Specifics of transporting electric vehicles

Specifics of transporting electric and hybrid vehicles

All vehicles equipped with lithium battery packs (including hybrid cars) must be transported as dangerous goods, and when shipping them certain requirements must be met:

• When booking space on a ship, the cargo must be declared as dangerous.
• After the container is loaded, the dangerous goods must be declared without fail. The documentation must specify the hazard class, the level of toxicity, flammability, etc., and confirmation of the declaration's accuracy must be obtained from the shipping line.

The shipping lines have introduced heavy fines for shippers who do not fully comply with the requirements:

• Cosco fines a shipper $20,000 for a missing declaration or an incorrectly completed one.
• Hapag's fine is $15,000
• Maersk will have to pay $5,000.

We regret to state that, in view of this situation, we are also forced to raise the cost of shipping hybrids and electric cars from the USA.