The Yangtze Three Gorges 1 made its maiden voyage on March 29. The electric cruise ship, jointly developed and constructed by CYPC and Hubei Three Gorges Tourism Group, departed from Zigui New Port in Yichang City in Hubei Province and offers an impressive 7,500kWh of onboard battery power.
The Yangtze Three Gorges 1 is a high-tech ship research demonstration project, created under the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and developed as a pilot project for the Ministry of Transport. Total investment in the ship and support facilities is said to be approximately RMB150m (US$23.6m) and comes from CYPC and Three Gorges Tourism, in association with the Yichang Urban Development & Investment Group. The project also involves domestic universities, research institutes and electric ship design, development and manufacturing institutions.
The ship is 100m in length, 16.3m in width and 4m in molded depth, with a passenger capacity of 1,300. According to its developers, the 7,500kWh battery power installed (equivalent to approximately 100 pure-electric vehicles) makes it the world leader in onboard electric load. Additional information from developers cites a cruising range of 100km on a single charge.
