Stockholm's Award-Winning Electric Ferry Runs Largely on Diesel, Investigation Finds

Stockholm's award-winning electric ferry Sjövägen is running largely on diesel, an investigation by TV4's Kalla fakta has found, challenging the environmental claims made for the public transport vessel. The programme made ten trips over seven days and reported that diesel generators powered the ferry every time, according to DailySweden. The investigation's sources said the batteries store little electricity and that diesel supplies most of the vessel's power. Operator Rederi Ballerina told the programme that its contract with transport authority SL does not require electric operation, adding that the batteries are maintained according to the supplier's instructions. Sjövägen received the county's environmental award in 2015 and was showcased during a 2023 EU visit on sustainable public transport, making the findings particularly embarrassing for Stockholm's green transport credentials. The vessel was presented as a flagship example of how the capital's public transport network could cut emissions on the water. The investigation also found separate problems with exhaust treatment on Ballerina's diesel ferries. SL's figures showed long periods with little or no use of urea, the fluid needed by nitrogen-oxide treatment systems. Ballerina acknowledged exhaust-treatment problems on six vessels and said it was working on a solution, DailySweden reports. SL declined an interview with the programme. The revelations raise questions about how Stockholm's public transport authority monitors the environmental performance of contracted operators, and whether the contracts themselves demand the green operations that passengers are led to expect. The findings are likely to intensify scrutiny of how green claims are audited across the capital's transport contracts, and commuters may now question whether the vessel's branding matches the reality beneath its deck. For passengers who chose the ferry believing it was the greener option, the gap between branding and reality is the real story.

Photo: Smiley.toerist, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons