Surprise! Media is misreporting the source of a Dutch cargo ship fire
Early this morning, the Fremantle Highway, a large cargo ship, caught fire in the North Sea, off the coast of Ameland in the Netherlands. The fire has killed one person on board and injured several more, though all 23 crew members have at this point been evacuated from the ship.
The cargo ship was carrying 2,832 gas-powered cars, complete with a large amount of volatile energy stored in their gas tanks, and 25 electric ones, from Germany to Egypt. Naturally, the media seems to have taken one statement from the Dutch Coast Guard and misinterpreted it, jumping to exactly the premature conclusion that you probably did when you saw this headline pop up on our site.
An early article about the cargo ship fire quoted Lea Versteeg, a spokesperson for the Dutch Coast Guard, as having made this statement over the phone:
It’s carrying cars, 2,857, of which 25 are electrical cars, which made the fire even more difficult. It’s not easy to keep that kind of fire under control and even in such a vessel it’s not easy.
We’re not sure who made the phone call, but since it’s in the Associated Press article, we suspect they might be the first who got this statement directly from Versteeg’s mouth.
NOS, the Dutch public broadcaster, cites a “Coast Guard spokesperson” as saying that presumably the fire was started by an EV. But unlike AP, NOS does not name the spokesperson nor does it have a direct quote from said spokesperson. So we really don’t know whether NOS talked to a spokesperson, or is cribbing from the Versteeg quote above – and changing its meaning in the process.
Reuters echoed NOS’s statement in its original article on the fire, but in a more recent article, it has now walked that back, stating “the coastguard said on its website that the cause of the fire was unknown, but a coastguard spokesperson had earlier told Reuters it began near an electric car” (emphasis ours).
But what the Versteeg quote above seems to mean is that in a ship full of vehicles, each of which is carrying their own at least partially full energy storage container (whether that be a gas tank or a battery), it’s going to be hard to put out a fire because there is a lot of fuel available for that fire. Further, given that there is a mix of fuels, it’s hard to pick a single tactic to put all of them out at once, because firefighting methods are different for different types of fires.
What the quote clearly doesn’t mean is that the Coast Guard is blaming this fire on an electric car.
And how do we know that? Well, we called them and asked them. And they told us that, no, they have not made a statement to that effect, because they don’t know the cause of the fire yet, and that this seems to be speculation in the media.
We also checked the Dutch Coast Guard’s liveblog about the firefighting efforts, and their Twitter page, and neither said anything about electric cars. In fact, the liveblog has now been updated to say, “The cause of the fire is still unknown.” And it makes sense that the Coast Guard would not know yet what the source of the fire is, and it would be unprofessional of them to say so, given that the fire isn’t even contained yet.
So we must conclude that this is being misreported. An official statement in writing says the cause is unknown. There is nothing from officials in writing mentioning the speculation about electric cars. We don’t have a direct quote, and we don’t have a name for the spokesman who said it. The misreported information seems like it could have come from a misinterpretation of a direct quote that we do know of, and at least one of the sources has now walked it back. It was confirmed to us over the phone that the Coast Guard has not come to this conclusion and that this is all media speculation.
One thing we do know is that cargo ship fires are not uncommon, with hundreds happening last year. We also know that another cargo ship carrying ~1,200 gas cars (and zero electric) caught fire earlier this month in New Jersey, killing two. And we know that gasoline is literally supposed to combust, that’s its entire purpose, and it does, commonly, since gas cars are several times more likely to catch fire than EVs are.
And yet, you probably have a strong association in your subconscious between fires and electric cars.
This association is why events like the aforementioned reporting on the 1,200-car ship had to specifically mention that “there were no electric cars on board.” Because the last time a ship made headlines for burning, it was one that had a lot of electric cars on board (and notably also several gas-powered Lamborghini Aventadors, which have been recalled for fires). And despite burning ships being a not-uncommon event, this one made so many headlines precisely because of the nature of the electric cars on board.
That event also had several early reports laying blame on said electric cars, but that was also early speculation, by media, never by official authorities, and the cause of that fire is still unclear to this day. But the association remains.
There is a concept in journalism that is summarized as “Man Bites Dog.” The saying goes that you would never report on a dog biting a man, because that’s a common occurrence, but if a man bites a dog, well, that’s interesting and rare, so that belongs in the paper.
What this means is that news tends to magnify rare events, and de-emphasize common ones. And in our media-saturated landscape, where everyone is constantly being bombarded by headlines that they don’t have the time or inclination to analyze (thank you to the ~.1% of people who saw the headline and actually clicked and read through to this sentence), this leads people to have a warped view of the commonality of certain events.
Unfortunately, in writing this article, we have become part of the problem. By posting about fires in an electric vehicle publication, we have created an association in the minds of anyone who sees this headline between electric cars and fires.
Which is why persistent associations like these are so hard to shake. Even the debunking itself can reinforce the association, through a concept known as the “backfire effect.”
Unfortunately, there is no single magic bullet to combat this. What we can do is encourage people to be critical but not cynical about the information you read, check several sources (that preferably do not look like they’re all cribbing from the same single statement), try to avoid sources that are clearly tabloids or have a clear ideological bias (e.g., Daily Mail, a climate denying publication, which wrongly put EVs in its headline on this story), and try to maintain perspective, especially when encountering purported problems with new technologies. (That is, if people bring up a problem with something new, does that problem also exist with the old thing it’s replacing? Have you merely accepted the devil you know, and are afraid of the devil you don’t know?)
And that goes double for journalists. This is your job, that phone call took all of a minute of my time to clear that up. The tweet was another couple minutes to find because I had to search in Dutch. The liveblog was a few minutes because it’s slammed with more traffic than the Dutch Coast Guard usually has to deal with.
None of this took longer than the amount of time it takes to write an article… but it did take longer than it takes to react with a 140-character quip via tweet. And thus, the lie travels halfway around the world while truth is still putting on its shoes.
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Hyundai is the biggest winner from the US and South Korea’s new trade deal, lowering the tariff rate on imported vehicles to 15%.
Hyundai gets a break with lower US tariffs
Hyundai has committed $26 billion toward its US operations, among the biggest of any automaker. Despite this, the automaker has shelled out billions since the Trump administration slapped a 25% tariff on South Korean imports earlier this year.
The Korean auto giant is catching a break after the US and South Korea signed a new trade deal that lowered the tariff rate to 15%.
A notice posted on the Federal Register on Thursday confirmed the rate cut and other adjustments under the new deal.
Hyundai took a 1.8 trillion won ($1.2 billion) hit from the added tariffs in the third quarter, up from just 828 billion won ($565 million) in Q3 2024.
Although it’s a lower rate, bringing it in line with Japan, which announced a similar deal in September, Hyundai will still have to pay billions in extra costs.
“Fifteen percent is still 15%,” Randy Parker, Hyundai North America CEO, told CNBC during an interview this week.
Parker said the tariffs will be a challenge, but Hyundai is aiming for a sixth consecutive record year of US retail sales in 2026.
Hyundai Motor, including Kia and Genesis, is expected to import nearly 1 million vehicles into the US this year, or about 40% of its sales. By 2030, Hyundai aims to have more than 80% of the cars it sells in the US manufactured locally.
Through November, Hyundai has sold nearly 823,000 vehicles in the US, up 8% from the same period in 2024, putting it on pace for its fifth consecutive annual retail sales record. Parker said Hyundai is “on a record pace and fully expect to go ‘5 for 5 in 2025.’”
To offset the loss of the $7,500 federal tax credit, Hyundai has been offering some of the largest discounts on electric vehicles.
The IONIQ 5, which has consistently been a top-selling EV in the US, is among the most affordable options with leases starting at just $189 a month.
Interested in a test drive? We can help you get started. Check out our links below to find Hyundai’s EVs near you.
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Elon Musk has confirmed that Tesla’s Full Self-Driving (Supervised) system now allows drivers to text and drive, though he added a caveat that it depends on the “context of surrounding traffic.”
This comes just a month after the CEO promised the feature was coming, despite the obvious legal and safety concerns surrounding it.
Does the law agree with this?
In a post on X (formerly Twitter) today, Musk responded to a question about whether the latest FSD v14.2.1 update allows for texting and driving. The CEO replied:
“Depending on context of surrounding traffic, yes.”
This confirmation follows a statement Musk made at a shareholder meeting in early November, which we reported on at the time. Back then, Musk claimed that Tesla would “allow you to text and drive” within “a month or two” after looking at safety statistics.
It appears Tesla is moving forward with this timeline, even as FSD remains a Level 2 driver-assist system.
Currently, Tesla’s driver monitoring system uses the cabin camera to track eye movement. If a driver looks down at their phone for too long, the system issues a “pay attention” warning (often called a “nag”) and can eventually disengage the system and issue a “strike.” Five strikes result in a suspension of FSD features.
Musk’s comment suggests that Tesla is relaxing these monitoring parameters in specific scenarios, likely in stop-and-go traffic or at red lights, where the system deems it “safe” for the driver to look away.
However, this doesn’t change the legal reality. As we noted last month, texting and driving is illegal in most jurisdictions, including almost all US states. A software update from Tesla does not supersede state laws.
As we suspected at the time, instead of classifying FSD as a level 3 or 4 system, where Tesla takes responsibility for the vehicles under certain conditions and allow the driver not to pay attention, the automaker is instead simply relazing its driver monitoring rules and leaving it to the driver to take on the risk of texting and driving under its level 2 driver assistance system.
This development also comes amidst a rough few weeks for Tesla’s self-driving credibility. Late last month, Musk finally admitted that no other automakers want to license Tesla FSD, a long-time hope for bulls. Furthermore, we just reported on Tesla hinting at a new camera upgrade, casting more doubt on the promise that current hardware (HW3/HW4) is sufficient for true unsupervised autonomy.
To “allow” texting and driving in a legal sense, Tesla would need to take liability for the vehicle and operate at SAE Level 3 or higher. Since FSD is still “Supervised,” the driver is 100% responsible for the vehicle. If you text and drive because Elon Musk said you could, and you crash or get pulled over, it is entirely on you.
Electrek’s Take
This is another dangerous blurring of the lines by Elon Musk.
Let’s be clear: You cannot legally text and drive just because your car’s CEO says it’s okay “depending on context.” If a police officer sees you looking at your phone, they aren’t going to care what version of FSD you are running.
What Musk really means here is that Tesla is disabling the safety feature that stops you from texting and driving in certain situations. He is removing the “nag” that detects phone use. That doesn’t make it legal, and it certainly doesn’t make it safe in a system that still requires constant supervision.
We have seen this pattern before. Tesla makes the driver monitoring looser to make the system feel more capable than it is, encouraging complacency. With FSD v14.2.1, it seems Tesla is confident enough to let you look at your phone at a red light without yelling at you. That’s a convenience feature at the cost of safety, not a step toward autonomy.
Until Tesla is willing to take liability for the drive, which they absolutely are not doing here, FSD is a Level 2 system. Eyes on the road, folks.
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Environment
Tern’s NYC delivery e-bike fleet crosses 1 million miles, with some bikes rolling past 30k
Urban e-bike maker Tern just hit a major milestone in one of the toughest proving grounds on the planet: New York City. The company announced that its fleet partners have now logged more than one million miles (1.6 million km) using Tern electric cargo bikes for commercial delivery work in the city – a figure that reflects not only enormous demand for e-bike logistics, but also the durability of the hardware behind it.
According to Tern, those same cargo bikes are now completing over 13 million deliveries per year in NYC, making the bright-vested riders pulling Carla Cargo trailers an increasingly familiar sight on Manhattan streets. Many of these rigs have been in near-continuous use since their rollout in 2021, sometimes operating 16 to 20 hours a day during peak periods. In the words of Steve Boyd, Tern’s North America GM, “These bikes get hammered, and they have the scars to prove it… but they’re engineered to keep on grinding away, mile after mile.”
Delivery vans, meet your match
One of the most striking takeaways is how closely e-cargo bike efficiency now mirrors that of traditional delivery vans. Tern reports that some fleets are pulling 300-pound (136 kg) loads and hitting 360 deliveries per day, averaging more than 22 deliveries per hour.
That puts these pedal-assist workhorses squarely in van territory – but with far lower operating costs, zero tailpipe emissions, and a much smaller footprint on crowded city streets.
NYC as the ultimate torture test
New York’s harsh winter freeze, summer heat, potholes, and relentless usage have turned the city into a stress test for every part of these bikes. Tern says that some individual units have already surpassed 30,000 miles (48,000 km) while remaining fully operational, with key components like frames and forks showing no failures. And unlike many purpose-built commercial machines that rely on proprietary parts, Tern emphasizes serviceability – most components can be maintained or replaced quickly using standard tools and off-the-shelf parts.
The Bosch motor systems powering the fleet have also held up under extreme use. According to the company, motor failures are rare, batteries continue delivering consistent performance well beyond their rated life, and Bosch’s service network has proven fast and reliable when issues do arise.
Charging at scale – safely
Operating a fleet of cargo bikes in NYC means charging hundreds of batteries every day, often simultaneously. Tern highlights that long before New York mandated UL-certified e-bikes, the company already equipped its commercial bikes exclusively with UL 2849-certified Bosch systems. After hundreds of thousands of charge cycles in dense depot environments, Tern reports zero thermal incidents across the entire fleet.
From delivery fleets to families
While these systems are clearly built to withstand commercial punishment, Tern notes that this is the same hardware sold through its consumer dealers. “Running sixteen hours a day and racking up more than ten thousand miles a year is exactly the kind of performance that shows we designed, tested, and built the bike right,” Boyd said.
That’s huge, since generally speaking, we usually see commercial bikes produced separately from consumer models, but Tern applies its same high standards to all of its bikes.
Electrek’s Take
It’s hard to find a harsher testbed than NYC delivery work. If a cargo bike can survive 20-hour days hauling 300-pound loads over Manhattan potholes, it can survive your grocery runs. What we’re really seeing here is proof that commercial e-bike logistics are scaling, are durable, and are beating vans at their own game in dense cities.
Part of that is due to the advantages of the two-wheeled model, and part of it is due to the extremely high standards to which Tern produces its bikes. I definitely feel better than ever recommending these things when someone asks me about a bike built for the long term. Sure, you pay more. But you also get more.
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