By
Richard Humphreys |
Echandia will supply its Echandia Core battery system for a new 78-metre hybrid catamaran being built by Incat Tasmania.
The order marks Echandia’s first delivery to Incat, which builds high-speed aluminium ferries. The new vessel, which is to debut in January 2027, can carry up to 650 people and 120 cars at a maximum speed of 28 knots.
The catamaran has been designed and built to transition away from fossil fuels in a practical and cost-effective way. It can sail in fully electric, hybrid or generator-only modes, allowing operators to run zero-emission short crossings and in emission- control zones while extending range across longer routes.
“The vessel has been conceived as part of a series with flexibility and modularity as a high priority to ensure the vessels can serve many applications over its design life,” said Stewart Wells, chief technical officer at Incat. “We need a battery system that can handle both high power demands and frequent charging cycles across different routes. Echandia Core gives us exactly that.”
Felix Backgård, head of technical sales at Echandia, said: “A vessel built with this flexibility in mind needs a battery system that keeps future options open. Because lithium titanate oxide chemistry exhibits minimal degradation over time, capacity can later be expanded without a performance mismatch between old and new modules. Echandia Core is designed for that full lifecycle flexibility.”