FLOODS & BATTERIESFrom Florida Floods to Idaho Desert: Understanding Impacts of Flood Damage on Vehicle Batteries

By Michelle Goff

Out on the INL desert Site sits an electric vehicle (EV) enthusiast’s dream: nine high-performance, battery-powered cars including four Tesla models (S, 3, X and Y); a Porsche Taycan and a Lucid Air. Each car boasts some of the most advanced EV technology available, allowing drivers to accelerate from zero to 60 mph in just a few seconds while sitting in a futuristic cocoon of touch screens and heated seats.

But upon closer look, these cars have seen better days. Sitting against the background of the snowy Idaho desert, their once shiny paint jobs are now speckled with water spots. The cars are covered with dirt, sediment, mold and mildew, both inside and outside. Many of their hoods have been manually sealed with vehicle tape, and several of their front and back fenders and sideview mirrors are drooping. A few of the windshields are so filthy that passersby can’t see into their luxury interiors.

Electric vehicles offer some clear advantages over gasoline-power cars including zero emissions and lower operation and maintenance costs. But they also present some new challenges. Recent storms have revealed that seawater-flooded EVs can pose safety concerns for passengers, emergency responders and recovery personnel. The energy left stranded in the battery after submersion in salt water can lead to catastrophic events, like fire.

The cars were all flooded with seawater during Hurricane Ian, which compromised the batteries of as many as 5,000 electric vehicles in 2022. Of those, 36 of the impacted EV batteries caught fire due to thermal runaway, an uncontrollable increase in temperature that can occur in damaged batteries.

Michelle Goff is Science Communications Specialist at Idaho National Laboratory (INL). The article was originally posted to the website of INL.