Captain Miserable may have the answer to this one, as I believe he has a seafaring background.
With storm Denis raging across the UK and the TV news showing dozens of cars stranded in deep water, coupled with severe weather in the Atlantic causing delays to shipping on passage to Europe, I found myself thinking, just how watertight are those containers stacked on deck, completely exposed to the elements, and more importantly, how dry are all those eagerly awaited Teslas stowed inside them!
As an Ex-Marine Engineer Officer, I have experienced first hand just how bad sea conditions can get in the Atlantic, and how big those seas can get in gale-force conditions. Whilst I never sailed on container ships, I am familiar with the construction of the containers and I would be very surprised if they are 100% sealed and completely watertight!! I want to be wrong about this, because at this very moment I have a Tesla X onboard the Maersk IOWA or it could be the Maersk IDAHO, on passage to Rotterdam and due to dock February 17th or 24th respectively.
I also spent many years as a professional Rally Driver, during which time I experienced a lot of big accidents, some of which ended up with the rally car in deep water where it could spend several hours partially submersed. So I am well acquainted with what happens to a car after a situation like this! and the short answer is, after a couple of hours with a hair drier, not a lot. You make sure no water has got into the fuel tank, blow through the fuel lines and twin Webber Carbs with a compressed air line, fire it up and drive away.
BUT I am shortly taking delivery of my first EV and as you would expect, I have familiarised myself with the Tesla method of construction, so I am also well aware that the floorpan is double skinned and houses an extremely large number of lithium batteries. Whilst I have no doubt this entire area has been made extremely waterproof, engineering logic tells me it cannot possibly be 100% watertight!
So my big question is: With a Tesla, how long can the inside of the battery compartment remain completely submerged underwater and the batteries stay dry? because when it eventually floods with water, and it will, very expensive things happen and your wife's hairdryer will not sort that out.
Has anyone any experience of a situation like this, or have any knowledge if it has featured on any other forum. I am particularly interested in the cost involved to sort a problem like this, and how insurers would view the situation. As a retired Insurance Broker, underwritten at Lloyds of London, I have this mental picture of a Tesla that has been submerged underwater for hours, dried out and looking like new, but declared a total write-off, due to possibly very high costs to put it back in perfect running order.
I know you can lift the entire body off a rusty Land Rover Chassis, and fit it all back onto a new galvanised one, I have no idea if a similar thing can be done with a Tesla.
Can anyone enlighten me?
PS: I hope everyone's Tesla arrives unscathed and all those ships make it safely into port, I also hope the container that has my name on is safely stowed down below decks ......!!
RFC7
