Thousands of luxury cars are stranded in the Atlantic when a ship catches fire

On Wednesday afternoon, a cargo ship carrying tens of thousands of luxury cars from the Volkswagen Group, including Porsche, Lamborghini, and Audi, caught fire near the Azores islands in the Atlantic Ocean. The cargo ship was left drifting and unmanned in the ocean while the 22 crew members were successfully evacuated.

When the catastrophe struck, the ship, named ‘The Felicity Ace,’ was on its way to the port of Davisville in the US state of Rhode Island. The crew members were escorted to a local hotel by the Portuguese Navy and Air Force, which had been dispatched to assist with the rescue effort, according to news agency Bloomberg.

Bloomberg claimed that 3,965 Volkswagen AG automobiles are on board the ship, citing an internal communication from Volkswagen’s US division.

The group’s headquarters are in Wolfsburg, Germany, and it makes Volkswagen, as well as Porsche, Audi, and Lamborghini — all of which were in tow when the ship caught fire, according to the email.

According to the email, over 100 of those cars were bound for the Port of Houston in Texas, with GTI, Golf R, and ID.4 versions believed to be at risk.

According to Luke Vandezande, a Porsche spokesperson, the business thinks that roughly 1,100 of its vehicles were on board Felicity Ace at the time of the incident. Customers impacted by the issue, he added, are being contacted by their car dealerships.

“Our first thoughts are of relief that the 22 crew members of the Felicity Ace commercial ship are safe and sound,” Vandezande stated.

On social media, some customers expressed their dissatisfaction. His custom-spec’d Porsche Boxter Spyder was among the outgoing goods, according to a Twitter user. The vehicle’s standard variants start at roughly $99,650.