closing tag is in template navbar
timefactors watches



TZ-UK Fundraiser
Results 1 to 32 of 32

Thread: Flooding and electric cars.....?

  1. #1
    Craftsman
    Join Date
    Jan 2014
    Location
    Thirsk, North Yorks
    Posts
    265

    Flooding and electric cars.....?

    The pictures of the flooding in many areas due to storm Dennis are awful and it must be difficult for lots of people.

    I just wondered how electric cars react in these conditions - particularly the batteries - are they volatile if they are subject to water ingress...?

  2. #2
    Master
    Join Date
    May 2011
    Location
    By the TOLL Road
    Posts
    4,987
    Blog Entries
    1
    Good question, and as most electric cars have the batteries stored in the floor, what’s happens should you drive through deep water.

  3. #3
    Master reggie747's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2013
    Location
    The Mersey Riviera
    Posts
    7,184
    Quote Originally Posted by hilly10 View Post
    Good question, and as most electric cars have the batteries stored in the floor, what’s happens should you drive through deep water.
    I'd imagine they'd simply conk out with a fizzzzzing sound

  4. #4
    Nothing could possibly go wrong...
    Although no trees were harmed during the creation of this post, a large number of electrons were greatly inconvenienced.

  5. #5
    Master
    Join Date
    Mar 2016
    Location
    Mendips
    Posts
    3,159
    Great, now they'll all be hiking their prices based on their ISO rating and whether they can put 'Divers' on the boot. Why buy the Tesla P85D with 600m WR when the P90D comes with a cool 1000m WR.

  6. #6
    Grand Master oldoakknives's Avatar
    Join Date
    Sep 2012
    Location
    United Kingdom
    Posts
    20,042
    Blog Entries
    1
    Perhaps they would act like a giant kettle and boil the occupants......................they might not though....
    Started out with nothing. Still have most of it left.

  7. #7
    Craftsman
    Join Date
    Jan 2014
    Location
    Thirsk, North Yorks
    Posts
    265
    Do they need an isolation switch...? Could they short out?

  8. #8
    Sure I read somewhere the battery and motors where ip66 rated , if so they are pretty safe in a Flood .
    Ill try and find a link

    https://thedriven.io/2018/12/04/is-a...#disqus_thread

  9. #9
    Grand Master Chris_in_the_UK's Avatar
    Join Date
    Nov 2004
    Location
    Norf Yorks
    Posts
    42,918
    When you look long into an abyss, the abyss looks long into you.........

  10. #10
    Master
    Join Date
    Jul 2011
    Location
    North Wales
    Posts
    4,072
    I was booking my Honda Civic in for a service a couple of years ago. The sales guy told me a customer with a £15000 CRV had his car written of the previous week. Saw a flooded road, owned a 4WD so went for it, flooded the engine trashed the electronics, game over.

  11. #11
    Master
    Join Date
    May 2011
    Location
    Never Everland
    Posts
    3,081
    Quote Originally Posted by Backward point View Post
    Nothing could possibly go wrong...
    ................ wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong! :)

  12. #12
    Master
    Join Date
    Jan 2009
    Location
    Lincolnshire
    Posts
    5,897
    Everything is well sealed.

    I drive my e-Golf happily through much deeper standing water than I ever would have the GTI or GTE I had before.

    Subject to the same risks as any car though if its flowing water, although the e-Golf is a fairly heavy beast.

    What happens to all the electric street furniture when a flood submerges it? Not much is the answer.

  13. #13
    Master
    Join Date
    Mar 2016
    Location
    Mendips
    Posts
    3,159
    Quote Originally Posted by Tooks View Post
    electric street furniture.
    Come again?

  14. #14
    Quote Originally Posted by hafle View Post
    Come again?
    Lamp-posts.

  15. #15
    Master
    Join Date
    Mar 2016
    Location
    Mendips
    Posts
    3,159
    Quote Originally Posted by jools View Post
    Lamp-posts.
    Never considered lights to be furniture

  16. #16
    Master Alansmithee's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jul 2013
    Location
    Burscough, UK
    Posts
    9,573
    Quote Originally Posted by hafle View Post
    Never considered lights to be furniture
    That is indeed the right term - covers a lot of stuff including (but not limited to) - lighting, illuminated signature, uplighters, vehicle charge points, marker trader pillars, bus shelters and now smart city stuff. So you learnt something new - who said the internet was a waste of time.

  17. #17
    Master
    Join Date
    Mar 2016
    Location
    Mendips
    Posts
    3,159
    Quote Originally Posted by Alansmithee View Post
    That is indeed the right term - covers a lot of stuff including (but not limited to) - lighting, illuminated signature, uplighters, vehicle charge points, marker trader pillars, bus shelters and now smart city stuff. So you learnt something new - who said the internet was a waste of time.
    Ha. I stand corrected. Stubborn as I am, I'll still think of furniture as a chair though. Vehicle charge point my ass.

  18. #18
    Grand Master TheFlyingBanana's Avatar
    Join Date
    Mar 2009
    Location
    Bedfordshire and your back garden
    Posts
    23,109
    Quote Originally Posted by higham5 View Post
    I was booking my Honda Civic in for a service a couple of years ago. The sales guy told me a customer with a £15000 CRV had his car written of the previous week. Saw a flooded road, owned a 4WD so went for it, flooded the engine trashed the electronics, game over.

    Years ago, I was driving in to a local town and the road was flooded. Cars in front started going through the flood, there was a huge queue of cars behind me, so I had little choice but to go for it.

    Half way through the appx 70 metres of flooded road the car in front of me conked out so I had to stop. A small thud and my car, a Jaguar S-Type R just died.

    That thud was the sound of nearly 20k of damage being done as the engine was destroyed and even the xenon headlights somehow had water blown through them.

    The car was only about three years old, and they wrote it off.

    I haven't made the same mistake since...
    So clever my foot fell off.

  19. #19
    On the bbc website, a picture of a flooded street shows several cars, abandoned to the water, with the hatchback open. Would this be an automatic safety feature do you think?

  20. #20
    Grand Master oldoakknives's Avatar
    Join Date
    Sep 2012
    Location
    United Kingdom
    Posts
    20,042
    Blog Entries
    1
    Quote Originally Posted by hafle View Post
    Ha. I stand corrected. Stubborn as I am, I'll still think of furniture as a chair though. Vehicle charge point my ass.
    Probably a law against it. ;-)
    Started out with nothing. Still have most of it left.

  21. #21
    Grand Master JasonM's Avatar
    Join Date
    Feb 2010
    Location
    Cambridgeshire
    Posts
    16,145
    Quote Originally Posted by catch21 View Post
    On the bbc website, a picture of a flooded street shows several cars, abandoned to the water, with the hatchback open. Would this be an automatic safety feature do you think?
    Maybe it’s to let water in rather than have them bob around and float off?
    Cheers..
    Jase

  22. #22
    Master Tifa's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jul 2015
    Location
    Shropshire UK
    Posts
    1,690
    Quote Originally Posted by Alansmithee View Post
    That is indeed the right term
    He's not wrong you know....

  23. #23
    Electric vehicles should be much less susceptible to flooding when compared with an ICE car - far simpler mechanicals, easy to seal, no air intake, no fluid lock issues, no exhaust gasses to expel, etc..

  24. #24
    Master IAmATeaf's Avatar
    Join Date
    Nov 2011
    Location
    NW London
    Posts
    4,757
    Quote Originally Posted by tertius View Post
    Electric vehicles should be much less susceptible to flooding when compared with an ICE car - far simpler mechanicals, easy to seal, no air intake, no fluid lock issues, no exhaust gasses to expel, etc..
    Not always the case. Isn’t there a youtuber who has purchased several flood damaged Tesla’s and when I watched his video water had got in everywhere including the motors.

  25. #25
    Quote Originally Posted by JasonM View Post
    Maybe it’s to let water in rather than have them bob around and float off?
    Don’t understand why owners don’t park them elsewhere if flooding likely - insured so don’t care?

  26. #26
    Master
    Join Date
    Sep 2011
    Location
    London
    Posts
    1,178
    I had to drive my EV through about 8 inches of water last Sunday when the north circular flooded which I did with some trepidation! It was fine, though I have since read in the handbook that you shouldn’t go through water that is higher than the underside of the car and this was probably about that deep.


    Sent from my iPhone using TZ-UK mobile app

  27. #27
    Master Ruggertech's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jun 2019
    Location
    Deepest darkest South Wales.
    Posts
    7,060
    No problem so long as the charging point cover is screwdown

    Sent from my SM-A105FN using Tapatalk

  28. #28
    Craftsman Byron's Avatar
    Join Date
    Aug 2012
    Location
    Hampshire
    Posts
    540
    Any water that breaches the sill height on an electric car (or hybrid) will write it off.
    ...don’t ask me how I know!

  29. #29
    Quote Originally Posted by IAmATeaf View Post
    Not always the case. Isn’t there a youtuber who has purchased several flood damaged Tesla’s and when I watched his video water had got in everywhere including the motors.
    Hence the “should” - my point was there’s no reason that EVs can’t be equally or more resilient to flood water ... whether they are or not ... also you might argue Tesla aren’t a traditional car manufacturer so may not bring that sort of experience/thinking to their designs, so their cars’ resilience or otherwise is not I think indicative of all EVs.

    (Equally I don’t know - I have no personal experience of EVs - Tesla or otherwise.)

  30. #30
    Grand Master hogthrob's Avatar
    Join Date
    Feb 2007
    Location
    Essex, UK
    Posts
    16,847
    Something like this?


  31. #31
    Grand Master Griswold's Avatar
    Join Date
    Feb 2005
    Location
    Yorkshire, England
    Posts
    20,094
    Electrickery and water don't mix!
    Best Regards - Peter

    I'd hate to be with you when you're on your own.

  32. #32
    Banned
    Join Date
    Jan 2010
    Location
    Southern Spain
    Posts
    23,658
    Blog Entries
    1
    Quote Originally Posted by Tooks View Post
    Subject to the same risks as any car though if its flowing water, although the e-Golf is a fairly heavy beast.
    The greatest risk is being swept away and the the floating properties are the limit. An e-vehile is as less likely to float as it is heavier because the floor is not hollow but filled with heavy bits; adds no buoyency.

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •  

Do Not Sell My Personal Information