The Ship Carrying Electric Vehicles Sank into the Depths of the Pacific After the Fire

A cargo ship carrying new vehicles to Mexico, chartered by a subsidiary of Chinese automaker SAIC Motor, sank in the North Pacific Ocean weeks after the crew was forced to abandon ship when they failed to extinguish an onboard fire.

The 600-foot-long vessel, built in 2006 and flying the Liberian flag, was transporting a total of 3,159 vehicles, including 65 fully electric vehicles and 681 partial hybrid electric vehicles. Its fuel stores included approximately 350 metric tons of gas fuel and 1,530 metric tons of very low sulfur fuel oil.

London-based Zodiac Maritime reported that the ship, named Morning Midas, sank at approximately 4:35 p.m. local time on Monday, June 23, 2025, in international waters off Alaska’s Aleutian Islands chain. The vessel went down at a depth of about 5,000 meters, approximately 360 nautical miles from land.

The U.S. Coast Guard said it received a distress alert on June 3 about a fire onboard the Morning Midas, which at the time was roughly 490 km southwest of Adak Island. After unsuccessful firefighting efforts, all 22 crew members were rescued without injury by the nearby container ship COSCO Hellas.

This incident follows a deadly 2023 fire aboard a ship carrying 3,000 vehicles — nearly 500 of them electric — from Germany to Singapore. The blaze, which lasted for a week, resulted in one death and multiple injuries, prompting the Dutch Safety Board to call for improvements in emergency response systems for maritime transport.

The Morning Midas case highlights the urgent need for new safety standards in the transportation of electric vehicles. The industry must be equipped with fire prevention and suppression systems specifically designed for EV battery fires. Without such measures, similar incidents are likely to become more frequent.