Electrifying the waterways! Record breaking largest electric ship not a concept anymore...

Incat, Australia’s Tasmania based boatbuilder has cut the ribbon to reportedly the world’s largest electric ship. The brand tags the vessel as “a giant leap forward in sustainable shipping” and the “most important” project it has ever accomplished.

The craft, called Hull 096, was conjured by the South American ferry operator Buquebus to build a vessel to operate between the Argentinian capital, Buenos Aires, and Uruguay. During the launch of the ship in Hobart on Friday, the manufacturing brand has disclosed that it would operate entirely on battery-electric power, with onboard passenger capacity of 2,100 and 225 vehicles across the River Plate, which forms the border between Argentina and Uruguay.

Australia is also the home to the largest aluminium-hulled catamaran in the world. Echo Yacht, a company based out of Henderson, began work on the vessel titled ‘ASC57’ in its superyacht construction facility in the Western Australia’s Australian Marine Complex.

“We’ve been building world-leading vessels here in Tasmania for more than four decades, and Hull 096 is the most ambitious, most complex, and most important project we’ve ever delivered,” the chairman of Incat, Robert Clifford, said.

Clifford shared that Incat hoped to build “as many sustainable ships as possible for the global market, both here in Australia and overseas”.

The company proudly announced that Hull 096, at 130 metres, is “the largest electric vehicle of its kind ever built”.

The ship is furnished with more than 250 tonnes of batteries and has more than 40 megawatt-hours of installed capacity.

Incat stated that the energy storage system is connected to eight electric-driven water jets, and its capacity is four times larger than that of any previous maritime installation.

“Hull 096 proves that large-scale, low-emission transport solutions are not only possible, they are ready now,” Incat’s chief executive, Stephen Casey, said.

The global shipping industry is accountable for 3 per cent of the world’s annual emissions, according to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development.

Dr Liam Davies, a lecturer in sustainability and urban planning at RMIT University, said because the new ship would service a regular ferry route, it could be a “good use case” to monitor what was effective in shipping electrification.

“That is something that seems like a good use case and a good way to find what works and what doesn’t in terms of electric vehicle shipping,” he said.

“Using that to learn how we effectively do electric shipping could act as a stepping stone towards container ships and cargo ships.”