EV Fire Destroys Cargo Ship

This post is (mostly) about the video embedded below, but in doing some searching, there is a lot of info on incidents involving RO-RO cargo ships (that is "Roll-On, Roll-Off car carriers) and EV fires.

From gCaptain we get the following: A Look Back at Recent Car Carrier Fires

The most recent incident occurred on 3 June 2025, when a ship, the Morning Midas, bound from China to Mexico, caught fire off the coast of Alaska, and had to be abandoned.

The fire aboard the car carrier Morning Midas in the North Pacific Ocean marks the latest significant incident in the maritime industry’s ongoing challenges involving fires on vehicle carriers. The UK-owned, Liberia-flagged vessel caught fire on Tuesday, June 3, 2025, about 300 miles south of Adak, forcing all 22 crew members to evacuate.

The vessel was carrying 3,159 vehicles—including 65 fully electric and 681 partial hybrid electric vehicles—when crew members spotted smoke coming from a deck containing electric vehicles. Despite immediately activating onboard fire suppression systems, the crew couldn’t contain the fire and had to abandon ship via life raft. They were safely transferred to a nearby good Samaritan vessel.

A sea-going tug has been dispatched for salvage, with the hope that the ship and its cargo will not become an environmental problem.

As the title to that article indicates, it is not the only such fire.

• Fremantle Highway, a Japanese-owned car carrier with 3,783 vehicles aboard, caught fire on 25 July 2023, near Ameland, Netherlands (EVs "dismissed" as cause of fire.)
• Grande Costa D’Avorio, an Italian-flagged combination roll-on/roll-off (ConRo) ship caught fire on 5 July 2023, at Port Newark, New Jersey. (No EVs on board)
• Felicity Ace, Panama-flagged, operated by Mitsui O.S.K. Lines (MOL), caught fire on 16 February 2022, approximately 90 nautical miles southwest of the Azores (VW is still facing lawsuits over EVs shipped on this carried.)
• Grande Europa, operated by Grimaldi Lines, two fires on 15 May 2019. The first fire was extinguished quickly. Second car caught fire a few hours later. On 16 May Grimaldi issued a press release calling for more restrictions on car batteries, and personal stuff shipped inside private cars.
• Grande America, operated by Grimaldi Lines, sank in 13,000 ft of water after a fire broke out 12 March 2019. Italian authorities issued a report, but it is not public. NTSB said cause of fire undetermined. Ship carried about 2,100 new and used vehicles.
• Sincerity Ace, 650ft Panama-flagged. Caught fire 31 December 2018 in the middle of the Pacific, 1800 miles from Oahu. Ship carried 3,800 Nissan vehicles. Ship towed back to Japan. (Cause "unknown")
• Honor, 623-foot-long US-flagged car carrier, 24 February 2017. NTSB determined that the probable cause of the fire was a fault in the starter motor solenoid in one of the personally owned vehicles being transported (No word on if EVs were involved - extensive damage to 5000 new and used vehicles, and household goods being shipped for military families.
• Courage American Roll-on Roll-off carrier. 2 June 2015. US-flagged vessel carried new vehicles (Mercedes-Benz, BMW), military vehicles, personally-owned used vehicles for military and government personnel, household goods shipments. NTSB determined that the probable cause of the fire was electrical arcing in automatic braking system of a vehicle on board.

Some of the fires were not started by EVs, but they don't go into details about whether or not EVs later became involved in the fires. There were 2 fires in 2020 that gCaptain listed as "honorable mentions," because the crews managed to extinguish the fires. This is how gCaptain sums up the issues:

While it’s difficult to draw conclusions about the Morning Midas fire and others from previous incidents, a look back at similar incidents does provide some insight and background about the dangers associated with transportation of new, used vehicles, and electric vehicles on roll-on/roll-off ships. With the growing popularity of electric vehicles, it will be interesting to see how or if rules and regulations evolve to meet new challenges associated with transporting them by ship.

This is the MGUY Australia video YET ANOTHER cargo ship DESTROYED by EV fire

Once again it will be the insurance companies that will eventually have to evaluate this risk, and place an appropriate premium on continuing to insure ships carrying EVs. This will be passed on to customers in the form of even higher prices, as shipping these vehicles by sea inevitably becomes more and more risky, and more and more expensive.

Lloyd's List, the oldest, continuously-running journal in for the shipping industry, also has an article. I should note that The List is not associated with Lloyd's of London, though they both trace their roots to Lloyd's Coffee House in London, in the early 1700s. Crew evacuated from Zodiac Maritime vehicle carrier in Pacific Ocean after fire.

If you want a more technical look at shipping of cars, see the What's Going On With Shipping video Morning Midas On Fire and Abandoned off the Coast of Alaska | 3000 cars on board, 800 are EVs. That video is nearly 18 minutes, so plan accordingly.

As MGUY Australia points out, it will ultimately be the insurance carriers who decide how expensive it is to ship EVs based on risk.

MGUY Australia has had a couple of videos on EV fires destroying ships. This one from April starts with an interesting observation. Electric vehicles are a DANGER to shipping

It's remarkable, isn't it, that under the present system of regulation, EVs can be transported by roll-on roll-off ships known as RO-ROs without being designated as dangerous goods, because there's an exemption because, uh, reasons.