A concept image of one of Auckland's first two electric ferries.
Aucklanders will have to wait a little longer to see some of the city’s ageing, noisy, polluting and increasingly breakdown-prone diesel ferries replaced by quiet, electric-powered models with mod-cons like indoor storage for e-bikes and scooters.
A major issue with the batteries for Auckland’s first two electric ferries — which weigh some 10 tonnes — means their delivery date has slipped about six months to the second half of next year.
Once in service, the two EVM200 fully electric ferries will service the Half Moon Bay and Hobsonville routes from the CBD.
The programme to install superchargers on piers is also running well behind the schedule outlined in the original tender — particularly at Hobsonville Point, where a supercharger might not be in place until late 2025.
Two 300-passenger hybrid diesel-electric ferries, which will service the city-to-Devonport run, are on track for the middle of next year (the original “end of 2023″ delivery date was pushed out last year).
The hybrids will be owned by Auckland Transport (like the 200-person fully electric ferries) and operated by Fullers. Because of their fallback diesel generators, the boats could enter service even if Queens Wharf, where ferries dock in the CBD beside The Cloud, is not electrified in time.
The hybrids are being built by Q-West in Whanganui. Both the hybrids and the fully electric boats feature propulsion systems made by Christchurch-based HamiltonJet.
Auckland's first two electric ferries are under construction at McMullen & Wing in East Tamaki. To the untrained eye, it looks like early days, but designer and project manager EV Maritime says they'll be in AT's hands next year pic.twitter.com/BkmtScDACS
— Chris Keall (@ChrisKeall) May 14, 2024
The two fully electric vessels are designed and project-managed by EV Maritime, a spinout from East Tāmaki boatbuilder McMullen & Wing, which is handling construction.
Inside the more advanced of Auckland's first two electric ferries. The second is running about three months behind - an arrangement to help juggle resources pic.twitter.com/N3dmK0QYDs
— Chris Keall (@ChrisKeall) May 14, 2024
“These will be handed over to Auckland Transport in the first half of next year. The two boats are about three months apart. The first boat will be in the water late this year, early next year and handed over to Auckland Transport in the first half of next year and then passenger service in the second half of next year,” EV Maritime founder and chief executive Michael Eaglan told the Herald yesterday.
“We’ve agreed with Auckland Transport to slip the timeline a little bit. We’ve had a few challenges on the technology side, particularly with batteries,” Eaglen said.
The challenges related to a shift in marine safety rules around batteries.
“That is where the regulations have changed over the course of the project — which has ended up throwing us into a position where the batteries originally supplied no longer met the requirements and that supplier wasn’t able to support us, so we had to change battery supplier. So that’s been quite a large technical challenge,” Eaglen said.
“We were originally using air-cooled batteries, which was common practice, but all the batteries that charge at the rate that ours do; what changed was the level of waterproofness required. And you couldn’t get air-cooled batteries that work as hard as these ones to still work if you closed them up enough to make them waterproof — so we shifted to liquid-cooled batteries.”
The new batteries are shipping out of the US this week.
Eaglen wouldn’t name the suppliers involved, or the cost of the switch to new batteries.
But he reiterated yesterday that it would cost about $1 million to replace 1.1-megawatt-hour lithium-ion batteries, which, like those in your phone, laptop or EV, will have their performance degrade over time; the EV Maritime founder said testing would be required to assess battery life.
The Herald understands councillors were told the change added about 4 per cent to the cost of the project. Central government chipped in $27m to cover 75 per cent of the cost of the two pure-electric vessels shown off yesterday; Auckland Transport allocated $80m for seven hybrids or electric boats to follow plus $30m for electrification of piers. AT’s contribution is largely from the ring-fenced Climate Action Transport Targeted Rate (CATTR). But part of the wider project — Auckland has 27 ferries in total — through to 2030 was to be funded by the now-scrapped regional fuel tax. AT is looking to reprioritise the budget. The Government Policy Statement on transport or GPS, due to be finalised this year, could potentially fill the breach.
It is the Climate Action Transport Targeted Rate (CATTR)
In December, AT said it had awarded a $27.6m contract for five superchargers to Sweden’s ABB, which won a competitive tender.
And in a just-released statement, Norway’s Zinus said it had been chosen as ABB’s partner on the project and would be installing its Megawatt Charging System in Auckland.
The Norwegian firm celebrated its “landmark achievement in securing the first large commercial contract of MCS (Megawatt Charging System) worldwide ... Zinus will deliver a total of 5 complete MCS charging towers”. The first system would be in place by mid-December, and the remaining four installed during 2025.
The original tender called for the first charger to be “operational on site by September 30, 2024 to align with the delivery of Auckland’s first electric ferry” with “The remaining four berths of charging equipment operational by December 31, 2024”.
Each would supply enough juice to power a small town. The full charger line-up:
The latest schedule should have a charger installed at Half Moon Bay by the end of this year, AT programme director Nathan Cammock said.
Downtown should be mid-2025 and Hobsonville Point, where Vector recently carried out preliminary survey work, mid-to-late 2025.
“With the chargers, like the boats, the design has evolved over time as each wharf location is unique and site specific,” Cammock said.
“Some sites have been relatively straightforward, like Half Moon Bay, and others like Hobsonville are trickier to find equipment location because of the amount of development activity. We were going to commence with Hobsonville in 2024, but decided to actively delay into 2025 to try and minimise the amount of disruption to ferry passengers. If we staged it, would have needed to access the pontoons and gangway twice.”
On the Hobsonville Point waterfront, the $120m Catalina Bay Apartments are in the late stages of construction. A new wharf and pontoon are also under construction that will complement the existing pier where ferries dock. The new water access is part of a marine recreation centre project, part-funded by residents via the Hobsonville Point Residents Society, with the council chipping in $4m.
“There are warranty considerations. We are trying to avoid having a charger installed, but no boat to test/commission and sign off the equipment,” Cammock said.
“Change is hard, but worthwhile.”
Eaglen said Half Moon Bay commuters would expect electric ferry battery top-ups to take five to 10 minutes as passengers got on and off. Further charging would take place during crew breaks — Auckland’s ferries operate primarily during the morning and evening rush hours.
Councillor and planning, environment and parks committee chairman Richard Hills said negotiations lay ahead over funding for the total electrification of Auckland’s ferry fleet, a project timelined through to 2030. It was possible the city would have to sweat some of its older diesels a bit longer than anticipated.
But running-cost advantages were already evident in Wellington, where a smaller electric vessel went into service in 2022, with 75 per cent savings over diesel, Hills said.
Once complete, the zero-emission ferries will also be a big contrast to today’s fleet, which carries 6 per cent of Auckland’s commuters but produces 20 per cent of all emissions from public transport as it burns through 13 million litres of diesel a year.
Chris Keall is an Auckland-based member of the Herald’s business team. He joined the Herald in 2018 and is the technology editor and a senior business writer.
The industry faces challenges but hopes to bring newcomers and veterans together.