Swedish marine battery supplier Echandia has launched the next generation of its Ultra battery energy storage system, designed for high-power, high-cycle vessel operations.

The Echandia Ultra is an air-cooled system built on lithium titanate oxide (LTO) chemistry, certified for maritime operations and carrying type approvals from DNV and Bureau Veritas. LTO chemistry delivers extremely long cycle life, high charge and discharge rates, and exceptional thermal stability. Unlike standard lithium-ion batteries, which use graphite components that can overheat under heavy use, LTO systems are more thermally stable, with significantly reduced risk of thermal runaway, a considerable safety advantage in a marine environment.

The system supports charging and discharging at up to 12°C, according to Echandia, enabling vessels to recharge during short port stays or load cycles without compromising battery life or safety. The Copenhagen ferry operation illustrates what this means in practice: seven commuter vessels operate up to 17 hours a day, charging in just six minutes and repeating the cycle up to 17 times daily, year-round. Those systems have retained more than 98% of their original capacity after six years of operation.

The Ultra is rated to more than 30,000 charge cycles with minimal ageing, and the company guarantees a system lifetime of 15 to 20 years. A key engineering advantage of LTO chemistry is that conventional battery systems must typically operate within a narrow state of charge band of around 80% to avoid degradation, requiring oversizing from the outset. The Ultra allows use of 90% of installed capacity, between 5% and 95% state of charge, meaning the system does not need to be oversized to compensate for early capacity loss. Echandia claims the result is a system up to 50% lighter and significantly smaller than alternatives, though the company notes this comparison is most meaningful at system level rather than cell level.

Simple and scalable

The modular architecture supports simple installation and future scalability, and the air-cooled design reduces system complexity and lifetime cost compared with liquid-cooled alternatives. The system is suited to ferries, ro-pax, ro-ro, navy, workboats, offshore, cruise and merchant vessels, supporting full electric and hybrid propulsion, spinning reserve, peak shaving, load levelling and UPS functions.

“The entire battery system is designed around operational reliability and high uptime,” says Felix Backgård, technical sales team manager at Echandia. “This principle guides every hardware design choice, from the cell level to the larger system components. It also guides our software architecture. The system is designed to isolate potential faults to the smallest possible part of the battery system. For example, if an issue occurs at cell level, only the affected string is disconnected, rather than larger sections of the system. This helps keep the vessel operational and reduces the risk of unnecessary downtime.”

Backgård adds: “Battery systems are becoming … one of the most critical components onboard. [They have] a direct impact on the vessel’s efficiency, reliability and long-term operational performance.”

Recent contracts illustrate the technology’s range. Echandia has been selected to replace the original battery system aboard E/F Ellen, the world’s first long-range electric ferry, supplying a 3.2MWh LTO system to replace the previous 4.3MWh NMC installation. The company has also been contracted to supply a 4.4MWh system for India’s first fully electric tug.

This article appeared in Technical, TNA May/June 2026.