Six weeks will mark the anniversary of the sinking of the Felicity Ace, a ferry that burned out and sank with around 4,000 cars on board. It hadn’t been possible to extinguish the fire for far too long. Now a first shipping company prohibits the transport of electric cars on their ships. The reason is probably the danger that can emanate from electric vehicles that have caught fire.
Electric cars do not catch fire more often than vehicles with internal combustion engines, on the contrary. However, it is far more complicated to delete them. Therefore, the Havila Kystruten shipping company burns all e-cars, hybrids and hydrogen cars. Unlike the fire in a conventional car, a possible battery fire could not be extinguished by the crew, said Managing Director Bent Martini. A danger for the people on board as well as for the ship. It is, of all things, a Norwegian shipping company that is pronouncing the ban on electricity – Norway is a real Stromer country: in 2020 almost 80 percent of the newly registered cars there were electrically powered. Havila Kystruten is currently transporting goods and people, mainly tourists, on the Norwegian postal shipping route with two ships, from March with four ships , writes “BusinessPortal Norway”. However, these batteries are housed in isolated, fireproof rooms with special fire protection systems. Attention, motorists! If you want to board a car in Norway, you should inquire carefully beforehand. On the one hand, other shipping companies could follow the example of Havila Kystruten, on the other hand, the provider also restricts traffic for combustion vehicles. These are only loaded and unloaded in Bergen and Kirkenes. But: A general ban on electric cars on ships is hardly to be expected. TT Line, for example, is taking the opposite approach: the “Green Line” ships are equipped with charging stations where passengers can charge their electric cars with 20 or 40 kW direct current (for double or single occupancy) or 11 kW alternating current However, TT does not have special extinguishing technology for e-cars on board either.
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