Karin Ljung
Co-founder, hull and design
A naval architect who spent fifteen years drawing ferries and work boats. Karin makes sure every Fluito behaves like a proper boat first.
Two founders, one island
Volvo was started by two people, and so was Fluito. Both founders have summer houses on Kårholmen – and both were tired of waiting for the last ferry.
The last ferry
Karin Ljung and Anders Holm have been neighbours on Kårholmen for twenty summers. One August night in 2018 they both stood on the quay at Saltholmen and watched the last ferry leave without them.
Waiting for the morning boat, they started sketching on the back of a timetable. What if the car you drove to Saltholmen could simply carry on across the water?
The founders
Anders Holm
Co-founder, drivetrain and electronics
An electrical engineer from the car industry who has built battery systems for everything from buses to sailing boats. Anders makes sure it drives like a proper car.
Built in a boathouse
The first prototype was built in Anders's boathouse on Kårholmen, from a second-hand hull and the drivetrain of a crashed electric car. It leaked, it was slow, and it worked.
Neighbours came down to the jetty every weekend to see what the two of them had changed. Several of them became the first customers.
From sketch to shipyard
- 2018
The missed ferry
The first sketch, on the back of a ferry timetable.
- 2019
Prototype in the boathouse
A second-hand hull, a borrowed drivetrain and a great deal of sealant.
- 2021
First crossing
Prototype number three drives from Kårholmen to Saltholmen and up onto the road.
- 2023
Fluito Rörö
The first production model, built by hand in a rented hall.
- 2024
Cityvarvet
Fluito moves into an old shipyard hall at Cityvarvet, across the river from the city centre.
- 2026
Donsö, Styrsö and the ramp
Two larger models join the range, and the ramp at Saltholmen is proposed.