Comments taken from Tesla website
kyleraney15 | February 14, 2014 Great comments. Thank you for posting your thoughts and information regarding the start-up. From what I see, Deep Blue has a great basis for its operations: targeting sail-boat, long-distance range sailing. I want to point out that the market we would be targeting is, at first, the high-speed boating market, than recreational market, so the range a high-speed boat requires will be much less than a speed boat, but because of the power needed to push a craft across such a resistance surface such as water, we will have to balance cost per kWh, top speed and acceleration with battery conservation. I am a Canadian, so I will use Canada as a stat-point, and right now, there are 3 million engine/jet powered boats in Canada. All require fossil fuels to run (considering the boats are purchased and not home-lithium-ion made). The average amount of boats sold in a year is much smaller than the amount of high-speed boats sold in a year (similar to the numbers sold of high class cars, like the Model S, versus cheaper cars like the Honda civic), so, if there is large amounts of capital in selling these high-speed boats, one could consider, instead of only producing a limited amount of high-speed boats, producing more boats to raise capital and re-invest into the mass marketable recreational boat model. The average boater in Canada is from 31 to 49 years old, has children at home, and has a household income $44,000 to $99,000 a year. Boating is solidly a middle class activity that is due for innovation. As a start-up trying to convince recreational boat buyers that electric-power trains are the best way to fuel a boat, we could target the $90-100k price range. Or simply build a handful of boats that everyone wants but because of the limited production, not everyone can buy. This will create a buying frenzy over a boat that was never made to be mass bought. If we produce a "roadster" type of boat alike Tesla, keeping in mind that the original plans of Tesla did not work out (with Elon having to dump his remaining capital in 2006 to keep the company afloat), we should focus on the actuality of the technology that exist and propose a boating craft that isn't completely different from a traditional boat design, but one that simply powered in a way that no other has ever seen. And in a way that gets boat fans talking. That will win over the minds of speed-boat fans, and then, with the created capital of the speed-boat or from investors interested in investing in a start-up (with goals similar to Tesla: accelerating mass sustainable transportation), or from selling the boats to the high-speed boating market, we can use invested capital to target the recreational boating markets and produce a mass-marketed electric powered water craft. I do not have any experience in boat engineering, but from what I have researched we would need to use a water-propulsion power-train fueled by lithium ion cells. The idea of using water, on water, to push a boat seems to be the technology that we will start with as a basis. Engineers, please correct me if I am wrong or you have a better idea: I really want to hear it. I am a 24 year old law student, but I am a founder of a small business that has provided income while studying. I also invested a small amount of money, at a great time, in Tesla when first heard of the company, through researching Elon Musk. The value I have to put forward with the start up is not a value needed to start a company, but it is a value I am willing to risk to take a chance and help out in transitioning a fully-sustainable water, land, and air transportation world. I do not have experience in engineering, but I have a dire interest for physics and boiling concepts down to their fundamental values, and I believe that, with the right minds and people who want to change the way the water-world uses energy, we can easily convince the boating market that electric power-trains are the only way to go. And do so by making great boats that compels people and others to buy electric powered, jet-water propulsion water-crafts. Thank you for your comments again and I look forward to reading any one's comments, criticisms or ideas.