Less than a month after departing from Hobart, the world’s largest battery-electric ship has arrived at its South American destination, floating free from the heavy lift vessel which carried it across the Pacific Ocean and around Cape Horn.
The vessel, currently dubbed Hull 096, was built by Australian shipbuilder Incat Tasmania for South American ferry operator Buquebus. It will service a 30 nautical mile route between Argentina and Uruguay and be capable of transporting more than 2,000 passengers.
Originally intended as an LNG-powered ferry, Buquebus decided in 2023 that it wanted the ferry to be 100 per cent battery-powered.
Construction of the vessel was nearly complete by the end of last year, with the first of four “battery rooms” energised in October of 2025 before an official e-motor trial in December fully powered up the vessel’s battery systems. A month later, Hull 096 began its all-important harbour trials in the River Derwent, marking the first time it had moved under its own battery-electric propulsion.
Its delivery from Tasmania to its new home in Uruguay was undertaken by one of the world’s largest heavy lift vessels, the Black Marlin, which arrived in Tasmania at the end of July after being held up by events in the Middle East.
Hull 096 was then loaded aboard the Black Marlin before departing for the long journey across the Pacific.
Incat Tasmania posted a video from the Black Marlin last week as it rounded the southern tip of South America and began making its way up the coast of Argentina.
Hull 096 subsequently arrived in the Uruguayan city of Nueva Palmira over the weekend, before being floated free from the Black Marlin on Monday. It will run a 30 nautical mile route between Argentina and Uruguay and be capable of
The vessel will now be commissioned before entering regular ferry service on the River Plate between Buenos Aires, Argentina, and Colonia, Uruguay. Another three similar electric ferries are now being built by Incat in Tasmania, this time for European ferry operators, which will also be the biggest of their type in the EU.
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