This ship might not be for peacefully exporting electric cars. China is making unmistakable preparations to invade Taiwan in the near future and RORO carrier vessels have clear military applications in such a scenario.
Yeah, I watched the video the other day and when I saw the phrase “world’s largest car carrier” I instantly thought of the photo of all of the Chinese tanks loaded onto a RORO. And this ship is even bigger? Hmmmmm…
I actually assumed that was part of the impetus for creating their own ship – standard cargo ships probably aren't well-suited to the job and simultaneously are a bit concerned about transporting such cargo.
After the Ticktock ban and surge of Rednote installs, more people are seeing these cars here. And they look amazing for the price. The ban is backfiring spectacularly. And this is just one way.
I'm just here to say electrek's continuous scroll both delights and annoys me by equal measures (because of my right click new tab habit)
This is a giant RoRo. Compared to the one I used to cross the St Lawrence River a few years back, you could pack hundreds of them inside this in a meta meta car carrier.
Additional context, BYD's factory size: https://x.com/taylorogan/status/1859146242519167249
Discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42228138
Vertically integrating. Not as subtle as I'd have expected, but still sensible.
Why does the Heifei look like 1/3 of a cruise liner? What happened to the badonk tail end?
https://electrek.co/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2025/01/BYD-W...
To be fair, it's pretty large. If you zoom in, you can see some people in a door near the middle of the image, and they're nearly microscopic.
https://youtu.be/ovZyGAhde4s
Edit: link updated with alternate documentary video without AI content, please reply with a better video if you find one on roros.
That feels very AI-generated and not in a good way.
The back 1/4 of the ship is angled at for a ramp that flips down for unloading. It makes the ship look narrower from the angle the photo was taken.
RORO car carriers aren't novel concept at all...
GOOD Point by my wife. Could they double purpose these ships as ferries? Seems like the same basic concept.
Probably not enough space for people. Often people aren't allowed to stay in their cars.
This ship might not be for peacefully exporting electric cars. China is making unmistakable preparations to invade Taiwan in the near future and RORO carrier vessels have clear military applications in such a scenario.
Consider this analysis of the invasion barges they’re preparing: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Klkpk_hO4FQ
That is a very good observation and a really interesting video.
Yeah, I watched the video the other day and when I saw the phrase “world’s largest car carrier” I instantly thought of the photo of all of the Chinese tanks loaded onto a RORO. And this ship is even bigger? Hmmmmm…
Ten thousand EV batteries packed into a ship’s hull.
What could go wrong?
I actually assumed that was part of the impetus for creating their own ship – standard cargo ships probably aren't well-suited to the job and simultaneously are a bit concerned about transporting such cargo.
https://www.reddit.com/r/interestingasfuck/comments/11t4hw3/...
Salt water spray is not great for vehicles in general, even ignoring batteries. Wonder what the heck they were thinking.
It would be cool to pull charge off the batteries to power the ship.
It seems to already use some batteries, but not sure for what:
“the new ship includes BYD box-type battery packs and shaft-belt generators for the first time”
The ship runs on LNG, which is probably cleaner than charging the cars in China and using that for energy, given China's grid mix.
I estimate that all those batteries would get that ship at most 20% of the way across the Pacific.
You could say the same thing about a refined fuel tanker.
After the Ticktock ban and surge of Rednote installs, more people are seeing these cars here. And they look amazing for the price. The ban is backfiring spectacularly. And this is just one way.
I'm just here to say electrek's continuous scroll both delights and annoys me by equal measures (because of my right click new tab habit)
This is a giant RoRo. Compared to the one I used to cross the St Lawrence River a few years back, you could pack hundreds of them inside this in a meta meta car carrier.