Milton was expected to make landfall on wednesday or early thursday (today) morning and generate devastating saltwater storm surges that can rise up to 15 feet in the air making a huge wall of seawater. The saltwater is corrosive in nature leaving EVs submerged in it and this can lead to large lithium ion batteries of the cars to short circuit and catch fire.
Other than EVs, lithium ion batteries power electric bikes, scooters, and golf carts thus there can be risk in operating those too. Florida’s state fire marshal issued a statement where he said 48 lithium ion battery fires related to electric vehicles were confirmed in connection with storm surges that got created during hurricane Helene two weeks ago.
Process of Catching fire for EVs
Experts and EV manufacturers state that the batteries are tested rigorously to assess if they are resistant against water and dust that get into the vehicle. But the results show that saltwater poses a serious threat to the batteries.
Saltwater corrodes and damages the battery pack particularly if the automobile remains underwater for a longer period of time that can range from a couple of hours and extend up to a couple of days. The damaged lithium ion battery pack can result in short circuit and may result in permanent damage to the system and catch fire too.
In the case of normal petrol or diesel driven cars, the risk is there but at lower levels as the fossil fuel driven cars consist of lower voltage lithium ion battery packs than that of EVs.
How can EV fires be reduced?
While freshwater flooding can damage the vehicles, it has the lesser chance of leading to fires. Some fire restrictive measures that can be implemented are as follows,
- Moving your vehicle to dry higher altitude regions,
- Keeping or parking the vehicle at least 50 yards away from the houses and other combustible materials.
- Avoid charging the EVs during a storm as it can lead to intake of floodwater and short circuits leaving the car occupant prone to accidents.
