Damen Shipyards has chosen Echandia LTO from Echandia Marine for the world’s first acquisition of a fleet of electric commuter ferries by leading multinational public transport company Arriva Denmark. The order is for seven vessels to upgrade Copenhagen’s ferry service to one that is efficient, environmentally-friendly and economically viable. Echandia Marine, with primary operations in Stockholm, Sweden, has previously engineered both the world’s first supercharged electric ferry and the world’s fastest electric ferry.
Damen’s order marks Echandia Marine’s full commercial launch of a new battery system developed using Japanese electronics giant Toshiba’s SCiB™ technology.
The result of years of development work, partly funded by EU in the BB Green projects, the system is a lightweight, long-lasting, technologically-advanced battery system with LTO-cells for fast and frequent charging. The benefits of Lithium-Titanium oxide (LTO), previously considered too expensive for the marine market, are substantial. The primary advantages are high power output, high charging capability, long life and extremely safe.
With Toshiba’s long experience of LTO batteries, the company can offer its customer a safe and cost-effective battery system and plan to focus on LTO batteries exclusively for the present time. The company says it is proud that after extensive investigations into environmental performance, cost-efficiency, optimal passenger experience and reliability, Damen ultimately chose Echandia LTO noted Echandia’s CEO Magnus Eriksson.
