BC Ferries orders four new hybrid electric ferries from European shipyard

BC Ferries' sixth Island Class vessel launched into water on April 21, 2021 at the Damen Shipyards in Poland. (BC Ferries)

The same European shipyard that built BC Ferries’ first six Island Class vessels will be responsible for building an additional four vessels of the same class.

The ferry corporation announced today it has selected Damen Shipyards Group to build the four additional hybrid electric ships. Damen was selected following a competitive bidding process that first began last month, which did not result in any bid submissions from Canadian companies.

The contract value was not disclosed, but BC Ferries states it has reached a design-build, fixed-priced contract with Netherlands-based Damen.

You might also like:

“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, president and CEO of BC Ferries, in a statement.

“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.”

Island Class vessels are small ships dedicated to serving minor routes. These vessels will carry at least 47 vehicles and up to 390 passengers and crew.

bc ferries island class ships january 2020 victoria hybrid electric

BC Ferries’ first new Island Class hybrid-electric vessels arrived in Victoria on January 18, 2020. (BC Ferries)

bc ferries island class victoria inner harbour

BC Ferries’ third Island Class vessel arriving at Victoria Inner Harbour on July 22, 2021. (BC Ferries)

Although these are hybrid electric ships, BC Ferries states it fully intends to operate the vessels in battery-electric mode, as the investment is also paired with installing shore-based charging at the terminals of the routes the ships will serve. The charging infrastructure will be carried out under a separate contract.

The four new additional Island Class vessels will be dedicated to two routes — between Nanaimo Harbour and Gabriola Island, and between Campbell River and Quadra Island. Each route will be served by two of the new vessels.

BC Ferries’ first six Island Class vessels, which are currently operating in hybrid electric mode, were completed between 2019 and 2021 at Damen’s shipyard in Poland. The upcoming four vessels will be built at the company’s facilities in Romania.

All four new vessels are scheduled to enter service by 2027.

“We are super excited and extremely pleased with the award of four more Island Class type vessels for BC Ferries,” said Leo Postma, Damen’s area director, Americas. “We have teamed up with the technical staff of BC Ferries now for seven years and together we developed a very efficient series of 10 ferries in total that meet all of the future requirements of safe, reliable, and sustainable waterborne public transport.”

BC Ferries’ third Island Class vessel launches at Damen Shipyard in Romania on October 28, 2020. (BC Ferries)

bc ferries island class damen shipyards poland

BC Ferries’ sixth Island Class vessel launched into water on April 21, 2021, at the Damen Shipyards in Poland. (BC Ferries)

The pair of high-speed catamaran passenger ferries operating on Hullo Ferries were also built by Damen but at their shipyard in Vietnam.

In addition to this order for four more Island Class vessels, BC Ferries has plans to buy seven large vessels to replace the aging fleet operating on the major routes between Metro Vancouver and Vancouver Island, with the first of these new large ships expected to enter service in 2029. The procurement process for these large ships began in late 2023, with the process expected to reach the request for proposal (RFP) stage this summer.

You might also like: