Can an electric vehicle drive underwater?

858 viewsOtherTechnology



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

31 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

You are more likely to have a floating problem. A properly sealed electric vehicle should work for some time in water, but as the passenger cabin and trunk are full of air the vehicle is initially going to be buoyant (it will float). In a situation where there is a current (River or sea) this means that the tires will no longer be in contact with the surface and your vehicle will float off in to the distance until the leaks allow the passenger compartment and trunk to slowly fill with water, at which point you sink. Unfortunately for you as the car sinks the pressure of water outside the door is higher than the pressure inside and you can not open the door, so you have to try to break a window to escape, otherwise you drown.

Note this happens with ICE vehicles as well but less so as they have a big heavy engine, transmission and tank of fuel that all add to the initial weight so they have to go deeper before they start to float.

You are viewing 1 out of 31 answers, click here to view all answers.