The shipyard of the ex-banker Lebedev will supply Moscow with electric river trams – RBK

The “Passenger Port”, which has received a contract from the Moscow authorities, in addition to transporting people, needs to create a fleet of 21 electric vessels, build 23 berths, six charging stations and two basing points for river trams.

Moscow will not buy the equipment itself – it pays only for the service of organizing the transportation, Deputy Mayor of Moscow and Head of the Department of Transport Maxim Liksutov said in an interview with RBC at the end of December 2021. The winner of the competition will serve ships 24/7, he added. According to him, the department considers river transport as year-round, but everything will depend on demand.

Mashpromleasing has so far agreed to transfer 14 Ecobus electric ships produced by Emperium to the Passenger Port for year-round use. “The first five vessels are planned to be commissioned in May 2022, and the last two vessels, completing the series, will be commissioned in the spring of 2023,” reported leasing company press service

Regular river traffic on the Moskva River on two routes Fili Park – Kievsky Vokzal and Pechatniki – Avtozavodsky Most should begin on July 1, 2022, says a representative of Vodokhod. At the first stage – by the end of October 2022 – nine electric-powered vessels will be launched, and by the end of June 2023 their total number will be increased to 21. The traffic interval of river trams in 2022 will average 30 minutes, as all vessels are commissioned waiting time between flights will be reduced to 16 minutes. By May 2024, there will be 50 daily flights on the Fili – Kievsky railway station route, and 63 flights on the Pechatniki – Avtozavodsky bridge route, the representative of Vodokhod notes.

It will be regular urban transport with a carrying capacity of 5-6 thousand passengers per day at the first stage, Liksutov noted. For a large number of Muscovites and guests of the city, travel time will be reduced by 30–40 minutes a day – it will be faster by water. This will allow attracting new passengers to other types of urban transport, since the river routes will be entirely within the Moscow transport system. At the same time, such river trams will not compete with pleasure and excursion boats, the deputy mayor specified.

The company “Emperium”, which owns the shipyard of the same name, was registered in November 2019 and is located in the city of Otradnoye, Leningrad Region.

Its largest co-owner, Andrian Pravdin (he owns 31.6%), is the general director and main shareholder of NPK Morsvyazavtomatika, a St. Petersburg-based company, a developer of electric ships. Pravdin was going to involve Rusnano and VEB in the project. “We see the project not only as a local construction of several ships. Electric vessels must operate throughout Russia and enter the world market. Such a powerful state institution as VEB can become a very serious support in this project “, – said he’s in November 2020. “At the moment, negotiations are underway to structure the legal form of the transaction,” said the VEB Ventures fund (part of the VEB.RF group). RBC sent a request to the press service of Rusnano.

The second largest shareholder in Emperium, Kedr, which is affiliated with Lebedev’s National Reserve Corporation (NRC), has owned 25.22% since the company’s inception. Lebedev owns a stake in the shipyard through Kedr, a source in the NRC explained to RBC. Summer 2020 businessman as founder of Emperium signed a contract for the supply of five high-speed Ecocruiser catamarans with the Chairman of the Board of Directors of Vodokhod, former Deputy Transport Minister Viktor Olersky. The laying of the first of five vessels took place on June 27, 2020. These catamarans can enter the routes in St. Petersburg in 2022, said Deputy Director General of “Vodokhod” Yuri Kostin.

Lebedev invested about 1 billion rubles in this project, says a source in the NRC. In addition to the businessman and Pravdin, the remaining shareholders of Emperium are five more individuals, it follows from the data of the Unified State Register of Legal Entities.

“The shipyard was built from scratch and recently received a certificate from Rostekhnadzor. Serial production has started: there are about ten ships on the stocks [на электротяге] in varying degrees of readiness, ”continues a source in the NRC. According to him, in the spring of 2022, an additional site for screwdriver assembly of ship hulls should be launched at the Chekhov Power Engineering Plant (owned by NRC). Emperium can also place orders for the production of ships for Verkhnekamsk shipbuilding complex in the Perm Territory, adds the interlocutor of RBC.

Now Emperium’s portfolio of orders has reached almost 30 vessels for a total amount of about 6 billion rubles, a source in the NRC notes. In addition to the production of Ecobus river trams for Moscow and Ecocruiser high-speed catamarans for St. Petersburg, the shipyard wants to supply one Ecocruiser to serve the FIFA World Cup in Qatar, which is due to take place at the end of this year, and to start production of a vessel for transportation on Lake Baikal.