On March 2, a news about luxury cars was put on the hot search.
According to foreign media reports, Felicity ace, a cargo ship carrying 4000 Volkswagen cars, caught fire in Atlantic China Welding Consumables Inc(600558) and the rescue team tried their best to rescue it, but failed to prevent the cargo ship from sinking.
On March 1 local time, a spokesman for mol ship management, a cargo ship operator, said that felicity ace sank 220 nautical miles off the coast of the Azores islands in Portugal at 9 a.m. when the ship was hit by waves and tilted 45 degrees to the right. "The weather there was very bad, and then she sank, which was surprising."
(rescue team is rescuing felicity ace on fire)
On February 16, the cargo ship caught fire near the Azores Islands. The fire lasted nearly two weeks. Fortunately, all the people on board were rescued. It is reported that the ship was originally planned to leave Emden port in Germany on February 10 and arrive in davisville, Rhode Island on February 23.
According to an internal e-mail from Volkswagen's U.S. branch earlier, the ship carries 3965 new cars under the Volkswagen Group, including Volkswagen, Audi, Lamborghini, Porsche and Bugatti. Including 1100 Porsche, 189 Bentley, Audi, Lamborghini and Volkswagen id.4. It is reported that there are many customized luxury cars in these vehicles, such as the Porsche 911 Turbo S priced at US $272000 and the Porsche Cayenne Turbo GT priced at US $192000.
Russell Group Ltd., an accident insurance expert, estimated that the cargo on board was worth about $438 million, including about $401 million for cars. Russell estimates that VW could face a loss of at least $155 million. Some Wall Street analysts believe that the impact of the fire on Volkswagen's profits is negligible.
Volkswagen did not comment on the value of the vehicles on board, but said the vehicles were seriously damaged and could not be delivered. The damage to the cars was covered by insurance, and the insurance cost is expected to reach $155 million.
The cause of the fire is unclear rescuers and the Portuguese navy have said that the intensity of the fire may be due to the large number of electric vehicles on board. This also makes rescue more difficult, because the battery fire can not be simply put out with water but because the ship has sunk, the cause of the fire may become a mystery.
However, the incident still triggered discussions among insurance companies and regulators on how to transport electric vehicles safely, which will become more and more urgent as electric vehicles become more and more common. Regulators believe that different precautions from conventional vehicles may need to be considered in the transportation of electric vehicles.
In addition, the fire has once again exacerbated the instability of the global supply chain. Suki basi, general manager of Russell Group, said: "for global automobile manufacturers, the timing of this event is not good, because it is currently in the semiconductor procurement supply chain crisis, which will lead to the postponement of new car production again, and similar events obviously do not help to improve consumers' brand trust."
Volkswagen Group has a double whammy. The recent war between Russia and Ukraine also led to the shutdown of some factories. On February 25, Volkswagen Group announced that its factories in Dresden and zweikao, Germany, would be shut down for some time, mainly due to the delay in the supply of parts in Ukraine. The two factories plan to stop production for three days and four days respectively, but it is uncertain how long this measure will last. This will reduce the production of Volkswagen's German factory by 1200 vehicles per day, mainly affecting the production of Volkswagen electric ID models.