A gas powered engine, obviously floods when drove in a flooded street or water. But is an electric car or even a bike be able to safely drive without malfunctioning or breaking down?
I can’t find any posts related to this, mainly I know that it is unsafe and mostly stupid to drive any thing in a flooded street as you can’t judge what’s in there. “The danger is not your car stopping, its what the water is hiding.” But hypothetically speaking, if it was a live or die situation, can you drive an ev with water high up the car.
I assume so but I might be wrong as I feel there is nothing which can break, and all the wires and connections must be waterproof.
edit: got it, thanks everyone for the replies.
In: Technology
There is no universal classification of “waterproof”. Systems are designed to be water resistant, **based on the target conditions**. So if an EV places a microcontroller responsible for regulating power inside a compartment, it only needs to be waterproof to the conditions that would be expected inside the compartment.
When you drive through a flood, you submerse components. Most things that are “waterproof” are really only resistant to splashes, or at most jets of water like a garden hose. Submersion is an entirely different level of protection, which is not common on passenger cars and light trucks.
Most vehicles have a rated “fording depth”, which tells you the maximum depth of the water you should drive through. Even for EVs, most achieve a high fording depth by moving components up high in the vehicle, so the only have to achieve high levels of water resistance in components that *must* be down low, like the driveline components.
The thing to remember is that while a simple low-voltage motor and battery can be placed under water and operate without a problem, EVs use complicated systems that require computers that absolutely will not function under water. Where these items are located will have significant impact on how well a vehicle operates in water.
If you ever find yourself in a live or die scenario where high water is involved, leave your vehicle and climb something tall. Do not drive through high water. You cannot tell if the road has washed out, so the water may be *much* deeper than anticipated. You do not know if the water has been electrified by downed power lines. If your EV has a high voltage system, it can electrify the water around you. Your EV is also very likely to float. If the water is flowing at all, you’ll be carried downstream, even well before the car floats, because every inch of rising water is trying to lift your car, reducing traction.
It is basically never a good idea to drive into deep water unless you are driving an amphibious assault vehicle, and those are hard to come by.
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