Podded electric drives put the propulsion motor inside a steerable underwater gondola and now power more than 100 cruise ships and 80 ice-going vessels, led by ABB's Azipod. In September 2026 Kongsberg Maritime extended its Elegance pods to 22 MW, the first credible challenge to ABB in the mega-cruise class in over a decade.
What it is and how it works
A podded drive places the electric propulsion motor inside a steerable underwater gondola that drives a pulling propeller. Because the whole unit azimuths through 360 degrees, it replaces the shaft line, the rudder and the stern thrusters of a conventional arrangement. ABB's Azipod is the reference design, and cruise ships have been its largest user since the 1990s, according to Wikipedia. The Rolls-Royce Mermaid pod, developed with Alstom and first ordered as four units for Queen Mary 2, is the heritage behind Kongsberg Maritime's current Elegance line, while Siemens offers the SISHIP eSiPOD. The Mermaid record was not trouble-free: a Miami jury found Rolls-Royce should pay Carnival Corp. USD 24 million over Mermaid problems on Queen Mary 2.
Why it matters now
Pods are the mechanism by which the largest passenger and ice-class ships go fully electric. Segments that already carry a large electric plant, such as cruise hotel load, icebreaking and self-unloading bulkers, can add pods at little marginal cost. Oldendorff's newbuilding manager said choosing Azipod for two 21,500 dwt transshipment bulkers, each with two 1.9 MW units, "reduced the investment costs dramatically" because the ships already carried high-power generation for cargo handling, as quoted by ABB. With EU and IMO carbon pricing raising the cost of every kilowatt-hour, a propulsor whose vendor claims 10 to 20 percent fuel savings has become a decarbonisation lever rather than a manoeuvring convenience. Those savings remain vendor claims: no independent full-scale measurement of pod-versus-shaftline efficiency was found in the research.
Key players and products
ABB described Azipod in 2015 as holding "about 90% of the podded propulsion market" and passed its 100th cruise-ship order with Ponant's Le Commandant Charcot, an electric-hybrid icebreaker with two Azipod VI units, according to ABB. Royal Caribbean's Icon class runs on three 20 MW Azipods, per Wikipedia. Fincantieri's five-ship order in 2020, worth about USD 150 million, included 20 MW units, and four mid-size Fincantieri cruise ships take two 7.7 MW units each for delivery between 2024 and 2027. The Arctic LNG 2 fleet uses three 17 MW ice-class Azipods per ship under an order worth more than USD 300 million, which ABB calls the most powerful units ever supplied for ships operating in ice. Kongsberg Maritime's Elegance line comprised six sizes from 1.5 MW to 7.5 MW until 2026, built on a Mermaid design with more than 50 units in operation. No 2025-2026 Siemens eSiPOD order surfaced in the research.
Figures that matter
Every efficiency number in circulation comes from ABB. An ABB executive cited a 10 to 15 percent gain over shaftlines, while the Yamal LNG-carrier programme and ABB infographics cite fuel savings of up to 20 percent, per ABB. ABB also claims cumulative cruise-sector savings equivalent to 700,000 tonnes of fuel. A "300 ship orders" installed-base figure rests on an unverified secondary source and is not used here.
| Metric | Value | Source type | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Claimed efficiency gain over shaftline | 10-15% | vendor | ABB executive |
| Claimed fuel saving, Yamal LNG carriers | up to 20% | vendor | ABB |
| Claimed share of podded market (2015) | about 90% | vendor | ABB |
| Cruise ships ordered with Azipod | 100+ | vendor | ABB |
| Ice-going vessels on Azipod | more than 80 | vendor | ABB |
| Icon-class installation | 3 x 20 MW | aggregator | Wikipedia |
| Arctic LNG 2 carriers, per ship | 3 x 17 MW | vendor | ABB |
| Elegance pod top rating (2026) | up to 22 MW | vendor | Kongsberg Maritime |
Developments 2023-2026
- November 2025: ABB won the complete electric power and propulsion package for Canada's Polar Max icebreaker from Helsinki Shipyard, including Azipod units, a shaftline motor, DC grid and LTO batteries, for delivery by 2030.
- Two Meyer Turku-built Finnish Border Guard patrol vessels take two Azipod units each plus Onboard DC Grid, with deliveries in 2025 and 2026.
- Guangzhou Shipyard International ordered an Azipod DI system with two 4.5 MW units for a Chinese polar research icebreaker, with delivery expected in 2025.
- April 2026: Royal Caribbean confirmed Icon 6 and 7 from Meyer Turku for 2029 and 2030; the propulsion supplier for these two ships was not stated.
- 2 September 2026: at SMM Hamburg, Kongsberg Maritime announced five new Elegance pod sizes delivering up to 22 MW using compact permanent-magnet motors to cut pod diameter and drag. Individual ratings, first customer and availability date were not disclosed.
Outlook
ABB's growth path is government, ice and specialist tonnage rather than mainstream merchant ships, where the Oldendorff bulkers remain an exception with a special justification. Whether Kongsberg's 22 MW pods win mega-cruise orders is unproven, since no launch customer was named, and ABB's own installed-base figures for 2024-2026 were not published in the material reviewed.
