MG4 EV vs Massive Floods...?

[Ethernea]

Ok guys, here's a serious question.

Electricity and water. Not a good combo.

And unluckily i live in a city where drainage system sucks real bad.

Guayaquil, Ecuador, South America.

Now this doesnt happen every year in every corner. But this continues to happen every rain season (january to march) and sometimes its so heavy that these images gets captured.

And the reality can be worse.

You know, some stuff cant be recorded.

I used to run an old F150 4x4 1998 and had no issues with these floods. Its tall and petrol-based.

But the MG4 EV... I love how it is. Tight on the street. But.. its 15cm near the floor. And water can be as high as 40 ~ 50 cm... Easily covering 60% the wheels


Dealership said no problem. These cars are sealed. They didnt say "waterproof" but mentioned these type of floods we shouldn't worry

And then i read this in the manual.

So what do i do if i see these floods near me on the next block?

Sometimes other cars get behind you and honk you to keep going... Its not like i can stop, reverse and change paths... And definitely not a good option to not use the car on these days lol

Ive seen videos of Tesla going submarine on these situations. And comments saying they explode or catch fire in the next corners - but i haven't seen this on video.

So i dont know.

Any recommendations?

 

[Corindikev]

Never drive through flood water unless you know how deep it is and the road condition underneath. The only way to do this is get out & walk through first. All EVs have a safety system that will shut the HV battery down if a short circuit is detected. This is to protect you and also the battery.

The warning in the manual is also in every ICE car manual. This is to protect the manufacturer from warranty claims for being stupid. A car will float in very little water. Often 300mm deep is all it needs. If the water is running with any sort of current as little as 200mm can push the vehicle off the road and in to a worse situation.

I am the Deputy Commander of our local State Emergency Service unit and our motto is "If its flooded forget it". Every year we still get idiots trying to drive through flood waters, some even ignoring the flood signs and road closed signs. Many get in to trouble and we have to rescue them. Others drown. There is never a good reason to drive through floods without the right expertise and knowledge of the exiting scenario.

 

[decrep]

I think on another thread here, somebody was repairing a battery that got flooded. It looked like each cell was sealed, but muck had got between the cells, activating the safety devices and shutting the battery down.

 

[Ian Key]

I emailed MG customer services in the UK last year and asked what the wading depth of the MG4 was. This is their reply:

Its not something that we have published, or been provided with, however, under normal circumstances on any motor vehicle , it is roughly just below half way of the wheel.

This pretty much coincides with the lower sill below your doors.

Kind regards

 

[Rolfe]

Do not concern yourself, at least no more than you would be concerned about an ICE car in the same situation. Less in fact. There is a thread on this.

MG4 would seem to have made it through a flooded ford

Not that I would have attempted this, but it would seem the MG4 made it through unscathed, or do you think it will incur problems later on? ? Fast forward to the 2 minute 7 second mark to see the MG4:

www.mgevs.com

Here is the video in question, which should start at the right place.



The car actually swam for a short distance, perhaps propelled by its spinning wheels. I followed this up, and although the car's owner didn't answer an email, the maker of the video said the owner was local and he'd seen him around, even coming through the flood on a second occasion, and the car was fine.

Most ICE cars that tried that ruined their engines. The preceding vehicle was an ICE bin lorry which apparently had over £100,000 worth of damage done to its engine etc. Or so the video maker said. However the MG4, in common with all EVs, negotiated the flood just fine. There are other videos of other EVs getting through various floods, and they all make it. There is a compilation of video clips of Teslas going through a particularly notorious ford, and they all make it. Some of the drivers are obviously doing it deliberately, for fun. In one case the water is half way up the windscreen.

EVs are well sealed against water ingress. They have to be, to cope with normal driving in heavy rain. They don't have air intakes, or engines that can hydrolock. They tend to float because the undertray is quite well sealed, as can be seen with that MG4. This is something some EVs exploit. The Nissan Leaf has a certified wading depth of 700mm, and there's a promo video of someone driving one through this depth.

The danger is quite different. The cars aren't perfectly sealed, and although they can survive 30 seconds going through a flood, if they are caught in standing water they will be in big trouble, not because of damage to the propulsion unit, but because the upholstery, carpets and soundproofing will be soaked and may well be uneconomical to dry out. Just like with an ICE car.

There is another video (actually two) which I can't find right now made by someone whose wife's EV was caught parked in a river flood. The insurance company wanted to write it off, but the owner asked if he could try to recover it. When the flood water went down the car drove off without any error messages at all. (The ICE cars near it were all ruined.) He spent a very long time in his workshop (he's an EV technician) drying everything out. It was so much work I can see why the insurance thought it wasn't worth it, but he succeeded. The car was saved and back on the road and the second video shows it fine after 15 months. The entire issue was soaked upholstery and so on. The drive unit was sealed and no water got in.

Having said that, DON'T DO IT. Don't be those Tesla drivers racing through deep water just because they can. It's dangerous. You don't know what's under that water. The car could start to float and you could be swept away. The water could come in and soak your carpets and seats and so on. MG do not certify the 4 as having a wading depth any better than an ICE car, so don't risk it.

But it is not going to explode, it is not going to catch fire, and the actual mechanics of the car will not die.

 

[DrPlokta]

Do not concern yourself, at least no more than you would be concerned about an ICE car in the same situation. Less in fact. There is a thread on this.

MG4 would seem to have made it through a flooded ford

Not that I would have attempted this, but it would seem the MG4 made it through unscathed, or do you think it will incur problems later on? ? Fast forward to the 2 minute 7 second mark to see the MG4:

www.mgevs.com

Here is the video in question, which should start at the right place.



The car actually swam for a short distance, perhaps propelled by its spinning wheels. I followed this up, and although the car's owner didn't answer an email, the maker of the video said the owner was local and he'd seen him around, even coming through the flood on a second occasion, and the car was fine.

Most ICE cars that tried that ruined their engines. The preceding vehicle was an ICE bin lorry which apparently had over £100,000 worth of damage done to its engine etc. Or so the video maker said. However the MG4, in common with all EVs, negotiated the flood just fine. There are other videos of other EVs getting through various floods, and they all make it. There is a compilation of video clips of Teslas going through a particularly notorious ford, and they all make it. Some of the drivers are obviously doing it deliberately, for fun. In one case the water is half way up the windscreen.

EVs are well sealed against water ingress. They have to be, to cope with normal driving in heavy rain. They don't have air intakes, or engines that can hydrolock. They tend to float because the undertray is quite well sealed, as can be seen with that MG4. This is something some EVs exploit. The Nissan Leaf has a certified wading depth of 700mm, and there's a promo video of someone driving one through this depth.

The danger is quite different. The cars aren't perfectly sealed, and although they can survive 30 seconds going through a flood, if they are caught in standing water they will be in big trouble, not because of damage to the propulsion unit, but because the upholstery, carpets and soundproofing will be soaked and may well be uneconomical to dry out. Just like with an ICE car.

There is another video (actually two) which I can't find right now made by someone whose wife's EV was caught parked in a river flood. The insurance company wanted to write it off, but the owner asked if he could try to recover it. When the flood water went down the car drove off without any error messages at all. (The ICE cars near it were all ruined.) He spent a very long time in his workshop (he's an EV technician) drying everything out. It was so much work I can see why the insurance thought it wasn't worth it, but he succeeded. The car was saved and back on the road and the second video shows it fine after 15 months. The entire issue was soaked upholstery and so on. The drive unit was sealed and no water got in.

Having said that, DON'T DO IT. Don't be those Tesla drivers racing through deep water just because they can. It's dangerous. You don't know what's under that water. The car could start to float and you could be swept away. The water could come in and soak your carpets and seats and so on. MG do not certify the 4 as having a wading depth any better than an ICE car, so don't risk it.

But it is not going to explode, it is not going to catch fire, and the actual mechanics of the car will not die.

EVs do have air intakes, for the battery cooling systems. That’s what the grille below the front numberplate is on the MG4.

 

[siteguru]

The cooling system is sealed ... water-cooled. Any air is only getting as far as the radiators.

 

[Ethernea]

this is true - the car doesn't use air to ventilate - BUT... where does the air conditioner gets air from?

Also, I always avoid floods but my city is not something you can just avoid getting into these floods.

There are some urban streets that get's flooded for 1 or 2 blocks and there's no way to turn around or park to wait (and it would be so many hours until water goes away)

Drainage system really sucks (and no, it's not that it heavy rains - it's just the government's flaw)

Good to know some EV are more resilient than ICE (internal combustion engine - didn't know this, had to google it) and that doesn't mean im going reckless. I enjoy taking care of my cars.

Thanks for the heads up. Avoiding floods as much as possible. If it's below 50% of the tire or bottom of the door sealing - just go smooth and confident.

P.S. these Tesla videos, and other EVs... are not MG4. I'm still wondering the durability and well built structure of these Chinese car sold as British technology. But it's all SAIC's doing. So i don't know how well built they really are... Im afraid to research and get disappointed lol

So far I love my car. It's cute, fast and electric. I hope it arrives 1,000,000km when the battery dies and crossing fingers that by then SAIC will sell new battery models to replace

 

[siteguru]

My point was that the air intakes on the MG4 don't go directly into another system (unlike in an ICE vehicle, where water in the engine air intake or into the exhaust may cause catastrophic failure) so them being submerged for a short time shouldn't cause a direct issue.

 

[Rolfe]

It's a bad idea to go into water on purpose, but if you do, experience shows that you have a better chance in an EV than in an ICE car. That video of the swimming MG4 wasn't faked.

 

[decrep]

It surprised me how early it floated, I assumed with the extra battery weight, it would float later than equivalent ICE cars, but the MG seemed to float earlier than them.
This would be a problem in fast flowing water, you'd quickly end up downstream somewhere.

 

[Rolfe]

That surprised me too, but the people who make these films (who also rescue the casualties as a sort of quid pro quo) say that EVs always float if they're in deep enough. The door seals and the relatively sealed battery/undertray combination turn the things into rafts. Or barges. Meanwhile the water is pouring into the ICE cars from underneath.

There was an ICE car that got into serious trouble at that ford while the guardians were away towing someone else to professional help. They got back to find the car floating and drifting downstream, saved only by the handrail. The guy said it's really deep on the other side of the rail when it floods and people seem to have no idea how much danger they're in.

The MG4 was saved because its motor continued to run, and the spinning wheels seemed to propel it forward enough to get a toehold on the other side.

 

[decrep]

The trick, if you're in danger of floating down stream. is to open a door and let some water in. Not good for the carpet, but could save you and the car.