Random EV thoughts.....

I've got both cars set to precondition to 16C with AC every morning in summer. I find it keeps some fresh air going into the car when they aren't being used and that stops any damp or mould

I'm winter I'll gradually raise the temp, first to 20C and then maybe 23C in the really cold months

Looks like the statement that an EV fire was the suspected cause wasn't true. It was attributed to an unnamed coast guard sportsperson by a single news outlet

Looks like RTE got caught up in the BS as well

Maybe it was an EV that started it, but that's currently unknown and there's been no official statement saying it was suspected

I've emailed feedback@rte.ie to request they correct the article. They'll probably ignore me but all we can do is try

Reading the AP article, the coast guard were saying the fire is difficult to extinguish given the number of cars ablaze in the hold

It sounds like the cars weren't remotely made safe for transport before being loaded. They should have their fuel and fluids drained and batteries disconnected and removed

The EVs should have been discharged and had HV batteries disconnected

Sounds like none of that happened and the freighter was essentially a giant bomb just so it'd be quicker to load and unload the cars

This is why maritime shipping is an absolute deathtrap 😬

Those damn Cavan men starting fires again 😂

I agree, I'd say some junior member of the coast guard got cornered for a statement and was asked a question in a way where they could only say yes and then the press just ran with the EV fire line

As I said, maybe it was an EV that caused the fire, but that isn't known yet and it's entirely inappropriate for the press to speculate like that, particularly when there were only 25 EVs onboard versus almost 3,000 ICE cars

How in practice are you going to drain tanks, then load cars, then fill tanks, bleed fuel system and unload cars? I assume new cars have minimal fuel and cars going for scrap or moving to third world have minimal fuel. Unloading needs to be fast as time is money and these ships typically load up and go asap.

Got my car from japan 9th of june, followed it from japan, it stopped in Singapore, Cyprus , Malta , Spain and finally Belgium, there it got offloaded and put on another ship to Dublin,

Picked it up with half tank of petrol and some trim in the back seat, drove it home and started putting the trim back , my guess was the 12 v was disconnected and the main traction battery also, as the cover was not replaced.

My guess is, for short trips they do nothing, for the longer trips they have more time to open and disconnect things, some ports the stay was very short, less than a day, the ship was a few days in Belgium then onto Hamburg and Sweden, same ship is now off Wollongong https://www.marinetraffic.com/en/ais/home/shipid:313143/zoom:10

https://www.marinetraffic.com/en/ais/home/shipid:313143/zoom:10 its amazing the number of ships at sea, you can see the shipping lanes if you zoom in a little, each colour is a different type of vessel.

You abandon ship as was the case here.

Once a fire has taken hold there is notyvh you can do. Smoke obscures visibility and even if crew are trained and have all the gear and the fire is detected quickly it can easily spread. They can't our out car fires easily in multi storey car parks, so on a ship things are far more difficult with a small crew like this ship. Try to tackle it, give up and call for help.

I’m no maritime expert but it’s unlikely that any Zafiras had their engines running and PTC fans on while onboard the ship.

Looks like there were 500 EVs on board and also hundreds of Mercedes cars. I think that supports my speculation that this is a shipment of end of life bangers to Africa. God knows how many safety shortcuts would have been taken on a shipment like that. I hope time will tell.

Seems an incorrect translation from the orignal Dutch press release from ANP that doesn't mention they were new cars. Not saying they aren't though.

Can't find the original press release from the Japanese charter company K Line in a two minute google, maybe someone else can? That could shed some light. I did see mention that there were several hundred Mercedes and also a large number of BMW and MINI. Which in fairness would point to brand new cars alright.

I remember the same, car was smoking before driver drove it into car park. Oops.

Sure they've been like that for years, crews trained to the absolute bare minimum, safety equipment outdated or broken and ships registered in countries with lax safety laws