fire on board!

Are almost 4,000 VW, Porsche and Bentley cars burning?

Created: 02/19/2022, 11:15 am

By: Marcus Efler

A burning transport ship belonging to the Volkswagen Group is floating in the middle of the Atlantic – with many valuable models on board.

This is known so far.

Horta (Azores, Portugal) - She disembarked in Emden in Lower Saxony, heading for Houston in Texas, USA: The "Felicity Ace", a huge 200-meter freighter.

But now the ship is burning in front of the Azores - with valuable cargo on board, which is actually eagerly awaited on the other side of the Atlantic.

There are 3,965 new cars from the Volkswagen Group on the floating car park, including coveted luxury models, as reported by 24auto.de.

There are 189 vehicles from the luxury British brand Bentley on board, which start at just under 200,000 euros new – but are actually much more expensive.

1,100 Porsche models are also apparently threatened by the flames.

Some of the shocked buyers have already made themselves known on social media, so a Twitter user fears the worst for his Porsche 718 Boxster Spyder (from 93,350 euros).

(Expensive total loss: Extremely rare Lamborghini burns out)

fire on board!

Are almost 4,000 VW, Porsche and Bentley cars burning?

Some vehicles from the Italian sports car manufacturer Lamborghini are also said to be on board, with German list prices starting at 221,499 euros.

As is usual with export models to the USA, cars from the VW and Audi brands are also expensive models such as the Golf R (from 51,835 euros).

The burning "Felicity Ace" off the Azores.

© Marinha Portugal/dpa

"The ship is on fire from end to end," said a harbor master in the Azores, with the flames raging more than five meters above the waterline.

Fire ships from Gibraltar and a Dutch special company are on site and still on the way.

The rescue attempts are made more difficult by the fact that there are also many electric cars on board, such as the VW ID.4, whose lithium-ion batteries are difficult to extinguish.

(Fire in the electric car: how big is the fire hazard for electric vehicles really?)

fire on board!

All crew members safe

If possible, the Panama-flagged freighter is now to be towed to a port in the Bahamas or mainland Europe, as it is too large for the Azores facilities.

The good news: All 22 crew members are safe, as Audi announced - which is not a matter of course in a highly dangerous maritime emergency such as a fire on board.

It is not the first maritime disaster of this kind for Volkswagen: in 2019, the “Grande America” caught fire on the way from Hamburg to Casablanca (Morocco) and sank – with more than 2,000 luxury cars, including Audis and Porsches, on board.