Teslas are bursting into flames in Florida after being flooded during Hurricane Idalia | Saltwater and lithium-ion batteries are a bad combination::undefined

  • abhibeckert@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    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.

    • nrezcm@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      One of the YouTubers I watch, Tavarish, is rebuilding a flooded McClaren. McClaren went to great lengths to water proof the car (IIRC almost all the connectors for the electrical harness and many of the other cables/wires in the car were all fine). The car is an engineering marvel and it still had damage done to the battery and almost every inch of the car had water intrusion.

      Not disagreeing with you but salt water tends to fuck shit up. Maybe a better solution is some kind of system with a series of sensors and other inputs that could disable the battery until it’s checked out? Or maybe better education on how dangerous lithium batteries can be.

    • EtherWhack@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      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