The Volkswagen Group faces a new lawsuit over the Felicity Ace fire near the Azores, in which the vessel sank with nearly 4,000 vehicles on board, including about 1,100 Porsches, nearly 200 Bentleys, and several Lamborghinis.
Initially, the lithium-ion batteries of the Porsche Taycans it was transporting were blamed. The $30 million lawsuit was dismissed. A second legal action could be even more costly for Volkswagen.
How dangerous is it to transport electric cars?
There are shipwrecks that leave a deep mark on society, such as the Titanic, or the countless British ships, like the Serpent, that sank along what is now called the Costa da Morte. The former led to changes in ship design and safety protocols, while in the latter case they prompted the creation of lighthouses on the northwest coast of Galicia in the early 20th century. And now this could be the case with the Felicity Ace.
This Ro-Ro vessel that sank at a depth of 3,000 meters near the Azores carried 3,965 cars on board and could influence how electric cars and PHEVs are transported from now on. The shipping company that owned the vessel, the Japanese Mitsui OSK, and several insurers, such as Allianz, have sued the Volkswagen Group over it.
Mitsui OSK and five insurers sued Volkswagen. They argued that the fire was caused by the lithium-ion battery of a Porsche Taycan. The Stuttgart court dismissed the lawsuit. They concluded that it had not been proven that a Taycan started the fire.
On May 21, 2026, the Stuttgart Regional Court ruled that the plaintiffs could not establish the origin of the flames. In this way, the Volkswagen Group was cleared of liability claims for not having adequately informed the shipowner about the specific risks associated with lithium-ion batteries. But that was not the end of it.
A second case remains open in Braunschweig, in which the plaintiffs are seeking a figure that has yet to be finalized but is anticipated to reach hundreds of millions of euros.
For now, it would be very difficult to pin down the origin of responsibility, but the accusations against the Volkswagen Group’s logistics have not ended and could worsen the very serious problems Volkswagen is currently facing, which has just announced tens of thousands of layoffs.
Images | Portuguese Navy
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