Transcript & Summary: Electric ships are slowly starting to make sense

[00:00] This is the Turanor. In 2012, it became the first solar electric ship to circumnavigate the globe. And 14 years later, it still looks like a futuristic concept with very few mass market ships having caught up to its ambitious ideals yet. While electric vehicles on roads have long gone mainstream and are now comfortably selling in the millions of units every year, fully electric ships are still pretty rare. That is, they were until recently because I've actually seen quite a lot of momentum finally starting to build. The next [00:27] three announcements, for example, are just from this month alone. First, a Chinese firm started operating the country's first fully electric 10,000 ton container ship, by far the biggest of its kind anywhere in the world, while more models of this design are in production now as well. Second, Candela, the Swedish maker of fully electric hydrofoiling vessels, also announced its biggest contract to [music] date with Norway buying 20 fully electric P12s to replace their existing ferries. And third, and perhaps most importantly, [00:54] CATL, the world's largest battery maker, announced that it launched a major new business unit specializing on making batteries and electrical for ships as well. Meanwhile, if I start looking back to a few months earlier, I see that the Incat Hull 96 became the largest electric ferry yet, covering a distance of 50 km between Uruguay and Argentina, while the Silent Yachts 62 also became the first production yacht of its kind to cross the Atlantic primarily on solar, for example. Adoption is finally [01:21] starting to grow, but to get a realistic picture of what is actually possible, I decided to look through all the different types of ships to understand where electrification already makes sense today and where it will continue to struggle, perhaps even in the future. >> [music] >> This video was sponsored by Anti-Gravity. I have to admit, the main reason I decided to start researching electric ships is a pretty selfish one. It's kind of become my dream to actually own one in the future. As you might have seen [01:50] from my hobby channel Submerged, Maya and I have really loved diving, and we do that from boats. The loud and diesel motor vibrating through the whole yacht 24/7 even while we sleep and exhausting its fumes directly into the water in pristine nature has always been my least favorite part of this experience. And so, I've long had a dream of just getting an electric boat and perhaps running dive trips off of that myself. A quick reality check told me that this would probably be possible, but then it [02:14] would also cost me 4 to 6 million dollars. Believe it or not, that is very much not an amount of money that I have, but I still got hooked on researching on what is and is not feasible with electricity today. Overall, there are two primary challenges to electrifying ships. The first is charging. Most marinas and docks already have basic charging for parked boats all over the place because even normal boats often need their batteries charged, which they used to run fridges, pumps, ACs, etc. So, overnight charging of small electric [02:41] boats is surprisingly easy even today. But then, large ships need really specialized charging in a specialized ports, and that is exceedingly rare. Even more important though is that you obviously don't have charging stations in the middle of the water, and so you can't fill up on the go unlike with a car. This means that most electric boats can't go further than their batteries will take them, which immediately makes long-distance shipping, especially across large bodies of water, extremely difficult. And the second challenge is [03:06] that while ships are reasonably efficient at low speeds, making them go fast requires a ton of energy due to hydrodynamics. Not only is water about 800 times more dense than air, which makes pushing a vessel through it at high speed energy-intensive, but then even bigger problem is that normal ships generate their own waves, which get bigger and bigger the faster they go. At some point, the wave gets long enough that the ship's bottom sinks into it, and then nose lifts up, and then the ship actually has to start climbing an [03:33] ever steeper wave of its own making, which becomes exceptionally punishing. You can think of the energy consumption of a standard displacement hull ship like this. Even at low speeds, it roughly has to increase its power output by eightfold each time it wants to double its speed, which is brutal. But then, here is where it starts climbing its own wave. That is called reaching hull speed, which depends on the exact length and weight of the ship, but either way, the energy consumption goes completely off the charts from here. One [03:59] of the only ways that ships can go faster than hull speed is by having hulls that are designed to lift them out of the water at high speeds, so they essentially start to skip along the surface like a rock would if you throw it at an angle. This is called planing, it's what all speedboats do, and while it does work, it also requires a ton of energy, and most electric boats that can do this are both really expensive and offer ranges in the tens of miles. Meanwhile, one promising solution to reducing energy consumption at high [04:24] speeds is to use hydrofoils. This essentially add a wing underwater that works the same way that wings do in the air, and it lifts the boat's hull out of the water completely to avoid the issue of waves altogether. This then reduces energy consumption by up to 80% at high speeds, which makes these at least somewhat accessible to electric boats, but then exchange you add a ton of cost and complexity to the vessels. They now need fancy electronically stabilized controllers, a more robust hull construction, etc., all of which adds [04:51] cost to electric ships, which are already running at a premium due to the cost of their batteries. Still, at least you get boats like the Candela P12, which is a ferry that can travel for about 40 nautical miles at reasonably quick speed of 25 knots. In other words, limited range and high upfront cost are even bigger problems for electric ships than they are for electric cars, and it also means that, I don't know, electric ocean liners or really fast ships are just not really in the cards anytime [05:15] soon. That said, while this is true, I've actually been surprised that people have come up with plenty of really cool designs where electrification makes a ton of sense for ships, perhaps even more so than for cars. The most obvious fit for electrification comes in the form of ferries, and unsurprisingly, there are a ton of successful products in this category. On the large side, we talked about the Australian-built Incat 12 96 already, which connects Rio de Janeiro with Colonia, which is a trip of [05:39] more than 50 km. It carries up to 2,100 people and 225 cars, and can travel at 25 knots, so it's pretty big and pretty fast. Another example would be the electric ferry from the Dutch Damen shipyard, which recently started operations in northern Germany. This is a bit smaller, but still pretty impressive. Bangkok and many other cities now run electric ferries as well, and one country that is particularly worth highlighting is Norway. Their oldest electric ferry has been running successfully since 2015, so for more [06:07] than a decade already, and the Norwegian government says that they now have 108 electric units in operation, with the newest long-range addition being the MF Sognefjord. Hyke is a Norwegian electric ferry maker focused on more urban routes, while Sweden's Candela also got an order of 20 of its hydrofoiling ferries to replace some remaining high-speed lines as well, just to name a few. Norway, with its many fjords, is a particularly good market for ferries, and the country is so confident in its progress that for many of its fjords, it [06:34] will only allow zero-emission passenger ships and ferries starting as early as this year, while larger vessels will follow from 2030, too. There are many other electric ferry producers like New Zealand's Vessel, Australia's All Style, and so on, but instead of naming them all, let's talk about why ferries are such an obviously good match for electrification. As we said, range and charging are the two biggest challenges for electric ships, but many ferries don't really have to worry about either. Most ferries serve relatively short [07:00] distances, which batteries can easily cover, and they also idle at ports for reasonably long times while people and cargo loads and offloads, during which charging is possible. The routes and the distances are fixed, so the boat operators can choose the right capacity for their specific route, and the operators are often municipalities who own or rent their own port infrastructure, so they can easily install chargers themselves. Also, while electric ships do cost significantly more up front, they are generally [07:25] cheaper to operate due to cheaper electricity costs and especially simpler maintenance, which for ships is an even bigger factor than it is for cars, and because ferries are typically used continuously, they start paying for their initial investments much faster than other ships. And if that wasn't enough, conventional ferries are also exceptionally dirty. Quote, "In port cities such as Barcelona, Dublin, and Naples, ferries are responsible for more toxic sulfur oxide pollution than all of the cars in those cities. In addition, [07:51] ferries in Europe also emit more CO2 than 6.6 million cars. That is insane given that we only have a few thousand ferries on the whole continent. Ships in general are very dirty and because the pollution from ferries directly affects the city's own air quality rather than polluting some far away ocean, municipalities are directly incentivized to improve them. All of which is to say that ferries are pretty much the perfect candidate for electrification. The technical limitations are often not a real concern and the environmental and [08:20] economic incentives are all aligned pretty much. And so it's unsurprising that there's already been quite a lot of success in this category. Moving on, we have the next category that is also a surprisingly good fit but only under some circumstances. I'm talking about luxury yachts, houseboats, floating hotels, etc. These benefit especially from being silent and clean as people literally live on board these and they do so to relax. Maya and I with our dive trips would fall into this category as well. Meanwhile, some of these ships can [08:48] solve their speed and charging issues by simply not moving quickly and relying on solar panels. While many of them can turn on backup diesel generators if they really need to get somewhere quick, they're actually designed for leisurely hopping between islands in the Bahamas or whatever and you then anchor up and enjoy the scenery while the solar panels can recharge the batteries offering potentially infinite range. On the modern vessel like the Italian-built Silent Yachts 62, you get a peak output [09:11] of almost 17 kW from the panels. Over a realistic sunny day, most reviews that I've seen indicate that you can expect to get maybe 100 kW in total and then about 20 or 30 of those would be used up for running electrical appliances on board like your AC, your fridge, etc. The rest can then be used to either charge a 356 kW hour battery on board or to cruise. You can travel up to five to seven knots on just the solar panel output directly while beyond that you can fall back on the battery or even a [09:38] kite, which is how this yacht crossed the Atlantic mostly on solar power. A similar type of yacht would be the Solar Sense 62 from the Netherlands or the various Sun Reef yachts from Poland, which are all roughly the same idea just from different [music] companies. And there even private individuals like the husband and wife duo behind the YouTube channel Project E Yacht that are building their own version of this concept. They are using many automotive parts like BYD blade batteries, which have gotten surprisingly affordable over [10:04] time. And this is a pretty cool project if you're into DIY stuff. Meanwhile, different but also kind of similar is the concept [music] of the Pangolin Voyager. This is not a yacht, but rather a floating hotel that slowly cruises up and down a river in sunny Africa letting guests take photos of their surroundings. Going fast is very much not the point of it and so it can get most of its power directly from the panels on [music] its roof. And beyond just the benefits of being silent and more environmentally friendly, the cost [10:29] equation of these types of vessels can be pretty interesting as well. A Silent Yacht 62, for example, costs around 4 to 6 million euros, which is a lot, but then again, gas-powered luxury yachts in this category won't be that much cheaper either. And if you mostly stay in sunny places, then you can essentially skip refueling or even recharging your vessel. Plus, you also have lower maintenance costs and all of that for vessels like this is quite a significant cost factor. Overall, I think these liveaboard trips are not quite as clear [10:54] of a slam dunk as ferries are as electrification only really makes sense for a specific subset of customer, but for those people, they're actually already very attractive, which is why we're seeing more and more companies building them. Then next on our list are container ships and here the limitations are really starting to show. The Chinese ship Ning Yuan Dian Kun, which we talked about in the intro, shows us what is and what is not possible today. To start with, as far as container ships go, this [11:18] is actually on the smaller side, believe it or not. It can carry 740 of the standard 20-ft equivalent container units and at first glance, that might be a lot, but then it's also only 3% of what the largest ocean-faring cargo ships can carry. Also, 10 of those 740 containers will be taken up by batteries, which further reduces its useful capacity for carrying cargo. And finally, its range in the real world is also estimated at about 90 nautical miles, which is a lot for an electric ship, but not a whole lot for a cargo [11:46] ship. That said, this is actually also a pretty clever design. Its batteries are inside standard shipping containers, and those can not only be charged, but also swapped out if needed. Ports already load and unload containers off of it when it's docked anyway, so that's brilliant. The European firm ABB showed off battery packs in standard shipping containers a few years ago as well, so this is not a completely new idea, but still pretty clever. And next, this vessel is also specifically designed for [12:10] a 70-mi route between two Chinese ports, which its 19-mi range can cover just fine. And on top of that, it of course also has all the usual promises of lower emissions, lower maintenance costs, etc. In other words, while container ships with longer voyages will unlikely to be electrified, I think those will have to rely on, I don't know, hydrogen or perhaps even nuclear power eventually, for shorter routes, electrification today is already kind of an option. And last in our list are what I would categorize as smaller pleasure boats. [12:37] Simple fishing boats, for example, very much can be converted to electric, often even with ready-made outboards that can act as drop-in replacements for existing engines. Starting at around $1,000, these do cost more up front, and their range is limited, but especially in Europe, where many waterways have long banned combustion engines, many of these are already in use. The same goes for sailboats, where the engine is often just a small unit meant to take you in and out of a harbor. Now, some sailors [13:01] do require longer ranges, but electric units are definitely viable for many here, and they're already being widely used. Meanwhile, slightly larger boats, like those that are used to ride around for fun, are slowly becoming more and more viable as well, though with some pretty significant trade-offs. On the high end, US firms like Arc make some really fancy speedboats. These cost something like $300,000, and they're equipped with massive 232 kWh batteries, which are two to three times the capacity of what you'd get in [13:28] a Tesla, for example. This makes the boat so heavy that it generates a massive wave, which ironically makes it really good for wake surfing, and they were clever enough to make that one of the main selling points of the vessel. And to be fair, you can buy gas-powered boats in this category for $300,000 as well. Anyway, there are also many slightly less extreme takes on this category, and the most interesting deep dive that I found was from Out of Spec Reviews, which I've linked to below. This video tells us that the same boat [13:53] costs $124,000 when it is electrified, while it costs about $90,000 when it is gas-powered. So, that means you pay about 38% more for an electric version in this case. They also shared that you can get a pretty respectable 80 mi if you cruise at slow speed, like at 5 mph, but if you go up to 20 or even faster, then the range also drops to more like 20 or 30 mi. Is that good? I guess if you just boat around in your own area and you don't plan to go really far, then it could be could be a real option, or it [14:19] could also be a complete deal-breaker. Anyway, that's enough about the boat types, I guess. And one more thing that I found particularly surprising about the whole electrified shipping category is its geographical split. I had a quick call with Jeff Butler, who runs plugboats.com, a great resource on this topic, and he pointed out that Europe is actually the clear leader in many categories, especially when it comes to non-commercial stuff. The continent has a ton of shipbuilders and component suppliers from the Nordics to the [14:43] Mediterranean and everywhere in between, and regulators have long enforced zero emission zones in many waterways already. In addition, much of yachting and boating is also very much a rich people's hobby, which Europe has had plenty of. Americans do have a big boating industry, but they only really started electrifying things lately with companies like Arc. And meanwhile, Chinese customers just weren't rich enough historically to have a well-established pleasure boating industry, but they are catching up now. [15:08] They are, of course, also very dominant in battery production, plus their commercial shipbuilding capacities are also world-class, so it's clear to see that they'll play more and more of an important role in this space soon. Now, I think I've been obsessed with boats for the same reason that many other people are. I think they offer an immediate sense of exploration and freedom. And I've had a similar feeling with my sponsor Antigravity and their drone, the A1. This is not only a drone, but it also has a high-tech 360° camera [15:33] system and the best quality VR headset that you can have attached. This combination makes flying it feel like magic. I've shown it to my niece, my family members, my studio mate Aaron, and a ton of others. Everyone wants to fly it and everyone is blown away once they do. Once you put the headset on, you can just look around anywhere as if you yourself were hovering in the sky. You get any perspective that you want in real time by just moving your head around and that feels truly futuristic. Moving the drone around is as simple as [15:59] pointing your controller to where you want to go and then pressing the trigger. And what's cool is that you can record video without having to worry about framing things up as you fly. You can just focus on flying first because the drone records in all directions anyway, and all the framing happens later in software, which makes things much easier. With other drones, filming while squeezing through tight places or doing dynamic perspective shifts would usually require a ton of practice and also perhaps a few crashed drones. But [16:24] with the headset and the 360 camera combination of the Antigravity, you can pull off relatively advanced shots despite being a complete novice. On top of the two cameras that film the 360 image itself, the A1 also has a ton of other sensors that help you avoid obstacles and do a lot of clever things like automated return to home. Plus, they also capture a ton of data which you can then overlay on top of your video if you wish. You can toggle all of these overlays on or off individually in the editing [music] program later. And [16:51] since this is a proper premium product, it also didn't cheap out on some of the really important stuff. The first of which is weight. Despite having great battery life and a ton of different sensors, the A1 [music] only weighs 249 g, which means that it's much easier to fly in many places than its competitors. Meanwhile, the headset is also pretty incredible. There's a screen outside, which makes flying it a much more social experience, but the screens inside are also micro OLED ones, which means they [17:16] look incredible. Plus, the headset also features IPD and diopter adjustments. This means you can skip on glasses between strengths of +2 and -8. And with my link in the description, you also get a pretty massive discount of up to 20% off or up to $400 off, plus also a free landing pad. Uh the offer can change depending on your region and where you buy it, so be sure to check out the link for the final deal, and I'll see you in the next video. [music] [17:44] >> [music]