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The state of California is expected to be hit by a large storm in the coming days and there are frequently clogged drains in my town. I have an electric vehicle that seemed to handle driving through large puddles during the last storm but I was curious if anyone could tell me what the potential hazards are of driving an EV through a large standing pool of water.

I don't need to worry about getting water in the engine (I think) since there is no air intake. There are fans that cool the battery if it gets too hot but I don't think that will be a problem during this storm.

EDIT: I have a Ford Focus

Chris.Stover
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Electric cars use high tech lithium batteries. These batteries are dangerous in a variety of situations but they're also full of electronics to compensate. If anything at all bad happens (for example, a short circuit due to water) the battery itself will shut down, and you'll have to get the car towed.

Cars are expected to handle all kinds of weather and Ford is a reputable company. I would expect all high voltage power sources to be perfectly protected from water splashing up from the wheels which would mean shallow water is fine. If the water gets up into the doors though, then you might be in trouble.

Doing some research, I found someone who's nissan leaf that was submerged for an extended period it of time (the water was half way up the door, wheels totally under water) and the car computers had detected various faults and shut everything down. A mechanic cleaned things up as best they could and the car was able to start, but more errors were detected so they declared the car a write off.

My guess is that car could have been repaired if it was taken to a more competent mechanic, but most mechanics don't know anything about electric vehicles and they're not going to risk telling you everything is fixed when they honestly don't know.

Tesla says that there is no safety risk at all if the car is fully submerged in water, but obviously it would destroy the car just like happened with the Leaf. If the battery catches fire they recommend using "large amounts" of water to cool the batteries down. You're likely to need to keep the battery cool for up to 24 hours, so make sure you have a lot of water available to keep the batteries cool.

My understanding is water won't put out a lithium battery fire, but it should prevent the fire from spreading into neighbouring battery cells, and eventually the ones already burning will run out of fuel.

Abhi Beckert
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I know this is an old thread, but Elon Musk tweeted a video of some people in Kazakhstan driving their Tesla through deep water. He then told that the Tesla can indeed operate as a boat, as the drive units and battery are sealed.

But of course, you could still get water in the AC and into the cabin. Then you would probably have to change all air filters, fans, etc. The AC intake is, as far as I know, located right below the windshield. The internal, low voltage, electronics are probably not sealed up, so there's lots of stuff that could take damage from standing water.

So if you plan turning your electric car into a boat, just remember to turn it back into a land vehicle as quickly as possible

Sigurd Øines
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The answer to this question is what was put into its design at the drawing board stage. Encapsulation and water proofing of components susceptable to being submerged in water being the main consideration. As an electric vehicle construction is usually decided by its weight, less weight means less drain on the battery means greater distance between charges, encapsulation would not be a consideration. So I would be reluctant to drive through puddles higher then the hubs of the wheel at any sort of speed.

Allan Osborne
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