News

 

A directive from the Ministry of the Merchant Navy, which has been in force since April 16, has prompted Greek shipping companies to impose new requirements for electric cars on ferries. This in turn refers to a study by the European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA), an EU authority. It applies to ferry connections between Greece and Italy, as well as to all connections within Greece. For example, between Piraeus and the Cyclades islands or Crete. The regulation stipulates that vehicles may not be more than 40% loaded. This is checked by the employees on the ferry via the car's display. If the battery is fully charged or more than 40%, the vehicles are rejected and not transported. Restrictions also apply to the transportation of vehicles with natural gas or liquid gas fuel. Their tanks may only be 50% full. The background to this is the allegedly higher risk of burning. However, it has not been proven that they burn faster than a car with a combustion engine, for example. Only the extinguishing process is more difficult with electric cars. The ADAC therefore argues that it makes much more sense to train ship crews so that they can properly fight fires involving electric vehicles. In addition, the ship's crews are to check the tanks for leaks and measure the battery temperature of electric cars before embarkation. A Norwegian shipping company already took this step last year and no longer allowed electric vehicles on its ferries. The problem with the Greek situation, however, is that the e-vehicles are then taken along, but are not fully charged for a long time, so that there would have to be sufficient charging stations at the destination, and this is not the case in Greece. There are only around 2000 public charging points on the mainland. On the islands, the supply is even sparser. There are only 40 charging points on the whole of Crete, just seven on Rhodes and three on the island of Chios. Word of the new transportation regulations has not yet spread everywhere, neither among locals nor among foreign car tourists. This is problematic because drivers of e-cars and hybrids are turned back every day if their battery is too fully charged. Overall, the situation is still not very practicable, especially due to the very time-consuming on-board checks. It is therefore not certain whether this is the final measure.

 

Source: Pixabay/ port-8016311_1280