Now, it has been awarded Sweden’s most prestigious design distinction, Utmärkt Svensk Form.
With the award, P-12 joins a long line of Swedish products that have left their mark on the world, from Volvo cars to IKEA furniture.
Candela P-12 is the world’s first high-speed, long-range electric ferry. Its computer-controlled hydrofoils lift the vessel above the water, cutting energy use by 80% while eliminating emissions and wake.
Now, an often overlooked aspect of P-12—its design—is being recognized by Svensk Form, the world’s oldest design organization, founded in 1845.
When designing the P-12, Candela started with a blank sheet of paper.
“The first stage was to completely free ourselves from what a ferry is supposed to look like and ask: what is the most efficient way of transporting people on water?” said Gustav Hasselskog, Founder of Candela, who led the design team.
In cities around the world, roads are congested and commuting times long and unpredictable. Yet many cities have an underused resource: their waterways.
To unlock them for fast, convenient public transport, the design team had to rethink the conventional ferry. Traditional vessels consume large amounts of energy, produce emissions and, due to their large wakes, are often subject to speed restrictions. The result is infrequent service and long journey times.
This became the design brief for P-12: create a vessel that could make waterborne transport faster, cleaner, less costly, and more frequent.
P-12 carries 30 passengers and is operated by one staff. Its hydrofoils allow it to travel at high speed while using a fraction of the energy of conventional vessels and creating almost no wake. Its smaller size means that instead of relying on a few large vessels, operators can deploy more units and offer frequent departures, creating a system that operates more like a bus network than a traditional ferry service.
The next stage of the design process, Hasselskog explains, was about Candela’s guiding principle. How could every part of the ferry be made more efficient, from energy consumption and charging to passenger flow? And how could an entirely new type of vessel fit seamlessly into the existing urban web of infrastructure?
“It’s about the hard engineering stuff, like removing every unnecessary kilogram and adapting to different quays and accessibility needs, while at the same time rethinking the experience. How can we create a much better journey?”
Bringing Mass Production to Ferries
Current large diesel ferries are often built as one-offs and built close to their intended area of operation. To allow for industrial manufacturing and shipments around the globe—including to inland cities and lakes that cannot be reached by sea—the P-12 design team settled on staying inside a 4.5 x 4.5 x 12 m box to make it transportable on roads. This also opens up manufacturing scale—and cost benefits—never seen before.
The goal was to achieve a long range, a high speed, and low operational cost. That means, among other things, an extreme focus on keeping the weight down and hunting every single percent of hydrodynamic and drivetrain efficiency.
“I believe some of the greatest creativity comes from hard constraints, and P-12 is very much a product of that. Its beauty comes from its purpose: every line has a reason and every part is necessary. In this way, it follows the classic functionalist idea,” said Hasselskog.
Engineering the Experience
Another guiding principle was that P-12’s advanced technology—needed to make it fly—should transform the passenger experience without demanding the passenger’s attention.
Thirty passengers sit in a bright cabin surrounded by large windows, giving panoramic views of the very thing that makes traveling by boat special: the water.
The cabin is remarkably quiet. P-12’s electric C-POD motors sit submerged beneath the surface and have no mechanical transmission, minimizing both noise and energy losses. When the vessel takes off, a computer controls the hydrofoils to keep the vessel stable above the waves.
The result is an experience that is largely created by software, but designed to feel natural. The Flight Controller works unnoticed in the background, leaving passengers with a calm, serene experience.
Fast Deployment, Avoiding a Five-Year Infrastructure Project
New ferry routes typically require new docks. Conventional electric ferries also need heavy-duty cables and dedicated charging infrastructure. Both are costly, complex, and can take years to build.
P-12’s flexible, dampened bow ramp allows the vessel to quickly embark passengers at everything from low floating jetties to high concrete quays, while providing an accessible boarding angle for wheelchairs and strollers.
To avoid costly dedicated charging infrastructure, the P-12 uses standard automotive DC chargers. The technology is already widely available, keeping installation simple and costs low.
“With these two features, we can deploy at scale within weeks rather than in years,” said Hasselskog.
Shaped by Efficiency
On conventional boats, hydrodynamic resistance dominates, making aerodynamic drag comparatively unimportant. Once P-12 rises above the surface, water resistance falls dramatically, and aerodynamics becomes a much larger part of the equation. Its profile is therefore designed to be as efficient as possible, contributing to its long range.
“The elements—air drag and water drag—have shaped P-12 more than anything else. The streamlined silhouette is unmistakably Candela, but it is driven by function rather than styling. Every line is there for a reason”, explains Hasselskog.
And when P-12 flies past at 25 knots, perhaps its most distinctive design feature is what it leaves behind.
Just a thin white line across the water.
