VW faces lawsuits over claim Porsche EV battery sparked ship fire
By Paul Homewood
h/t Joe Public
A couple of years, a massive cargo ship sank after the EVs it was carrying caught fire.
Now courts are having to decide who will pay the bill:
Volkswagen Group faces a pair of lawsuits in Germany over claims it was the battery in a Porsche electric vehicle that triggered the 2022 fire onboard a massive cargo ship that eventually sank with thousands of cars on board.
One of the suits was filed in a court in Stuttgart where VW’s Porsche unit is based.
The case was brought by half a dozen plaintiffs, including Mitsui OSK Lines, the ship’s operator, and Allianz, one of the insurers of the vessel, according to a spokesman for the tribunal.
The case was filed a year ago but was recently paused because of mediation talks planned for a second lawsuit over the ship’s that is currently before a court in Brunswick.
Both cases will resume if no settlement can be reached. A Brunswick judge plans to hold the talks later this month, according to a tribunal spokesman.
The Panama-flagged Felicity Ace caught fire near the Azores archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean two years ago and was left adrift after the crew was rescued.
An internal email from VW’s U.S. operations at the time revealed there were 3,965 vehicles aboard the ship. The cargo ship’s loss could have cost the automaker at least $155 million, according to a risk-modeling company’s estimate.
The plaintiffs claim that the fire originated from the lithium ion battery of a Porsche model and allege VW failed to inform them of the danger and necessary precautions needed to transport such vehicles, according to the Stuttgart court.
Although the case was filed a year ago, the judges have not yet looked into the merits of the suit as the parties have been quarreling about the amount of collateral that must be posted before it can proceed.
https://europe.autonews.com/automakers/vw-faces-lawsuits-over-claims-porsche-ev-caused-ship-fire
Whatever the verdict, it is bad news for the EV industry, and ultimately buyers. If Volkswagen end up paying the bill, it will put up costs for the whole industry, which will need to specifically insure against such risks.
And is Allianz have to pay, the insurance industry will insist that shipowners either stop carrying EVs, or have to pay much higher premiums, which will be passed on to the car manufacturers.
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NOT A LOT OF PEOPLE KNOW THAT 
A 2 year old story! What has this tremendously costly event had on the total import and insurance costs of EVs into Europe, including UK? Did “they” ever locate the cause of that big carpark fire at Luton Airport?
I’m genunely curious!
Unfortunately the legacy media have an attention span shorter than a gnat’s and so there has been no follow up on this notwithstanding that ‘they’ don’t want us to know that a lithium car battery that started it.
Don’t forget there was also a big fire in the Outside car park of Bristol airport 6 months ago which destroyed 11 cars. I had parked in this open car park so i was not in the multi storey, so as to avoid EV fires.
Fortunately we weren’t touched but I have heard no follow ups to the story
Of course Insurance costs seem to have nearly doubled in the last year, anyway. Even for a petrol ICE.
I remember predicting just that when, after numerous fires, some commenters appeared to imagine that higher insurance costs would only be imposed on plug in hybrids and BEVs. Past experience suggests that if all BEVs were taken off the road tomorrow, premiums for ICEs wouldn’t significantly fall.
What catastrophe will cause enough deaths and damage to derail all the Net Zero plans? The PTB have their heads in the sand, but the insurance industry will take a pragmatic position, they do not like losses so will raise premiums and may not offer any insurance cover for BEVs.
Extinction Rebellion last week targeted the insurance industry to stop covering oil and gas projects, hoping to derail the future investments. How ironic if the growing risks of Lithium batteries, Wind farm and Solar panel weather damage, Hydrogen related projects, the insurance industry abandons net zero related projects.
If the insurance companies are being run properly they will base their business decisions on what benefits the company and the shareholders, and what makes money.
The plaintiffs claim that the fire originated from the lithium ion battery of a Porsche model
Good luck proving that.
and allege VW failed to inform them of the danger and necessary precautions needed to transport such vehicles
Oh, yeah, it’s a big secret and no one warned them.
A) depends on what witness statements they have from the crew who were probably aware of the fire quite quickly but obviously couldn’t put it out.
B) hazardous cargo has to be identified so it could be argued whether they did or didn’t do so, and in response they could argue that they were not aware that it was hazardous.
A) Witness statements won’t work. If they have video, that could work, but it will have to be distinct.
B) The shippers surely included all the standard paperwork. Which should suffice, without a universal declaration that EVs are dangerous. No Western government will allow that.
Why in heavens name didn’t they ship the evs with the batteries disconnected and pay a bit extra to tow them off the freighter on disembarking?
“batteries disconnected” If that would make a difference, I have no idea. If so, why?
Being connected makes no difference if the battery is not being charged. It would make more sense for batteries to catch fire when being charged as their state is being changed and there is heat being produce, but of course there have been plenty of fires breaking out when parked up.
Speculation: EVs have self-maintenance functions that require electricity. Should the battery go dead, important things, such as battery temperature management, stop happening.
EV fires at car parks may have resulted from vehicles being left there for too long.
/speculation
so an ev has two bits of drivetrain… a motor and a battery to provide the electricity to drive the motor when the on switch is pressed. The battery is copper wires and iron based magnets… Not combustible. When parked up the battery is not electrically connected to the motor – it is isolated. And anyway, it seems that most ev fires are parked vehicles and the fire is spontaneous due to damage or an inherent fault
The battery is copper wires and iron based magnets?????????
Disconnecting would be very costly, and make no difference
Face it Folks, this is the ‘future’, as ordained by the NetZero zealots.
Again, as a popular YouTuber says when referring to EV’s – “future my a**e”.
Check him out – the channel goes under the name of ‘EV Carnage’.
Jim Royle from “The Royle Family”?? That’s his catchphrase …
Last November I wrote this article “Electric cars on ferries – a nightmare waiting to happen”. https://www.conservativewoman.co.uk/electric-cars-on-ferries-a-nightmare-waiting-to-happen/
And, there’ll be many more before the silly battery cars are parked for good
EV manufacturers will be watching this case VERY closely!