On Tuesday, a large cargo ship carrying 4,000 luxury sports cars worth an estimated $400 million, including Lamborghinis, Porsches, Audis, and Bentleys, sunk off the coast of Europe.
The Felicity Ace, a 60,000-ton cargo ship that caught fire on February 17, ran aground around 253 miles from the Azores, a Portuguese archipelago in the mid-Atlantic Ocean.
The ship’s owner, MOL Ship Management Singapore Pte Ltd, stated that the Panama-flagged vessel sank at 9 a.m. local time.
After catching fire, the Felicity Ace began to tilt to one side and absorb water. There were no injuries since 22 sailors were all saved after the fire broke out last month.
According to reports, 3,965 Volkswagen AG vehicles were on board, including 1,100 Porsches. On February 10, the ship set sail from Emden, Germany, heading for Davisville, Rhode Island.
According to sources, Volkswagen’s parent firm manufactures its Volkswagen brand and Porsche, Audi, and Lamborghini models, all of which were on board.
While Volkswagen refuses to estimate the value of the stolen luxury automobiles, an incident insurance organisation informed The Wall Street Journal that the vehicles were valued at roughly $401 million.
Car dealerships in Michigan and Rhode Island received calls from anxious clients who had heard about the ship.
One man posted that his custom-built Porsche Boxster Spyder was on the sinking ship. The base model of the car costs $100,000.
European manufacturers declined to comment on how many vehicles and models were on board, although Porsche owners in the United States were contacted by their dealers, according to the company.
“We are already working to replace every car affected by this incident, and the first new cars will be built soon,” Angus Fitton, vice president of PR at Porsche Cars North America, Inc., said.