Scotland to buy seven electric ferries

The Scottish Government has decided to buy seven electric ferries for its island communities.

Scotland’s Ministry of Transport said that the procurement process is underway, and the first stage of the competitive tender process will assess if shipyards interested in bidding for the contract meet the financial and technical criteria to take on the project.

Estimated costs for Phase 1 of the Small Vessels Replacement Program (SVRP) are around £175 million, for the new vessels as well as port improvements and shore power upgrades.

The purchase of seven new electric ferries will help support island communities and improve the resilience of the Clyde and Hebrides ferries network, according to the officials.

The invitation to tender for this contract is expected to be issued around September 2024, and the contract will be awarded in March 2025.

“The Scottish Government is absolutely committed to improving our ferry fleet to better meet the needs of island communities… Our intention is that these ferries would be deployed on seven existing routes, but would also bring benefits to two other routes from the redeployment of existing vessels. These nine routes currently serve around 30% of the car and passenger carryings on the Clyde and Hebrides network,” Cabinet Secretary for Transport Fiona Hyslop stated.

She also noted that the new ships will be “electric, helping us to deliver a significant improvement in emissions and local air quality and taking us towards a lower carbon ferry network.“

“This procurement is a vital step forward in our plans to improve our ferry services and I look forward to following its progress closely over the coming months.”

“We welcome the Scottish Government’s decision to progress the SVRP. What matters for us is being able to move forward with our plans to improve the fleet with new vessels. This is great news for island communities, and we look forward to delivering the all-electric lifeline vessels over the coming years,” Kevin Hobbs, Chief Executive Officer at CMAL

In February 2021, the SVRP program started to replace up to seven small “loch class” vessels serving the Clyde & Hebrides Ferry Services (CHFS) network due to operational life expiry. The program aims to achieve a very substantial renewal of the small vessel fleet during the next 10 years.