Hyperdrive

Volkswagen Faces Pair of Lawsuits Over Claim Porsche EV Battery Sparked Ship Fire

  • Carmaker sued by Mitsui, Allianz over 2022 incident at sea
  • Suit claims fire originated from a Porsche lithium-ion battery
The Felicity Ace cargo ship off the coast of Portugal in 2022.Source: Portuguese Navy
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Volkswagen AG faces a pair of lawsuits in Germany over claims it was the battery in a Porsche electric vehicle that triggered the 2022 fire onboard a massive cargo ship that eventually sank with thousands of cars on board.

One of the suits was filed in a court in Stuttgart where VW’s Porsche unit is based. The case was brought by half a dozen plaintiffs, including Mitsui OSK Lines Ltd., the ship’s operator, and Allianz SE, one of the insurers of the vessel, according to a spokesman for the tribunal.