HARBOR ISLAND – The boat’s keel has yet to be laid. Designs are still being drawn up. There’s no name yet. The infrastructure to power the state’s new hybrid-electric ferry program has yet to be put in place.

What is clear though, is that Washington State Ferries’ next vessel will be capable of running completely on electric power, in what state leaders see as the next generation of maritime transportation.

“No extension cords necessary,” quipped Gov. Jay Inslee at a launch event for the new program at Harbor Island before local leaders scrawled their signatures on a sign marking the future construction site of the new state ferry.

Vigor Industrial CEO Frank Foti said his company has begun engineering and design work for the state’s first hybrid-electric vessel, a variation on the state’s 144-car Olympic-class design. It’s estimated the vessel will take about two years to build, and construction is expected to begin in the fourth quarter of 2020. Washington State Ferries estimates the new vessel will cost around $160 million.

Earlier this year, lawmakers signed off on extending the state’s existing contract with Vigor, which built the four existing Olympic-class vessels, to build up to five additional 144-vehicle vessels, but provided funding for just the one vessel.

The vessel would be the state’s fifth Olympic-class vessel, but with a twist: It would have diesel engines that power a battery bank that in turn power the vessel but would also be capable of running completely off electric power drawn from the dock. State officials are still working out what the charging system will look like, according to WSF.

Under its long-range plan, WSF is aiming by 2040 to have replaced 13 existing diesel vessels with electric-hybrid boats and have converted six vessels to plug-in hybrids. The moves would leave just four diesel vessels in the fleet two decades from now. Under that configuration, WSF estimates it would be able to cut emissions and fuel consumption by 50 percent compared with 2018, from 19 million gallons down to 9.5 million gallons.

“The diesel hybrid electrics are the future,” Department of Transportation Secretary Roger Millar said.

Inslee touted the new program, saying it would revolutionize the maritime industry and noting what he said would be improvements in fuel savings, noise reduction and reliability.

“It is a transition that has to happen,” Inslee said. “It has to happen because we know that we can no longer power our major economic systems with fossil fuels. We know that if we depend on fossil fuels in the decades in the future, Puget Sound will be destroyed because carbon dioxide is acidifying Puget Sound. We know that our forests will burn because of climate change. We know that the weather patterns of the planet will change. We know that this is a transition that we have to make, we do not have any choices here.”

UPDATE: This story has been updated to reflect the fact that Vigor expects construction on the new ferry to begin in 2020, not in 2021 as a Washington State Ferries spokesman had said.