Image alt text: The battery-electric ferry Hull 096 arriving in Uruguayan waters after its Pacific voyage from Hobart, Tasmania
In 2019, a South American transport company ordered a diesel ferry. By the time it launched six years later, it had become the largest electric vehicle ever built, of any kind, on land or sea.
Hull 096 is a 130-meter (427-foot) battery-electric ferry built by Tasmanian shipbuilder Incat in Hobart. It arrived in South American waters last Friday after a trans-Pacific crossing and is now being towed to the Uruguayan port city of Colonia del Sacramento for commissioning.
A ship that sailed an ocean to cross a river
Once in service, Hull 096 will run a 30-nautical-mile route across the Rio de la Plata between Colonia del Sacramento and Buenos Aires. The crossing takes about an hour, but getting the ship there took rather more than that.
It left Hobart in early August after a multi-day operation to load it onto the heavy-lift transporter MV Black Marlin, which Incat called one of the most complex marine operations in Tasmania’s history. From there it traveled past the northern tip of New Zealand, across the Pacific, and around Cape Horn at the southern tip of South America. A welcome ceremony was held in Nueva Palmira, Uruguay on Friday; the ship was floated off the transporter over the weekend.
From a diesel order to the world’s largest electric vehicle
Buquebus first commissioned the vessel in 2019 as a diesel ferry. When the pandemic paused production, the company used the time to redesign it entirely, switching to full battery-electric propulsion. The world record part was not in the original plan.
Inside the battery-electric ferry
The battery-electric ferry runs on more than 5,000 battery modules and is built from aluminum rather than steel, which keeps the weight down and the efficiency up. A full charge gives it roughly 90 minutes of running time, plenty for the Rio de la Plata route.
In service, the ship goes by China Zorrilla, named after a Uruguayan actress and theater star who died in 2014. It will carry up to 2,100 passengers and 225 vehicles per crossing.
Tasmanian electric shipbuilding goes global
“Hundreds of Tasmanian shipbuilders have contributed to this vessel over several years, and what they have achieved is genuinely remarkable,” an Incat spokesperson said after the arrival. The company called it “a major step forward in the transition to cleaner, more sustainable maritime transport.”
Other operators have noticed. Danish company Molslinjen has ordered three Incat-built electric ferries, Hull 102, 103, and 104, currently under construction in Hobart. When complete, they’ll service one of northern Europe’s busiest ferry corridors and will be the largest electric ferries on the continent.
Commissioning for China Zorrilla starts now in Colonia del Sacramento, with Buquebus running system tests before the ship enters regular service on the Rio de la Plata.
