Ship Carrying Thousands of Vehicles Abandoned On Fire At Sea
Automakers generally try to avoid costly supply chain disruptions that can delay vehicle shipments, but one ship packed with hundreds of EVs and other models recently had other ideas. The vessel, loaded with around 3,000 vehicles, had to be abandoned yesterday due to an uncontrolled fire.
Around 800 of the Morning Midas ship’s total load were EVs, but it’s unclear which brands the cars came from or what caused the blaze. The crew reported initiating firefighting procedures but said they were unable to control the fire. All 22 crew members made it off the ship safely before being transferred to a nearby merchant vessel. The Coast Guard reported zero injuries and said it had three ships on the scene to assist.
We don’t yet know how many of the 3,000 are a complete loss, but the number could be significant, especially considering that the fire has burned uncontrolled for more than a day at this point. The disaster will be costly for the automakers involved either way, as losses of this nature extend far beyond the costs to replace damaged or destroyed vehicles.
High-profile maritime disasters have happened a few times in recent years, including the Felicity Ace, which sank in 2022 due to a fire, and another ship sank a few years earlier carrying Hyundai and Kia vehicles.
[Images: Mister Din, Rangsarit Chaiyakun, Audley C Bullock via Shutterstock]
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Chris grew up in, under, and around cars, but took the long way around to becoming an automotive writer. After a career in technology consulting and a trip through business school, Chris began writing about the automotive industry as a way to reconnect with his passion and get behind the wheel of a new car every week. He focuses on taking complex industry stories and making them digestible by any reader. Just don’t expect him to stay away from high-mileage Porsches.
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Disappointing lack of journalism here. It only took me about 30 seconds of searching to find that the ship left the port of Yantai in communist China, and was headed for Lazaro Cardenas Mexico. So its safe to assume that the hold was full of those cheap communist Chinese EVs that are banned here. If nothing else this info made the story better and more complete. Why was it left out?
As noted on YouTube, a EV fire generates it own oxygen. Therefore, the fire suppression system (nitrogen) is ineffective.
No wonder the crew abandon ship after 10 minutes into the fire!🚗🚗🚗