Netherlands’ Damen Shipyards wins contract for the supply of four, fully electric, passenger car ferries to British Columbia

In a competitive tender process that attracted many international bidders, Damen Shipyards has won the contract to build and supply four, fully electric, passenger car ferries for BC Ferries. These will be used for short-range services in the coastal waters of the Canadian province of British Columbia (BC). This order will take the total number of ferries that Damen has supplied to BC Ferries in recent years to ten. However, these latest additions will be the first to operate using 100% electrical power.

The vessels will be based on Damen’s double-ended Island-class RoRo 8117 E3 model. Each will be capable of carrying up to 47 vehicles and 390 passengers. Battery packs with a capacity of 2,000 kilowatts will supply the electricity for the power trains. Rapid recharging using renewable electricity will take place while the ferries disembark and embark their passengers and vehicles at each end. Each vessel will also have auxiliary diesel engines installed for back-up and general redundancy.

The shoreside charging equipment will also be supplied by Damen. A leader in this field, this will be the fourth time that Damen has provided this service, the first also being in Canada, in 2021, to support two hybrid Damen ferries delivered to the Ministry of Transportation, Ontario. These were followed by projects in Copenhagen, Denmark, and Dordrecht, the Netherlands.

“The new hybrid electric vessels will further standardize our fleet, both increasing capacity and improving our flexibility to move ships across routes so our passengers can have confidence that we’ll get them where they need to go,” said Nicolas Jimenez, BC Ferries’ President and CEO. “Adding more Island Class vessels will also make it easier to deploy crew, create efficiencies in training costs, and promote safe, reliable, and environmentally conscious ferry services up and down the coast.”

Leo Postma, Damen’s Area Director Americas, added: “We are very excited and extremely pleased with the award of an order of four more Island Class type vessels for BC Ferries. We have been working alongside the technical staff at BC Ferries for seven years now and together we have developed a series totaling ten highly efficient ferries; meeting all the future requirements of safe, reliable, and sustainable waterborne public transport.”

The four vessels are scheduled to begin operations by 2027 with two vessels each on the routes connecting Nanaimo Harbour and Gabriola Island, and Campbell River and Quadra Island.