Cargo Ship full of Porsche and VW vehicles catches fire

Sad but this is not the first time a car carrier ship has been lost.

Bob Wilson

 

What a waste of chips...

 

The *very first* report I heard blamed a battery fire as the cause - when it appears that it's the ship, rather than the cargo, that is the source of the fire.

Lotsa presumptive misinformation around this fire, to make EVs appear somehow dangerous.

 

I recommend caution as preliminary reports are often wrong after a detailed investigation.

Bob Wilson

 

Damn that sucks. I assume VW group insures their vehicles during shipping?

Hope they get to the bottom of it soon.

 

According to Forbes on Monday:
“A report in Britain’s Daily Mail quoted the Felicity Ace’s captain Joao Mendes Cabecas saying Saturday, lithium-ion batteries in the electric cars on board caught fire, and the blaze required specialist equipment to extinguish it. Cabecas was speaking at the Azores port of Hortas after being rescued with crew members from the blazing vessel.

“The ship is burning from one end to the other. Everything is on fire about five meters above the water line,” the Daily Mail quoted him as saying.

But the cause of the fire has yet to be officially confirmed.”

 

That is Murdoch's "Daily Mail" and he has an anti-EV bias. IMHO, it makes sense to get the ship into a port and have a proper fire investigation. Yes, battery fires are pretty rough but so too are gasoline fires.

It begs the question if the battery safety, interlocks were opened? I can envision loading the EVs that scraped the bottom of the battery pack and led to a short and eventual fire. The insurance company has a challenge but this was not the only big boat problem:
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/20/world/europe/greece-ferry-fire-corfu.html

Dead Body Is Pulled From Burning Ferry Off Greece, With 10 Still Missing

At least one person was confirmed to have died on the Euroferry Olympia, which caught fire on Friday and is still ablaze near the island of Corfu. Hundreds of others have been rescued.
. . .​

Saltwater ships are not immune from fire.

Bob Wilson

 

https://www.wsj.com/articles/burning-electric-vehicle-batteries-complicate-efforts-to-fight-fire-on-drifting-ship-in-atlantic-ocean-11645385571?st=50opkppmcc52605&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink

Word has it that the fire started on one of the car decks... that strongly infers a BEV battery pack initiating the fire...

 

Regardless of root cause, losing a car carrier along with a significant number, ~4,000, of vehicles is going to hurt.

Bob Wilson

 

Yes, but the crew did report that the fire/smoke appeared to have started on a car deck... So speculation that a BEV lithium-ion pack was the source appears most likely to be true... This will possibly jack up cross-oceanic shipping costs for BEVs, via increased charging by insurance and shipping companies, sadly...

 

Dang, leaving the USA market to USA manufacturers.

Bob Wilson

 

Yes, and USA manufacturers have not been very good in recent decades. I like having choices, and foreign competition pressures US manufacturers to try to get out of complacency mode... Right now, what can you buy made by US manufacturers in the way of BEVs? Teslas, Mach-E, and Lucid Air ... not a whole lot else... I need more variety and choice...

 

<AHEM>President Biden praises GM for being the "EV leader."

Bob Wilson

 

There were a lot of non-BEV on the ship as well. So it is premature to say that the battery is likely to be true - it is just a possibility at this point. I would also argue that the BEV were likely not at a high SOC, and that the cars weren't charging - both factors that were discussed in the Bolt and Kona fires.

VW has said that they self-insure, so they eat the loss. And for what it is worth, VW is opening a plant in Chattanooga later this year, so there will be less of a need to ship ID.4 across the ocean.

 

<AHEM>VW already has a plant in Chattanooga. EVs are not yet part of their production line ... not that I care.

Bob Wilson

 

My understanding is VW has to shutdown some of their manufacturing lines because parts ordered from Ukraine are not coming. Worse, there is no way to pay for these parts thanks to the Russian invasion.

Bob Wilson