A cargo ship loaded with Porsches is on fire, some car deliveries may be delayed

The 650-foot-long cargo ship disembarked from Emden, Germany en route to Davisville port in Rhode Island. This very same ship has been used many times to transport Volkswagen group vehicles, including Porsches, over the years. On this trip it appears to have been carrying many new Volkswagen ID.4 electric CUVs and Matt Farah’s freshly-built Boxster Spyder, among other Porsches. Fully laden, the ship is capable of carrying around 4,000 vehicles.

In a statement provided to The Drive, Porsche stated that “Our immediate thoughts are of the 22 crew of the merchant ship ‘Felicity Ace,’ all of whom we understand are safe and well as a result of their rescue by the Portuguese Navy following reports of a fire on board.” The company advised concerned customers to liaise with their dealers, noting that “We believe a number of our cars are among the cargo on board the ship. No further details of the specific cars affected are available at this time – we are in close contact with the shipping company and will share more information in due course.”

Obviously the best thing to take away from this incident is that nobody was hurt and everyone made it off the ship unharmed. It is certainly a shame that some cars were lost, particularly in the current state of things where chip shortages and supply chain struggles dominate proceedings. It’s possible that some of these cars will be recoverable, and the fire will be put out without too much damage, but if the whole thing is a total loss, we are fairly confident that Porsche will make it right for their customers.