On the fjords, water connections keep you together for whole days. You pass through it to go to work, to move between two population centers, to make a coast that thrives on long distances and continuous landings function. This is why the order signed by Boreal weighs seriously: the Norwegian operator has purchased 20 Candela P-12 electric ferries, in what is described as the largest electric fleet of this category announced so far. The first two units will arrive in 2027, the others will follow in stages until 2030.
The framework helps understand why this move makes sense right there. In 2025, fully electric cars accounted for 95.9% of new registrations in Norway, a level that has transformed the country into Europe’s most advanced laboratory for battery-powered mobility. The next, almost inevitable step concerns the sea: along the Norwegian coast, fast transport remains essential and it is there that diesels have continued to dominate for the longest time.
On the fjords, water transport supports daily life
Up to now the limit was always the same: the available electric ferries offered too short autonomy or speeds that were not suitable for real routes, those that must stay on time and cover long connections. The Candela P-12 tries to enter right into that crack. It travels at a cruising speed of 25 knots, therefore approximately 46 kilometers per hour, and has a range of 40 nautical miles, just over 74 kilometres. These are numbers designed for routes that until now remained diesel terrain.
The part that really changes the behavior of the vehicle is under the hull. The P-12 uses submerged wings, hydrofoils, which lift the boat above the surface above 18 knots. At that moment, friction drops significantly and energy consumption, according to data released by the company, is reduced by approximately 80% compared to conventional boats of similar size. This is where the project stops looking like a tech fair exercise and starts looking like a viable public service.
Speed, autonomy and charging
Another concrete detail concerns charging. These electric ferries can return to full capacity in about an hour using standard DC rapid charging stations, without forcing ports to install huge and much more expensive systems. For a coastal network made up of widespread landing places, small towns and mixed routes, it is the difference between an elegant project on paper and a project that you can actually put online.
Then there’s the side that passengers will hear right away. In tests carried out in Stockholm, the wake of the P-12 was measured at 13 centimetres, compared to that of a small tender with an outboard. Noise in the cabin remained around 63-64 decibels, below the typical levels of many ferries and traditional fast vessels. Furthermore, the digital control system reads the waves with sensors and adjusts the hydrofoils in real time, so the ride remains more stable even when the water moves badly.
There has already been a useful passage to demonstrate that the medium knows how to stay outside the brochure. In February Candela announced that the P-12 completed what it called the industry’s longest electric crossing, between Sweden and Norway, with recharging along the way. This is also needed, because electric ferries are judged on the repeated service, on the kilometers actually travelled, on the timetables kept when the sea stops being a postcard.
Norway had already pushed electric on the roads almost to the saturation point. Now try doing the same on fast water connections, the most stubborn and exposed ones. The fjords remain there, the wind too. Change the noise. And the trail changes.
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