The dangers of transporting electric vehicles has once again been highlighted with a fire onboard a car transporter ship off the Netherlands coast. 

The fire is on board the Panamanian-registered Fremantle Highway which is transporting nearly 4000 new vehicles from Germany to Singapore. Some 500 of these are thought to be battery electric vehicles, with one of these the likely source of the fire according to Dutch coast guards. Sadly the fire caused the death of one crew member and injury to several other who had to jump overboard. 

The bulk of the cargo is thought to be from manufacturers BMW and Mercedes-Benz, including many Mini models. The incident will be another blow to car manufacturers already facing supply issues due to component shortages.  

Fires involving EV lithium-ion batteries burn with twice the energy of a normal fire and can easily reignite even once the initial fire is thought to have been extinguished. This makes transportation of such vehicles more complicate and coast guards are concerned that shipping companies have failed to keep up with required safety precautions. In particular many ships are said to lack the necessary fire detection technology and the necessary equipment and trained personnel to fight a fire at sea, especially if it involves battery electric vehicles.