Ferries from Lavik ferjekai

The world's first all-electric car ferry began work on this crossing. MF Ampere entered service between Lavik and Oppedal on 16 February 2015, carrying vehicles across the Sognefjord on batteries alone, and everything that has happened to Norwegian ferry propulsion since started here.

MF Ampere

• Built in 2014 by the Fjellstrand yard at Omastrand in Vestland.
• 80.8 m long, 20.8 m wide, room for 120 cars and 350 passengers.
• Over 100,000 crossings since — the equivalent of nearly seventeen times round the equator.
• Saves roughly 1,000,000 litres of diesel and more than 570 tonnes of CO₂ a year.

The crossing itself is 5.7 km and takes about 20 minutes. Our timetable holds 195 active sailings on the route.

Norway tried both firsts within a few hundred kilometres

The world's first battery ferry runs here; the world's first hydrogen car ferry, MF Hydra, runs at Hjelmeland further south. Neither was a demonstration project parked at a quay — both were put on ordinary county road crossings and left to do the job.

That is the actual Norwegian method: test new propulsion on a route where failure is immediately visible, because the road cannot close.

What the crossing is for

This is E39, the west coast trunk road, crossing the Sognefjord. Oppedal is the northern side. Like the other E39 gaps it runs at high frequency because the alternative is a very long detour inland.

Practicalities

No reservations. Vehicles board in arrival order, AutoPASS bills the number plate automatically, and foot passengers cross free. There is nothing at the quay beyond the slipway and a waiting area.

At roughly a boat every twenty to thirty minutes a full sailing costs you one departure rather than an afternoon.