Cargo ship fire strands thousands of U.S.-bound VW Group vehicles in Atlantic Ocean

A massive auto transportation ship that routinely provides Porsches, Audis, Bentleys, Volkswagens from Europe to the U.S. is on fire and adrift in the Atlantic.

According to an internal Volkswagen Team e mail received by Bloomberg, 3,965 U.S.-bound cars are aboard. About 1,100 Porsches and 189 new Bentleys, various U.S.-based mostly spokespeople for group makes verified to Automotive News.

The ship is much more than a thousand miles off the coast of Portugal, and its crew of 22 has been properly evacuated by other vessels, together with the Portuguese navy.

The boat departed the German port of Emden on Feb. 10, and was scheduled to arrive in Davisville, R.I., on Feb. 23, in accordance to a posting on Marinetraffic.com. More than 100 of the vehicles on board were headed for Port of Houston in Texas.

The 650-foot-extensive, 106-foot-large Felicity Ace was designed in 2005 and sails less than a Panamanian flag, in accordance to the web-site.

A spokesman for Volkswagen Team of The usa reported the corporation is “conscious of an incident involving a third-bash cargo ship transporting Volkswagen Team cars across the Atlantic. The vessel was on its way to North The us. At this time, we are not informed of any injuries. We are in get in touch with with the delivery firm to get additional info about the incident.”

In an emailed assertion, Porsche stated: “Though it continues to be way too early to confirm what transpired and following ways, we are – along with our colleagues at Porsche AG – supporting our prospects and our sellers as finest we can to uncover alternatives. Everyone involved by this incident and the implications on the car they’ve ordered should call their Porsche dealer.”

The incident could have extensive-reaching effects on previously depleted inventories for VW Group brand names in the U.S. With the exception of the Q5, Audi helps make most of its U.S.-bound cars in Europe.

Lamborghini also would have autos on the ship, as does the Volkswagen manufacturer — even though VW’s impression would be minimal to Golfing R and GTI Arteon, and ID4s. TheDrive.com noted on the fire Wednesday, as did the Connected Push.

It’s not the very first time VW Team has dropped goods at sea. When the Grande The usa caught hearth and sank in 2019, above 2,000 luxury cars, such as Audi and Porsche, sank with it.

Urvaksh Karkaria and Bloomberg contributed to this report.