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Comment by machdiamonds | Hacker News Reader

I'm guessing they actually waded through a significant amount of water, like this, instead of merely driving in the rain: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tzA0U53HF2g

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Having lived in the Irish countryside for a number of years in my teens, I would absolutely expect any car to successfully manage the depth shown from the third car until the nighttime shots. My parents drove some cheap cars late in their lifespan through worse.

Having seen those videos before, a lot of people cause ICE failures. Having said that, their approach and speed are often a big part of it.

The Teslas should be fine, but submersion is really not recommended and this is getting really close. The breather valves can leak if subjected to enough force.

Leaking leads to corrosion which leads to really expensive repairs.

Perhaps a factor which exacerbates things is the placement of the battery/electronics due to the Tesla skateboard design which means the battery is quite low off the ground - especially for the Model 3 and Model S.

In a traditional ICE car or an ICE/EV/PHEV platform I can imagine there are more options to put things higher up within in the front chassis.

In most cases, I'd guess that an EV would outperform an ICE vehicle when wading through water, as the battery can be fully sealed and there's no risk of water-locking the engine due to the absence of intakes or exhausts.

sounds like this is not the case, at least for tesla?

Seems like the Teslas in that video do better than most ICE vehicles: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qmm7AfLMAqY

Crazy that people would do that voluntarily!

Interestingly I wonder if it's an issue of just a difference between the two designs in terms of scenarios its optimized for (a.k.a. there's a tradeoff).

If the EV's skateboard battery water seal is functioning perfectly then EV will perform well, perhaps better than a traditional design ICE/EV/PHEV platform.

If the EV's skateboard battery water seal has been compromised, then due to its relatively low placement, a lower than normal water levels may cause significant damages.

Water Damaged Tesla Model S Battery

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i_iz7gcXPUc

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