] know, I won't wait for manufacturers to buy the system. I will use what I did with them, and I will buy distribution and distribute," because there's a, there's a demand.

People were looking at the 25 different types of boat, "Hey, we wanna buy one." But the dealers or the manufacturers are so big, it takes years for them to run into when they have 400 dealers, 300 dealers. It takes forever. But the adoption was already getting from the social media. "We wanna buy those. Where do we buy them?"

And I could not sell them, so. But in 2024 Christmas, I was, I was worried about the future. And it's not easy. It's challenging. But now there's more demand in our dealership group for our electric product, and there's a waiting list compared to the ice engine boats that we sell So I was worried, but I still take the, took the right action and do the, did the acquisition of a dealership group, and it turned out that I was not wrong because now we are sold out on the electric space.

You have to wait 15, 16 weeks to get your, the electric boats. On the gas boats, come to the office, we'll sell you one [00:27:00] and deliver it to you, uh, this afternoon if you want. 

Mehmet: Yeah. Another thing I want to ask you, Alex, which is, again, it's out of curiosity, you know. Um, I know, like, you have to talk to, to investors, right?

I... The, the company is, is traded publicly. Um, so h- how, how that would be different from talking to investors who put their money, let's say, in software company usually, or maybe something... I'm not saying purely software, but now everyone talks about, you know, the chips and all this. So, like, i- is it a completely different conversation?

Is it... Or, or is it just like, again, ag- about the number and the business and the growth and, you know, the other factors? Like, I'm curious to know more about that side. 

Alex: It's the most challenging and the most difficult part, uh, of the dis- of the, the, the work. Uh, some investors understand that part. It takes years in adoptions, uh, to get the right result, and we've been only, I would say, delivering system for about 18 months now.

Uh, but [00:28:00] that's the most challenging part. But what I have learned over the past two years, uh, my best meeting with investors is on the water with the product. So we put five or six different electric boats with integration. We put the manufacturers, we put ourself as the distri- the, the motor provider. So we've got the boat manufacturers, ourself, investors, and the investors are driving the product.

They have the touch and feel, and they understand exactly what the investment is made and what is the company. So do you believe in that thing that could go to the market? You think people will buy that? And then their habit change. But if you just work with a balance sheet, it's, it's very, very difficult.

And also, it's, uh, you have to be strong because numbers, uh, can kill the companies, but the passion get over, over those numbers, and that's why I'm having investors come. And I would... I do that maybe three to four times a year. 60, 70 investors, they are all invited. They come see trial, and then things [00:29:00] change.

They meet the team, they discuss, they learn, and then they understand exactly the business and how the market is. 

Mehmet: Yeah. Alex, if we look into the future, um, and, you know, I, I don't like to ask about, like, very long f- term future, right? But I mean, from your perspective, how do you envision the recreational commercial m- marine transportation would be looking like?

And what will be the role of, uh, the, the company in, in that future? 

Alex: There would be two segment. Well, I would say even maybe two and a half. Recreational, as we say, because we've got distribution, uh, but also commercial by selling the eMotion system to boat manufacturers. Now they have restocked the inventory, they got the know-how and the training, so manufacturer will start taking inventory.

But there's also, uh, autonomous boats that we've been working on our [00:30:00] technology, and also government and military, uh, project with a full autonomous electric boats, uh, that is needed for the market. And actually, as we speak today, it's a huge market, and the ones who are having only ideas are very successful.

We don't have ideas. We have something that does work. So this is... That, that segment I was not focusing on. I was very involved, uh, from 2017 to 2020 on the government grant and US Coast Guard projects, and projects related to government. I had to let that thing go because I was focusing on doing 25 integration, McLaren engineering, testing, dyno testing.

But now we have a proven produ- product, and now we're back on working on an au- autonomous product that would be given and sold to government for multiple projects So- Right ... moving forward will be more commercial and less retail. I wanna focus more on commercial volume than retail. Retail is to educate the market, and the other manufacturers and dealers will embrace that.[00:31:00] 

But, uh, it was more like a launch. The retail is more like a launch. It's very small compared to the market should be. It's a 20 billion, uh, market by 2030, so it's in four years. So when there's very little players, there's two, three decent players, and we're the biggest one as we speak. So I cannot stop, and I won't stop, and I cannot lose the momentum, but I need to be more commercial and government project.

Mehmet: Looks like it's, uh, there are exciting times ahead, I would say. Um, Alex, as we are coming close to an end, like maybe final words you want to share, uh, with the audience today, and a very traditional question, where people can get in touch and learn more. 

Alex: The most important part is we wanna put people on the water.

We want them to test. Even if not in the market to buy a boat, it's important to see the product. We always know someone that wants to buy a boat or wanna know more, or a project from the government or a city or a municipality. So I want people to visit visionmarinetechnologies.com. Or on the retail [00:32:00] side, it's called Nautical Ventures.

We have multiple location in Florida, and also rentals operation in California, so you can rent them with your family to learn. You can come to the dealers and get trained or test the product as well. And, uh, if you wanna f- do a factory tour or visit where we do the assembly and also testing, uh, of new integration for manufacturers, it's in Montreal.

So we are Montreal, California, Florida, and, uh, we have also dealers that sells the product overseas, uh, in Europe. But, uh, visionmarinetechnologies.com and nauticalventures, uh, .com as well. 

Mehmet: Great, and I wish, like, more and more success, uh, into this, Alex, and, uh, to reach, like, more geographies and more countries, I would say.

Uh, I really enjoyed the discussion. I learned about, you know, electric boats today from you, like, and I think this is, uh, something... It's not because it's cool, because, you know, I, I love technology- ... and, and I'm sure, like, you have put a lot of engineering effort into all this, and I can see the passion. I [00:33:00] can, I can feel it even, you know, from distance.

So, um, wish you all the best, Alex, and, uh, again, thank you for the time with me here today. The link will be available in the show notes. So this is for the people who, who want to reach out. You can find that there. And this is how I end my episodes. This is for the audience. If you just passed by, thank you for tuning in.

All what I need from you, just share it with your friends and colleagues and subscribe to the podcast. We're available on all the podcasting platform. And if you are one of the people who keep coming again and again, thank you for your support. And as I say always, stay tuned for a new episode very soon.

Thank you. Bye bye. 

Bye.