Arc Boats, based in Los Angeles, California, has signed a $160 million contract with Curtin Maritime Corp. in Long Beach to invest in building a fleet of eight hybrid electric ship assisted tugboats. This order is being hailed as the largest deployment of commercial electric workboats in the United States to date.
These tugboats will be constructed by Snow & Co. in Seattle, Washington, with the first four vessels scheduled for delivery by the end of 2027. The new vessels will feature Arc’s integrated electric propulsion system, delivering over 4,000 horsepower, and will be equipped with a 6-megawatt-hour battery buffer system. The initial four tugs will measure approximately 24.6 meters in length, 12.9 meters in width, and have a draft of about 3.8 meters. Each will be fitted with two 2,000-horsepower L-drive propulsion units, providing bollard pull of 50 tons.
Construction of the first batch of tugboats has commenced, with the first vessel scheduled for launch by the end of 2026. The first four vessels are of the same type, and the size of the next four vessels may be adjusted, but they will still use the same basic structure.
Arc will retain ownership of the tugboats, while Curtin Maritime will operate them through a bareboat charter model. This model allows Curtin Maritime to flexibly deploy the vessels, with the first tugboats set to be deployed at the Port of Los Angeles.
Arc CEO Mitch Lee stated that the private financing model behind the transaction validates its commercial viability. With Arc’s vertical integration of its powertrain systems, the acquisition cost of these tugboats can compete with diesel vessels.
Mitch Lee emphasized that hybrid electric technology is no longer in the experimental stage but has full commercial viability. “Our core message to the industry is that this technology is now directly cost-competitive. This brings with it a series of long-term benefits – lower fuel costs, longer operating hours, reduced maintenance requirements, and fewer regulatory compliance issues.”
Snow&Co. is a small shipyard in Seattle, USA. Its business mainly covers three major sectors: one is the construction of customized workboats, which can build various types of pilot boats, tugboats and barges, aquaculture installations, workskiffs, crew boats, research vessels, etc.; the second is vessel retif & repair services, which can carry out services such as complete pilothouse conversions, boat lengthening and sponsoning, equipment upgrades, repowers and system upgrades; the third is ship design services, including vessel design, 3D modeling, 3D scanning, CNC lofting and nesting, etc.
It is worth noting that these eight 4,000-horsepower electric tugboats cost a total of $160 million to build, with each vessel priced at $20 million—approximately RMB 142 million. In contrast, Chinese shipyards construct an electric tugboat of the same horsepower for only about RMB 35 million, meaning the U.S. price is four times that of China’s.