World’s Largest Battery-Hybrid Ship Undergoes Finishing Touches

The hull of the Color Hybrid, the world’s largest battery-hybrid ship, owned by Color Line, has arrived at Ulstein Verft in Norway for completion.

It measures 160 meters in length, and has a capacity of 2,000 passengers and about 500 cars.

The ship’s assembly was launched in April this year at Crist in Gdynia, Poland. After seven months of construction, the hull was towed to Ulsteinvik, Norway.

The vessel is scheduled for delivery to Color Line in the second quarter of 2019, when it will start its service between Sandefjord and Strömstad, boosting the line between Norway and Sweden.

Color Hybrid will almost double the capacity of M/S Bohus, which is scheduled to be phased out when the new ferry launches into operation in summer 2019.

The ship being a plug-in hybrid uses batteries that are recharged via a power cable with green electricity from shore facilities or recharged on board by the ship’s generators.

Color Line has installed shore power facilities in all of their Norwegian ports, including Oslo, Kristiansand, Larvik and Sandefjord. The facilities in Sandefjord will be used to charge the batteries of the Color Hybrid.

The M/S Color Hybrid is being built for the Norwegian Ordinary Ship register (NOR), and will have Norwegian crew.