I am not too surprised how certain people simply do not understand how this car carrier fire event effects certain type of EV battery production in the DRC, or the world and thereby AVZ. Fucking amazing.What I am trying to say is that in future to be able to ship EV's the battery design has to be safer, ie progressing to solid state batteries is a natural progression.
Not only from the point of performance, but also from the point of safety.
I haven't bought an EV as yet, simply in my eyes the performance for me doesn't meet what I want from a car.
But that is not the issue here.
The issue here is safety and people will be forced to do things safer.
Yes solid state batteries are more expensive, still in early stage.
However Insurance companies are in future not going to cover car carriers full with cars with lithium ion batteries, the way it is done at this very moment. It is obvious that this will happen.
Same thing happened in 70's after a couple of tanker explosions and investigations, made people realise what was going on.
The result was that Inert Gas Systems became a standard piece of kit on tankers, to be used to maintain a positive inert atmosphere in the cargo tanks. Being it a lean or rich atmosphere, but outside of the explosive range, especially during certain operations.
Insurance companies simply will not cover ships, if the risk is too high.
Government regulations go hand in hand with Insurance Companies' rules.
ABS, Lloyds and DNV insurance companies' rules are in general stricter than Government rules.
Something similar will happen with Car Carriers and Car Ferries.
Cars on trains being transported through tunnels, like the Chunnel will be looked at in the same light.
Incidents/accidents do happen.
People learn to walk by falling and discovering that that hurts, at the end of the day it is better not to fall.
Btw the car carrier had according to the latest news 500 EV's on board, not 26 as first was reported, so the bloody thing will burn slightly longer.
To expect that the DRC is going to produce a couple of million of EV cars with lithium-ion batteries per year, after the current events and ship them all over the world may be should don their thinking caps.
Maybe one day people understand that the DRC expects that they want a mining company to produce batteries and/or EV's.
Nigel clearly said AVZ is in the business of mining, not car, or battery manufacturing.
On top of that, the haphazard wielding of a policy axe in a way, that even the DRC population say wtf, this is not according to our mining law.
I cannot see anybody with a sane mind to be prepared to invest a cent in the DRC.