Electrical autos can catch fireplace if they’re inundated by saltwater, so homeowners who stay within the path of a serious storm like Hurricane Helene ought to take precautions and put together for the chance that they’ll be unable to cost their automobiles throughout an influence outage.
What can EV homeowners do?
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis urged EV homeowners this week to get their autos to larger floor earlier than Hurricane Helene arrived. Though the issue is uncommon, there have been quite a lot of situations lately of electrical autos igniting after hurricanes.
Holding electrical autos out of standing water is one of the simplest ways to keep away from the opportunity of a hearth.
Tesla provides comparable recommendation about avoiding letting its autos develop into submerged if in any respect potential, but when that does occur the carmaker suggests towing the automobile at the very least 50 toes away from buildings or something flamable till it may be inspected by a mechanic.
One of the best ways to get by way of an influence outage is to observe the identical sort of recommendation your dad might have given you about retaining your gasoline tank full to be sure to wouldn’t be stranded. Holding your electrical automobile charged provides essentially the most flexibility.
In fact, electrical automobile homeowners received’t have the ability to cost their automobiles throughout an influence outage, so they might want to observe how a lot they drive. However EVs aren’t any worse off than typical autos as a result of gasoline stations can’t pump gas in an influence outage both.
How frequent are EV fires after flooding?
The Nationwide Freeway Visitors Security Administration has been researching this drawback because it was first seen after Hurricane Sandy struck the Northeast in 2012. However nobody appears to have detailed statistics on simply how usually this occurs.
Two years in the past, Hurricane Ian compromised the batteries of as might as 5,000 electrical autos, and 36 of them caught fireplace.
A number of extra electrical autos caught fireplace in Florida final 12 months after Hurricane Idalia, though that storm was weaker than Ian. Researchers at NHTSA speculated that it might have additionally helped that extra folks had been conscious of the issue and moved their autos to larger floor earlier than that storm.
However it occurs usually sufficient that Florida officers had been frightened in regards to the chance earlier than Hurricane Helene arrived as a result of they had been anticipating a doubtlessly devastating storm surge as much as 20 toes deep within the northwestern a part of Florida.
These fires do appear to be linked particularly to saltwater as a result of salt can conduct electrical energy. Comparable issues haven’t been reported after freshwater flooding in California that was pushed by heavy rains early this 12 months.
What causes EVs to catch fireplace?
Electrical autos with lithium ion batteries can catch fireplace if the batteries brief circuit and begin to warmth up. Tom Barth with the Nationwide Transportation Security Board mentioned that if the warmth begins to unfold between totally different cells within the battery again it could actually trigger a sequence response referred to as thermal runaway.
“If the saltwater is able to bridge the gap between the positive and negative terminals of battery, then it can cause a short circuit,” mentioned Barth, who’s chief of the particular investigations department of the NTSB’s workplace of freeway security.
Carmakers do design their batteries to attempt to stop this drawback. There are sometimes separations or insulation boundaries between totally different cells within the battery pack, and producers take steps to maintain moisture out. However they do have to incorporate methods for the batteries to vent warmth.
“Where it begins to be a problem is if you have the batteries submerged in standing water. That’s where it starts to overcome the moisture seals in the battery,” Barth mentioned.
Typically electrical autos can catch fireplace lengthy after the floodwaters have receded as a result of even after the water evaporates salt that may conduct electrical energy could also be left behind. So it’s necessary to have them checked out if they’re submerged.
“It’s not like every vehicle that gets flooded is therefore going to ignite and catch fire,” Barth mentioned.
The Nationwide Freeway Visitors Security Administration mentioned it’s working to enhance battery security as officers study extra in regards to the issues. The company has proposed updating a few of the security necessities for electrical automobile batteries to cut back the dangers.
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