Kolumbus and Norled marked the world’s first hybrid express boat

"A hybrid express boat is an extremely important step towards Norway becoming a low-emission society in 2050, and this will be a reference project for public transport throughout Norway," said Hege Skogland Mokleiv, deputy chairman of Kolumbus' board of directors, which is the client for MS Fjordled, during the celebration of the brand new boat on Wednesday.

Norled’s MS Fjordled is a hybrid express boat with room for 89 passengers, 24 meters long and 7 meters wide, and it uses electric propulsion in port areas and normal diesel operation at full speed. The boat has the best achievable exhaust gas cleaning, Tier III, and thus meets new environmental requirements coming in the future. This express boat is the first of its kind in Norway.

I am very proud to be able to stand here today in this innovative project,” said Bjørn Egil Søndenå, regional manager for express boats at Norled.

He explains that when Norled won a tough tender competition against competitors, they won on both price and the environment.

“This is a milestone in terms of environmental improvements on express boats, with future-oriented solutions that emit 80 percent less NOx than the previous boat that operated the route between Haugesund and Røvær,” says Søndenå.
Fjordled is the result of a forward-looking tender process on the part of Kolumbus, and Norled has followed up with new and competitive technology, and I am proud that Haugesund and Haugalandet are the first to benefit from such an advance in environmental technology,” said Mokleiv of Kolumbus.
Kolumbus has a strategic goal of being fossil-free by 2024. In order to achieve this goal, we are dependent on replacing the combustion engine to an increasing extent in the future, and Fjordled is an example of this,” said Mokleiv.

Norled will operate the Røvær service for the next 10 years, and the boat also meets the latest requirements for universal design. Norled’s Søndenå thanked Kolumbus for the good cooperation that has led to the new boat, and at the same time emphasized the good cooperation with the GS Marine shipyard, Brunvoll, which has supplied control systems, and Greeenland Energy, which has supplied the battery pack and Servogear, which has supplied the propulsion system.

Please contact the following people if you would like more information:

Elisabeth Tostensen, Communications Advisor in Kolumbus on phone +47 926 34 653

Marianne Frønsdal, Director of Communications at Norled by phone + 47 95 12 9383

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