Many readers will recall the shocking scenes as the Felicity Ace car carrier burnt off the coast of Portugal in 2022.
Felicity Ace was a 60,000 tonne roll-on/roll-off cargo ship (Pure Car/Truck Carrier) built by Shin Kurushima Dockyard in 2005.
It was owned and operated by Mitsui O.S.K. Lines of Japan, and the ship was registered in Panama.
She caught fire in February, 2022 south of the Azores, while transporting vehicles from Germany to the USA.
The ship then capsized and sank in early March with a cargo worth more than $400 million.
The fire is alleged to have been ignited by a malfunctioning electric vehicle and led to the Felicity Ace sinking in the Atlantic Ocean on March 2, with the loss of 3956 VW Group vehicles, including approximately 1100 new Porsches, 189 Bentleys and several Lamborghinis.
Porsche lost 1117 cars on the ship, Audi claimed a loss of 1944 vehicles, Volkswagen lost 561, Bentley lost 189 and Lamborghini lost 85 cars.
In addition to numerous family vehicles, including Volkswagen ID.4 and Audi e-tron electric cars, the ship carried 15 high performance Lamborghini Aventador LP 780-4 Ultimae vehicles, with an estimated retail price above US$500,000 each.
The Ultimae was the last edition of the Aventador to be produced, and at the time of the accident, Aventador production had ended.
The ship also carried some privately-owned cars and trucks of varying makes and models along with numerous tractors.
Now Volkswagen is being sued by both the owners and insurers of the Felicity Ace over the fire and loss of the ship.
In a report published by Bloomberg, it is claimed the fire originated in a lithium-ion battery beling to a Porsche model.
It claimed that VW failed to inform the owners and insurers of the danger and necessary precautions to transport such vehicles.
Reports suggest that the overall loss could be as high as $US438 million ($AU667 million).
Insurer Allianz has cited the fire risk posed by electric vehicles and claimed fires are one of the main causes of maritime insurance claims.
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