In late February the Felicity Ace car carrier sank, along with its cargo of 3828 automobiles – among which were several rare and irreplaceable vehicles.
Pictured: Grimaldi lines RoRo ferry, which too suffered a similar fate in February following a fire on-board.
On route from Emden, Germany, to the port of Davisville in Rhode Island, the 60,000-ton ship sank as a result of a fire 220 nautical miles off the Azores region of Portugal, and now rests 3000m below the surface. The cause of the fire is unknown.
All 22 crew members were rescued and airlifted to safety. The same can’t be said for nearly 4000 vehicles aboard the ship.
A number of the vehicles were electric, including models from Volkswagen and Audi, something that may have made the fire more difficult to control.
Fires involving lithium-ion batteries are particularly difficult to extinguish.
The Felicity Ace was carrying mostly Volkswagen Group vehicles which encompasses the likes of Porsche, Audi, Bentley, and Lamborghini.
The ship’s manifest confirms the specifics of makes and models that were on board at the time of the 200 metre vessel’s demise. A quick search of the publicly available manifest on ImportInfo reveals the information of the vehicles on board.
Most notable and expensive entries on the list include 20 Lamborghini Huracans, 15 final edition “Ultimae” Lamborghini Aventadors (which the factory has committed to re-making even though the production line had been closed down), and 50 Urus SUVs.
There were also 1194 Audis including over 100 e-trons, and 190 Bentleys which accounts for nearly 10 per cent of all Bentley sales in the USA.
Porsche lost 1117 cars including Cayennes, Panameras and Macans, and Volkswagen saw 523 vehicles lost to the depths of the ocean.
The full manifest in a more user friendly format is included below, along with the owners of the vehicles.
| Consignee Name | Vehicle |
|---|---|
| PRIVATE | 2017 VOLKSWAGEN JETTA |
| PRIVATE | 2007 BMW 750I |
| PRIVATE | USED VEHICLE 1996 HONDA PRELUDE |
| PRIVATE | USED VEHICLE 2018 NISSAN VERSA NOTE |
| PRIVATE | USED VEHICLE 2014 KIA SOUL |
| PRIVATE | USED VEHICLE 2015 PORSCHE CAYENNE |
| PRIVATE | USED VEHICLE 2015 FORD MUSTANG |
| JB TRACTORS | USED TRACTORS + ACCESSORIES |
| VOLKSWAGEN GROUP OF AMERICA INC. | TEST VW 5 VW ID.4 |
| VOLKSWAGEN GROUP OF AMERICA INC. | TEST VW VW TAIGO |
| VOLKSWAGEN GROUP OF AMERICA INC. | 83 CD1 VW GOLF 38 E21 VW ID4 |
| VOLKSWAGEN GROUP OF AMERICA INC. | 50 AUDI Q3 3 AUDI A5 CABRIO 44 AUDI A5 SPORTBACK 10 AUDI A5 COUPE 13 AUDI E-TRON 9 AUDI E-TRON SPORTBACK 21 AUDI E-TRON |
| BENTLEY MOTORS INC. | 3 BENTLEY CONTINENTAL FLYING SPUR 6 BENTLEY CONTINENTAL GT 4 BENTLEY CONTINENTAL GTC 12 BENTLEY BENTAYGA |
| PORSCHE CARS NORTH AMERICA INC. | 23 PORSCHE ZUFFENHAUSEN 85 ” 19 PORSCHE LEIPZIG 62 ” 126 PORSCHE BRATISLAVA |
| AUTOMOBILI LAMBORGHINI USA LLC | 5 LAMBORGHINI HURACAN 6 LAMBORGHINI AVENTADOR 10 LAMBORGHINI URUS |
| PORSCHE CARS NORTH AMERICA INC. | 25 PORSCHE ZUFFENHAUSEN |
| VOLKSWAGEN GROUP OF AMERICA | 95 CD1 VW GOLF 10 E21 VW ID4 |
| VOLKSWAGEN GROUP OF AMERICA INC. | 3 AUDI TT 121 AUDI Q3 21 AUDI A5 CABRIO 17 AUDI A5 SPORTBACK 6 AUDI A5 COUPE 32 AUDI E-TRON 21 AUDI E-TRON SPORTBACK |
| BENTLEY MOTORS INC. | 17 BENTLEY CONTINENTAL FLYING SPUR 19 BENTLEY CONTINENTAL GT 28 BENTLEY CONTINENTAL GTC 40 BENTLEY BENTAYGA |
| PORSCHE CARS NORTH AMERICA INC. | 40 PORSCHE ZUFFENHAUSEN 22 ” 36 PORSCHE LEIPZIG 79 ” 1 PORSCHE BRATISLAVA 74 “ |
| AUTOMOBILI LAMBORGHINI USA LLC | 15 LAMBORGHINI HURACAN 9 LAMBORGHINI AVENTADOR 37 LAMBORGHINI URUS |
| PORSCHE CARS NORTH AMERICA INC. | 21 PORSCHE ZUFFENHAUSEN |
| PRIVATE | MINI COUNTRYMAN |
| PORSCHE CARS NORTH AMERICA, INC. | UNPACKED TOURIST VEHICLE PORSCHE 718 BOXSTER GTS 4.0 |
| PRIVATE | USED TRUCK MAN TGM 18.250 |
| PRIVATE | USED POV 1977 LAND ROVER SANTANA SERIES 3 109 |
| VOLKSWAGEN DE MEXICO, S.A. DE C.V. | 1 AUDI TT 23 AUDI Q3 23 AUDI Q3 SPORTBACK 9 AUDI A5 SPORTBACK 2 AUDI A5 COUPE 1 AUDI E-TRON GT 1 AUDI Q2 |
| VOLKSWAGEN DE MEXICO, S.A. DE C.V. | 27 SBH CADDY 20 SBJ CADDY 91 SHH VW T6 PA 10 SHJ VW T6 PA 15 SJL VW T6 PA |
| VOLKSWAGEN DE MEXICO S.A. DE C.V. | 7 PORSCHE ZUFFENHAUSEN 16 PORSCHE LEIPZIG – CAYENNE + MACAN + PANAMERA 7 PORSCHE BRATISLAVA – CAYENNE |
| VOLKSWAGEN DE MEXICO S.A. DE C.V. | 3 SEAT ATECA AUTOMOBILES |
| DB IMPORTS MEXICO SA DE CV | 3 LAMBORGHINI URUS |
| VOLKSWAGEN GROUP OF AMERICA INC. | 21 VW GOLF 144 E21ID.4 |
| VOLKSWAGEN GROUP OF AMERICA INC. | 3 AUDI TT 1 AUDI TT ROADSTER 224 AUDI Q3 60 AUDI A5 CABRIO 77 AUDI A5 SPORTBACK 15 AUDI A5 COUPE 25 AUDI E-TRON |
| BENTLEY MOTORS INC. | 2 BENTLEY CONTINENTAL FLYING SPUR 9 BENTLEY CONTINENTAL GT 14 BENTLEY CONTINENTAL GTC 16 BENTLEY BENTAYGA |
| PORSCHE CARS NORTH AMERICA INC. | 44 PORSCHE ZUFFENHAUSEN 69 ” 78 PORSCHE LEIPZIG 158 ” 138 PORSCHE BRATISLAVA 9 “ |
| BENTLEY MOTORS INC. | 3 BENTLEY CONTINENTAL FLYING SPUR 4 BENTLEY CONTINENTAL GT 3 BENTLEY CONTINENTAL GTC 9 BENTLEY BENTAYGA |
| PORSCHE CARS NORTH AMERICA INC. | 6 PORSCHE ZUFFENHAUSEN 1 PORSCHE LEIPZIG |
There were also a handful of privately owned vehicles including an uninsured Honda Prelude said to be the 65th ever produced, as reported by the apparent owner.
Total damage costs for all the vehicles have been estimated to be in excess of A$459 million.
This is just one more unprecedented issue to add to the seemingly never ending list of delays that has plagued the automotive industry over the past two years.
To give an insight into these monster haulers, below is a video of a tour of the Grand Race vehicle transporter, taken last year by Youtube channel “JDM Right Hand Drive”.
