Marine Electrification Challenges: Charging, Collaboration, and Standardization Insights
Zin Boats president David Donovick explores marine electrification challenges, emphasizing charging infrastructure and collaboration to accelerate industry adoption.
Marine electrification is crucial for reducing the environmental impact of maritime activities, which currently rely heavily on fossil fuels. By transitioning to electric propulsion, the marine industry can significantly lower emissions, enhance energy efficiency, and contribute to a more sustainable future for both commercial and recreational vessels. At the Battery Show North America, David Donovick, the President and COO at Zin Boats, addressed the challenges and opportunities in marine electrification, highlighting critical areas that need attention for the sector to grow.
Charging infrastructure: challenges and flexible solutions
During the panel discussion, “Investment Trends and Opportunities in Electric Mobility,” Donovick highlighted one of the main challenges in marine electrification: the lack of a unified charging infrastructure. He pointed out that the marine industry is far more fragmented than the automotive sector. "There's no major company that owns all these marinas. Safe Harbor is the largest marina owner in the US, and they still have a small market share," Donovick said, emphasizing the lack of a dominant player capable of setting standards for charging infrastructure.
Given this fragmented landscape, Donovick proposed that flexibility is crucial. He believes flexible technology that can work with diverse charging sources is the solution, rather than trying to force a single standard. Donovick highlighted that ZinBoat developed a power solution called the "magic box," which can adapt to various charging sources, from simple wall outlets to Tesla Superchargers. His goal is to create a system that, in his words, "Should just connect and work, whether it's a garden hose or fire hose; either way, you can fill the pool." This adaptability is necessary because of the disparate nature of the marina infrastructure, and the marine industry is still far from establishing the kind of standardized charging systems seen in the automotive world. As Donovick put it, "Charging needs to work like that. And we're just going to have a pretty disparate system. I think we're a long ways off to get into the type of standards that we've seen with automotive."
Battery charging station on the dock. Courtesy of Stefano_Carnevali/ iStock / Getty Images Plus.
Collaboration and shared platforms
Donovick also stressed the need for more collaboration within the marine industry. He believes that the sector can learn a great deal from the automotive industry, where companies work together to share technologies and platforms. In fact, Donovick has already taken steps to open up his company's electric propulsion technologies to other companies. "Literally, as of last week, we just announced that we are going to open up all of our technologies for the ecosystem to use. So basically, electrical propulsion as a service to help traditional boat builders electrify right, to save them the apex, the investment that's required to figure this stuff out," he explained.
Donovick's collaborative approach reflects a broader trend he sees as necessary for the marine electrification industry to grow. There are many companies worldwide working on electric boats and related technologies, but the market is still fragmented, and many players struggle to bring products to market. "There's 147 companies around the world that we track that are in marine electrification. Some cases you have people that just build electric boats. Other people are doing power trains. And then you've got some hybrids, kind of like our company, right? We've built boats. But you also sell the tech," he said, but added, "less than 10 will actually should be something. It's insane."
The automotive industry has a limited number of platforms that support millions of vehicles across various models, allowing for scale and efficiency. However, the marine industry has yet to develop such standardized platforms. "The automotive industry has 10 platforms that drive 28 million cars per year across 200 models, but the marine sector lacks that level of standardization," Donovick pointed out. He urged the marine industry to begin "thinking like automotive" by developing shared platforms to drive efficiency and scale across the sector.
Investment and results
According to Donovick, the marine electrification industry has seen significant financial investment, but the results have not been impressive. "Between 2015 and today, $1.6B has gone into the marine electrification category where Zin Boats exist across 68 venture-backed companies, including 174 total deals," Donovan said. However, these investments have only generated $600 million in revenue and $31M in EBITDA (Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation, and Amortization), far below expectations. "We're not delivering. We have not had wins," he remarked.
Donovick's insights highlight the critical challenges of marine electrification—fragmented infrastructure, lack of collaboration, and insufficient standardization—but he also sees opportunities. By focusing on flexible charging technologies, shared platforms, and greater collaboration, the industry can overcome these hurdles and unlock its full potential.
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