Neil Mans

Neil Mans is a New Zealand engineer and the co-founder of ZeroJet, the electric boat propulsion company building jet systems designed to replace outboard motors.

Mans studied mechanical engineering at the University of Canterbury and spent much of his career at Buckley Systems, a precision-engineering firm. In 2017, he and Bex Rempel co-founded ZeroJet with the aim of decarbonising recreational and commercial boating, a sector responsible for significant marine emissions but largely untouched by electrification.

ZeroJet’s electric jet propulsion system is roughly half the weight of a traditional outboard motor, resulting in faster, lighter boats with zero direct emissions. The company’s 15kW system went into full production in early 2024. Mans and Rempel have set an ambitious target: replacing 10,000 internal combustion outboards within five years, which the company estimates would deliver an emissions saving equivalent to removing 1.5 million cars from the road.

ZeroJet raised a Series A to take its motors global and was named 2023 NZ Hi-Tech Startup Company of the Year. The company has attracted backing from the New Zealand Growth Capital Partners and drawn international attention for its approach to marine electrification.

Mans’s profile is noteworthy because he is applying serious engineering to a category, recreational boating — that has barely been touched by the electric transition, building a New Zealand company with the potential to reshape how boats are powered worldwide.

Sources: ZeroJet · NZ Herald · NZGCP