Fisker Karma's catch fire underwater

[upflying]

More Sandy victims, good advice to avoid driving a Fisker (and any hybrid) through a flooded area. You might die.
http://updates.jalopnik.com/post/346...aught-fire-and

[DGthe3]

Originally Posted by upflying

More Sandy victims, good advice to avoid driving a Fisker (and any hybrid) through a flooded area. You might die.
http://updates.jalopnik.com/post/346...aught-fire-and

Being a hybrid doesn't have anything to do with the havoc that saltwater can wreak on cars. The moment the cars were flooded they were a write-off and potentially a safety hazard anyways. Wires corrode & if they short in the wrong spot there are plenty of things in a car (hybrid or otherwise) that could catch fire.


And personally, I plan on never driving any car through a flooded area. Not because I fear it will catch fire, but because I don't want the engine to die from being exposed to too much water.

[Number 3]

But the hybrids have 300 volt wire that are a special color for safety workers. A regular car or truck is simply 12 volts.

[drummer5679]

Originally Posted by DGthe3

Being a hybrid doesn't have anything to do with the havoc that saltwater can wreak on cars. The moment the cars were flooded they were a write-off and potentially a safety hazard anyways. Wires corrode & if they short in the wrong spot there are plenty of things in a car (hybrid or otherwise) that could catch fire.


And personally, I plan on never driving any car through a flooded area. Not because I fear it will catch fire, but because I don't want the engine to die from being exposed to too much water.

yeah it does actually, like the guy above me posted hybrid systems use 300 volts of pure unadulterated arkansas white lightning which is considerably more dangerous when exposed than your average gasoline machine.

[derklug]

It's a programing strategy to keep the occupants dry.

[DGthe3]

A shorted out 12V system can still spark & cause fires. It happens all the time. Sure, 12 volts can't arc quite as far as 300, but the danger is still there. Each year there are something like 65,000 vehicle fires in the United States that can be attributed to failures of the electrical system (mechanical failures are responsible for about twice that number, for comparison purposes). If I had to guess, I'd say that something on the order of 99.9% of these are conventional vehicles with a 12V electrical system.

[Apex Motorsports]

Those cars were all over Vegas this week. They are pretty good looking cars.

[Ject]

Funny.... all the other cars in the background didn't burn to the ground like these obviously did........ Can we say ISSUES?

[Captain Awesome]

Originally Posted by DGthe3

A shorted out 12V system can still spark & cause fires. It happens all the time. Sure, 12 volts can't arc quite as far as 300, but the danger is still there. Each year there are something like 65,000 vehicle fires in the United States that can be attributed to failures of the electrical system (mechanical failures are responsible for about twice that number, for comparison purposes). If I had to guess, I'd say that something on the order of 99.9% of these are conventional vehicles with a 12V electrical system.

A 12V lead acid battery in the typical normal car only has a few amps of current. The LiIon battery in a hybrid battery can supply hundreds of amps. The Fisker battery nominally has 336V and amps in the hundreds if not more.

Voltage is like electrical pressure. A large volatage is like a higher pressure. Amperage is like the size of a pipe.

So, if you have a 1/4" pipe with 12PSI in it, you could easily stop it by sticking your finger over the end of the pipe.

The same 1/4" pipe with 336PSI in it you could probably stop with your finger as well, but it would be painful.

Increase the size of the pipe to 1" diameter (more amps) and at 336PSI it would probably take your arm off.

People think these batteries are so wonderful, but they demand a lot of respect. They contain all of the potential energy needed to move a vehicle for the rated distance in a form that is very much ready to be released in an instant.

The battery wants to get rid of all that stored energy and it takes only a small problem to unleash it.

A whole tank of gasoline contains all the stored energy to drive 300-500 miles (depending on the car) and you can unleash it with a fire, but it is released in a relatively slow manner because it needs to combine with oxygen to burn and this reaction is limited by the surface area of the gas.

You would have to convert all of a tank of gas into a vapor and mix it with oxygen and contain the vapor mixture somehow and ignite it to achieve the same effect as shorting out a massive battery.

The battery discharge is really only limited by the internal resistance and so it wouldn't be able to fully discharge instantly, but a dead short would release a huge amount of it all at once. A lot more than a 12V car battery or some dino juice that leaked out.

[Captain Awesome]

Originally Posted by Ject

Funny.... all the other cars in the background didn't burn to the ground like these obviously did........ Can we say ISSUES?

I read that the Karma used batteries made by an infamous little company called A123 systems... That's "karma" for you.

[Brokinarrow]

Aren't the Karma's made by the guy that tried to rip off Tesla's roadster design after working for them? Aptly named in that case

[Scalded Dog]

Originally Posted by Number 3

But the hybrids have 300 volt wire that are a special color for safety workers. A regular car or truck is simply 12 volts.

A regular ol' car or truck has something north of 20,000 volts running through it. Ask anybody who has ever pulled the plug wire off of a running lawn mower, or tried pulling the wires off of a '76 Cutlass at idle and has gotten permant nerve damage done to his hand... those folks will be happy to testify that there's a lot more than a 12 volt trickle running through them dang things!

[Captain Awesome]

Originally Posted by Scalded Dog

A regular ol' car or truck has something north of 20,000 volts running through it. Ask anybody who has ever pulled the plug wire off of a running lawn mower, or tried pulling the wires off of a '76 Cutlass at idle and has gotten permant nerve damage done to his hand... those folks will be happy to testify that there's a lot more than a 12 volt trickle running through them dang things!

Big deal. 20,000 volts at no amps is not that impressive. I can get 25,000 volts just by shuffling my feet on the carpet on a dry winter day.

It's the amps that do the damage no the volts.

[Scalded Dog]

Originally Posted by Captain Awesome

Big deal. 20,000 volts at no amps is not that impressive. I can get 25,000 volts just by shuffling my feet on the carpet on a dry winter day.

It's the amps that do the damage no the volts.

Of course... my point precisely, in response to the claim of 300 volts found in the FizzCar... massive voltage CAN be a moot point.