The fire on the Morning Midas and its eventual sinking with over 3,000 vehicles on board will cost the shipping and auto industries an estimated $560 million USD, according to the Anderson Economic Group.

The cargo ship was carrying 3,048 Chinese vehicles en route to Mexico, including some 750 hybrid and all-electric vehicles. 

According to the ship's managing company, Zodiac Maritime, the first sign of the incident was smoke sighted on the ship's deck. The cause of the fire remains uncertain.

Data shows that electric vehicles are actually less prone to fires than are gas-engine vehicles. On the other hand, when they do catch fire, the blaze is more difficult to bring under control.

This is the third vessel carrying electric vehicles to be severely damaged or to sink in just over three years, after the Felicity Ace in February 2022 and the Fremantle in July 2023. The cost of those incidents is estimated at $1.8 billion USD, again according to Anderson Economic Group.

As Automotive News reports, the estimates do not include downstream commercial losses, medical expenses, ship replacement or an environmental clean-up plan, said Patrick Anderson, CEO of Anderson Economic Group.

"This is a huge cost and another resounding warning to the industry about the risks of transporting electric vehicles inside closed containers," Anderson added.

Captain Randall Lund, a senior marine risk consultant at Allianz Commercial, told Automotive News that “when it comes to transporting electric vehicles, there's always a risk of fire, explosion or thermal runaway. Even if an electric vehicle isn't the cause of a fire, it increases the risk of it becoming disastrous. And if a fire does break out, there's little the ship's crew can do. They are not professional firefighters.”

"Better monitoring systems and greater spacing between electric vehicles could help control incidents," added Randall Lund. "But all of this assumes there's a crew to do the work, and as ship sizes increase, crew sizes aren't keeping up. It's a daunting task.” In his view, the industry needs to work with manufacturers to help them "understand that they may not be able to ship 400 electric vehicles at once."

This latest incident could compel the auto industry to adjust.