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Electric vehicles can go up in flames after being submerged in water
Such as, say, the two hurricanes that have struck Florida in the last twelve months or so.
If the battery gets submerged, it can begin to form salt crystal bridges between battery cells that will cause short circuits, then *POOF* and we have ignition! It takes a crazy amount of water to extinguish an EV battery, so you don't want this to happen, especially if the car is still in your garage!
Officials are advising people with EVs that have become submerged significantly or completely to NOT keep it in your garage, move it at least 50' away from any occupied structures, and notify your insurance company just like if you'd been in an accident.
Some people think that because you don't have an internal combustion engine that it's safe to drive through deep water. It isn't. Last year's FL hurricane saw a few dozen EVs burn, this year at least two - one of them while being transported by the fire department!
This is not specifically a Tesla problem, any EV can have this happen to it if the battery gets submerged. One of the problems is that some fire departments don't understand how to fight an EV battery fire: they just pump water on top, rather than trying to get water underneath it where the battery is, and that water sprayed on top is pretty much wasted. One department made a rig that they could position under the car, then drive a spike into the battery compartment to open a hole, that allowed them to spray water directly into the battery! Very effective technique to get the water into the source of combustion.
I've heard that the foam that fire trucks can spray isn't very effective against EV battery fires, I don't know the details.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/hurricane-idalia-electric-car-caught-fire-tesla/
If the battery gets submerged, it can begin to form salt crystal bridges between battery cells that will cause short circuits, then *POOF* and we have ignition! It takes a crazy amount of water to extinguish an EV battery, so you don't want this to happen, especially if the car is still in your garage!
Officials are advising people with EVs that have become submerged significantly or completely to NOT keep it in your garage, move it at least 50' away from any occupied structures, and notify your insurance company just like if you'd been in an accident.
Some people think that because you don't have an internal combustion engine that it's safe to drive through deep water. It isn't. Last year's FL hurricane saw a few dozen EVs burn, this year at least two - one of them while being transported by the fire department!
This is not specifically a Tesla problem, any EV can have this happen to it if the battery gets submerged. One of the problems is that some fire departments don't understand how to fight an EV battery fire: they just pump water on top, rather than trying to get water underneath it where the battery is, and that water sprayed on top is pretty much wasted. One department made a rig that they could position under the car, then drive a spike into the battery compartment to open a hole, that allowed them to spray water directly into the battery! Very effective technique to get the water into the source of combustion.
I've heard that the foam that fire trucks can spray isn't very effective against EV battery fires, I don't know the details.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/hurricane-idalia-electric-car-caught-fire-tesla/