India’s leading solar electric ferry builder delivers first boat to North America

Navalt, one of the planet’s solar boat pioneers, has made a big leap in its mission to ‘electrify the oceans’ with one of its Limo luxury tour boats being shipped 12.703 kilometres (7,893 mi) from Kerala, India to Halifax, Canada, where it will join Halifax Harbour Tours Listen to this article as a podcast Navalt was founded in 2009 by naval architect Sandith Thandassery, who has dedicated his career to revolutionizing water transport through clean energy. The first boat built by the company – Sunrider – made the Limca Book of Records – the reference book documenting world records held by Indians – for the fastest solar boat ever built. Solar electric ferry won first Gustave Trouvé Awards In 2017 he led the design and building of Aditya, India’s first solar electric ferry, which carries about a half million passengers per year – over 4 million since its launch –  saving about 225,000 litres of diesel fuel and over 500,000 kilograms of CO2 emissions (about 1.25M pounds). The Aditya was a winner of the first Gustave Trouvé Electric Boat Awards in 2020 and Navalt repeated its win in the 2024 Awards for the Srav solar-electric workboat. Read more about the Aditya solar electric ferry The company is India’s leading building of solar electric ferries and has now built over 80 boats that are serving passengers in places like popular Sukhna Lake at the foothills of the Himalayas. In all, the company offers 18 models – workboats, leisure boats, defence boats, water taxis and ferries – none of which has or will ever burn a single drop of fossil fuel. At about the same time the Aditya was launched, Colin Smith was on the other side of the world starting Halifax Harbour Tours with a former British Thames River tow barge with quite a history. Bought by a tour operator in Puerto Rico who had a 40 hp diesel motor installed, it later took visitors around the Florida Everglades before the famous Airboats took over that business, was retired after doing  duty as a Lake Erie tourist boat and was found by Smith in a barn nearby. London Thames barge to Canadian e-tour boat He had been the captain of a diesel tour boat in Halifax harbour and longed for something without the fumes and noise — friendlier to the environment, himself and the passengers. He knew the ultra-efficient hull of the barge would be perfect for electric propulsion, so he switched out the diesel for an 8kW Lynch axial flux motor with 7kWh battery, added a solar roof and restored the rest of the boat – the Violet Mac – to its original Thames glory and beyond. Halifax Harbour Tours was born in 2018 and has been going strong ever since. “When we first started, our ‘fuel costs’ were about 60¢ a day.” he told me. “They’re not an awful lot more now, but the thing isn’t the cost for me, it’s the passenger experience. It’s quiet, there’s only 8 people on board, and the Guides are told to let people know about all of the historic sites in the harbour, but not get in the way of the passengers having a chance to talk among themselves and get to know each other. We often get reviews with people saying it’s the best experience they had on their visit to Canada.” There was only one thing that could be improved: the notoriously fickle and wildly variable Halifax weather. Smith couldn’t do anything about that, but he could do something about a boat that would be able to operate year round and also provide some shelter for those who don’t like a little ‘liquid sunshine’ on their tours. Enter Navalt. Smith saw Navalt and some of its boats on Plugboats and decided to get in touch with Thandasherry about getting one of the totally covered solar electric ferries. They decided on the Limo. We’ll let Sandith take it from here. This is from his personal blog: Navalt Crosses the Atlantic: Our First Boat Lands in North America There are projects that move a business forward, and then there are projects that redraw the map. For us, shipping a Limo to Halifax, Canada is firmly the second kind. It is our first vessel headed to North America — and it travelled there in a way no Navalt boat has before: as a knock-down kit, packed flat into five containers, ready to be reborn on Canadian shoreline. Why we shipped a boat in pieces A 10-metre catamaran does not slide neatly into a shipping container. So instead of moving the boat, we moved the boat’s anatomy. This was also our attempt to work closely with our boatbuilding parter while lowering the logistics cost of the project. The Limo was carefully designed for disassembly and split into modules sized to fit standard FEU containers (Forty Foot Equivalent Units): Two hulls, separated and cradled for transit The deck, broken down into sections The superstructure, divided into three pieces to clear the FEU envelope A dedicated outfitting container carrying the battery system and the remaining fit-out items Five containers in total. This knock-down approach is what makes long-haul export of a premium vessel both economical and practical — and it is a capability we are proud to have proven on our very first North American shipment. Built for the Canadian cold Halifax is not Kerala. A boat that performs beautifully in tropical backwaters has to be re-engineered to survive — and thrive — through an Atlantic Canadian winter. The heart of that adaptation is the energy system. This Limo carries a 2 × 20 kWh marine-grade LFP (Lithium Iron Phosphate) battery pack, but with a crucial difference: each pack is fitted with an integrated heating system designed specifically to manage the cold conditions of Halifax. Lithium batteries lose performance and charging ability in low temperatures, so keeping the cells in their optimal thermal window through a harsh winter isn’t a luxury — it’s what allows the boat to run reliably, season after season. Driving the vessel are two 15 kW (≈ inboard electric motors, configured with Navalt’s signature independent dual battery-and-motor architecture. That redundancy means a single fault never leaves you stranded on the water — a reassurance that matters as much in a Canadian harbour as it does anywhere. A premium boat, by design The Limo has always been our answer to a simple question: what if luxury on the water didn’t have to mean noise, fumes, and fuel bills? It is a premium solar-electric leisure boat built for private cruising — couch-style seating, generous interior space for gatherings, and the kind of silent, vibration-free ride that only electric propulsion can deliver. At 10 metres long and 3.5 metres wide, this Halifax boat keeps all of that character while being purpose-built for its new home waters. Clean lines, a stable catamaran hull, and refined interiors — the Limo’s identity travels intact, even when the boat itself travels in pieces. Integration is underway Right now, on the ground in Halifax, under the guidance of Colin Smith and his team, those five containers are becoming a boat again. The hulls are being joined, the deck and superstructure reassembled, and the battery and outfitting items integrated into the vessel. It is painstaking, precise work — and watching a kit transform back into a sleek, water-ready cruiser is genuinely one of the most satisfying things to witness in our line of work. A landmark for Navalt This is more than a delivery. It is the first time a Navalt boat has reached North America, the first time we have exported a premium vessel as a fully engineered knock-down kit, and the first time we have adapted our energy systems for a genuinely cold-climate environment. Each of those is a milestone on its own. Together, they mark a real step-change in what Navalt can build and where we can take it. From the backwaters of Kerala to the harbours of Halifax, the mission stays the same: oceans, electrified. We can’t wait to see this one on the water. We expect to launch in July. Click on the links below to find out more about the Navalt Limo or book a cruise on Halifax Harbour Tours’ new boat or the Violet Mac Navalt  Halifax Harbour Tours The post India’s leading solar electric ferry builder delivers first boat to North America appeared first on Plugboats.