Electric Car News

Washington's Skagit County is inviting U.S. shipyards to bid for a contract to construct a new all‐electric car and passenger ferry.In 2017, Skagit County Public Works enlisted Glosten to design an environmentally friendly all‐electric replacement for the diesel‐powered ferry Guemes, which has serviced the half-mile route between Anacortes and Guemes Island since 1979.After some funding-related delays, the county approved the Seattle-based naval architecture firm's preliminary design in 2021…

A burned-out car carrier off the Dutch coast is being towed to port for salvage, Dutch authorities said on Thursday.The Fremantle Highway, which was travelling from Germany to Egypt when the blaze broke out on July 26, will be towed from its current location north of the islands Ameland and Schiermonnikoog to nearby harbour Eemshaven, the Dutch public works and water management ministry said in a statement."Most of the ship has now been inspected and there are no indications that there is still fire on board," Rijkswaterstaat said, adding that the situation on board is now stable.The fire aboa

Electric vehicles are crisscrossing the globe to reach their eager buyers, but the battery technology involved in the zero- emission automobiles is exposing under-prepared maritime shippers to the risk of hard-to-control fires, industry, insurance, and emergency response officials said.That risk has been put under the spotlight by the burning car carrier [Freemantle Highway] drifting off the Dutch coast. The Dutch coastguard said the fire's cause was unknown, but Dutch broadcaster…

The car carrier burning off the Dutch coast since Tuesday night is carrying nearly 500 electric vehicles, ship charter company "K" Line said on Friday, significantly more than the 25 initially reported by the coastguard.The fire on the Panamanian-registered Fremantle Highway, which was carrying new cars, resulted in the death of an Indian crew member and injury of seven others who jumped overboard to escape the flames.There were 3,783 vehicles on board, including 498 battery electric vehicles, a Tokyo-based spokesperson for K Line (Kawasaki Kisen Kaisha), which had chartered the vessel, said.

A burning car carrier was drifting off the Dutch coast on Thursday, the coastguard said, a day after the Panamanian-registered ship caught alight, causing the death of an Indian crew member and injuring several others.The 199-metre (653 ft) Fremantle Highway caught fire overnight Tuesday and several of the 23 crew jumped overboard to escape the flames and were rescued by the Dutch coastguard.The coastguard said on its website Thursday the cause of the fire was unknown, but an emergency responder is heard in a recording released by Dutch broadcaster RTL saying "the fire started in the battery o

A fire blazed on a cargo ship off the Dutch coast with nearly 3,000 vehicles on board on Wednesday, killing one member of the crew and injuring several others, the coastguard said.Several crew members were forced to jump overboard after the fire began on Tuesday night on the 199-metre (655-foot) Panama-registered Fremantle Highway as it was en route from Germany to Egypt.The Indian Embassy in the Netherlands said in a social media post the fire had "resulted in the death of an Indian seafarer and injuries to the crew", and that it was in touch with family of the deceased.

The Portuguese shipyard Navaltagus, a part of the industrial ETE group, is building the first electrical car and passenger ferry in Portugal, and the yard awarded Zinus the contract to supply the autonomous connection enabling the ferry to charge its batteries while berthed.With a capacity of 260 passengers and 19 cars, the ferry is scheduled to enter service in the summer of 2023 – replacing the existing diesel-powered ferry operating between Forte da Barra in Ilhavo and São Jacinto in the municipality of Aveiro.

The future of shipping is here, and it will not surprise industry observers to see Norway in the pole position as autonomous vessels enter commercial operations. Norway has long been on the bleeding edge of shipping innovation. In 2015, the world’s first battery electric car ferry entered operation in Norway’s deepest and longest fjord, Sognefjord.The ferry, MV Ampere, resulted from a government initiative and was a catalyst for innovation in the industry. Now, Norway is expected to equip some 200 additional berths with zero emission technologies before 2025.

Danish shipyard Hvide Sande Shipyard, Steel & Service has selected Canadian-based Corvus Energy to supply the energy storage system (ESS) for a new fully electric ferry for Molslinjen, the largest domestic ferry company in Denmark.The new ferry, designed by JJohannesson Maritime Engineering and OSK-ShipTech, will be the second all-electric ferry in Denmark. Its 12-minute trip between Fanø and Esbjerg is very popular; last year the ferries in operation carried 1.8 million passengers in total.

Sweden’s largest hybrid-electric car ferry, Tellus, will soon begin passenger operations.The ferry will service Sweden's busiest maritime routes, along with more than 100,000 vehicles transported per month, the majority being heavy trucks.The 100-metre Tellus ferry can carry 80 cars and 297 passengers per tour and will operate with a battery capacity of 949 kWh mainly in fully electric mode.Danfoss Editron supplied the electric drive system. The Tellus ferry will “mainly operate on fully-electric mode”, which will help contribute to the government target of becoming free of fossil fuels by 2045, and operate on one of Sweden’s busiest maritime routes…

Sembcorp Marine is breaking new ground in renewable  energy engineering solutions with two separate projects worth over S$200 million (USD 145 mln).The Group has inked an agreement with Ørsted Wind Power subsidiary Optimus Wind Limited for engineering, procurement, construction, hook-up and commissioning works on two topsides, to be deployed at the Hornsea 2 Offshore Wind Farm in the UK North Sea.With a combined weight of approximately 8,700 tonnes, the two topsides will be fabricated at Sembcorp Marine’s integrated yard facilities for delivery in the first quarter of 2021.The 1.4 gigawatt (GW) capacity Hornsea 2 Offshore Wind Farm – the world’s biggest when operational in 2022 – is located 89km north-east of Grimsby…

Norwegian Cruise Line has taken delivery of the 168,028-gross-ton cruise ship Norwegian Bliss from shipbuilder Meyer Werft during a ceremony in Bremerhaven, Germany, marking the conclusion of an 18-month building period.Norwegian Bliss is the third vessel in the line’s Breakaway Plus class and the first cruise ship specifically designed for Alaska cruising.The ship features a two-level competitive electric-car racetrack that sits at the top of deck 19; it is the largest at sea and a first for any North America-based cruise ship.

The Norwegian Coastal Administration’s (NCA) new multipurpose vessel OV Ryvingen will be its second to combine traditional diesel power with battery-driven operation. The battery pack that Rolls-Royce has been commissioned to equip the Ryvingen with will have an available capacity of 2,000 kilowatt hours (kWh), an increase from the 850 kWh capacity that is installed aboard its hybrid sister ship the Bøkfjord. It is also has twice the capacity of Norway’s first fully electric car and passenger ferry, Ampere.

As foreign ministers from countries with territory in the far North celebrated an agreement on fighting climate change this week, one topic seethed below the surface: growing competition for Arctic resources and sea lanes as the ice melts. Russia, one of eight members of the Arctic Council which includes the United States, Canada and the Nordic countries, has been pouring money and missiles into the Arctic as well as reopening and building bases there. This is bringing its Arctic military presence to the highest level since the 1991 fall of the Soviet Union.

A new generation fast ferry has left Tasmania on her delivery voyage to Denmark via the Panama Canal. The Express 3 is a 109 meter long high speed vehicle/passenger ferry from Australian shipbuilder Incat Tasmania for Danish operator Molslinjen, becoming the fourth Hobart-built catamaran in the company’s current fleet. An entirely new generation fast ferry, the 109 meter wave piercing catamaran Express 3 has evolved from Incat’s well proven 112 meter catamaran range which first entered commercial service in mid-2007. Incat’s Tim Burnell commented, “The design brief was simple.

The launch this week of Prumo Logistica's $3.7 billion Port of Açu, the largest in Latin America, marked the revival of a Brazilian logistics hub many thought doomed when the empire of its former billionaire owner collapsed. Açu's more than 25 km (15.5 miles) of docks, piers and breakwaters is a much-needed step towards narrowing a crippling infrastructure gap in Latin America's largest economy. The Manhattan-sized industrial complex northeast of Rio de Janeiro, which officially opened on Tuesday, however, remains a far cry from the plans drafted by Eike Batista before his $60 billion EBX industrial empire disappeared almost overnight in 2013.

Corvus Energy, a supplier of Type-Approved energy storage systems (ESS) for the commercial maritime industry is proud to announce the opening of Corvus Norway AS. Corvus Norway AS is at the forefront of a new trend in the marine industry, the adaptation of hybrid-electric propulsion technology. Hybridized vessels provide ship owners with a rapid return on investment with immediate savings in fuel and maintenance costs and significantly reduced emissions. These benefits, along with new dynamic positioning Class rules that allow large-scale battery systems as functional equivalents to generator sets, will strongly encourage new and existing vessels to implement a hybrid solution. Corvus Norway AS will be led by Halvard Hauso, Executive Vice-President Sales and Marketing.

Norled Ampere, the world’s first all-electric car ferry, began service this year carrying up to 120 cars and 360 passengers across the 4.2-mile (6.8 km) Sognefjord channel that separates Norway’s villages of Lavik and Oppendal and empties into the North Atlantic’s Norwegian Sea. The 260-ft. vessel recharges its dual 450 kW/hour battery packs after each docking in less 10 minutes – faster than today’s smartphones and the turnarounds of many conventionally powered ferries. Operated by Norled…

Germany plans to expand the network of charging stations for electric cars across the country to help boost lacklustre demand, a Transport Ministry paper seen by Reuters showed. Chancellor Angela Merkel's government wants to bring 1 million battery-powered vehicles onto the roads of Europe's largest economy by the end of the decade. But high vehicle costs and drivers' concerns about infrastructure and limited battery range have held back sales in Germany to just 24,000 models out of a market of about 3 million cars, according to government data. Germany currently only has about 100 quick service charging points for electric cars, allowing drivers to recharge batteries in less than an hour…

Finning has opened its £8 million purpose-built National Distribution Center in Cannock to support its continued customer growth in after sales support and maintenance. The warehouse facility in Cannock houses all of the dealership’s engines plus 60,000 different product lines, all of which are available for next day delivery. In addition the company has worked with their transport and logistics provider to replace eight of their existing trailers with new higher spec vehicles.

In the 1880s it was possible to cruise your way around London by an electric ferry on the River Thames. At its height, the river carried 13 launches, each measuring 28 ft. long. They glided along at five knots and had a range of about 60 miles. Each launch carried one ton of storage batteries hidden underneath the passenger seats. Charging stations were even placed along the river so these electric launches could continue up and down unhindered. An article in Scientific American…

The Norwegian shipping industry is teaming up and has taken a leading role in developing battery-powered ships. The first four hybrid vessels will start to sail in 2013/14. In 2015, they will be followed by the world largest fully electric ferry, which will regularly cross Norway’s largest fjord. Some 120 managers representing the entire maritime cluster were gathered at a DNV seminar last week. “15 years ago, the Norwegian cluster was looking into opportunities for gas-fuelled ships. Today, Norway is the front-runner when it comes to LNG-fuelled ships.

Navy to occupy new office space by the end of October. This morning over 30 distinguished guests joined Austal and the Navy in celebrating the official opening of the new Navy Administration Building with a ribbon cutting ceremony. The guests were welcomed by Austal USA’s Senior Vice President of Operations, Craig Perciavalle. Other event participants included: Brian Leathers - Austal USA Interim President and CFO, Capt. Stephen W. Mitchell (USN) – Supervisor of Shipbuilding, Gulf Coast…