Electric ferries are breaking records — and quietly joining Canada's fleet

electric car ferries around the domain ar getting bigger, more robust and travelling record-breaking distances. 

Many ferry services in Canada are already electrifying or electrified, with longer-distance routes getting ready to charge up. 

More electric ferry services are being announced in cities from Vancouver to Halifax, and Toronto's is set to begin this fall. 

But some of the Canadian ferries capable of running entirely on battery power today are still burning fuel, due to the extra challenge of installing charging infrastructure.

Here's a closer look at the ferry electrification trend and where it's at across Canada.

Electric passenger ferry connecting Bowen Island, Gibsons to Vancouver charging ahead

The International Maritime Organization has a target of cutting greenhouse gas emissions from ships — including ferries — by an average of 40 per cent by 2030.

Ferries tend to have relatively short, scheduled, predictable routes that often make battery electrification possible and affordable with existing technology. A recent European report estimated that batteries will be cheaper than fossil fuels for a majority of existing ferries in Europe by 2035, and electrifying ferries will drastically reduce air pollution in major ports such as Dublin and Piraeus, Greece.

Geoff Cole, a manager with the City of Toronto's ferry service to the Toronto Islands, said the city's decision to replace its nearly century-old diesel-powered ferries with battery-electric was driven by council's declaration of a climate emergency in 2019.

He anticipates the boats, set to arrive in this fall and next spring, will be a big improvement for both passengers and local residents. 

"It's going to smell a lot better. It's going to be a lot quieter," he said.

Pointing to the recent diesel price spikes, he also said, "We'll be very glad to … just be on a more reliable and predictable fuel."

Michael Barnard is a Vancouver-based climate futurist who has been tracking the decarbonization of maritime shipping and projecting what it will look like to 2100. He found that 70 per cent of ferries on order globally in May 2025 were either electric or hybrid-electric, and thinks that number may be even higher now.

Canada's ferries began their electrification nearly two decades ago, with very short routes — mostly cable ferries carrying a handful of vehicles and a few dozen passengers a few hundred metres. The first appears to be the Ecolos cable ferry in Rockland, Ont., in 2008, but there have been others in Quebec and B.C.

In 2021, the Marilyn Bell ferry to Toronto's Billy Bishop Airport, which crosses just 121 metres, became Canada's first free-sailing lithium-ion battery electric ferry.

Electrification is now moving to bigger ferries on longer routes. 

The longer distance and bigger size make the two key steps in ferry electrification more challenging and expensive.

Serge Buy, CEO of the Canadian Ferry Association, says you generally need to build a brand new ship. Then, "you still need to bring the electricity to the ferries and that's also a challenge, right?"

Toronto's two new Toronto Island ferries are expected to cost $92 million. They will travel up to 1.5 kilometres each way, with up to 1,300 passengers each (one can also carry up to 14 vehicles).

Getting enough power to the Toronto Islands wasn't possible, so the ferries will charge only on the mainland. Toronto Hydro did need to run a new, dedicated feeder to the terminal, at a cost of $9.2 million. It will support high-voltage automatic fast charging while the ferries load and unload their passengers between runs.

Further construction, expected to cost $50 million, is underway to accommodate the larger vessels and chargers, ahead of the first ferry's arrival, expected in November. 

Mark Keneford is managing director of marine technologies company Wartsila Canada, which is building hybrid propulsion system for the B.C. Ministry of Transportation's Kootenay Lake ferry. He said ships and shore infrastructure are two very different investments, and once a ship is purchased, it can sometimes take "a decade or more" before operators can invest in things like charging and terminal upgrades.

Because of this, many ferry operators in Canada have hybrid diesel-electric ships that can run on diesel until the charging infrastructure is ready.

Among them is B.C. Ferries, Canada's biggest ferry operator with 37 ferries on 25 routes. It launched its first hybrid-electric ferry on its Texada Island-Powell River route in 2020. It now has six smaller, shorter-route Island Class ferries in operation, designed to carry 47 vehicles and up to 390 people. Four more are expected by early 2027.

The necessary upgrades to both the ferry terminals and the local B.C. Hydro distribution grids are expected to be complete on two routes — Gabriola Island-Nanaimo Harbour and Campbell River-Quadra Island — by 2027, allowing those to be fully electrified. Others will follow.

The company is taking a similar approach with the purchase of four larger, diesel-electric Major Vessels, which will carry 360 vehicles and 2,100 passengers. They're set to be delivered from CMI Weihai Shipyard between 2029 and 2031 and run initially on biodiesel and renewable diesel. 

"This approach provides flexibility, reduces emissions now, and avoids locking the system into technology that infrastructure cannot yet support," the company said. 

Other provinces are taking a similar approach.

However, work continues on a berth for the Wolf Islander IV, which is bigger than its predecessor and also needs charging. As of February, the ministry estimated that work wouldn't complete until the end of 2027 or the summer of 2028.

2 Kingston-area electric ferries are still burning diesel

Buy says ferry operators are looking at green options for replacing aging ships, but there has been very little government support.

Both Keneford and Barnard said tighter emissions regulations have driven ferry electrification in other countries and could in Canada, too.

Barnard says electrification of ferries comes with a ton of benefits: "The lower maintenance, the lower vibrations, the lower noise, the lower air pollution, the lower energy costs." Because of that, he says he thinks it's inevitable everywhere — "it's just a matter of when it occurs."

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