Swedish marine battery company Echandia is to supply its Echandia Core battery system for a new 78m hybrid catamaran fery being built by Incat Tasmania, Australia.
The order marks Echandia’s first delivery to Incat. The vessel has been designed and built to ensure maximum deployment flexibility whilst significantly reducing Opex, allowing operators to transition away from fossil fuels in a practical and cost-effective way. It can carry up to 650 persons and 120 cars at a maximum speed of 28 knots. The catamaran can operate in fully-electric, hybrid, or generator only modes, allowing operators to run zero-emissions on short crossings and in emission control zones while extending range across longer routes. The vessel will be available for bareboat or time charter from January 2027.
Stewart Wells, CTO Incat, said: “The vessel has been conceived as part of a series with flexibility and modularity as a high priority to ensure the vessels can serve many applications over its design life. We need a battery system that can handle both high power demands and frequent charging cycles across different routes. Echandia Core gives us exactly that.”
Built on LTO chemistry, which is said to experience minimal degradation, the system is intended to maintain stable performance throughout its lifecycle. This enables capacity to be expanded later without meaningful performance differences between existing and new modules.
Felix Backgård, Head of Technical Sales, Echandia, added: “A vessel built with this flexibility in mind needs a battery system that keeps future options open. Because LTO chemistry exhibits minimal degradation over time, capacity can later be expanded without a performance mismatch between old and new modules. Echandia Core is designed for that full lifecycle flexibility.”
Image: Incat’s 78m ferry with an Echandia Core battery system (source: Echandia)
