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The Portuguese Navy declared it had rescued the 22 crew of car carrier Felicity Ace, which was evacuated after a fire began in the ship’s hold, as we originally reported Wednesday evening. Now floating adrift, the ship is now a smoking graveyard for the thousands of cars reportedly aboard, almost all if not all of them from various brands under the Volkswagen Group. Porsche and Volkswagen were the first to confirm the presence of customer vehicles aboard, and The Drive has since received confirmation from fellow brands Audi and Bentley that hundreds of their cars are also implicated.
A Bentley spokesperson confirmed to The Drive that 189 of its vehicles are on board the Felicity Ace, for an approximate total retail value of at least $30 million. Accounting for a varying mix of models and options, the actual dollar value likely exceeds that by many millions. Audi too confirmed the presence of its products aboard but declined to provide (or even estimate) the number.
“We are aware of an incident involving a third-party cargo ship transporting Volkswagen Group vehicles across the Atlantic,” commented an Audi spokesperson. “The vessel was on its way to North America. At this time, we are not aware of any injuries. We are in contact with the shipping company to get more information about the incident.”
Autoblog, however, reports the Felicity Ace was carrying approximately 2,500 vehicles at the time of the fire, about 1,100 of them Porsches, with, again an estimated value of at least $60 million. This leaves room for roughly 1,200 cars from makes other than it and Bentley, which are likely Volkswagens or Audis—though the ship has sporadically carried small numbers of other VW Group makes.
Both brands have been shipped in widely varying quantities over the last six months according to manifests published on ImportInfo.com. As few as 116 VWs and 53 Audis have made the trip, and as many as 2,294 and 1,726 respectively. VWs don’t always outnumber Audis, though, so the proportion of one to the other currently aboard the Felicity Ace is impossible to estimate. Felicity Ace has also transported as many as 21 Lamborghinis on a voyage, but we have been unable to confirm any were aboard for this trip, while Bugatti has not appeared on any available manifest.
Car carrier losses aren’t a common phenomenon, as large ship losses as a whole have sharply declined over the last few years according to the Insurance Information Institute. Losses ran in the neighborhood of 100 ships annually until 2018, when the number plunged to 53, a mark which has since not been surpassed. According to Allianz’s Safety and Shipping Review 2021, only 18 large cargo ships were lost last year, or about one every three weeks.
It’s unclear how many cars are shipped overseas annually, but a few thousand insured losses are but a drop in the bucket to what the Fortune 500 ranks as the tenth biggest company in the world. And while some of the cars’ would-be owners will be distraught at the loss of their limited-production vehicles, they’re probably not up a creek without a paddle. If Porsche was willing to reboot 911 GT2 RS production after a few were lost in a similar accident in 2019, it’ll have no qualms replacing a Boxster Spyder or two that went up in smoke on Felicity Ace.
Keyword: 189 Bentleys, Lots of Audis Are on That Burning Cargo Ship Adrift in the Atlantic