Canada issues safety bulletin on safe transportation of electric vehicles (EVs) on Canadian ferries

Transport Canada has issued a ship safety bulletin SSB No. 04/2024: Guidelines to safely transport electric vehicles on Canadian ferries.

This bulletin was published on 18 January 2024.

Purpose:

This bulletin highlights information about the carriage of electric vehicles (EVs) on ferries.

Scope:

This bulletin applies to Canadian ferries.

What you need to know:

EVs are becoming more common in Canada. While EVs are not more prone to fires than vehicles with an internal combustion engine, EV fires require special procedures as the fires can burn hotter, last longer, and are more likely to re-ignite once extinguished.

Available guidelines:

The International Maritime Organization is developing guidance for the carriage of EVs on passenger vessels.

Until those guidelines are published, Transport Canada strongly recommends that ferry operators use existing operational guidance and firefighting procedures targeting EVs and take steps to train crew on how to deal with these types of fires on-board their vessels.

The guidance documents listed in this document include information about EV fires on vessels.

For more information, please see the document below (available only to subscribers):

Guidelines to safely transport electric vehicles on Canadian ferries