Assembly of Wellington's electric ferry to start by the end of 2019

Friday, 8 November 2019

East by West Ferries plans to have the southern hemisphere's first fully electric ferry operating on Wellington Harbour by mid-2020.

Wellington's East by West ferry company is aiming to have the Southern Hemisphere's first fully electric ferry on the harbour by the middle of next year.

The 19-metre catamaran is being built in sections by the Wellington Electric Boat Building Company which was established by East by West in Lower Hutt.

General manager Fraser Foote said they hoped to have assembly underway by the end of this year and to have the boat in the water by mid-2020.

East by West managing director Jeremy Ward said it was exciting to be at the forefront of New Zealand's electric boat building industry.

Wellington Electric Boat Building Company general manager Fraser Foote, left, and East by West director Jeremy Ward. The top deck of East By West's new electric ferry is waiting for assembly at Seaview Marina.

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'We're not a big company, I can't believe we're leading the charge.'

The new ferry design, of which they eventually hoped to have a fleet of three, would be cheaper to run than their diesel boats and be able to carry more passengers. The catamarans would be rated to carry 135 passengers while East By West's two current ferries each had a capacity 99.

Ward said electric vehicles were the way of the future and there was increasing appetite from authorities around the world to make eco-friendly transport more available.

The hull of East by West's 19 metre long electric catamaran in a mould at the Wellington Electric Boat Building Company's Gracefield factory in Lower Hutt.

The company had received interest from New Zealand and overseas, and he was confident an industry would eventually be based around Wellington Electric Boat Building Company's operations in Lower Hutt.

He estimated the cost of the first boat and accompanying infrastructure to be around $5 million.

A charging port would be installed at East by West's Queens Wharf jetty in Wellington. They hoped to have a conduit installed at the Day's Bay wharf in Eastbourne while it was being refurbished, to future-proof the project.

Having a third boat in the fleet would also allow the company to start a planned service from Miramar to the CBD which would also service the airport.

'It'd take something like 150,000 vehicle passenger movements off the road [each year].'

In October East by West was fined $380,000 for an April 2017 grounding and for speeding thousands of times through restricted areas. The company's lawyer told the judge a fine over $200,000 could put the electric ferry project in jeopardy.

Ward told Stuff the project would be going ahead, come what may.