SOLUTION / PUBLIC SOURCE RECORD
Vindskip is the world’s greenest deep-sea car carrier
- Published 17 October 2022; updated 23 March 2026; estimated reading time 2 minutes. Explicitly marked “Under development” as a concept/prototype/near-pilot solution; the article does not say the vessel is commercially available. Listed under Maritime.
- Vindskip® is Lade AS’s proposed pure car and truck carrier whose shaped hull acts as a sail to generate propulsion from wind. The design combines wind propulsion, cruise control and weather routing. It is described with dual LNG/LBG propulsion, with the fuels mixable depending on availability; this remains a fossil/biogenic gas hybrid concept rather than a zero-emission claim.
- The article reports up to 60% lower fuel consumption from the combined fuel-saving system and up to 75% lower drag from the hull. It also says a lightweight construction reduces fuel demand and the underwater hull could nearly eliminate ballast-water needs. These are design estimates, supported in the article by wind-tunnel/towing-tank tests and simulations using historical weather data; no operating-vessel results are presented.
- For a 6,600-car capacity design, the page claims, against a high-sulphur-fuel-oil reference ship, 63% less CO₂, 96% less NOx, and 100% less SOx and particulate matter. These comparisons depend on the reference vessel, operating profile, fuel choices and methodology, which are not fully specified in the page.
- The page says the concept’s design won the 2020 German Design Award in Excellent Product Design – Conceptual Transport. It notes a cargo configuration adaptable for light-duty plug-in EVs. The title’s “world’s greenest” superlative is the site’s promotional wording, not an independently established ranking.
- Linked to SDGs 9, 14 and 15. The IMO policy and sulphur rules referenced are dated policy context.
- Contact: Terje Lade, Manager, terje@ladeas.no. Company: VINDSKIP AS, Wirgenes vei 1, 3157 Barkåker, Norway; ladeas.no.