Truck loaded with new Teslas caught fire in Portugal, rekindling old discussion

Unfortunately, these attempts to present electric cars as safer than electric cars ICE Vehicle fires are nothing new. One of the most relevant fires I can recall was the one that nearly sank the Fremantle Highway, a cargo ship carrying 3,783 cars, including 498 electric vehicles, when it caught fire. On August 28, 2023, I had to write a story to show that all the media outlets that absolved electric cars of responsibility for that fire were not journalists but rather advocates. All it took was an email exchange with their alleged source to debunk their claims.

If you go to Wikipedia for more information on this ship, you will see that it still relies on the false defense of battery electric vehicles in relation to this fire, which is unfortunate. Dear Wikipedia editors, you should correct this as soon as possible, especially when there are videos like the one below. It shows an electric car being unloaded from the ship and placed in a steel tub filled with water. This is now a common measure to prevent battery packs that have caught fire from reigniting. The steam coming out of the tub proves how necessary this was.

Another famous case involving a RoRo ship is the Felicity Ace. It sank near the Azores Islands after catching fire in February 2022, destroying 4,000 cars in addition to the ship itself. Fortunately, no one lost their lives, which is not the case with the Fremantle Highway. If you search for its name, you will find dozens of articles claiming that an electric vehicle did not cause the fire. Investigations proved them wrong, which did not prompt them to retract or correct these articles. Porsche and Volkswagen are now being sued by the ship’s operator and its insurance company, among other plaintiffs, because the fire allegedly started from a Porsche electric vehicle.

Photo: via RTL Niews/edited by autoevolution

In the Tesla fire in Portugal, EV advocates were quick to claim that the fire started in the trailer and not in the cars, which is extremely unlikely. If that were the case, the fire would have first affected the vehicles in the lower part of the trailer. If you look at the image below or the “Os Monhacas” video, you will see that the car transporter has eight Teslas, all made in China. The last two, in the upper part of the trailer, are the ones giving off the most smoke. If we had to bet, we would say that the fire started in one of them, perhaps the one more in the center.

Given that these are Chinese vehicles, one might be tempted to say that the fire affected a car equipped with lithium iron phosphate (LFP) batteries. But that would be ignoring a characteristic of Tesla’s Portuguese customers: most of them choose the most expensive versions of these electric vehicles. This means that these vehicles must be equipped with ternary cells, which several people have already said are more prone to fires, including some insiders like Our Next Energy (ONE).

Mujeeb Ijaz, the company’s founder, said his company’s goal is to avoid mixing cobalt and nickel because they “represent a major risk of thermal runaway” – like the one that sank the Felicity Ace, which may have caused the Fremantle Highway fire, and which is the likely cause of this new fire in Portugal. I have tried to contact the Civil Protection Department in charge of the investigation, but they have not yet responded. When and if they do, I will update this article. More important than the event itself is the debate it has rekindled. It should determine the future of transport.

A big thank you to The Monhacas!