The balance is devastating: in 2022 the car transporter “Felicity Ace” burned in front of the Azores and went With almost 4,000 new cars on board, a year later, the “Foreign Highway” on the North Sea caught fire and just just The “Morning Midas” in front of Alaska. Thousands of vehicles were destroyed or damaged in the fires, and financial losses were created in a high three -digit millions.
Further less serious fires from car transporters are added. In February, the “Grande Brasile” burned down in the English Channel, shortly afterwards the “Grande Congo” in the Atlantic. The number of total losses in ships has decreased in recent years, but there are always incidents.
Ten -year high in fires on ships
According to an examination by Marine Risk Consulting, Allianz Commercial, the number of fires on ships is at a ten -year high and have therefore also become a challenge for the insurers. One reason for the increase could be the increasing electrification of the economy. This generally includes lithium-ion batteries and battery storage systems that are suspected of triggering fires and then difficult to extinguish, especially for freighters or ferries on the high seas.
Experts contradict this and refer to current studies. The overall association of insurers reports of investigations that show that electric cars are statistically seen have no higher risk of fire than gasoline or diesel-powered vehicles
. However, fires at electric cars can lead to a “thermal runaway”. This arises when a cell of the lithium-ion battery is overheated. The resulting heat can then switch to neighboring cells and lead to explosions and a fire in a chain reaction. According to the overall association of insurers, conventional deletion methods are often less effective, the fires can repeat themselves again and again. Extinguishing agents would help with a higher cooling effect or simply more water.
But there is also a different way: new batteries with a lithium iron phosphate battery have the advantage that they are less susceptible to fires. They are currently being used Especially in electric vehicles of Chinese manufacturers like BYD.
Waiting for stricter security standards
For the time being, however, battery beaches remain a special danger for the large car freighter, who often transport several thousand vehicles closely over the world’s oceans. “The larger the ship, the higher the potential damage. Fire fighting, rescue and the difficulties in the search for an emergency port are more difficult for large ships,” alliance experts write in a study presented at the end of May.
The industry relies on stricter regulations for the security standards, better training courses on board and technological progress such as nationwide heat computers. Until then, the fire risk will continue to be seen as a current problem. And this could still tighten with the increasing electrification “if no measures are taken against incorrectly declared charge and the improvement of the possibilities for recognizing and combating fires on these ships,” said Captain Rahul Khanna, Global Head of Marine Risk Consulting, Allianz Commercial.
The causes of the past major fires on the car freighters are obviously diverse. In the fire of the “Foreign Highway” fire, the fire on deck, on which the “petrol engine” stood, most electric cars on board were not affected by the fire. The salvage company had reported that. Meanwhile, the further investigations lie with the ship’s agency’s shipping authority, the flag state of the ship.
Lawsuit against Volkswagen Group
However, the “Felicity Ace” suspects that the lithium-ion battery of a Porsche may have triggered the fire. The ship owner, who is based in Tokyo Japanese, is now complaining to Volkswagen with other parties. This will be done in early July negotiate the 12th civil chamber of the Braunschweig district court
.
Finding the trigger for such fires is often difficult. “The question of causality is often problematic,” says Dieter Schwamp from the law firm Arnecke Sibeth Dabelstein and responsible for major damage and transport and shipping law. “However, if it has burned too long on board, the proof of which vehicle the fire has taken its notice can be difficult,” said Schwamp. “We have cases in which everything has merged. Then experienced fire experts can also have problems to determine the vehicle in question and the cause.”
In terms of insurance, this is a question of risk assessment. “If there are still major damage, the premiums could continue to rise,” says Schwampe and points out: “Fire extinguishing systems are not automatically activated by the fire alarm. If it were different, then a false alarm that cannot be excluded even in ships would be set under water or foam”.
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Meanwhile, some shipping companies from the past fires have drawn consequences for their ferry operation on car transporters. Already two years ago The Norwegian Havila Cystrute line banned the use of electro, hybrid and hydrogen cars on board. So far, this surprised in a country that is actually considered a pioneer for electromobility.
So in Greece For one year, electric vehicles have only been left on board with a battery level of a maximum of 40 percent. The TT-Line shipping company, on the other hand, continues to fully use electromobility on the fleet of the “Green Ships” fleet-the guests are here A total of 32 load columns available to recharge the batteries of the electric cars on board
.