Driving in floods?

[dgs99]

Did my first long range drive to Dorset on Saturday in torrential rain. Negotiated a few flooded roads that must have been 9" deep in water.
A bit concerned that the battery is underneath the chassis, but guess it's fully waterproof? Is it OK to drive through fords? Have to go through one in Sidmouth quite often.

 

[ARealHuman]

I'm not far from you and and the same heading into south Devon on Saturday in my ZS! Perhaps not quite as deep, but I drove cautiously whilst maintaining momentum. I think the batteries are sealed units, at least on the ZS, there's a video somewhere on the forum about how MG make the batteries and part of it includes pressure testing the unit which I can only assume is to make sure it's sealed. There are also plenty on videos on YouTube of EVs going through quite deep water, so unless you do something really daft, I think you'll be fine.

 

[AnonymouseDriva]

The battery and motor are IP67 rated I believe, so could technically be submerged for half an hour under a meter of water without any ingress. I'm not tempted to try that though....
Can't say the same for the rest of the car and any other electrical components though... I guess treat it like any other ICE car.

(but not like my mate did with his boss's pimped up BMW M5 - took it through a deep puddle and the front spoiler scooped a load of water into the air intake. Insurance company wrote it off...) At least you don't have an air intake to worry about!

 

[gazter]

The battery and motor are IP67 rated I believe, so could technically be submerged for half an hour under a meter of water without any ingress. I'm not tempted to try that though....
Can't say the same for the rest of the car and any other electrical components though... I guess treat it like any other ICE car.

(but not like my mate did with his boss's pimped up BMW M5 - took it through a deep puddle and the front spoiler scooped a load of water into the air intake. Insurance company wrote it off...) At least you don't have an air intake to worry about!

I was just thinking that, in a a traditional car you can go as deep as the air intake lets you…

 

[n8sail]

With traditional cars, air intake indeed is your limiting factor, but from what I've seen, the problems encountered from wading often don't rear their ugly heads until later, sometimes years... electrical gremlins resulting from corrosion on connectors etc. are a real PITA to deal with.

Someone on here posted once that 30cm was the tested depth for a ZS? Not sure there was ever an answer about our 5's.

Keen to know the safe 'approved' wading depth for the 5 as Thailand does flood often... right now half of the middle of the country is under water!

 

[EVsince2016]

The Nissan LEAF has a recommended wading depth of 30cm which is the same as the MG and most EVs. It's to do with the risk of floatation in fast flows and door seals.

The LEAF was tested to 70cm - see video

I actually drove mine through some deep floods in Wales up to 60cm without any issues.

I read that all MGs electricals are tested to 1m depth and certified as such for a short duration.

Nooc question #2 - Safe wading depth?

www.speakev.com

That obviously fails if the car floats or the door seals leak!