Candela's hydrofoil ferries win orders from Stockholm to San Francisco, test whether cities will pay without subsidy

• Candela's P-12 ferry uses hydrofoils to lift the hull out of the water at speed, cutting energy consumption dramatically and eliminating wake damage to shorelines
• The company has secured orders from Stockholm, San Francisco, and several other cities, positioning itself as a first mover in electric waterborne transit
• CEO Gustav Hasselskog argues most major cities sit on underused waterways that could absorb commuter traffic — if the vessels are fast and efficient enough
• The critical question remains whether the business model can survive on ticket revenue alone or depends on the same municipal subsidies that prop up conventional transit

A small Swedish manufacturer is delivering electric ferries that fly. Candela, based in Stockholm, has built a hydrofoil vessel — the P-12 — that lifts its hull out of the water at around 16 knots, gliding on carbon-fiber foils with roughly 80 percent less energy consumption than a conventional diesel ferry. Dagens Nyheter reports that CEO Gustav Hasselskog now sees a global market opening up, city by city, wherever congested roads run parallel to neglected waterways.

The physics are the selling point. A traditional displacement hull pushes water aside, which takes enormous energy at speed and sends damaging wakes into shorelines and harbors. Candela's foils lift the 30-passenger vessel above the surface, reducing drag to a fraction. The result: a battery-electric ferry that can sustain 30 knots — fast enough to compete with cars and buses on urban commutes — without the range anxiety that grounds most electric boats after a few kilometers. The near-zero wake is a separate advantage. Cities like Stockholm, where waterfront erosion from boat traffic has been a chronic headache, suddenly have a vessel that can run at speed through narrow channels without tearing up the banks.

Hasselskog's pitch to cities is that the world's waterways are the most underused transport infrastructure in existence. Most major metropolitan areas — from the San Francisco Bay to the archipelagos of Southeast Asia — sit on water that could carry commuters but never has, because conventional ferries are slow, expensive to fuel, and environmentally destructive. Candela has secured contracts with Stockholm's public transport authority and has been running trial services. Orders have come in from the United States, and the company is in discussions with operators across Europe and the Middle East.

The harder question is money. Public transit rarely turns a profit anywhere, and waterborne transit is no exception. Candela's vessels are expensive — advanced composites and proprietary flight-control software don't come cheap — and the per-unit economics depend heavily on production scale the company has not yet reached. Hasselskog has been expanding manufacturing capacity at the company's facility in Rotebro, north of Stockholm, but the gap between a promising order book and a profitable production line is where hardware startups go to die. The company has raised significant venture capital, which buys time but not certainty.

What separates Candela from the usual parade of Nordic cleantech hopefuls is that the product exists and is carrying passengers today. The P-12 is not a render or a concept — it is in the water. The company is also selling recreational boats (the C-8), which generate revenue while the higher-margin ferry business scales. This dual-track approach gives Candela a commercial cushion that pure infrastructure plays lack.

The competitive landscape helps, too. Incumbent ferry operators run aging diesel fleets and face tightening emissions regulations across the EU. Procurement cycles in municipal transit are glacial, but once a city commits to electrification, the options are thin. Candela is positioning itself as the only manufacturer offering a fast, energy-efficient electric ferry at a size suitable for urban routes. If the production economics work at scale, the company could define a category. If they don't, it becomes another case study in the distance between Swedish engineering ambition and commercial reality.

Candela's Rotebro factory is currently tooled to produce around 150 vessels per year. The company says demand already exceeds that figure.

Sources: Dagens Nyheter