Video shows Tesla Model S floating through water (video)

 June 20, 2016 - 14:39 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net - A Tesla Model S can float and effectively drive on water, if you find yourself flooded, The Guardian reports.

“We definitely don't recommended this, but Model S floats well enough to turn it into a boat for short periods of time. Thrust via wheel rotation,” Tesla CEO Elon Musk said.

Musk’s tweet about the car floating well was prompted by the release of a video showing a man driving his Model S, seemingly unscathed, through a flooded tunnel in Almaty, Kazakhstan. The car quite literally floats while its gas-powered brethren become stranded and sink.

The car appears to power through the water using the thrust of the wheels turning in the water, as the bow wave laps over the car’s bonnet.

The idea of a Tesla working on water may not be new to Musk. One of Tesla’s Easter Eggs for the Model S is the ability to swap the image of the car for James Bond’s submersible Lotus Esprit, called Wet Nellie, when in the suspension settings menu. That’s where the fun stops, though, it isn’t a license to drive headlong off a pier into the sea.

Most internal combustion engine cars are sunk in water when the exhaust becomes flooded, which is why serious off-roaders have big exhaust scoops leading to the roof. Electric cars don’t suffer from that particular issue, but how the rest of the car will react is unknown.