Ostseestaal and Ampereship launch electric car ferry for Lübeck

First new ship to be built in Stralsund's maritime business park

Stralsund, November 2022 - A new ship is currently being built on the site of the Volkswerft Maritime Industrial and Commercial Park in Stralsund. On Wednesday, 9 November, Ostseestaal GmbH & Co. KG laid the keel of an electric car ferry destined for the Hanseatic city of Lübeck in the large shipbuilding hall, which can be seen from afar. In March of this year, the Stralsund-based company was commissioned by Stadtverkehr Lübeck GmbH to build the ship, which is designed as a double-ended ferry. In future, the electric car ferry will connect the Lübeck district of Travemünde with the Priwall peninsula, which also belongs to the Hanseatic city.

„The Priwall ferry is another electrically powered newbuild for professional inland shipping, this ship can transport vehicles as well as people. I am particularly proud that we are the first to launch a ship in this symbolic hall again after a long time,“ emphasised Philipp Peuß, Marketing Manager at Ostseestaal and Ampereship, to which he also welcomed representatives of Stadtverkehr Lübeck GmbH. Ostseestaal had already delivered the „Sankta Maria II“, the world's first electric car ferry for inland waterways, in autumn 2017 and delivered three more electric passenger ships this year.

The new 37 metre long and 13.5 metre wide Lübeck electric car ferry can take up to 300 people as well as 15 bicycles and 18 cars or 12 cars plus two lorries on board for the 240 metre long crossing across the River Trave. The new steel construction is being built by the companies Ostseestaal and Ampereship.

„The Priwall ferry is a very complex and challenging project. The ship is being designed in such a way that it can be converted to a completely emission-free propulsion system at a later date with minimal effort. Different options such as hydrogen or fully electric batteries are deliberately being kept open here,“ emphasised Ingo Schillinger, the responsible Business Unit Manager at Ampereship. „The decision as to which type of propulsion will be used in the future is still open, so the ship will need a range extender in the form of a diesel generator to extend the ferry's range. Nevertheless, even in the first phase, the ship will be able to operate more than 50 per cent fully electrically every day and be completely emission-free during this period.“

Powered by two 231 kW Voith electric generators, the car ferry will be in operation on the River Trave for up to 24 hours a day, explains manager Ingo Schillinger, explaining the special shipbuilding and engineering challenge. The ship will travel at a service speed of 6 km/h. A maximum speed of 14 km/h is possible.

To date, 15 electric solar-powered ships have been built for various applications in the Ostseestaal and Ampereship network. Following the new build for Bodensee-Schiffsbetriebe GmbH (BSB) in Constance (Baden-Württemberg) a few weeks ago, an electric-solar passenger ship for 300 people, this is another ship in new „performance and size dimensions“, according to manager Ingo Schillinger.

Facts & figures about the Lübeck ferry