Electric vehicle panel discussion to tackle shipping issues
- Ellie Ruel
- 5 hours ago
- 2 min read
Forum discussing future of transporting electric vehicles to Southeast Alaska planned for Wednesday night
By Ellie Ruel
Juneau Independent
After months of restrictions on electric vehicle shipping to Southeast, Renewable Juneau is hosting a discussion addressing transport, ferry access and policy solutions.
Alaska Marine Lines stopped shipping EVs and plug-in hybrids on their vessels in September of last year, citing safety concerns. Lithium ion batteries used to replace those in existing vehicles aren’t being shipped either. The announcement came shortly after a cargo ship carrying nearly 700 hybrid and 70 fully-electric vehicles burned for days and capsized southwest of Adak.
The vehicles can still be shipped on the Alaska Marine Highway ferries, but EV capacity has been capped at two per sailing since April of 2024.
“We've heard from lots of folks who want to get back and forth between Juneau and Gustavus or Juneau and Haines, but can't get a reservation when they need to go,” said Renewable Juneau board member Steve Behnke in an email to the Independent. “In other cases, people who have bought new EVs down south have had to wait 2-3 months or longer to get reservations, which is a huge inconvenience. Since we don't have dealers or repair facilities for some models, people who own them have to get them back and forth for recalls or repairs.”
According to Behnke, Renewable Juneau has been trying to set up a public meeting with AML since last fall, but this date worked out since AML president Don Reid is in town for the Southeast Conference. Craig Tornga, director of AMHS, is also set to be on the panel, with representatives from Affordable Auto, the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 1547, and Rep. Jeremy Bynum, R-Ketchikan.
Behnke said the organization learned that EVs were still being shipped to Hawaii, and the role of insurance rate increases and fire safety will be a question posed to the panel on Wednesday evening.
“Our goal for the panel is to start constructive discussion about the shippers concerns and possible solutions. Some of the questions and possible solutions involve the policies of other shippers -- such as requiring that the state of charge of EV batteries be kept low when they're shipped,” Behnke said. “Other solutions involve the types of fire blankets that the ferries have on hand. AML itself has suggested the idea of special barge runs periodically to haul EV's, so that will be something we'll ask about. Other suggestions involve supporting new barge line competition.”
The panel is set to be held from 6-8 p.m. at KTOO studios and will be livestreamed online.
• Contact Ellie Ruel at ellie.ruel@juneauindependent.com.
