The burning cargo ship in the North Sea has loaded around 500 electric vehicles, among other things.
Image: dpa
The accident of the car freighter Fremantle Highway draws attention to the fire risks of electric car batteries. Electricity storage devices that are significantly safer already exist today. But they also have disadvantages.
The burning car freighter in the North Sea suddenly drew the attention of Germans to a new question: What fire hazard does the battery in electric cars actually pose? For days it burned and smoked on the wrecked Fremantle Highway after a severe fire broke out on board the ship. The danger of an environmental catastrophe in the ecologically sensitive Wadden Sea has not yet been completely averted. The Fremantle Highway was towed to the Dutch port of Eemshaven on Thursday.
Marcus Theurer
Editor in the economy of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sunday newspaper.
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The cause of the fire has not yet been clarified, but there is an assumption that the major fire on board the cargo ship was caused by a defective power storage unit in an electric car. In addition to many conventional cars, the Fremantle Highway also charged around 500 electric vehicles. That’s why there has been a lot of reporting over the past few days about how difficult it is to put out burning batteries in electric cars.