Day Ruined: The Cars That Sank With The Felicity Ace Cargo Ship

When the Felicity Ace cargo ship sank in March 2022, it took with it over $438 million worth of goods with it. Including Audi, Volkswagen and Porsche cars.

First things first, when the Felicity Ace cargo ship caught fire in March 2022, the entire 22-man crew abandoned the ship and were picked up by the Portuguese Navy. And thankfully, they all survived, which is the most important thing. However, the same cannot be said for the vehicles onboard the Felicity Ace after they burnt to a crisp when a fire broke out and then sank to the bottom of the ocean with the ship after it capsized.

A lot of the cars on the ship belonged to VAG (Volkswagen Automobile Group), which was another low blow to VW after being hit by the worldwide chip shortage crisis and then the Ukraine invasion by Russia, which caused some factories to close. 

The manifest has now been published and it confirms the exact numbers of what was lost on board the Felicity Ace. And it's definitely not something any Audi, Volkswagen or Porsche fan wants to see. 

The good thing is that if you were a UK-based based customer and were expecting any of the vehicles on this list - none of them were yours, as the Felicity Ace was bound for Davisville, Rhode Island in America. However, we still feel gutted for the customers over in the US that had their cars sink to the bottom of the ocean.

Vehicles that were confirmed on board

This data was taken from the Topgear.nl website. All of these cars were brand new vehicles unless they have a date next to them that indicated they were used.

The total amount of vehicles lost

Audi lost the most with 846 vehicles sinking with the ship. Porsche saw 580 cars lost under the sea and Volkswagen had 523 vehicles go under. Volkswagen lost a huge amount of Transporter T6 vans too, which is a big hit to VAG as vans typically in the past few months have had 12 month+ factory-build times. SEAT lost 3 Ateca SUVs too and these are a fan favourite to lease here at Stable.

The exact number of Porsche cars destroyed hasn't been published. But we know that a total of 580 Porsche cars were destroyed which included the Porsche Cayenne, Macan and Panamera. As well as one customers modified 2015 Porsche Cayenne.

83 Lamborghini's were destroyed, which brings a tear to our eyes, as it should do any car enthusiast. But some more notable cars were lost including the 65th Honda Prelude SiR built back in the 90s. A customer lost a 1977 Land Rover Santana. Someone lost a fancy Porsche 718 Boxster GTS 4.0 and some other customer cars including a modified 2019 Mini Countryman, a 2018 Nissan Versa Note, a 2007 BMW 750i and a 2014 Kia Soul.

While material possessions can be replaced and no loss of human life was caused by the fire or sinking, it's still a sad day to see so many cars ending up at the bottom of the ocean. It's made even worse when you think about how the most recent chip shortages and other events have caused car production to crawl to a halt, meaning any cars that actually do get produced have been insanely lucky to get to that point.

A terrible situation all around for everyone involved. The ship's crew, the customers of the vehicles and the ocean life that will potentially get poisoned by the vehicles which now belong to the sea.