Typical electric car set-up
Water and electricity don’t mix too well. A headache for owners but also for insurers.
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A top Florida state official warned Thursday that firefighters have battled a number of fires caused by electric vehicle (EV) batteries waterlogged from Hurricane Ian, reports Fox News.
EV batteries that have been waterlogged in the wake of the hurricane are at risk of corrosion, which could lead to unexpected fires, according to Jimmy Patronis, the state’s top financial officer and fire marshal.
“There’s a ton of EVs disabled from Ian. As those batteries corrode, fires start,” Patronis tweeted Thursday. “That’s a new challenge that our firefighters haven’t faced before. At least on this kind of scale.”
“It takes special training and understanding of EVs to ensure these fires are put out quickly and safely,” he continued in a follow-up tweet. “Thanks to [North Collier Fire Rescue] for their hard work.”
Patronis published a video of firefighters in Naples, Florida, battling a fire started from a Tesla EV’s battery. A bystander is overheard in the video saying that the crew had used hundreds of gallons of water attempting to put the fire out.
Last week, Hurricane Ian pummeled cities along Florida’s west coast including Naples and Fort Myers, making landfall as a Category 4 storm. The hurricane caused more than 100 deaths and over a million residents to lose power.
It is unclear how many EVs were impacted or destroyed by the storm.
Full report here.
Tallbloke's Talkshop 
Don’t you just love the Law of Unintended Consequences?
Waterlogged ? Didn’t those econuts think more of their fancy toys and drive them away? Nope, No Sir! they cottoned on that they wouldn’t be able to re-fill them quickly enough if the power’s down en route to their escape. Hydrocarbons rule OK!
Reblogged this on Climate Collections.
Reblogged this on Utopia, you are standing in it!.
Not much higher ground to move to in southern Florida either.
[…] Electric vehicles are exploding from water damage after Hurricane Ian, top Florida official warns | … […]
‘A headache for owners but also for insurers.’
Insurers not mentioned in article.
Insurers’ actuaries look at losses, then dial it into rates. It’s not a headache. It’s what they do.
‘Jimmy Patronis, the state’s top financial officer and fire marshal.’
Wut th . . . ?
I should expect Florida state government to be more specialized.
These EV assets seem to be getting dicier and dicier every day. They seem to have minds of their own where survival is concerned and many have suicidal tendencies.
October 5, 2022
Florida has a flood problem and insurance problem
Damage from wind and flooding isn’t going to get any better – and the state’s residents are running out of ways to get insurance.
https://www.reuters.com/breakingviews/florida-has-flood-problem-insurance-problem-2022-10-04/
Some Florida insurers were already on the ropes before Ian…
https://news.fiu.edu/2022/the-big-reason-florida-insurance-companies-are-failing-isnt-just-hurricane-risk-its-fraud-and-lawsuits
That’s more about home insurance, but motor insurers are often the same people.
More about Jimmy Patronis, by a critic…
About those ‘crazy lies’…
See ‘https://twitter.com/JimmyPatronis/status/1578050503279316992’
“There’s a ton of EVs disabled from Ian.”
That would be one then. Or about half of one probably.
‘His goal was probably to conduct a politically-motivated attack on clean technology.’
See, any attack on ‘clean technology’ MUST be political. Who could possibly find anything wrong with it ?!?!
I suspect most car owners would rather have an old-fashioned 12-volt car battery dunked in seawater than a lithium cell filled EV one, if that was the choice when the hurricane storm surge came along.