Myth Buster: Your EV Won't Function in Water

December 22, 2020

Myth 1: You can’t dri­ve an EV in the rain / You can’t get your EV wet

Myth 2: You can’t dri­ve an EV through a puddle

Myth 3: You can’t charge your EV in the rain

Myth BUSTED: EVs are safe to dri­ve through water and hold no threat of elec­tric shock when wet due to bat­tery insu­la­tion. Charg­ing in the rain is safe and holds no threat of short-cir­cuit­ing, sparks, or oth­er dangers.

Even if you don’t know much about elec­tric vehi­cles (EVs), the most impor­tant char­ac­ter­is­tic of this type of vehi­cle is imme­di­ate­ly appar­ent: elec­tric cars are, well, elec­tric. EVs are charged off an out­let through an elec­tric cur­rent. The ener­gy is then stored in a bat­tery some­where in the frame of the car (typ­i­cal­ly on the bot­tom, front, or back of the vehi­cle, depend­ing on the model).

One ques­tion that EV experts are com­mon­ly asked is a vari­a­tion of “Is it safe to use/drive/charge my EV when it is rain­ing or wet?” The short answer is “yes!”

In fact, elec­tric cars pose no threat of elec­tric shock and are not dan­ger­ous to dri­ve in the rain. Like­wise, EVs are safe to dri­ve through water, includ­ing deep pud­dles (though, of course, we would not rec­om­mend try­ing to dri­ve though flood­wa­ters) (Per­ry, 2018.)

The bat­ter­ies and accom­pa­ny­ing elec­tric sys­tems in EVs are iso­lat­ed and equipped with exten­sive safe­ty sys­tems that auto­mat­i­cal­ly shut off pow­er and insu­late the bat­tery packs when a col­li­sion or short cir­cuit is detect­ed (Gra­bi­anows­ki, 2008). It is pret­ty much impos­si­ble, under nor­mal work­ing con­di­tions, for water to come into direct con­tact with the bat­ter­ies them­selves (Gra­bi­anows­ki, 2008). Also, con­sid­er the fact that your cur­rent gas car has an elec­tri­cal sys­tem! Your inter­nal com­bus­tion engine (ICE) vehi­cle includes elec­tri­cal sound sys­tems, elec­tric and dig­i­tal screens, and elec­tric sys­tems to run the lights. These sys­tems do not short out or shock any­one when you are dri­ving in the rain or through a large pud­dle. The same is true for an elec­tric vehicle—in fact, it can be argued that the bat­tery sys­tems in elec­tric vehi­cles are far more insu­lat­ed than the bat­tery pack cur­rent­ly sit­ting under your hood.

Addi­tion­al­ly, EVs have been test­ed in deep water and can safe­ly dri­ve through deep­er waters than ICE vehi­cles can (Gra­bi­anows­ki, 2008; Per­ry 2018). A quick YouTube search will bring up a pletho­ra of videos fea­tur­ing EVs dri­ving through deep waters, “Elec­tric cars are gen­er­al­ly bet­ter than con­ven­tion­al cars when it comes to deal­ing with excess sur­face water. EVs work in a less com­plex way than fos­sil fuel pow­ered cars, mean­ing that some of the tra­di­tion­al risks with tak­ing cars through deep water no longer apply," (Per­ry, 2018). One of the pri­ma­ry ben­e­fits of the EV design is a sim­pler, more effi­cient, less com­plex sys­tem with few­er mov­ing parts. Few­er parts = less oppor­tu­ni­ty for malfunction.

Ok, so you can safe­ly dri­ve in the rain and through pud­dles. But what about charg­ing your car in the rain?

Charg­ing your car requires you to hook up the ener­gy source (charg­er) with your car via an elec­tric cord. Is it safe to charge in the mid­dle of a rain­storm or snow­storm? Again, the short answer is, “yes!”

When you charge your EV, you are not exposed to the direct elec­tri­cal cur­rent. Elec­tric­i­ty will not flow through the charg­ing sta­tion with­out being firm­ly locked into your car’s charge-port. Addi­tion­al­ly, both res­i­den­tial and com­mer­cial charg­ing sta­tions are designed to pro­tect you, your vehi­cle, and the charg­ing equip­ment. Elec­tric vehi­cle charg­ing man­u­fac­tur­ers want—and need—you to feel and be safe when charg­ing your EV, “pro­tec­tive lay­ers are incor­po­rat­ed into the design of charg­ing sta­tion equip­ment, pre­vent­ing any risk of short-cir­cuit­ing, sparks, and oth­er dan­gers," (Gra­bi­anows­ki, 2008).

In the end, the most shock you’ll get when dri­ving an elec­tric vehi­cle is the sur­prised look on your face when you first feel the accel­er­a­tion of instant torque on the high­way. So buck­le up and go check out an EV near you!

Source 1: Ed Gra­bi­anows­ki "Will I get shocked if I dri­ve an elec­tric car through a big pud­dle?" 18 August 2008.
HowStuffWorks.com. <https://auto.howstuffworks.com/fuel-efficiency/vehicles/electric-car-shock.htm>

Source 2: Tris­tan Per­ry "Is Dri­ving an Elec­tric Car Through Flood Water Safe?" 29 Decem­ber 2018.  Green Car Future. <https://www.greencarfuture.com/electric/driving-through-flood-water>

Recent Posts

Electric Bike Grant Opportunities

The State of Colorado is offering two e-bike grants: one for local and Tribal governments to offer e-bike rebates, and one for local government, nonprofits, and tribal governments to fund e-bike deployment projects. Learn more here: Local Government Community E-Bike...

Quarterly EVs on the Road in Colorado

Quarterly EVs on the Road in Colorado

Drive Electric Colorado presents a Quarterly EVs in Colorado report. Using data from the Colorado Energy Office’s EV Dashboard and the Alternative Fueling Station Locator from the Department of Energy, below is the most current and accurate sales data for EVs and...

[/et_pb_column]

Take the pledge to make your next car electric!