WA State’s Hybrid Ferry Fails Again, Pulled Out of Servce for 3rd Time

The Wenatchee is WA State's first converted ferry, designed to run on electric power, but still has two diesel engines.

  The ferry was pulled out of service, again

The Wenatchee, a 30-year-old vessel that can carry up to 202 vehicles and appropriate passengers, was the first of a series of EV conversions by the Department of Transportation.  Two of its four diesel engines were removed and replaced by electric motors.

The diesels serve as a backup, and are also used to help recharge the massive batteries carried by the vessel. The conversion took nearly 2 years longer than planned and was $32-36 million dollars over budget.

In July, the Wenatchee finally began service on the busiest route in the state, Seattle-to-Bainbridge Island. But in August, and again in October, it had to be pulled out of service for a total of several weeks due to mechanical failures. The initial failure involved wiring and it had to be towed.

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Now, this week, the Wenatchee again was taken out of service, although WSDOT officials said it was returned later the same day. This time, the issue was with what's called an "overspeed protection circuit," which is like a rev limiter in a gas or diesel-powered engine.

The protection circuit is utilized in a wide variety of motors and turbines, and shuts off the motor if the RPMs (revolutions per minute) get too high (spin too fast, which can cause serious damage). They are not confined to, but are used in electric motors.

The faulty unit kept shutting down the Wenatchee's engine.

Seattle Red says WSDOT downplayed the issue, but they did not specify if the faulty protection unit was in one of the electric or diesel motors.

According to Seattle Red:

"The failures have been so acute that Governor Bob Ferguson was forced to postpone future hybrid conversions of the sister vessels, the Tacoma and the Puyallup, prioritizing basic ferry capacity ahead of the 2026 FIFA World Cup."

Even a short shutdown or cancellation of one route trip can have a major effect on travel, jobs, and commerce, especially on the busy Seattle-Bainbridge Route.

WSDOT data says diesel ferries had, on average, about a 98.5 percent successful run rate over the years. However, the EV-Wenatchee is well below that due to its mechanical issues.