Car Carrier Sinks in Pacific

“The Morning Midas car carrier sank in the Pacific Ocean late Monday, weeks after a fire started on a deck that was carrying electric vehicles.

 

The ship's sinking leaves investigators with few clues to what caused the blaze.

 

The 600-foot-long vessel had been adrift since June 3, when a fire broke out and forced the crew to abandon the ship.

 

London-based Zodiac Maritime, the ship's owner, said fire damage, compounded by heavy weather, caused the vessel to sink about 400 miles off the Alaska coast.

 

The Morning Midas was carrying 3,000 cars, including about 800 electric vehicles, said Zodiac Maritime.

 

Most of the vehicles on the Morning Midas, including the EVs, were manufactured in China and bound for Mexico, The Wall Street Journal earlier reported.

 

The lithium batteries used in many electric vehicles are highly flammable. No ship fires have been directly blamed on EVs.

 

In 2022, a 60,000-ton cargo ship carrying thousands of luxury cars sank in the Atlantic Ocean after a fire burned for nearly a week.

 

Experts contracted to salvage the ship -- the Panama-flagged Felicity Ace -- said the presence of a large number of lithium-ion batteries likely caused the fire to spread and complicated efforts to extinguish it.

 

In a report last month, Insurer Allianz warned of the dangers of shipping vehicles containing lithium-ion batteries, citing several fires and near misses in the maritime and logistics industries that were linked to batteries.” [1]

 

1. World News: Car Carrier Sinks in Pacific. Paris, Costas.  Wall Street Journal, Eastern edition; New York, N.Y.. 25 June 2025: A16.