EMSA's Recommendations After Fremantle Highway
After Fremantle Highway, EMSA's AFV guidance (updated 2025) sets 20–50% state of charge and ship risk assessment; the Dutch inquiry focused on rescue.
The European Maritime Safety Agency's main instrument on vehicle fires is not a post-Fremantle Highway package but its Guidance on the Carriage of Alternative Fuel Vehicles in Ro-Ro Spaces, first published in May 2022 and amended as version 1.2 in April 2025. It recommends a ship-specific risk assessment and procedure for alternative-fuel vehicles and, on PCTCs, a state of charge of 20 to 50%. The Dutch Safety Board's inquiry into Fremantle Highway, published in May 2025, looked at the rescue rather than the ship.
What does EMSA's guidance recommend?
A risk-based approach, applied ship by ship. The guidance is addressed to administrations and industry, can be applied to new and existing ships, and asks for a risk assessment of each ship covering the risks alternative-fuel vehicles pose to people aboard, the environment and the ship. The result should be a ship-specific procedure, carried aboard, for preventing and mitigating fires involving those vehicles. For battery-electric vehicles on PCTCs it recommends a state of charge between 20 and 50%, a figure several carriers have since written into booking conditions.
What did the Dutch Safety Board find?
That the emergency response around the ship was not properly organised. The fire was reported just before midnight on 25 July 2023 off Ameland, and the Board found that assistance was slow to materialise: calls were not properly prioritised, the organisations involved did not work together, and the priority went to firefighting without aerial support to judge how severe the fire was. A Coastguard aircraft with thermal imaging did not reach the ship until about 02:00. Seven crew jumped some 30 metres into the water and one died. The Board's recommendations concern the Dutch North Sea incident-response system and information sharing between the Coastguard Centre and its partners.
What is EMSA doing beyond the guidance?
Building evidence. EMSA commissioned the STARRS study, run by Bureau Veritas and RISE, to produce fire-test evidence for electric and alternative-fuel vehicles on ro-ro ships, and it supports EU member states in IMO work on the vehicle-carrier fire package. At IMO the package is at interim-guideline stage, with SOLAS amendments for PCTCs no earlier than 2032, so EMSA guidance and class notations are the practical standard in the meantime.
What does this mean for operators calling EU ports?
That the guidance is the benchmark EU administrations and insurers will measure against, even though it is not binding. Operators can expect questions about a ship-specific AFV risk assessment and procedure, and about state-of-charge controls at booking and loading.
- Hold a ship-specific risk assessment and fire procedure for alternative-fuel vehicles, as the guidance recommends.
- Document the state-of-charge policy and how it is checked at the terminal.
- Plan with coastal states and salvors for a fire near shore, where the Fremantle Highway response showed the delays happen.
How RoRoSAFE helps
EMSA's direction is toward ship-specific risk management and earlier detection on vehicle decks. RoRoSAFE lets an owner act on that now, EU-flagged or not. It adds per-vehicle thermal and gas sensing that alerts before visible smoke, installed alongside the berth without drydock. It holds no class type approval yet.
Pilot: one deck · installed alongside the berth · no drydock · 6 months of dashboard access
Sources
- 1. EMSA — 'Guidance on the Carriage of Alternative Fuel Vehicles in Ro-Ro Spaces', May 2022, amended April 2025 (version 1.2): ship-specific risk assessment and procedure; state of charge between 20% and 50% for vehicles on PCTCs; applicable to new and existing ships.
- 2. Dutch Safety Board (Onderzoeksraad voor Veiligheid) — 'Emergency assistance Fremantle Highway', May 2025: slow assistance, prioritisation and coordination failures, Coastguard aircraft with thermal imaging on scene around 02:00; recommendations on the North Sea incident-response system. Reported by Maritime Executive and IIMS.
- 3. EMSA — Safe Transport of Alternative Fuel Vehicles on Ro-Ro Ships (STARRS) study, Bureau Veritas and RISE. As analysed in 'What Is EMSA's STARRS Study on RoRo EV Fire?'.
- 4. DNV — 'IMO Sub-Committee on Ship Systems and Equipment (SSE 12)', March 2026: vehicle-carrier interim guidelines first, SOLAS amendments no earlier than 2032.
Questions, answered
What did EMSA recommend after the Fremantle Highway fire?+
EMSA's main instrument is its Guidance on the Carriage of Alternative Fuel Vehicles in Ro-Ro Spaces, first published in May 2022 and amended in April 2025. It recommends a ship-specific risk assessment and fire procedure for these vehicles and, on PCTCs, a state of charge of 20 to 50% for electric vehicles.
What state of charge does EMSA recommend for EVs on car carriers?+
Between 20% and 50% for vehicles carried on PCTCs. Several carriers have written a similar limit into their booking conditions, though there is still no binding international requirement.
What did the Dutch Safety Board conclude about Fremantle Highway?+
Its May 2025 report found the emergency response was not properly organised: calls were not prioritised, organisations did not work together, and a thermal-imaging Coastguard aircraft only reached the ship around 02:00. Seven crew jumped some 30 metres into the water and one died. Its recommendations target the Dutch North Sea response system.
Is EMSA's AFV guidance binding?+
No. It is guidance to EU administrations and industry, applicable to new and existing ships. In practice it is the benchmark EU authorities and insurers use while the IMO vehicle-carrier fire package, at interim-guideline stage, works toward SOLAS amendments no earlier than 2032.
Continue the thread
Fremantle Highway — Anatomy of a Late Rescue
The Dutch Safety Board's 2025 report on the Fremantle Highway blamed the rescue, not the cars: seven crew jumped ~30 m and one died.
What Port State Control Checks on Decks
Fire safety was the leading deficiency area in the Paris MoU's 2025 report, and a 2026 campaign targets cargo securing. What PSC checks on a vehicle deck.
NTSB & USCG Post-Casualty Recommendations
The NTSB's car-carrier recommendations come from Höegh Xiamen and Grande Costa d'Avorio: battery disconnection, restoring detection, and port firefighting.