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
Once water is high enough, a water tight car is going to float. The wheels will still be able to move, but they’ll have no traction so it’ll go wherever the water takes it. You won’t fare much better than an internal combustion car, though it probably could still drive if you managed to hit shallow water again.
The answer boils down to no.
While EVs are *theoretically* going to be better than a traditional ICE in water, it depends almost entirely on the manufacturer and how well they shield the electrical components.
In recent news, the Tesla Cybertruck, despite being advertised as able to survive in water for a short time has had many criticisms and reviews about failing when anywhere near water, let alone partially submerged. It’s so susceptible to waterbased failures that going through a car wash has bricked at least one.
Your car is almost certainly going to be buoyant. The danger of flooded roads isn’t what is under the water or even it submerging the car. The danger is that it can lift the car up and carry it away with nothing you can do about it (EDIT: or hydroplaning, which doesn’t even require buoyancy).
Electric motors don’t require oxygen and can therefore operate without oxygen. But it is INCREDIBLY dangerous to attempt to drive through a flood and you should never do it.
[There are videos of it happening](https://youtu.be/hnnMYLtamaY). Whether the car broke down a mile later is harder to say, but from appearances it looks like the car drove through water that would have (and did) drown an ICE.
>and all the wires and connections must be waterproof
Not all “waterproof” things are created equal, though, and companies generally don’t pursue water intrusion ratings that their products will never be subjected to, because that costs money.
Vehicles are generally waterproofed against incidental, occasional contact with wet environments – rain, standing water on roads to a relatively shallow depth, spray from roads and car washes, that kind of thing. It would probably hold through a relatively deep puddle, even one deep enough to “drown” an ICE car, but likely not for an indefinite amount of time.
Going through a flooded street or fording a river might be fine, assuming you hit shallow water/high ground again at some point relatively quickly. I wouldn’t go driving a BEV around in a river and expect it to be totally fine forever.
Not a current EV, they’re not designed for it. But you’ve just hit on what a Diesel-electric submarine does – surfaces or snorkels to charge batteries, then dives and maneuvers on electric motors.
I think there’s a Zoe that was completely submerged and lived to tell the tale. I wouldn’t want to test it though
Petrol (gasoline) cars could drive through water, presuming they’re heavy enough, so long as it doesn’t get in their air filter. The electrics in a petrol car will still operate just fine under some water (though not forever and not completely underwater).
A diesel would fare much better because it’s not reliant on making an electric spark – and would stop for the same reason… the air intake. Vehicles that regularly navigate water require a “snorkel” for the air filter. A diesel with a snorkel will drive through water no problem so long as the snorkel is not submerged.
An electric – has bigger problems. It’s entirely reliant on electricity and conductivity from a lithium battery. It doesn’t need oxygen at all. But being in water will mean that the electricity is seeping into the water instead of the cables and it will struggle after any significant distance.
But the big problem – it’s going to fuck the electric car. If that battery gets wet you will never be able to be sure it’s safe without changing the battery, and water in a lithium battery is a firebomb.
If I were to rank them by how willing I’d be to drive them through an unknown (but not unreasonable) depth of water in an absolute emergency that required me to get away (e.g. a tsunami):
* Diesel with snorkel
* Petrol with snorkel
* Electric
* Diesel without snorkel
* Petrol without snorkel
If I had to rank them by how well they’d survive afterwards:
* Diesel with snorkel
* Petrol with snorkel
* Electric / Diesel without snorkel / Petrol without snorkel / Buy a new car.
But the simple rule is:
If you’re driving through water that you don’t know the depth of, or what’s under it, you are categorically an idiot and you’re going to fuck up your car.
For reference, I drive a petrol car… and on the 2-3 occasions I’ve crossed a known depth of water (an area near a town I drive through often that sometimes has floodwater seep onto the road), I’ve stuck the car in a low gear, revved high (less chance of stalling, better blowing out the exhaust / any water out of the rear), kept a consistent slow speed, and then tamped the brakes A LOT once I was clear and on the other side.
In an electric car? I’m not sure I’d risk it. Sure, I’d get to the other side, but fuck dealing with the consequences if you get water ingress. That’s a new battery minimum.
Is it hypothetically possible with an EV… yes. Is it possible with any EV you could go buy right now, no.
None of the EVs on the market are built to have all of their internal electrical components be waterproofed. So the car would stop functioning once it became submerged in water and electrical connections get shorted out.
Well yes. But why bother designing a vehicle to be able to do this? An ICE can also do this as long as the exhaust and oxygen intake is deliberately raised. But why make a more exprnsive car in order to achieve a pointless feat.
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