Problems are mounting for electric vehicles: they cannot board these ships

It seems that from 2035 onwards, new passenger cars with combustion engines will no longer be sold. From that date, everything will be electric cars, powered by motors fed by electricity stored in batteries. And this poses a problem: charging infrastructure. Too few chargers for so many cars, and charging time is a serious drawback. If the charger is low-powered, charging is slow. If it is fast charging, it affects the battery’s useful life.

But to those problems, which seem to be gradually being solved, is added another that nobody expected. A Norwegian shipping company, Havila Kystruten, has just banned electric or electrified cars from travelling on board its ships. The reason? The company considers that cars with electric drivetrains pose a high risk of fire on board.

This company operates the route between the cities of Bergen and Kirkenes. It usually carries both passengers and vehicles, and it has just taken this drastic decision. It should be noted that Norway is the European market with the most electric cars on the roads. With this decision, anyone who wants to make this journey by sea with their car will run into a problem.

The company carried out an external investigation which found that cars with electric motors have a higher risk of catching fire. It is not that cars with combustion engines are free of that risk, but fires caused by cars with mechanical drivetrains are easier to control and extinguish.

This investigation was carried out after the fire on the ship Felicity Ace, which burned in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean and in which cars of several brands were lost. It has not been proven, but there are suspicions that the fire was caused by a battery failure in one of the electric cars on board.

The reason the company has chosen to ban the boarding of electric and electrified cars is that the ship’s crew and equipment are not prepared to control a fire caused by a battery failure. To do so, the company says, external support would be needed, and that puts the safety of the ship and its passengers and crew at risk.

So electric cars face a new problem, if this kind of decision begins to spread to other companies. Although it may seem anecdotal, it is a decision that could have many consequences. Let us not forget that in Catalonia, electric scooters have been temporarily banned from travelling on trains, after one of them caused a fire on a train.

For the moment, it is the only shipping company that has imposed this measure. The other company that runs the same service, Hurtigruten, says it will not impose any restrictions and that users will be able to travel with their electric and hybrid cars on its ships.