Burning batteries: are e-cars a safety risk?

A year after the serious shipwreck off the Azores, a shipping company stopped transporting electric cars. How dangerous is the transport of e-cars on the high seas?

About a year ago, the “Felicity Ace” sank off the coast of the Azores. She had loaded thousands of luxury vehicles that were on their way to America. Including electric vehicles. But now the luxury cars are lying on the bottom of the Atlantic instead of driving on America’s roads because the lithium-ion batteries of the electric cars on board probably caught fire. The exact cause of the fire could not be determined.

The Norwegian shipping company Havila Kystruten has now drawn consequences from the accident: It is probably the first shipping company in the world to stop transporting electric cars on its cruise ships. The shipping company’s FAQ states: “Electric, hybrid and hydrogen cars are prohibited on board.” However, combustion engines are still transported by the ships.

The ship news service TradeWinds quoted the managing director of the Havila Kystruten, Bent Martini, as saying that the ban was the result of a “safety assessment”. Martini told the news service: “A possible fire in electric, hybrid or hydrogen cars requires external rescue measures and can endanger people on board and on the ships.”

“There is a problem with the training”

For Jochen Schäfer, Managing Director of the German Fire Brigade Association, the shipping company’s decision is incomprehensible: “There are systems that can also be used to get fires from electric cars and batteries on board a ship under control.” However, the seafarers would have to be trained accordingly – “and that’s where the problem lies,” says the expert in an interview tagesschau.de.

Sailors are trained to fight fires on board, “but not professional firefighters,” said the spokeswoman for the Federal Maritime and Hydrographic Agency. “In addition, other firefighters and additional equipment cannot be tracked to the scene of the fire like on land,” adds Christian Bubenzer from the safety department.

From Jochen Schäfer’s point of view, there is still a lot of catching up to do, which some shipping companies have already recognized: “For example, we work together with the Meyer shipyard to test firefighting specifically on board a ship and to train seafarers.” Because: “Fire on board is always one of the most dangerous incidents,” says a spokeswoman for the Federal Maritime and Hydrographic Agency (BSH) at the request of tagesschau.de.

Time-consuming extinguishing work

And the firefighting work of electric cars is above all time-consuming, even on land: At the end of December, a truck loaded with electric cars completely paralyzed traffic on the A2 near Magdeburg for hours after it caught fire. In mid-January, a transporter that had loaded electric and hybrid vehicles caught fire near Ulm, and a federal highway had to be closed for several hours.

The reason for the lengthy rescue measures: Batteries can ignite again even after they have been extinguished, which is why they have to be cooled. “For electric cars, we as the German Fire Brigade Association recommend cooling the battery down to 60 degrees Celsius,” says Jochen Schäfer.

The difficulty here is to get hold of these batteries. “The batteries in e-cars are permanently installed so that they don’t slip out of their anchorages in the event of an accident.” For this reason, special training is required on how to effectively extinguish and cool the batteries in an emergency.

Fires can easily spread

A fire that starts inside a ship poses a particular risk: “E-car fires release highly toxic and corrosive gases, especially hydrofluoric acid and phosphine, which is particularly dangerous in the closed loading decks of ferries,” says Christian Bubenzer from the safety department: “And extinguishing battery fires can take up to 24 hours.” However, this could affect the stability of the ship if too much firefighting water is used.

In addition, the vehicles transported on board a ship are often parked close together to save space. “But that makes it more difficult to reach e-cars for firefighting,” says Bubenzer. And also make it likely that the fire will spread to surrounding vehicles.

Safety requirements for batteries

However, to ensure that this does not happen in the first place, the International Maritime Organization, IMO for short, is working on ways of detecting fires on ships as early as possible: “In response to the increasing number of incidents with fires that occur on the transport of alternative energy vehicles, in April 2022 the Ship Safety Committee (MSC) presented a proposal to assess the adequacy of fire protection, detection and extinguishing arrangements in vehicle spaces to reduce the risk of fire on ships.” From next year, the safety committee will deal with the issue, said a spokeswoman at the request of the tagesschau.de with.

In order to minimize the risk during transport, there are already some security requirements, explains Christian Bubenzer from the security department at the request of tagesschau.de: “This includes, for example, separate parking spaces on the loading decks for e-cars.” According to Bubenzer, the “International Maritime Code for Dangerous Goods” (IMDG code) also contains “special safety requirements and test standards for lithium batteries.”

“Completely wrong signal”

However, the expert Schäfer also emphasizes that the transport of lithium-ion batteries is no more risky than the transport of combustion engines. That’s why he thinks a transport ban on board the Havila shipping company ships is the “completely wrong signal”.

Especially since the shipping company’s cruisers themselves have large batteries on board in order to be able to drive emission-free. According to the shipping company, these are installed in fireproof, insulated rooms.

No comparable plans in Germany

From his point of view, the better way to deal with the impending danger of burning electric cars is to train the crew properly so that they can act effectively in an emergency.

So far, the Association of German Shipowners is not aware that German shipping companies are pursuing similar plans to the Norwegian Havila Kystruten. Because the German Shipping Association is not aware of an increased number of ship fires caused by electric cars. So maybe the Havila Kystruten will remain the exception.