I’m all for bashing Tesla. It’s good fun. But this applies to all EVs and lithium ion batteries that came into contact with salt water.
Bad TechSpot! Bad!
I wonder if a laptop would blow up, too. Probably, right?
this post was submitted on 05 Sep 2023
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Classic click baiting. If it was about laptops the title would contain ‘Apple’. Popular brands work well in titles.
Depends how well the battery is packaged. Here's a cheap disposable AA lithium battery dropped in a bowl of water - it bursts into flames almost instantly:
https://youtu.be/cTJh_bzI0QQ?si=dgkKYSqo-zXulNt_&t=345
However they had to disassemble that battery. If you just dropped the undamaged battery in the water nothing would've happened.
So - this really is Tesla's fault. They should be wrapping a water tight barrier around the batteries. It's one thing for a battery to catch fire after a serious crash. Fair enough. But it shouldn't happen in floodwater.
Try the same experiment using salt.
The problem isn't really about the water getting things wet, more about the salt in it adding conductivity that can corrode metals making holes and also shorting any exposed electronics.
As much as I dislike tesla and it's unnerving ubiquity along with being under an unstable leader, we have to remember... These are land vehicles, not submarines. They weren't designed for prolonged immersion in salt water. Most of the environmental testing very likely revolved around using chambers to simulate different weather patterns.
Pressure and immersion testing are generally used only for individual components that do get sealed, permanently. So if you were to seal the battery pack or even just sections, you would still need to connect it all to the electronics like the BMS and in/output. With enough time just these two points could allow a path to short the battery causing the cells to overheat, expand, crack any seals (further increasing the reaction), build enough pressure and eventually pop like a shotgun shells fired outside of a barrel
They weren’t designed for prolonged immersion in salt water.
I'm guessing you don't live in a city that has hurricanes or tropical weather in general?
Cars are submerged in water all the time in certain parts of the world and if you live in one of those places then there's nothing you can do to avoid it. Every car I've ever owned has at some point been exposed to water depths deep enough that the tesla battery would've been fully submerged.
It's not uncommon for a tropical storm to rain billions of gallons of water over a small area in a short period of time. When that happens you just can't keep your car dry.
If it destroys the car, OK that's an insurance job. But if the car catches fire it has the potential to burn down buildings/etc which is really really bad especially if it happens during sever weather when a fire fighter will not be able to respond potentially until days later even if the nearest fire station is a few city blocks away.
I'm sure this is a solvable problem. Also - it's worth noting only two cars caught fire and I'd bet a lot more than two EVs were submerged a widespread flooding incident like this one. There must be more to it than just "if you expose an EV to salt water, it'll burn".
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This warning applies not only to electric sedans, trucks, and SUVs but also to smaller and lighter electric vehicles like golf carts, scooters, and bicycles that also have rechargeable lithium-ion batteries.
It's in the article.
The title is still clickbait.
Sort of...two Teslas caught on fire...I haven't heard of any other EVs spontaneously combusting.
Teslas are by far some of the most popular EVs. When someone thinks EV they think Tesla.
At least near me I see 10 teslas for every ID.4, taycan or ev6. Until someone else steps up their game tesla has quite the lead on sales thanks to their head start. Volkswagen is the only company making a fairly affordable EV that people actually want and that only states recently. EV6 could catch up but Kia dealers are almost universally shit here in the US.
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Blame the author https://www.techspot.com/community/staff/dragonslayer101.498521/
Titles often get set by the editor. Writers often only suggest them.
Yeah definitely, I remember sailing in the ocean when I was in Sea Scouts and one of our leaders had his battery let out the magic smoke on his phone, no lithium fire luckily
Side note - people need to be super careful buying used cars for the next several months because of scammers cleaning up flooded cars and brining them north to sell. Check under the carpets and so on, etc. Avoid Florida cars.
Idalia brined them, not the scammers. Just to be clear.
right, the scam is taking a flood car north and not disclosing flood damage to an unsuspecting northerner.
It seems like it always happens every time there's a bad flood/hurricane etc.
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I remember that happened after a huge Mississippi flood in the 90s. Definitely be careful
katrina. was not that long ago and tons of those cars got drug all over.
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Wouldn't this be applicable to any EV and not just a particular brand that it's popular to throw into titles for maximum views right now?
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Every car flooded with salt water is a fire waiting to happen. Either a literal fire, or a fire sale. Salt water does horrible shit to all metals.
Didn't The Dipshit say that Teslas can be used as boats at one point?
Only the cybertruck I think, but in the end neither will be able to so it doesnt matter. I work with tesla and will never even consider buying one, even apart from all the stuff muskrat is doing.
I figured people would have stopped considering one when it came out that Tesla employees made memes out of Tesla drivers as apparently they've been spying on people via the cameras on the car. Which isn't enough that they did that, but they were encouraged to share the memes around the office.
Idk man, and the fact people suggest tweeting (or x-ing) Elon if you run into difficulties with the Tesla stores (such as warranty). I find it insane. That's if you separate Elon from the brand Tesla, but if you don't it's all the more. He is a highly vindictive, self-centred ego fuelled bag of lies which is a personal reason I don't like Tesla.
Were the cars good before he bought the company?
I dont know, but i would probably say yes. I only started working with them ~3 years ago. My big issue with them is that they seem to have no idea what they want or what theyre doing. Constantly changing plans, requirements, shipment dates, shipment locations, color specs, etc. All of their engineers ive talked to are super young, they must be new hires. But such overarching disorganization must come from the top.
At least two Teslas caught fire
Wow, what a huge issue!
Oh no! anyway…
Couldn't have spent the extra ten dollars potting the battery casing with conformal resin Elon?
Saltwater and basically anything is a bad combination
Not to sea fishes.
Fact: 100% of fish that come in to contact with saltwater at any point in their lives, end up dying.
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Let's keep pretending like Teslas and EVs are horribly dangerous compared to ICE cars.
https://www.torquenews.com/14335/tesla-and-other-evs-catch-fire-19x-less-often-gas-cars
I was under the impression that battery packs are watertight so where is the fire starting?
I doubt their designs are hurricane + flood proofed.
Also the high voltage disconnect/fuse is under the seats. Flood that and you've got a problem.
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If manufactured properly, they should be.
Water ingress can happen where cables plug into places - literally like a straw that draws water towards the battery pack. Again, if properly sealed, this should not be an issue.
But I can't imagine any modern vehicle surviving being flooded by saltwater. If not the battery then any other electrical component, or even the motor, would corrode over the coming days, weeks, months.
Yeah. I don't know if teslas are particularly worse on the design side (but we can make an educated guess...) but I would not expect any EV to hold up for an extended period of submersion.
But also... people should realize how heinous all the water anywhere near an ICE car is when it is submerged. Or, you know, all the sewers that are flooded too.
Like, flood water is some of the vilest shit in existence. You are LUCKY if you only get hepatitis from swimming around in it.
Well tesla has been publicised in multiple places as having bad quality control.
So maybe I could also guess that they cut out some design costs on some models, which may not include battery protection because they would in most cases not get in contact with water.
I have zero doubts the teslas are worse (hence the "educated guess" snark).
But also? This is not just holding up against water. It isn't even holding up against salt water. It is holding up against battery acid, human feces, cleaning chemicals, oil, gasoline, etc. A car that has been caught in a flood is totaled and a biohazard. I don't expect EVs to be particularly better.
I WOULD expect reasonable precautions to be taken. But if you are looking at standing water floods from hurricanes and the like? A few fires that are surrounded by water are the least of your worries. And there will be plenty of other fires for the disaster crews to deal with when they can.
If previous incidents are anything to go by, most batteries that actually react that way are physically damaged during the Hurricane part. Usually the teslas are fine even completely submerged.
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Does this have anything to worry consumers about in cold climates where cars could accumulate snow and road salt on them, and then say - park the car in the garage where it all melts into salt water?
Did any other makes of electric vehicles also burst into flames in Florida?
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Seems like the NHTSA needs to expedite regulations around protecting batteries from salt water.
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Does insurance cover this?
> be a burger driving muh Tesla (sniffs farts)
> suddenly drowned in flood
> bursts into flames
Such is life in Burgeristan
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