An all-electric passenger/car ferry in northern Norway has proven that brain-disabling cold can’t affect its service, despite running entirely on batteries.
Whatever technology was encased within the batteries of our parents’ cars that would see them suffer in the cold is not what powers the M/F Vargsund, which links the two islands of Kvaløya and Seiland in Norway’s Finnmark county.
It couldn’t have been a better acid test as the ferry shot off from the quay at Klokkarøy town on January 1st with its first ever passengers aboard—temperatures had fallen to -13°F, which for our Norwegian readers is -25°C.
While some car ferries operate as far north as M/F Vargsund, none do so powered by electricity.
“This is not just about new ferries. It’s about the future. About showing that green technology works – even in the far north, even in tough conditions,” operator Torghatten said in a statement on Friday after the ferry sailed in regular traffic for two weeks.
Stretching 50 meters prow to stern, she can hold 28 cars and 100 passengers. Torghatten is the country’s largest ferry operator, and as well as helping to reduce the company’s own carbon emissions, executives hope that it will set a standard of ambition and belief in the industry at large.
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The firm’s most frequently-used ferry, connecting another pair of towns—Bognes and Lødingen—along the northern reaches of Norway, is also fully electric.
A total of 95.9% of all new cars registered in Norway in 2025 were electric vehicles, a result of the the calendar edging closer and closer to long-anticipated government edicts on internal-combustion engines.
SHARE This Superb Debut In The Harsh Conditions Of Norway’s Northern Coastline…