1000 Porsches Are On Fire On A Ship!

Oops, it happened again - 1000 Porsches are on fire aboard a ship and this isn't the first time either that a ship carrying Volkswagen Group's brand of cars catches fire! 

A ship carrying Porsches, Audis, Lamborghinis, Volkswagens and Bentleys from Germany to the United States has caught fire near the shores of the Portuguese Azores Islands in the Atlantic ocean.

The Singaporean-operated boat departed the German port of Emden on February 10 and was scheduled to arrive in Davisville, Rhode Island, on February 23.

According to Automotive News and Bloomberg, around 1100 Porsches, 189 Bentleys, and approximately 100 Volkswagen Golf R, GTI, Arteon, and ID.4 vehicles were on the ship. A spokesperson for Lamborghini's U.S. declined to comment on the number of cars the company had on board when Automotive News Europe contacted them.

The good news is that all 22 crew members have been rescued and are safely recovering in a hotel in Portugal, but the bad news is that customers who special ordered their vehicles will have to wait a bit longer for their dream cars.

According to Car and Driver, Porsche's Track Your Dream app has released a notice to those who are involved and that some Porsche buyers will need to wait longer than anticipated for their new cars. Other customers such as Matt Farah got a phone call from his dealer who explained the situation.

According to Wall Street Journal, "the large number of electric vehicles on board in the ship is complicating efforts to extinguish the fire. It is unclear whether the blaze was caused by the electric cars, whose lithium-ion batteries have been known to catch fire, but the presence of burning batteries on board means SMIT Salvage, the company contracted to rescue the ship, is facing fire that spreads fast and cannot be fought with water alone, the company’s owners said."

This incident is a big blow to VW Group's inventory in America as most of its U.S. vehicles are made in Germany, with the exception of the Audi Q5, which is made in Mexico. 

This is not the first time a ship carrying VW's group of cars has gone up in flames while on the sea, in 2019 the Grande America ship carrying over 2,000 luxury cars, including Audis and Porsches, sank to the bottom of the ocean after catching fire. 

When the Grande America sank in 2019, four limited-edition Porsche 911 GT2 RS cars were on board, fresh from the end of its production line. Porsche had at that point ended production of the limited-edition GT2 RS, but they dusted off the shutdown production line and restarted it, just so they could make four new GT2 RS' to get them to their buyers who were willing to spend RM1.3 million on their dream Porsche.