Fires on vessels carrying EVs prompt calls for increased safety regulations

The process of transporting an electric vehicle (EV) to market via cargo shipments is facing renewed scrutiny after a series of incidents with costly and deadly results. A recent string of fires on vessels carrying EVs has prompted regulators to draw up new rules due to the safety risks posed.

Electric vehicle battery fires burn with twice the energy of a normal fire and can require as much as 10 times the amount of water to put out compared to when a car with a gas engine is set ablaze. Sometimes, nearly half the total volume of an average American swimming pool is needed to handle these fires, which can reignite even after they have been extinguished.

“The shipping industry needs to understand the cargo that they are transporting and they need to put in the relevant requirements to make sure that they do that safely and responsibly,” said Jim Rowan, chief executive of Volvo Cars.

As a result, the United Nation’s International Maritime Organization said member states will be exploring the creation of additional precautions for shipping companies that transport vehicles powered by lithium-ion batteries. Shipowners have also indicated they are looking to redesign car carriers, upgrade fire prevention measures and mitigate the threat to lives and global trade posed by the batteries.

“Lithium batteries have been recognized as potentially hazardous when it comes to fire risk,” said Heike Deggim, head of safety at the International Maritime Organization. “So we need to ensure that the regulations take into account those risks. Urgent action is needed to arrive at measures to keep vessels and crews safe.”

This comes after a report released in May by insurance provider Allianz found that shipping fires on all cargo vessels with volumes exceeding 100 gross tons increased 17% to a decade high last year. A number of these incidents involved electric vehicles, with fires that took days to finally put out.

That includes a fire onboard a ship in the Atlantic Ocean that resulted in the loss of $155 million worth of Volkswagen vehicles. The vessel’s captain claimed that the lithium-ion batteries within the EVs being transported were “keeping the fire alive” as the crew worked to put it out. Ultimately, the ship capsized and sank 13 days after the fire broke out as a salvage team was attempting to tow it to shore.

More recently, a shipping blaze aboard a boat carrying nearly 500 EVs off the Dutch coast claimed the life of one crew member over the summer. The incident left 22 others injured, some of whom had to abandon ship in order to escape, as the fire onboard continued to burn for about a week after it had first begun.

“There is already a whole lot of communication underway about this, but with this incident it becomes apparent we might need to speed up the process, especially when you consider that the number of this sort of cars is only going to rise,” said Nathan Habers, spokesperson for the Royal Association of Netherlands Shipowners, following the fire.

In light of these risks, some insurance providers are charging one and half times more for cargo ships carrying electric vehicles than the price for those with combustion engines. The International Union of Marine Insurance is advocating for the development of new firefighting techniques to tackle future EV battery fires on vessels, among other additional safety measures.

“The regulatory process will be an opportunity to improve safety requirements making them fit for the new reality of large numbers of alternative fuel vehicles being carried on board vessels,” said Lars Lange, secretary general of the International Union of Marine Insurance.

Industry participants are also discussing the implementation of new crew member evacuation routes and fully contained storage for EVs being shipped that aim to limit the spread of potential fires. Michael Barrass, a marine risk management consultant with RSA Insurance has said that current safety regulations were “not really built to deal with EVs,” and while the shipping industry is moving forward to correct this, it is not happening “at the pace that [insurers] want.”