All four vessels will be owned by AT and operated by Fullers on a five-year licence.

Fullers will run the two hybrids between downtown Auckland and Devonport, while the fully-electric vessels will sail other inner harbour routes, including Half Moon Bay (their first confirmed destination) and the Hobsonville Point run.

In 2022, with Covid stimulus spending in full flow, AT indicated it had funding lined up for seven electric or hybrid ferries in its first wave of on-the-water electrification as part of a programme to replace all 27 of the city’s diesel ferries by 2030.

Now, with central government and Auckland Council budgets under pressure, Cammock told the Herald funding is now only confirmed for the four boats currently under construction.

It won’t be until a central government public transportation funding round, scheduled for 2028, that it will become clear if further electric vessels can be funded and on what timeline.

To the untrained eye, the fully-electric ferry looks ready to go, but EV Maritime chief executive Michael Eaglen says there will be about three months of finishing work before the vessel is handed over to ferry operator Fullers.

Fullers will then take several more months for certification and crew training. AT won’t put a timeline on it, but the Herald understands it’s expected to be around six months before commercial operation begins.

The ferries will use what’s been billed as a world-first 1500-amp marine Megawatt Charging System (MCS).

The first element of it is now under construction at Half Moon Bay. Cammock said it will be finished by the time the first fully-electric ferry enters operation with Fullers – and would be enough for a single fully-electric ferry to operate.

However, for two ferries to criss-cross between Half Moon Bay and the city (the current set-up for the diesels on all routes), the planned charging station for Queens Wharf will have to be in place.

Main charging station has no commencement date

In December 2023, Swedish multinational ABB won a $27.6 million contract to build three chargers for Auckland’s electric ferries. It said it would build:

At the time, Cammock said the first equipment would be delivered by July 1, 2024; the first charger would be delivered by September 30, 2024 and the remaining four by December 31, 2024.

But last November, the Herald reported that the two-storey Queens Wharf charging station, which will consume as much power as a mid-size town, had only just gone out to consent – and that it had sparked concerns from Heritage New Zealand and Waitematā and Gulf councillor Mike Lee, who called it an “eyesore”.

This morning, Cammock revealed the Queens Wharf charger is still stuck in an open-ended consent process.

“AT also has plans to install charging equipment at the Downtown Ferry Terminal and are currently awaiting the resource consent process to be completed so we can commence these works,” the AT programme director said.

“We do not yet have a timeframe on commencement or completion of above-wharf works at the Downtown Ferry Terminal, as this is reliant upon completion of the resource consent process.

“We are currently undertaking wharf repair works at the Downtown Ferry Terminal in preparation for installing cable trays to connect from the new charging equipment to the first ferry charging berths.”

For the two hybrids, the chargers are not such a pressing issue.

Fullers chief executive Mike Horne said earlier that, if need be, they could serve the Devonport-city run using their electric generators.

The news is not so good for Hobsonville Point commuters. Work has yet to begin on the charger for the northwest peninsula.

More broadly, Cammock said new pontoons would be needed for both Hobsonville Point and the second destination on the route, Beach Haven.

Both would have to wait for the 2028 funding round.

Big US contract

With its huge windows letting in the light, spacious interior and dedicated sheltered space for e-bikes and e-scooters, the first fully-electric ferry impressed early onlookers this morning.

Eaglen said the total build cost would come in around $20m – the figure given by AT as construction began in early 2023. A regulation change that meant the batteries originally ordered were not sufficiently watertight did not lead to a budget blowout, but did cost six months of build time.

He said that while that was well above the upfront cost of an equivalent diesel ferry, there would be lower operating costs.

The vessel’s 11 tonnes of lithium-ion batteries – spread evenly between its catamaran hulls – would last 8-10 years before their efficiency degraded and they had to be replaced, Eaglen said.

Replacing the batteries today would cost around $1m, but the EV Maritime chief executive anticipated it would be cheaper in 10 years’ time.

Overall, the carbon fibre vessel is expected to last 30 years.

The vessel’s top speed of 25 knots is the same as that of the diesel vessels currently operating around Auckland.

ABOVE: The first fully-electric ferry is currently known as EVM1. Its name, given by local iwi will be revealed closer to its commercial launch. A shade sail could be added on the top deck, but Eaglen says any additions will detract from efficiency.

AT says today, the ferry fleet carries 6% of Auckland’s commuters but produces 20% of all emissions from public transport as it burns through 13 million litres of diesel a year.

Cammock said the first fully electric ferry’s $20m in funding comprised about 68% from the Crown agencies EECA (Energy Efficiency & Conservation Authority) and NIFF (National Infrastructure Funding and Financing), 16% from Auckland Council and 16% from the NZ Transport Agency.

Fullers also played a key role in early funding for the low-emission ferry project.

Auckland’s first fully-electric ferry is not the first in the world – or even New Zealand; Wellington got a smaller electric ferry in March 2022, even if it has recently been sidelined for 10 months with faults.

But it is one of only a handful, EV Maritime chairman Damian Camp said, while the MCS charging system was a global first of what was expected to become an industry standard.

“The eyes of the world are on New Zealand,” he said.

Said eyes include a San Francisco ferry operator, Angel Island Tiburon Ferry, which commissioned EV Maritime to design an electric ferry for its fleet for an undisclosed sum, financed by a state government agency, the California Air Resources Board (Carb).

As part of his US tour in July last year, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon joined Eaglen and Angel Island executives for a contract signing in San Francisco last year.

“Our project with Angel Island Tiburon Ferry is part of a US$32m [$53m] project to electrify two existing boats, build a new plug-in hybrid vessel and establish the shoreside charging infrastructure to support the fleet,” Eaglen told the Herald earlier today.

“Our primary involvement is in the new vessel, which is budgeted at US$12m, for which we are the designers and engineers.”

Camp said seven other overseas deals are on the boil.

Chris Keall is an Auckland-based member of the Herald’s business team. He joined the Herald in 2018 and is the technology editor and a senior business writer.