Acquisition significantly strengthens Vision’s leadership in electric boat powertrains.
Montreal, Canada, February 23, 2021, Vision Marine Technologies, Inc. (Nasdaq: VMAR) (“Vision Marine” or the “Company”), a leader in transforming the boating market by designing and manufacturing environmentally friendly electric boats and propulsion systems, is pleased to announce today that it has acquired MAC Engineering’s intellectual property relating to marine outboard electronic systems. MAC Engineering, the European distributor of the UQM brand, and one of the global leaders in medium and high-power electric motors in the USA, is the highly regarded designer of propulsion and battery management systems and components for electric vehicles.
Under the terms of the transaction, Vision Marine has acquired all of MAC’s electric technological components, know-how and software relating to the manufacture, production, use, sale, rental and distribution of marine outboard electronic systems.
Vision Marine is also pleased to announce that Xavier Montagne, Chief Executive Officer of MAC Engineering, will be joining Vision Marine as its Chief Technology Officer. In his role as CTO, Montagne will oversee all design and operations of Vision Marine’s revolutionary E-Motion powertrain, the first fully electric 180 hp integrated outboard system.
In his role as CEO and Senior Engineer at MAC Engineering, Mr. Montagne was responsible for electronic architecture design, product selection, integration, fine tuning, optimization, and overall performance. Prior to MAC Engineering, Mr. Montagne was senior designer for Foresee Power, Panasonic, and Saft in Europe, designing low and high voltage battery management systems.
Mr. Montagne was involved in the development of the sports version of the Renault ZOE, using his expertise to help design the powertrain definition, conception, and assembly. This technology, used in the automotive sports and concept car market, will soon be implemented into Vision Marine’s own electric propulsion system. This car has been used to open Formula E shows and was driven by the legendary French race car driver Alain Prost.
Xavier Montagne commented, “I am very excited to be joining the Vision Marine team and to be able to continue working with such an interesting and forward-looking company. We share a passion for delivering superior performance in electric boats, and I look forward to further solidifying Vision’s leadership in this arena by rolling out our disruptive powertrain to OEMs.”
The acquisition of MAC Engineering’s marine propulsion intellectual property significantly adds to Vision Marine’s already formidable in-house capabilities to deliver what we believe to be the best performing and most efficient powertrain systems for electric boats, across our proprietary platform.
Mongeon continued, “Xavier is a leader in electric propulsion development and has worked on many of the leading electric propulsion projects around the world. I am excited to add his expertise to our team so that we can continue to innovate and to be at the cutting edge of the marine propulsion technology industry.”
About Vision Marine Technologies, Inc.
Vision Marine Technologies, Inc., is an ESG principled company, committed to fighting the problem of waterway pollution by disrupting the boating industry through the introduction of the first fully electric 180hp integrated outboard powertrain system (“E-Motion”). E-Motion combines an advanced battery pack, inverter, and high efficiency motor with proprietary union assembly between the transmission and the electric motor design and extensive control software. Our technologies used in this E-Motion powertrain system are designed to improve the efficiency of the outboard powertrain and, as a result, increase range and performance.
Vision also continues to design, innovate, manufacture, and sell a broad variety of handcrafted, environmentally friendly, electric powerboats to the recreational consumer. The design and technology applied to our boats results in far greater and enhanced performance, higher speeds, and longer range. Together, Vision’s electric powerboats and flagship E-motion propulsion system result in zero pollution, zero emission and a noiseless environment. Simply stated, a smoother and cleaner ride than traditional gasoline or diesel motorboats. For more information on the Company, please visit: www.visionmarinetechnologies.com.
About Mac Engineering
Headquartered in Paris, France, MAC Engineering is a design office specializing in embedded systems, with more than 10 years of expertise in automotive, industrial, military and nautical applications. For two years, Mac has been the European distributors and integrators of UQM electric motors as well as numerous reducers, gearboxes, transfer boxes and bridges which allow the company to take charge of the design and complete production of electric propulsion chains. For more information, please visit the company’s website: www.mac-engineering.fr.
Forward-Looking Statements
The statements
contained in this press release that are not historical facts are
forward-looking statements.The forward-looking statements are subject to
various risks, uncertainties, assumptions, or changes in circumstances that are
different to predict or quantify. Actual results may differ materially from
these expectations due to changes in global, regional, or local economic,
business, competitive, market, regulatory and other factors, many of which are
beyond Vision’s control. Important factors that could cause actual results to
differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements are set forth under
the caption “Risk Factors” in Vision’s Annual Report on Form 20-F, filed with
the SEC on December 31, 2020, as such factors may be updated from time to time
in Vision’s periodic filings with the SEC. Any forward-looking statement in
this press release speaks only as of the date of this release. Vision
undertakes no obligation to publicly update or review any forward-looking
statement, whether as a result of new information, future developments or
otherwise, except as may be required by any applicable securities laws.
