It is the largest vehicle transport ship in the worldwith a capacity of up to 9,200 cars. Is called Byd Shenzhen And it is the new colossal maritime unit launched by the Chinese group Byd (Build Your Dreams), one of the main global manufacturers of electric vehicles.
After about a month of navigation, it attacked in the Brazilian port of Itajaí transporting Over 7,300 electric and hybrid cars from China.
A news that is greeted as a “historical turning point” in the logistics of sustainable mobility. But is everything really so green?
An electric supernave, but also an environmental challenge
219 meters long and 37.7 meters wide (an area intended for the load is equivalent to 20 football fields)this floating giant represents a new strategy: integrate production and logisticssubstantially reducing transport costs for Byd. However, behind the “electric” label there is a more complex reality.
China’s self-developed carrier “Byd Shenzhen,” The Largest of Its Kind Worldwide With 9,200 Standard Spaces, Set Off on Its Maiden Voyage from East China’s Taicang Port on Sunday.
The 219-Meter-Long, 37.7-Meter-Wide Ship, Carrying Over 7,000 New Energy Vehicles (Nevs), Is … pic.twitter.com/fc3porogff– People’s daily, china (@pdchina) April 28, 2025
In fact, although it is equipped with a bimodal system that allows you to work both in sea diesel and with a liquefied natural gas (Byd has then integrated its bydbox batteries, which can power the ship during maneuvers in ports or in low emissions areas), its main functioning remains linked to fossil fuelsespecially for long distance oceanic traits. And, we have said it several times, the Transport & Environment (2023), global maritime transport is responsible for about 3% of the world emissions of CO₂a growing share.
In addition, a ship of this size consumes hundreds of tons of maritime fuel per day in non -electric mode. The emissions of nitrogen oxides, sulfur and particulates remain high, especially in the less equipped ports for electrification on the ground (Shore Power).
Green or Greenwashing?
The arrival in Brazil of this gigantic ship highlights contradictions in a “green” key:
Many, then, are still skeptical on the production of electric cars, including extractive processes for batteries (lithium, cobalt, nickel): or not or not high environmental and social costsoften out of the final consumer radar?
Of course, the massive entry of electric vehicles into emerging markets such as South America represents a step towards greater diffusion of low emissions mobility.
Byd Shenzhen is a powerful symbol of the new era of electric mobility. But it is also one metaphor of ambiguity of this transition: great promises, but also great environmental compromises. It is not enough to change the type of engine: it is necessary to rethink the entire industrial and logistical model, to prevent the “green” label only a new form of planetary greenwashing.
