Electric Car Carrier Catches Fire, 800 EVs Destroyed

KatadataOTO – A fire on a car-carrying cargo ship has occurred again. This time, it happened off the coast of Alaska on Tuesday (03/06) local time.

According to a Carscoops report, the Morning Midas ship sailed from China on May 26, 2025. It was scheduled to head to Lazaro Cardenas, Mexico.

Onboard the cargo ship were 3,000 cars. 800 of them were electric vehicles (EV) from Chinese manufacturers.

Zodiac Maritime, the ship's owner, said that the fire first originated from the area carrying electric cars.

Photo : Carbuzz

“The crew immediately initiated emergency firefighting procedures using the ship's fire suppression system,” read the official statement from Zodiac Maritime.

Various efforts were made by the crew to tame the fire originating from the hundreds of electric cars.

However, these efforts were unsuccessful. The fire continued to grow and engulfed the entire Morning Midas ship.

“Despite their efforts, the situation could not be controlled,” continued the UK-based company.

The entire 22-person crew then contacted the United States (US) Coast Guard.

They then decided to leave in a lifeboat to save themselves. They were later rescued by a passing ship.

Meanwhile, it is reported that the fire is still raging. Therefore, the fate of the thousands of four-wheeled vehicles, including the 800 electric cars, is still unknown.

Not the First Time

This incident is not the first to occur in the automotive world. Previously, in early 2022, a Panama-flagged cargo ship also caught fire.

The ship was carrying 2,500 luxury cars of various brands. Cars from Porsche, Volkswagen, to Bentley were burned.

“We have been in contact with the shipping company and have details of the cars on board so that affected customers can be contacted by their dealers,” said Luke Vandezande, a Porsche spokesperson, on a separate occasion.

Photo : Carscoops

The fire started on one of the decks while the Felicity Ace was sailing from Emden, Germany, to Davisville in Rhode Island.

During the voyage, the ship sent a distress signal south of Portugal's Faial island in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean because the fire could not be extinguished.

The distress signal was answered by several nearby ships, including the oil tanker Resilient Warrior, which rushed to the scene.

Currently, some shipping companies refuse to carry electric cars. One of them is Norway’s Havila Kystruten, which firmly refuses due to the risk factor being too great.