flood Europe with electric cars

The size of some ships continues to leave us speechless. When it comes to cruises, there is an undeniable battle for size and extravagance with Royal Caribbean, which is in an interesting race of self-improvement. They have the colossal Icon of the Seas, but they are already working on another even bigger one. However, there are many other huge ships on the ocean and, in addition to container ships, we have Ro-Ro: real sea fortresses with a very specific mission: to transport thousands of cars from factories to dealerships.

One such Ro-Ro is Anji Sincerity, a mass owned by SAIC and intent on flooding Europe with Chinese cars. Despite its size, the interesting thing is that it is more environmentally friendly, and the secret is its engines running on liquefied natural gas.

Control from start to finish. SAIC, or SAIC Motor Corporation Limited, is currently one of the most important companies in the automobile industry. This company is based in Shanghai and, oddly enough, was behind one of the best-selling cars in Spain last year: the MG ZS. MG is just one of SAIC’s brands, but the company is also one of Volkswagen’s main partners in the Asian country.

And, in addition to cars, their fleet now includes a huge Ro-Ro boat called Anji Sincerity. These boats are called a diminutive of “roll-on/roll-off” and are essentially boats that are used to transport vehicles. Yes, like container ships, but instead of transporting cars enclosed in a container, they sit on a floating parking lot. Zhao Aimin, Deputy CEO of SAIC International, comments that due to global competition in this segment, having their own fleet of these types of vessels gives them flexibility and better control over prices, as until now they have leased vessels from third parties. sides.

Colossal parking. This huge ship was manufactured by the China State Shipbuilding Corporation and is the first ship of its class to be manufactured entirely through national investment, and is equipped with a system that collects information from all corners of the ship to make it easier to operate. And all the possibilities in this sense are few when it comes to a boat with a length of 199.9 meters, a width of 38 meters and a depth of 15.5 meters. It has a whopping 7,600 parking spaces and on its maiden voyage to Europe it carried over 5,000 vehicles including cars, buses and machinery.

Green Ro-Ro. And one feature that makes it special is that it is currently the largest environmental RoRo transporter in the world. It runs on LNG and is estimated to have 30% lower emissions than a conventionally fueled vessel in the same category. The tank capacity is 4,000 cubic meters, and to give us an idea of ​​what that can add up to, that means it can go round-trip from China to South America and from China to Europe.

The purpose of constructing this RoRo is to meet the environmental criteria and emission requirements of regions such as North America, New Zealand, Australia and Europe, which may be slightly more stringent than those of other territories. Besides LNG, the Chinese company is exploring other energy options such as methanol.

Flood of Chinese cars. Anji sincerity is not SAIC’s first project. One of the keys to its success outside of China is its ability to transport its vehicles, and it currently has several ships serving routes in Southeast Asia, Mexico, western South America and Europe. The aim is to increase the number of services of this type and the plans are extremely ambitious: 14 more transoceanic vessels with capacities of 7,000, 7,600, 7,800 and 9,000 parking spaces over the next three years.

In 2023, SAIC achieved sales of more than five million vehicles. Overseas, they achieved record sales of 1.208 million, up 18.3% from the previous year. And it is clear that a step back is not part of the company’s plans.

Image | ShanghaiEye

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