When the 21 de Julio dredger was about to be raised in the port of Montevideo, Marcelo Álvarez, one of the workers involved in the construction of this boat used to excavate, decided that it was time to jump into the water to stop being dependent and found his own business.
It was the year 2018 when the project of the Dutch shipbuilding company Royal IHC was completed. Álvarez decided to pool all his savings and carry out his own initiatives in the metallurgical field together with his father. At that time, he met a merchant engineer, who approached Álvarez with a project to generate electric boats and joined the first steps of the venture. “It seemed like just a dream, but we started working on it,” she narrated in exchange with Coffee & Business.
that’s how he was born Alvarez Shipyard in Juan Lacaze, Colonia, whose mission is to build eco-friendly boats and “unconventional”, such as different models of sailboats and other types of innovative electric boats. Such as Pampero sailboats, the eCat, eRacing and kayaks, among others.
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Workplace of Astillero Álvarez
In any case, businessmen are clear that The electromobility market in general and the nautical market in particular are still very small items in Uruguay. For this reason, the company has generated various options for customers to consider electric mobility. One of these alternatives consists of incorporating changes in combustion engine vehicles.in order to reduce its negative impact on the environment.
Álvarez expressed that although some electric motor assemblies have already been registered in boats already built, the differential of this company is the focus on ecology. “All our boats are stuffed with plastic containers,” he said. “This does not mean that they are of poor quality or that they can break; but, in extraordinary cases of accidents, they will not sink, and, at the same time, a second life is given to containers that would end up in the environment”, the Naval Engineering student also developed.
Over time, the productivity of Astillero Álvarez grew. In this process, access to Seed capital granted by the National Development Agency (Ande) it was critical to the business, Álvarez acknowledged.
For the entrepreneur, The biggest obstacle they face to generate electric boats “is cultural” and it is because “most people have a hard time change of energy matrix And, because the cost is so high compared to traditional batteries, it stops being attractive at times”.
“At first we thought only of doing sustainable projects, reality has led us to something else,” confesses the entrepreneur. And he adds: “Today we do repairs, constructions, personalized projects, nautical advice, we have a know how that we didn’t have before.”
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Marcelo Alvarez
But the entrepreneurs went ahead with their project. They were recognized with the Mipyme (micro, small and medium-sized enterprises) of the year recognition by ANDE. This award earned him a non-reimbursable financial aid from this state organization of $900,000, which they used to invest in two new electric models to transport the vehicles and to manufacture new prototypes. They also had the support of the Mipyme Unit of the Municipality of Colonia.
“In two years from now we would like to be leaders and a reference in nautical electromobility, to be able to have a wide variety of models whose helmets are 100% national labor” (today most are imported from Argentina). “We have a project, which is also a dream, which is to have a fleet to educate and publicize the benefits of sailing with electric motors,” concluded Álvarez.
