Inside Flux Marine: Building The Future Of Outboards

From the floor of the Miami International Boat Show, we sit down with Flux Marine CEO Ben Sorkin to unpack how electric outboards are moving from hype to daily use—without asking boat builders to reinvent their world. Ben shares his journey from Lake George tinkerer to Princeton-trained engineer, and how that path led to a purpose-built electric propulsion system that slots into boats people already love.

We get hands-on with the 115- horsepower Flux Marine outboard on a Scout 215 XSF, where instant acceleration, quiet cruising, and zero fumes redefine what a demo ride can be. The surprise isn’t just the performance; it’s the simplicity. Most marinas already have shore power, so charging works within today’s ecosystem. And thanks to cloud-connected telematics, the data paints a clear picture: typical trips use less than 10% of the battery. That reality calms range anxiety and opens the door to smarter batteries, better trip planning, and more time on the water.

Ben walks us through a closed-loop cooling design that eliminates winterization, a modular service approach that enables 90-minute powerhead swaps, and an AI-driven maintenance engine trained on thousands of data points per second. Fleets like Freedom Boat Club and Princeton’s rowing program are already tapping into live dashboards to see where boats are, how they’re used, and when to intervene before issues surface. We also dig into the business side: why Flux builds its own lower units, motors, and inverters; how a dealer-first strategy honors the hands-on nature of boating; and what scaling looks like as they expand power levels and ship beyond North America.

If you’re curious about electric boats, marine electrification, charging at marinas, or what real-world data says about range, this conversation delivers a clear, practical view of what’s here now—and what’s next. Subscribe, share with a boating friend, and leave a review telling us the one question you still have about going electric.

Wards Marine Electric
https://www.wardsmarine.com/

Wards Way YouTube Channel
https://www.youtube.com/@WardsWay75

Transcript

Setting The Miami Stage

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Miami. A global playground celebrated for its beautiful oceans and famous lifestyle. Behind all of the sunshine and success are people, products, and companies powering this magic city. This season, the Wards Way podcast brings you face to face with those who energize Miami's iconic way of life and bring us closer to the water.

SPEAKER_02 0:27

Welcome to the Miami International Boat Show. This is Wards Way 2026.

SPEAKER_00 0:34

Welcome to the Wards Way

Meet Flux Marine And Ben

SPEAKER_00 0:36

Podcast. I'm here with my good friend Ben Sorkin, CEO of Flux Marine. Welcome. Welcome to the Miami Show. How's the show been for you?

SPEAKER_04 0:42

Warmer than Rhode Island.

SPEAKER_00 0:44

Oh, well, for sure, for sure.

SPEAKER_04 0:45

This the show has been incredible. Um, you know, there's a lot of energy here. It's so great to see all our boat partners. We've got an exhibit in the convention center. We've got one of our demo boats out doing demos and going to a customer shortly after. Really?

SPEAKER_00 0:58

Where's the where the demo is taking place?

SPEAKER_04 1:00

So we are keeping a boat at Venetian Marina.

SPEAKER_00 1:02

Okay.

SPEAKER_04 1:03

And so it's been a great spot just to schedule off-site demos and then, you know, getting out and experiencing what we're building. There's nothing more powerful than that.

SPEAKER_00 1:11

So before we get into the boat itself, how did you get into the industry? And how are you such a young CEO? I appreciate that.

SPEAKER_04 1:17

Thank you,

Origin Story And Vision

SPEAKER_04 1:18

I appreciate that. And you know, even thinking more like what is Flux Marine, we're building electric outboard motors and battery systems to enable boat builders to go electric.

SPEAKER_01 1:26

Okay.

SPEAKER_04 1:27

And thinking a little bit about our origin story, I grew up every summer in upstate New York on Lake George. And I loved boats. I was tinkering with boats. My we had a 13-foot classic whaler, and then I had a 1961 Glass Par G3.

SPEAKER_01 1:40

Okay.

SPEAKER_04 1:40

A ski boat with that old Merc 1000 Tower of Power. So I loved boats, rebuilding boats, but at the same time, I hated that thingaroe was breaking, there was so much maintenance, there were winterization, and of course, just fuel spilled in the lake. And so growing up, I always wanted to do something innovative in boating. Fast forward, you know, a decade or two decades, ended up studying mechanical and aerospace engineering at Princeton. I skipped a lot of class, sat in on grad school battery classes, ended up helping start an electric race car team, electric boating team. And in summer of 2015, I was sitting in a lab and I said, why is nobody really doing high voltage marine electrification? And that set me on what's now been close to an 11-year journey of focused on building and bringing to market the best possible electric marine solution to help boat builders.

SPEAKER_00 2:30

And I think that it's such an interesting perspective that you are working with already, you said to yourself, all right, I don't need to come in and reinvent the wheel. I want to work with those that are already out there, that are already building boats, but provide them a solution. And that's really, that's a really good way of approaching a unique approach to that. Were the builders receptive to it? I I feel like they would

Partnering With Boat Builders

SPEAKER_00 2:50

be.

SPEAKER_04 2:50

Definitely, and it's what made the most sense to us. Again, having grown up in a marine industry, knowing that, you know, boats are different than cars. You're not mass manufacturing one exact boat model. And there are close to 2,000 boat manufacturers in North America alone. And so for us, when we wanted to have the most impact, we knew we didn't want to compete with 2,000 boat builders. The boat builders, so many of them are incredible at what they do. If you visit Scouts facility in Somerville, South Carolina, I don't want to start a company and try to replicate that. They do an incredible job. The way that Highfield and Zodiac have their setup styled in flagship in Wisconsin. So we really wanted to focus on the propulsion, the technology, the bread and butter, and then being able to roll it out to all the boat manufacturers, which really is exciting for them because now they don't have to do these huge capital investments in finding new technology. So we take that on.

SPEAKER_00 3:42

And you don't have to take on boat building and everything else that comes comes with that. So it's a nice partnership. And and as we were talking earlier, this is your the first time you're exhibiting in Miami as your own booth because you've been working with your partners.

SPEAKER_04 3:55

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 3:55

So how has that been?

SPEAKER_04 3:56

Has that been any different or it's it's been very exciting, and I think we're starting to see more and more full circle moments. Um, you know, we started the company at least with external employees and funding in 2020, so we've been at it for coming up on six years now, and we've been to the show. I've been to the show as a kid, and now actually having our

First Standalone Miami Exhibit

SPEAKER_04 4:15

own exhibit in the convention center in Miami. In Miami, Miami specifically. It's just so exciting, and people walk by and we have investors that come by and see what we're doing, and it creates just this really nice hub for conversation around electrification.

SPEAKER_00 4:30

Wow. So you

The 115 HP Electric Demo Ride

SPEAKER_00 4:31

said that you have, um, can you tell us a little about the boat that you actually have that you're showing demos on? Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 4:36

Yeah, absolutely. And so to start with, it's powered by the 115 horsepower flux electric outboard, which has about 175 horsepower for acceleration. Okay. So it accelerates quickly. But it's sitting on the back of a 215 Scout XSF center console. Um gorgeous boat, great acceleration, one of my favorites. And it's been doing demos, it handles waves beautifully, and just the experience, it's quiet, there are no fumes. We're plugged in at the dock, no special charging equipment.

Charging And Marina Infrastructure

SPEAKER_00 5:04

I'm just gonna ask, you don't need special charging equipment because let's, you know, that's always seems to be the um the impediment that even people, you know, segueing into um electric cars that well, how far can I go or how fast can I go? And there's some sort of limiting, especially in the state of Florida, you know, it's pretty long to get all the way out the state. You know, have you how is that different in the boating?

SPEAKER_04 5:25

Yeah, it's really it's great because the infrastructure already exists in a lot of boating. Um because all the marinas, or most at least, have shore power, whether it's 30 amp, 220 volt, and I'm sure you know all about shore power. And we even have customers that have one 10-volt outlets, and that's enough to for a full charge. And when we look at the way most people use their boats, most people on a 21-foot boat are not going 60 miles offshore.

SPEAKER_01 5:48

Okay.

SPEAKER_04 5:49

Most of them are going two or three miles to the sandbar, two or three miles to a restaurant, slowly do going up the ICW. And when you do something like that, you're only using 20 to 30 percent of the battery in a given day.

Telematics Data And Usage Insights

SPEAKER_04 6:00

And now that we have you know quite a few boats out there with customers, and every single boat is connected to the cloud via cellular. So we built an incredible telematics platform, and so we get all this data to see how customers do that.

SPEAKER_00 6:12

You must be gathering data.

SPEAKER_04 6:14

There's a ton of data.

SPEAKER_00 6:15

What is the data shown? What's something that you never thought you would see in the data? I'm totally gonna catch you off guard on this one. That you were like, oh, I never expected to have that.

SPEAKER_04 6:23

Um, I think the the big thing is almost we've been reaffirmed on the data where we from the get-go, we said people are not going 30 or 40 miles on a daily basis on these boats. And the data shows the average trip uses less than 10% of the battery.

SPEAKER_00 6:38

Really?

SPEAKER_04 6:39

Which is for us, it's like, well, that's great. We've the same number of conversations we've had with customers who want longer range and more battery. We've had about the same number of conversations with customers who say, Hey, I don't think I need all this battery in this boat. I barely ever go below 50%. Do I need all this battery?

SPEAKER_00 6:56

And so I think What do you do in that circumstance?

SPEAKER_04 6:59

In that circumstance, um You just say don't worry about it. We usually say don't worry about it, it'll increase the resale value of battery.

SPEAKER_00 7:04

Go boating more.

SPEAKER_04 7:05

Go boating more, go faster, do more laps, practice more, spend less time.

SPEAKER_00 7:09

Right, be out on the water more, don't wait for the weekend, spend it during during the year.

SPEAKER_04 7:12

Exactly.

SPEAKER_00 7:13

Now, does it help,

Maintenance, Winterization, And Design

SPEAKER_00 7:14

for example? This is just my curiosity. Um, you know, you have talked about you talk you talked about like winterization. What how do you winterize an electric boat any differently?

SPEAKER_04 7:24

You don't.

SPEAKER_00 7:25

Okay.

SPEAKER_04 7:26

And when we talk about being in Florida right now and it being nice and warm.

SPEAKER_00 7:30

We don't have to deal with that.

SPEAKER_04 7:31

I say that specifically because my boat is stuck right now in ice. So I keep my boat in the year water year-round. We developed a completely closed loop cooling system. Okay. So there's no impeller, there's no seawater ingestion. So you don't have to worry about flushing your motor or a coolant getting frozen. So completely closed loop. No winterization there. It can operate at sub-zero temperatures, so it's truly, truly like the least possible maintenance of any particular product.

SPEAKER_00 7:57

Interesting, interesting. So you really did a fair amount, I guess, from your growing up being on the water that you you put all in, put all of that into your product. Now I assume, how's AI? Is AI at all involved in some of your data or things that you're you're trying to do?

AI And Predictive Maintenance

SPEAKER_04 8:12

Yeah, AI is definitely involved really on the analysis and predictive maintenance side of things. So I think, you know, when you think about the different uses for AI, one of the things AI is very good at is going through massive data sets, figuring out trends. And so, because we're getting thousands of data points per second from boats and from our fleets, we're working on using AI and predictive models to look at this information, to learn more things about the system, how it's aging, how it's maturing. We have temperatures of all the different components inside. And so if you can look at all those temperatures, if you start to see an anomaly, we can start looking at and saying, okay, is something going to happen here at some point? And we couple using that actual that real data, that AI powered predictive maintenance, along with in-house test rigs. So at our office, okay, we have two outboards that are sitting on land connected at the propeller shaft, and we're basically set it up as a dynamometer. Meaning one of the outboards is just run continuously, the other outboard is in a regenerative mode, so it provides a load. And this allows us to iterate through thousands and thousands of hours, tens of thousands of acceleration cycles to get all this data and see what that wear profile looks like to make sure that when we're actually putting systems in the field, they're gonna last

Fleets, Universities, And Real-World Use

SPEAKER_04 9:24

more than a year, more than two years, five years, probably ten plus years before any sort of maintenance.

SPEAKER_00 9:28

Wow, and and I would imagine that builders are very supportive of this and and can't even imagine I you know that they that they get the opportunity to have their boats in a fleet tracking type system. Has the feedback on that been?

SPEAKER_04 9:41

Yeah, the feedback's been good from the boat builders. I'd say the feedback is really good there from fleet users.

SPEAKER_01 9:47

Okay.

SPEAKER_04 9:47

So for example, we have a great partner, the uh Freedom Boat Club on Lake George. They were an early customer testing a prototype with us for a few years, and now they have a production high field 660 with a flux outboard, and the amount of data that they're able to see, what the boat's doing, how their customers are using a boat, they absolutely love that. We also have two motors with um at Princeton University for the rowing team. So the coaching boats. Oh, that's pretty interesting. Two fleet systems there. Um and again, that's you know, where is the where's the boat? What are they doing? They pull up the app, they can see everything. So for fleet owners, it's really unique.

SPEAKER_00 10:21

I can imagine that to be the case. So what is what is the next

Scaling Tech, Markets, And Manufacturing

SPEAKER_00 10:25

step? Is there anything that you're you're looking to, or who's your who's your next, what's your next level? Where are you trying to get to?

SPEAKER_04 10:31

Yeah, so right now it's we spent, I say two years building the fundamental tech. We built two years brutally testing with customers, and the last two years have been really going into that early pilot production. So the next stage is scaling. Okay. It's scaling with more boat manufacturers, it's scaling power levels, going higher a little bit, going lower a little bit, larger batteries, geographically scaling. We just shipped our first couple of motors outside of North America, so excited to start to really go into these other markets. Um, scaling is the biggest thing. And you know, while we look at scaling from a marketing perspective and a growth and sales perspective, there's also internal scaling. So scaling the fundamental tech behind it. We're one of the only companies out there that's building our own technology stack. So we're not buying combustion systems and retrofitting them. Okay. We're building our own lower units, midsections, drivetrains, even started winding motors, building inverters, and so scaling that piece of the puzzle allows us to bring costs down and still own more of the IP and ultimately bring a lighter, more elegant solution to market.

SPEAKER_00 11:38

What about um servicing? Does that is that something that you manage, or is that through the builder or through the fleets? Yeah. Servicing and maintenance. I I hope your answer to me is well, we don't we don't need any, we don't have any, no, we don't have any issues.

SPEAKER_04 11:52

We don't have that many issues, but people still hit rocks. Of course, I was just gonna say. Um so we have got a couple different approaches to service and maintenance.

Service Model And Dealer Network

SPEAKER_04 12:00

Um, early on, it's white glove service. We have technicians that will go anywhere, anytime to support the systems. We have a fantastic customer to Burish Virgin Islands, and you know, early on, one or two things happened with that boat, and we had a technician there literally within 48 hours. Oh, wonderful, wonderful. Almost all of our early customers have my personal phone number as well. That's wonderful. So while we have our own technician team, we've also been building out a dealer and service network that are able to do a lot of things. Um now, when you think about small things like prop strikes or changing anodes, you don't need specialized work for that, so that can be any boat yard. But we're also in conversations with some larger boat yards that want to help with service overall.

SPEAKER_00 12:39

Oh, that's good. And then has the feedback and support been positive on that?

SPEAKER_04 12:43

Yes, definitely. And you know, there's really not a ton of service or maintenance, and then the way we built the actual outboard, it's built into three very modular components for different levels of training. You don't want someone going into high voltage unless they're very well trained. Absolutely, 100%. And so we designed it in three fundamental pieces. You've got your transom mount, you have your belt tube lower unit assembly, and then you have your power head. The powerhead is where all the high voltage is, okay, and that's its own unit. And so if, for example, you had a bad IGBT or something in the powerhead, a technician is not opening that powerhead. A technician is taking the power head out, swapping a new one. And that can be done in like 90 minutes. You can take it into the three pieces and put it back together.

SPEAKER_00 13:26

And I'm sure you

Reinventing The Buying Experience

SPEAKER_00 13:27

can have that inventory located at at all places so that you could do that. Exactly. Are you looking for distributors?

SPEAKER_04 13:33

Yeah, so we've started to get um onboard new distributors, new dealers. Uh I think when you look at electric cars, for example, you know, Tesla really changed the status quo with direct to consumer. I think there's an element of direct to consumer in marine, but marine is so different than any other industry, and I think the dealers are incredibly important to marine.

SPEAKER_00 13:53

I agree with you.

SPEAKER_04 13:54

And so for us, we've seen some of our competitors say, hey, we're going Tesla, we're gonna go direct to every consumer. For us, no, we want to work with dealers. We want to bring other folks into the mix because boating is really just a you know, boots on the ground sort of thing. When you're buying a boat, it's an emotional purchase for sure.

SPEAKER_00 14:11

It's very traditional. People want to shake hands, people want to touch it, people want to see. I agree with you guys.

SPEAKER_04 14:16

Exactly. So dealers are super important to us, and we're excited to keep rolling that out. And we've had some of our dealers here too, so we're excited to all get it.

SPEAKER_00 14:23

Well, I have to say though, you know, um like you you mentioned Tesla and and how they did go direct to consumer, but they also changed the dealership experience. And I I would imagine that somebody coming in and the amount of studying that you've done over the years, you had to study the the consumer uh ecosystem and and how it would work. Is there anything that you

The Meaning Behind “Flux”

SPEAKER_00 14:43

decided to do differently? I do support working through your dealership networks, etc. But is there anything in that experience that you decided to kind of evolve or or do a little bit differently? You're coming out fresh, you're coming out with a new product, so people aren't having to do it the same traditional way. Is there anything you're doing differently?

SPEAKER_04 15:00

Yeah, I think there are certain things we lean into. So I think for one, when we have a dealer who's you know talking to a potential customer, that dealer, we work closely with them on that process because education is such a big part of it. And also electric is very new, right? So people are hesitant, they want to see it work, they want to know that they're not the first guinea pig. And so the other thing that we do is we talk to new customers with dealers, say, hey, here's a list of our existing customers, here are the existing use cases, here are phone numbers. You can call these existing customers and have conversations. The other piece of the puzzle when we work with dealers is there's been a lot of it's been a very tumultuous industry for marine electrification specifically. The number of bankruptcies that have happened, it's you know, there's been hundreds of millions of dollars lost in venture capital, and this also is uh challenging for consumers to get comfortable. And so what we often do is when someone says, yes, okay, I want to buy a flux marine powered system from a dealer, we extend an invite to the facility. Or we extend the invite to the facility before. It's like come down to the facility,

Daily Life On Electric And Closing

SPEAKER_04 16:00

see where we actually make these things, meet the engineers who make them. And we were talking to one customer that has a boat in Tennessee, and this is where the fine details matter. They were asking me, hey, I was helping with this specific one, and they wanted to know what are the different options for cowlings and colors. And it's on the website, but I said, hey, let's FaceTime and I'll walk you through it in the facility. And literally walking through the production line, they're seeing, you know, labeled Cowling Cart 1, Cowling Cart 2, and they said just seeing the labels and how clean and organized things are there made us feel so much better about purchasing the product.

SPEAKER_00 16:37

That's an interesting, that's it's very interesting to get that feedback.

SPEAKER_04 16:41

It really is.

SPEAKER_00 16:42

So, what's behind the name? Flux.

SPEAKER_04 16:44

Great question. So the name, I wanted, of course, something that had a relation to physics. Okay. And then something with a broader meaning as well. And going through a physics textbook one day in the car, driving up to Lake George, thinking about what is the right name for the phone.

SPEAKER_00 17:01

Well, you know how to have a good time on a road trip.

SPEAKER_04 17:02

I sure do.

SPEAKER_00 17:03

You know, okay, okay. They didn't have an audible on that one? You were flipping the pages?

SPEAKER_04 17:06

I love the physics textbooks. This was before ChatGPT. So I wasn't able to ask that for ideas. Okay. Um, but yeah, so flux, flux itself is kind of around in the world of physics, magnetic flux is what enables a motor to actually spin. Okay. So it's basically like a change in magnetic field. And so that's the fundamental driver behind an electric motor. At the same time, flux means agent of change. And it just had a little bit of a ring to it. And then of course, you know, it's double meaning and futuristic and back to the future. You know, I'm so sorry I was gonna say that.

SPEAKER_00 17:37

I'm like, you know, as soon as I saw but but still I you know, there there's always a positive connotation to that too, because it was honestly about moving something into the future, something that people did not believe would happen. And so, you know, electric outboards are here and they're real.

SPEAKER_04 17:51

Exactly. They're so real, and you know, I know it better than anyone probably. I commute to work almost every day on my electric-powered scout dorado.

SPEAKER_00 17:59

Well, you know, if you're if you're gonna build it, you gotta live it, and if you're gonna preach it, you gotta be a part of it.

SPEAKER_04 18:05

Exactly. So I did it right up until about three weeks ago when I couldn't get out of the ice.

SPEAKER_00 18:10

Well, it has been such a pleasure speaking with you, and my understanding is that we'll probably get to see each other again in Newport.

SPEAKER_04 18:16

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 18:17

And we'd love to we'd love to keep up with you. We'd love to actually get to see a boat or or maybe be able to go for a ride on one of them. However, it would be nice in the summer. We're a little bit, you know, uh from South Florida, you know, that we like our boating a little bit warmer, but we look forward to the opportunity, and it was such a pleasure to meet you. Thank you for being here. Thank you for being at the Miami Show.

SPEAKER_04 18:37

Thank you so much for having me, and we'll see you in Newport.

SPEAKER_00 18:39

Absolutely. See you then.

SPEAKER_01 18:42

Thanks for joining us. Make sure you subscribe to the Wards Way podcast. We're just getting started.