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Watch as Tesla burns in flooded Florida garage days after Hurricane Helene

17 points by MilnerRoute 2y ago

deleted 2y ago
[deleted]
bamboozled 2y ago
As much as I love Electric cars, this part of them freaks me out a little. You could say it's a minor problem, but Electric cars haven't reached saturation point. In future events (which will become more frequent), what happens then ? A whole carpark will go up because of flood waters in the basement?
- yazzku 2y ago
  I've seen a gas car light up just as well. That was also years ago and I don't know if shit has improved, nor am I an expert on the matter. But humidity may accumulate near the battery and explode either way, gas or electric. A gas car in the garage will take down your house just as fine. The gas in the tank is irrelevant here. Disclaimer: I am also not a Tesla fanboy. But articles like these are rather dishonest in how they present the "information".
  - shepardrtc 2y ago
    There's a difference between the battery in a gas car and the lithium batteries in EVs. Lead-acid batteries are not inherently flammable, and they won't burn underwater. Lithium-ion, on the other hand, reacts with water to produce hydrogen gas and can undergo a thermal runaway. They also produce oxygen during the combustion process so they will burn underwater.
    - deleted 2y ago
      [deleted]
    - yazzku 2y ago
      > There's a difference between the battery in a gas car and the lithium batteries in EVs To be clear, EVs often have both batteries, actually; the lithium-ion one to power the transmission, and the good ol' lead-acid one to power the electronics, just like in a gas car. https://motorandwheels.com/do-electric-cars-have-one-or-multiple-batteries/ https://motorandwheels.com/do-electric-cars-have-one-or-mult... But I suppose you're saying EVs burn more easily. That's fine. Most of these articles I've run across are still rather dishonest, though.
- nomilk 2y ago
  It’s not too uncommon for a water pipe burst to flood an entire level of an underground car park. Granted, that’s a huge writeoff/mess before factoring fires from electric cars, but if a partially flooded car park caused a few hundred EVs to combust, it could possibly set the whole building alight, which would take an already big problem and make it 10-100x worse, and very life threatening.
  - bryanlarsen 2y ago
    Luckily water pipes are generally fresh water, not salt water, so the risk of fire would be much lower.
defrost 2y ago
It is possible to modify an EV to drive for several hours under salt sea water .. but it does take a bit of effort and talent. 'Rust bucket' 1978 LandCruiser converted to EV to drive 7km under water across Darwin Harbour — again https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-07-22/underwater-drive-darwin-harbour-aims-for-new-world-record/102622048 https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-07-22/underwater-drive-darw... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1TD5uuUAhCY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1TD5uuUAhCY On July 29th 2023 the underwater driving world record was broken by the Mudcrab Landcruiser. The team drove the heavily modified electric powered Landcruiser 7kms & 30 metres underwater across Darwin Harbour with 30 divers rotating behind the wheel.
- Fire-Dragon-DoL 2y ago
  What was the speed?
  - defrost 2y ago
    Much faster than a standard Tesla on the harbour floor
SoftTalker 2y ago
Homeowners with powerwalls or similar will have the same issues in floods. I would never have one of those in my house. Outside well away from house, maybe.
- dzink 2y ago
  The Powerwall 3 has a thick metal shell and the front is glass sealed with o-rings and screws that are single use because of water-tight silicone sealant as well. The metal shell can rust quickly (I’ve seen one with tape on it rust under the tape within days of first rain after water got under the wrinkled tape.) If Musk is smart he will try to one-up the Chinese EV company that is running videos of one of their EV Land Rover wannabes roaming around a lake and make the Teslas and batteries waterproof in the next iteration or even this one. The hurricane will dampen their sales in the south fast otherwise.
  - bryanlarsen 2y ago
    There are lots of videos of Teslas in lakes too. But salt water for days is a harsher environment than fresh water for hours.
shepardrtc 2y ago
They're going to have to waterproof them like they do with Jeep 4xe's. Well, excuse me, they SHOULD waterproof them. But I don't think someone will like the extra cost.
- bryanlarsen 2y ago
  Tesla batteries are waterproof already. But the combination of dissimilar metals, voltages, salt water and the need to be able to vent gas will make holes in anything very quickly. It would have been fine submerged in fresh water.
  - salawat 2y ago
    ...In much the same way as the Hindenburg would have been fine had it not been for that pesky static.
theshrike79 2y ago
IIRC in this case the water had been REALLY high and this happened when it was receding. There's also an anecdote floating around about Elon complaining that installing the gasket that would protect from this specific issue took too long on the manufacturing line and he axed the feature.

17 points by MilnerRoute 2y ago

deleted 2y ago

[deleted]

As much as I love Electric cars, this part of them freaks me out a little. You could say it's a minor problem, but Electric cars haven't reached saturation point. In future events (which will become more frequent), what happens then ? A whole carpark will go up because of flood waters in the basement?

yazzku 2y ago
I've seen a gas car light up just as well. That was also years ago and I don't know if shit has improved, nor am I an expert on the matter. But humidity may accumulate near the battery and explode either way, gas or electric. A gas car in the garage will take down your house just as fine. The gas in the tank is irrelevant here. Disclaimer: I am also not a Tesla fanboy. But articles like these are rather dishonest in how they present the "information".
- shepardrtc 2y ago
  There's a difference between the battery in a gas car and the lithium batteries in EVs. Lead-acid batteries are not inherently flammable, and they won't burn underwater. Lithium-ion, on the other hand, reacts with water to produce hydrogen gas and can undergo a thermal runaway. They also produce oxygen during the combustion process so they will burn underwater.
  - deleted 2y ago
    [deleted]
  - yazzku 2y ago
    > There's a difference between the battery in a gas car and the lithium batteries in EVs To be clear, EVs often have both batteries, actually; the lithium-ion one to power the transmission, and the good ol' lead-acid one to power the electronics, just like in a gas car. https://motorandwheels.com/do-electric-cars-have-one-or-multiple-batteries/ https://motorandwheels.com/do-electric-cars-have-one-or-mult... But I suppose you're saying EVs burn more easily. That's fine. Most of these articles I've run across are still rather dishonest, though.
nomilk 2y ago
It’s not too uncommon for a water pipe burst to flood an entire level of an underground car park. Granted, that’s a huge writeoff/mess before factoring fires from electric cars, but if a partially flooded car park caused a few hundred EVs to combust, it could possibly set the whole building alight, which would take an already big problem and make it 10-100x worse, and very life threatening.
- bryanlarsen 2y ago
  Luckily water pipes are generally fresh water, not salt water, so the risk of fire would be much lower.

defrost 2y ago

It is possible to modify an EV to drive for several hours under salt sea water .. but it does take a bit of effort and talent. 'Rust bucket' 1978 LandCruiser converted to EV to drive 7km under water across Darwin Harbour — again https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-07-22/underwater-drive-darwin-harbour-aims-for-new-world-record/102622048 https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-07-22/underwater-drive-darw... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1TD5uuUAhCY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1TD5uuUAhCY On July 29th 2023 the underwater driving world record was broken by the Mudcrab Landcruiser. The team drove the heavily modified electric powered Landcruiser 7kms & 30 metres underwater across Darwin Harbour with 30 divers rotating behind the wheel.

Fire-Dragon-DoL 2y ago
What was the speed?
- defrost 2y ago
  Much faster than a standard Tesla on the harbour floor

SoftTalker 2y ago

Homeowners with powerwalls or similar will have the same issues in floods. I would never have one of those in my house. Outside well away from house, maybe.

dzink 2y ago
The Powerwall 3 has a thick metal shell and the front is glass sealed with o-rings and screws that are single use because of water-tight silicone sealant as well. The metal shell can rust quickly (I’ve seen one with tape on it rust under the tape within days of first rain after water got under the wrinkled tape.) If Musk is smart he will try to one-up the Chinese EV company that is running videos of one of their EV Land Rover wannabes roaming around a lake and make the Teslas and batteries waterproof in the next iteration or even this one. The hurricane will dampen their sales in the south fast otherwise.
- bryanlarsen 2y ago
  There are lots of videos of Teslas in lakes too. But salt water for days is a harsher environment than fresh water for hours.

shepardrtc 2y ago

They're going to have to waterproof them like they do with Jeep 4xe's. Well, excuse me, they SHOULD waterproof them. But I don't think someone will like the extra cost.

bryanlarsen 2y ago
Tesla batteries are waterproof already. But the combination of dissimilar metals, voltages, salt water and the need to be able to vent gas will make holes in anything very quickly. It would have been fine submerged in fresh water.
- salawat 2y ago
  ...In much the same way as the Hindenburg would have been fine had it not been for that pesky static.

theshrike79 2y ago

IIRC in this case the water had been REALLY high and this happened when it was receding. There's also an anecdote floating around about Elon complaining that installing the gasket that would protect from this specific issue took too long on the manufacturing line and he axed the feature.