One of the world’s largest shipping companies has confirmed it will stop carrying used electric vehicles including those coming to New Zealand. 

In response to questions from AutoTalk, Japan operated Mitsui OSK Lines (MOL) says the decision was made from a “safety point of view”. 

“MOL has acceptance standards for used vehicles, and only those that meet these standards are accepted for booking,” MOL spokesperson Atsushi Hara says. 

“For ICE (internal combustion engines), we accept used cars operating under its own power and safety can be confirmed by physical check( oil leakage etc).

“For used BEV (battery electric vehicles), it is difficult to check the condition of battery in each vehicle although the cars are operating under its own power and physical check could be carried out. 

“The number of used EVs we transport has been increasing recently, we have decided to review our standards for accepting used vehicles and have decided to suspend accepting booking of used BEVs for the time being,” Hara says. 

MOL had already emailed a notice to clients saying it was ending shipments of secondhand EVs such as the Nissan Leaf from Japan although this won’t apply to hybrids or plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs).

Mitsui operates roll-on/roll-off vessels which visit New Zealand.

It also operated the Felicity Ace which made global headlines when it caught fire in February this year and then capsized and sank in early March about 400 kilometres off Portugal’s Azores Islands.

It had been carrying nearly 4000 vehicles from various Volkswagen Group brands including fully battery electric models all estimated to be worth around US$400 million.

It was possible the lithium-ion batteries complicated firefighting efforts although what caused the fire has not been confirmed.

Autohub chief executive Frank Willett says his company, which specialises in vehicle importing, won’t be overly affected if MOL stops carrying used EVs. 

Willett says he is trying to get a straight answer out of MOL representatives on their policy. 

“Since the release of a notice from MOL Japan regarding the cessation of shipping used EVs from Japan to NZ, I have had numerous calls from our customers concerned about the shipping of their used EVs.

“This supposed stance taken by MOL will not affect any vehicles being shipped through Autohub. 

“Autohub uses multiple shipping lines and any prohibitive policy taken by a shipping line can be accommodated by switching which line ships the vehicles.

“We have had recent experience with such a thing when shipping lines took different stances on issues, and we simply changed shipping lines/ports of loading to accommodate.

“Our focus is always on what we can do to best serve our customers in New Zealand,” Willett says. 

Other shipping services Armacup Maritime Services and Toyofuji Shipping NZ have confirmed they will continue bringing battery EVs (BEVs) and plug-in hybrids (PHEVs) to New Zealand.