Talk Morgan Forums Community Vehicle Talk (non-Morgan) Another Ship on Fire

Better public transport in urban areas is the answer. Then breaking the car dependency mindset. I started using the train to commute over 20 years ago and never looked back.

However right now it's a mess with continuing industrial action.

Indeed. I would expect EVs to follow standard battery practice and ship at low charge (not uncharged as that is damaging to the cells).

In RC models we use battery sacks to contain any LiPo fires (although they mostly occur when charging). I suspect an EV shipped in a standard container would be relatively safe! In shipping it will be the insurers who set the real rules - so expect EV shipping standards to update quickly!

I don't in principle disagree, however public transport in urban conurbations are much better than those in rural areas where people have to generally travel much further. I live in a densely populated seaside retirement town, they have closed all the local hospitals and geriatric services which were served by existing bus routes and centred the services on one main hospital, which is not served by direct public transport, so a 5 to 15 minute car journey becomes nearly a 2 hour plus 3 bus journey., with considerable waiting times at unprotected bus terminuses for connecting services. Better joined up thinking is much more important in that public services are supported by public transport infrastructure, we need much more impact analysis performed on dependant infrastructure, before we blindly follow. net zero objectives. No point in building or centralising hospital services in a location if the local community especially those at most risk, cant access it easily.

Hasn't a new Insurance/vehicle repairers code been released requiring isolating damaged EV's in for repair from other vehicles because of the fire risks. It will be interesting to see how insurers load premiums for the increased fire risk and cost involved in EV accidents and whether the incidence of serious injury or death increases with more ev's involved in car accidents. Are our emergency services especially fire geared upto deal with these types of accident, where even a minor collision can lead to a fire.

Last news here say that there are 3800 cars on board, 500 of which are electric vehicles.

I assume the ship cost a fair bit more than the cargo.

You wonder at what point the EV models are put on a deck where trouble means they just get dropped overboard. Then we just have to work out how to avoid polluting the ocean.

Another container ship fire here:

https://www.reuters.com/world/us/tw...hip-fire-new-jersey-port-abc-2023-07-06/

But no EVs on it & sadly 2 killed
The ship, which had 28 crew members aboard, was carrying cars, vans and rolling equipment as well as 157 shipping containers. There were no electric cars or hazardous cargo aboard, the company said.

For EV urban areas are likely better in these early transition times. Rural areas are way too far behind on infrastructure of charging and greater distances for regular journeys. Even urban areas have big hurdles to overcome. Finding an EV that meets your needs for capacity, range and, buying cost is crucial. Get it wrong and you add more compromises.
Then wait for the inevitable tax changes that will come. ULEZ too. At what point will the change from compliant ICE kick in? Currently the trigger is fairly decent but income generation from it will see adjusted compliance. Cynical? No. It’s the route we are moving along. Entice EV usage in the early years then move the goalposts. It happened with early solar feed in. There is an argument to revert to better enticement for solar to help with grid capacity and infrastructure for public charging points to follow EV numbers. A parallel development. The grants for home charger points still leaves a reliance on sourcing power. Great if you have solar/battery/access to cheap overnight deals.
When I had a 60 mile each way commute public transport was useless. I needed a car. Now, retired, an EV would be ok for the journeys done apart from very occasional long ones. Cheapish home charging with very limited need for in journey top ups. But the cost of buying a suitable EV is way too high.

For a deeper understanding of the car transporter fire watch this:



The take-home from this video is that EV fires cannot be extinguished because when these big car carriers were planned the fire suppression was to be Halon. Then Halon was banned, CO2 replaced it, but CO2 doesn't actively suppress fire in the way Halon does.

The presenter also explains why vehicles cannot be dumped.

Imagine if an EV fire occurred on the Channel Tunnel Shuttle?


Bud
4/4 - Stanley