The world’s largest electric cruise ship - "Yangtze River Three Gorges 1" (China-built) made her Maiden Voyage on Tuesday, March 29. The boat was named after China's Three Gorges (Qutang, Wu, and Xiling).
The large riverboat has LOA length 100 m (328 ft), beam/width 16,3 m (53 ft), max passenger capacity 1300, and is permanently deployed on the Yangtze River being homeported in Yichang (China's Hubei Province).
The vessel is electric-powered via a battery pack with an impressive capacity of 7500 kWh - the equivalent of the total battery capacity of 100+ electric cars. It can sail 100 km (62 mi) on a single battery charge (the equivalent of 530 metric tons of fuel) and will account for a reduction of ~1660 tons of emissions per year.
The river cruise ship is a project sponsored by China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology/Ministry of Transport in a bid to tap clean energy/green transportation.
With a shipbuilding cost of YUAN 150 million (~USD 23,5M / ~EUR 21M / ~GBP 17,8M), the boat was developed by China Yangtze Power (subsidiary of China Three Gorges Corporation) and Hubei Three Gorges Tourism Group. Leading shipbuilders and research institutes - including Beijing University of Technology and China Shipbuilding Industry Corporation - also participated in the project.