In transoceanic logistics, due to the spontaneous ignition of an electric car, another large-scale accident occurred. The Morning Midas, a transport ship engulfed in flames, headed from China to Mexico, with 3000 brand new cars, including 800 electric cars, stood in free drift in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.

The fire broke out on June 2, the eighth of the nineteen days of the voyage, just after midnight GMT. The British company Zodiac Maritime, the owner of the Midas, has already confirmed that the fire was on the deck, in the part where the electric cars were parked.

None of the crew's actions to fight the fire had any result, the flames spread so rapidly that all 22 crew members had to hastily leave the ship in distress in lifeboats. They were soon rescued by a passing U.S. merchant ship.

Since there is no effective means of extinguishing burning lithium batteries - they are simply isolated and allowed to burn to ashes, transporting electric cars by sea is a huge problem for ship owners and insurance companies, and there is no acceptable solution today. Due to the density of loading, it is impossible to get to an ignited electric car and isolate it from the rest of the cargo, and if something happens, the ship with cars is almost doomed.

Due to the high risk, many companies have abandoned the transportation of electric vehicles.

The largest disaster occurred three years ago in the North Atlantic, when the Felicity Ace vessel with 4000 Volkswagen AG cars burned out and sank to the bottom in the Azores in two weeks due to a self-igniting electric car battery.

Ro-ro vessel Morning Midas in distress, photos are from open sources.

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