I think that one of the main design flaws that causes or exaccerbates vehicle fire is fuel storage tanks / containers or transfer pipes/conduits are often located in areas that are poorly insulated against outside heat sources and do not have decent heat shielding and/or active or passive cooling facilities.
It was one of the problems with the first generation Nissan Leaf as far as I remember, though more of a problem in hotter countries. Similarly with the spontaneous combustion of Lambos and other hypercars. Cars with high use of aluminium or magnesium parts (as well as lithium in batteries) will make it even worse because once alight, they are far more difficult to put out.
Whether the tightly-packed nature of cars being transported on that container ship and the possible lack of cooling ventilation made a reasonable difference, I don't know. I also recall those old 'bendy buses' previously ran in London often catching fire, though I'm not sure whether they were just diesel-powered, or used either hyrodgen or natural gas.
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