Electric vehicles transported via an energy efficient ship? I love it when people think of things long before I even consider them which to be fair happens quite often and today’s story shows that Nissan (makers of the all electric ‘Leaf’) are miles ahead of me on this occasion. Naturally enough vehicles are not always manufactured in the same country in which they are sold and have to be transported great distances often by container ship. For their European operations Nissan have raised the green competition stakes by specifically developing an eco-friendly cargo ship to transport new vehicles to the respective destination markets. Looking to be amongst the leaders in electric vehicle manufacturing and market share they’ve taken the process one step further in considering the impact of the not only the manufacture and use of the car itself but how it will be transported from plant to destination for sale.

Nissan have long had their European production based in Sunderland on the Northeast coast of England and production covers the UK and mainland Europe from this port city. In fact the facility now manufactures some 400,000 vehicles per year making it the single most productive auto plant in Europe, but the majority of those cars and light trucks then have to be shipped to Europe. Nissan have built the most eco-friendly cargo ship to sail the seas as it’s named “The City of St. Petersburg”. The giant vessel incorporates the best in environmental ship design and is expected to lower fuel consumption by 800 tons per year resulting in a reduction of 2,500 tons of CO2 emissions annually. The ship will transport the new Nissan Leaf electric vehicle throughout Europe and is designed to hold 2,000 vehicles per sailing. What encourages me most is the very competitive nature of the auto industry and other manufacturers who export/ship a large percentage of vehicles such as Honda, Toyota, Hyundai and others are certain to take notice of this announcement and the perceived advantage it will afford Nissan. It ideally will lead to an industry wide change to new vehicle shipping methods in the years to come.

Existing cargo shipping has much greater environmental impact than is often considered with experts saying that the sulphur released from a giant container ship over the course of one years sailing is the equivalent of some 50 million (!) cars over the same period. Cargo shipping is obviously overdue for some serious analysis but the investment in containter ships is huge and boats are designed to last for decades, but technology has fast exceeded what is currently being used. Whether the decision by Nissan heralds a new dawn in transporting (at the very least) vehicles remains to be seen but the evidence of this ship shows that fuel conservation/emissions reductions of 50% are certainly possible. Cargo ships operate on bunker fuel which has the highest sulphur level of any transportation fuels which results in the shipping industry creating a very significant environmental impact. Nissan are also using battery technology developed in Sunderland throughout the vessel that will initially be bringing the electric ‘Leaf’ to different European dealers. The video beneath gives a brief additional look but unfortunately seems to be edited to end a little prematurely.

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