John Vo, former Tesla executive and now CEO of Tampa Bay's Blue Innovations Group, plans to follow a lesson from Elon Musk's playbook after recently unveiling his company's electric yacht.
The company revealed the boat during an event at its Pinellas Park headquarters on Dec. 16, and the showcase signals the startup — which launched from stealth in 2022 — is preparing to start manufacturing the $300,000 yacht. Blue Innovations Group will start production slowly by making around ten boats in 2024 and learning to scale the process with tech and automation, Vo said.
The December event planned to exhibit the R30 in the water, but stormy weather postponed the maritime display to 2024.
The yacht will be made of aluminum, and its lithium-ion phosphate batteries hold 221 kilowatts of energy (Tesla's Cybertruck holds 250 kW). It will have extendable solar panels, which can power small appliances but need hours of exposure to charge the battery fully.
The engineers of the R30 assembled in-house electronics like the internet and satellite access, a display system, cameras and other boat functions. Considering the dangerous combination of electricity and salt water, the engineers took precautionary measures to secure the batteries, so flooding and water damage aren't a concern, Vo said.
But what's it like to ride in the boat? Chris Kerzich, the chief of staff, said it's like an electric car. It's fast and can stop instantly because of its torque control.
As a product, similar yachts retail for equal to or more than the R30. Its $300,000 price tag matches his target audience's expectations because there are two types of boat buyers: One that says $300,000 is expensive and one that says $300,000 is cheap. The latter is Vo's target, he said.
Thirty-foot yachts can be priced between $100,000 to more than $500,000. The startup already has several people who put up $1,000 to reserve a boat (or $5,000 to reserve a place as one of the first 100 to receive a boat).
Greg Marlo, the president of Toronto, Canada-based Yacht Solutions, a yacht sales and management company, flew here to take a first look at the boat he reserved. He heard about the company nearly six months ago and has been interested since. It's his job to evaluate emerging products like the R30 for his customers, he said.
The price point was reasonable, and he's confident in Vo's experience, he said.
"For a boat enthusiast, it checked a lot of boxes for [weekend boating], sustainability and entertainment," Marlo said.
R30 Launch event
The waters ahead
Employees currently make each boatthat makes a boat in 30 minutes, he said.
"We have to do automation because without automation, the quality is not going to be consistent and the cost is not going to be competitive," Vo said. "We don't just want the quality, but we want it to be affordable."
It's also because the company is pursuing vertical integration and proprietary technology — taking control of the supply chain and manufacturing processes through in-house components and automation — to differentiate itself from the other electric tech companies on the market. It's following what Vo brings from his experiences with Tesla — the success shown through Elon Musk's vertical integration strategy.
Vo declined to comment on the total investment made into the company. But he said it's less than the $15 million to $20 million he's seen the automotive industry invest to create a single car part, like a headlight. He's also spent less than he planned two years ago, he said.
The company has raised more than $3 million in seed funding, according to Tampa Bay Business Journal reporting. It also has provisional patents for the yacht, Vo said.
Vo was Tesla's head of global manufacturing for six years and left in 2017. Before Blue Innovations Group, he oversaw the propulsion division at the now-bankrupt Lordstown Motors, an Ohio-based electric vehicle company Vo dumped his shares in the company in 2020 and 2021. The company went bankrupt in June of 2023.
Vo told the Tampa Bay Inno that his time at Lordstown was a learning experience and that any issues relating to his time there have been cleared.
Lordstown Motors was accused of misleading behavior in 2021. The Tampa Bay Times reported Vo violated a rule by selling company shares within six months of buying them and was required to forfeit his profits from "short-swing transactions."
