If you follow motoring news closely, you definitely didn’t miss the fire on the Fremantle Highway, which is the route of an 18,500-tonne Panamanian-flagged cargo ship. The ship caught fire on the night of July 26-27, 2023, near the island of Ameland, the Netherlands. The fire, which was very difficult to contain, caused several casualties and obviously, given its load, Suspicion surrounding this fire fell directly on the electric cars he was transporting.

With 3,783 new cars on board, there were 498 100% electric models. According to the latest news, the EVs that were originally blamed appear to have been “vindicated” according to the first investigation reports. Let’s just say the rumor spread pretty quickly, as the first pictures we got of the burning freighter showed us a completely charred Porsche Taycan.

New risks

Even if electric vehicles are obviously out of the question, the fact remains that they are forcing the maritime freight industry to rethink certain aspects of safety.

Indeed, electric vehicles charging on board ships pose a new risk: fire with runaway heat due to heating of batteries.

“When this thermal runaway occurs, we don’t know how to stop it. The components of batteries contain oxygen. As the elements decompose, oxygen is produced and this actually sustains the fire. We get to about 800-900 degrees pretty quickly.”explains Lieutenant Hervé, Head of the Maritime Expertise Department of the Marseille Fire Brigade, during a seminar on “Crisis Management by Maritime and Port Participants”.

“So we will have to use large amounts of water to avoid spreading: instead of running at 500 liters per minute, we will double the flow of water. We have a project with Armateurs de France to combine reflections that will result in a joint doctrine of intervention and acquisition of equipment such as robots, with thermal detection systems, irrigation devices. »

“Today, the only rules are the rules of common sense. We are participating in the working group for two years and at the end of this period we will make proposals. Among the preventive actions, transportation of vehicles with only 30% charge is considered, since it is when the batteries are fully charged that they are the most dangerous. For example, this could be part of a recommendation in the future when buying a ferry ticket. »

What are the solutions to prevent an electric car from catching fire?

At the same time, several experts recommend first of all fully discharge the vehicle battery before each transportto reduce the risk of short circuits.

Several solutions are also being developed with fire extinguishing systems specifically for these models or even submersible holds that will allow them to be immersed in water in a few minutes and prevent the fire from resuming.

Even if this phenomenon seems a little “far-fetched” to us drivers, it can have a significant impact. Indeed, if this type of incident increases, it risks increasing the price of insurance and freight and, as a result, prices for the final consumer.

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