ROME – The Municipality of Ravenna has ordered a fifteen-day quarantine for all electric and hybrid cars that have been submerged due to the flood. Vehicles must remain outdoors for the entire period, parked at least five meters away from each other, from buildings and from other cars.
The measure, according to the notice from the Municipality, was requested by the Fire Brigade and appears to be directly connected to the episode that took place at a dealership in the area, where a fire broke out inside an electric Nissan Leaf after the The car had been immersed in water – present in the area due to the terrible floods of recent days – for many hours. The reason for the fire that developed inside the electric Leaf is not clear, the cause of which will have to be ascertained with a specific investigation. In any case, the attention paid to electric and hybrid cars that have been immersed in water for a long time by the Fire Brigade is inspired by the principle of maximum precaution and is similar to that which all the international authorities in the fire prevention sector fires indicate as appropriate.
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Electric and hybrid cars are no less safe than those with conventional engines in the event of rain and even in situations of crossing floods. Indeed, the homologation of the battery pack and the high voltage part of the on-board system provides for specific safety functioning tests under high pressure water jets and also in immersion. All sensitive electrical parts are sealed and watertight, therefore they are not afraid of water and can be used in complete safety, if in correct storage conditions.
What happened in Romagna, however, goes far beyond the test conditions of any product, which do not include immersion durations of tens of hours or even days. Furthermore, all this with the possibility that corrosive substances and objects of all kinds could be present in the heavily muddy alluvial water. The possibility of corrosion or infiltration in areas of the cars that must not come into contact with water and must also be protected from mechanical damage, therefore, given the large number of vehicles involved, must be taken into consideration and quarantine until completely dry is the only way to avoid serious consequences of any conditions in non-visible parts that could cause fire.
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by Fabio Earrings
Lithium batteries and high voltage connections, in fact, can be subject to fire if not stored in the foreseen conditions and if corroded, invaded by particles capable of conducting electricity or damaged. It must also be said, however, that these are borderline situations that only the serious emergency experienced by those territories can suggest. And that even all cars with only internal combustion engines, which have undergone similar extreme conditions of immersion in muddy water full of debris for a long time, may have suffered irreversible damage.
These cars also have electrical connections and electronic circuits which recommend waiting for them to dry completely before restarting them. Furthermore, the least protected electrical part of any car is precisely the low-voltage part connected to the starter battery that all petrol, diesel or gas-only models also have inside.