Road Debris Risk?

[Dan Albrich]

So we all intuitively and generally try to avoid road debris in any vehicle we drive (of course). But I admit I have some fear of hitting metal road debris in any electric car given stories like the 2013 Tesla that mostly incinerated after hitting road debris. That case is particularly interesting as the passenger had time to get out safely, and it's not clear the fire ever made it to the passenger compartment. So while critics pounced, it's unclear if the passenger would fared any better in a different type of car.

So anyway, my intent is not to be alarmist. Quite the opposite, but I would be curious if those in the forums know what protection the battery in the Honda Clarity has from road debris which hits the car from underneath or gets crunched over (accidentally of course).
i.e. any information about metal shielding or even battery position relative the passenger compartment, or other mitigating factors.

-Dan

 

[insightman]

So we all intuitively and generally try to avoid road debris in any vehicle we drive (of course). But I admit I have some fear of hitting metal road debris in any electric car given stories like the 2013 Tesla that mostly incinerated after hitting road debris. That case is particularly interesting as the passenger had time to get out safely, and it's not clear the fire ever made it to the passenger compartment. So while critics pounced, it's unclear if the passenger would fared any better in a different type of car.

So anyway, my intent is not to be alarmist. Quite the opposite, but I would be curious if those in the forums know what protection the battery in the Honda Clarity has from road debris which hits the car from underneath or gets crunched over (accidentally of course).
i.e. any information about metal shielding or even battery position relative the passenger compartment, or other mitigating factors.

-Dan

Did you see the Underbody Photos thread? It shows what the underside of the Clarity PHEV looks like after removing the aerodynamic panels.

Here are photos of the battery with and without engine and wheels. You can see there are batteries under both front seats and under the rear seats, too.

 

[Blue Adept]

You should worry. My wife's car was totaled after a peice of cut scrap I Beam sliced the bottom of the engine and transmission. Radiator and everything else open. The car sputtered and the engine blew from lack of oil and damage in about 15 seconds. The hit happened at 70 mph. The scrap metal pieces flew out of a pickup truck that was overloaded and pulling a trailer of junk and scrap. 3 other cars were damaged. Another driver stopped the pickup driver and he was ticketed. The clarity if a short is detected will shutdown. The battery will burn only in some situations and it will burn slower than a punctured gas tank. Battery is under most of the floor pan.

 

[Fast Eddie B]

Worth pondering. A few weeks ago on GA400 southbound a huge piece of metal something wedged underneath the car in front of us, causing us and several others to swerve to avoid the mayhem.

Whew!

No knowledge of battery protection, but lots of pieces underneath a Clarity that seem vulnerable - but no more so than the average sedan.

As an aside, we try to maintain a pretty large following distance from the car in front. Needless to say, lots of drivers don’t.

 

[neal adkins]

Did you see the Underbody Photos thread? It shows what the underside of the Clarity PHEV looks like after removing the aerodynamic panels.

Here are photos of the battery with and without engine and wheels. You can see there are batteries under both front seats and under the rear seats, too.

View attachment 6455

View attachment 6456

Looks like the batteries are well above the frame of the chassis. I think the cross beams on the chassis/frame would prevent most anything from making it to the area where the batteries are mounted. Here's an explanation of the Clarity's structual design. The Clarity’s lightweight, clean-sheet chassis, designed specifically for electrified applications (yes, that includes the hydrogen fuel-cell version), shows Honda's usual, obsessive attention to engineering detail. It includes aluminum subframes and a largely aluminum suspension front and rear; big doses of super high-tensile steel; and the industry’s first resin-molded composite rear bumper that meets all crash standards.

 

[Dan Albrich]

Thanks to each of you that responded.

 

[Kerbe]

The Clarity’s lightweight, clean-sheet chassis, designed specifically for electrified applications (yes, that includes the hydrogen fuel-cell version), shows Honda's usual, obsessive attention to engineering detail.

 

[neal adkins]

Thats an awesome upload! Thanks! Makes me feel even safer. Definately want repairs done at an authorized dealer!

 

[laptop]

Worth pondering. A few weeks ago on GA400 southbound a huge piece of metal something wedged underneath the car in front of us, causing us and several others to swerve to avoid the mayhem.

Whew!

No knowledge of battery protection, but lots of pieces underneath a Clarity that seem vulnerable - but no more so than the average sedan.

As an aside, we try to maintain a pretty large following distance from the car in front. Needless to say, lots of drivers don’t.

So many tailgaters and some are on their phone!


Sent from my iPhone using Inside EVs

 

[Dan Albrich]

yeah, that's what got me thinking. I mean I've had occasion on busy interstate such that debris suddenly appears -- typically because the car ahead of me had no where to go, and ran over it first. So it's not always avoidable and yep, I've definitely already hit some metal debris and crunched over it at relatively high speed like (65Mph) . Not much I could do about. Next time I'm at dealer for tire rotation (assume up on lift) I'll ask what they see.

After my last event (I've had more than one just like stated above), my car has otherwise been running fine with no obvious signs of damage. Externally it looks perfect. But yeah, hard to avoid what you cannot see, and also if packed interstate, sometimes there's no where to go but up and over. Seems especially bad in the Clarity only because the car is so low to the ground. I'm sure same stuff used to happen to my Subaru Outback but clearance was such that I didn't crunch over stuff.

And no, I don't mean to describe this as frequent or severe. The stuff I've hit has mainly been small, but both cases what I hit was metal, and no idea what it was or why it was in my lane. Just speaks to how little control one may have over such situations.

 

[Fast Eddie B]

As an aside, the WAZE app has saved our bacon a handful of times, warning of an obect in the road. The warnings are mostly overblown or have cleared, but sometimes the object is very real and very much in the road.

 

[Chuck]

To be fair to Tesla's that 2013 Model S that caught on fire hit a three arm trailer ball mount that had fallen out of some trucks receiver, sounds like it had a drop on it also. Those things weigh over 20 pounds and when on the ground one part is always sticking up over 8 inches. They are like a land mine, hence the pin with cotter key that should have been used to keep this from happening. Those things would rip the bottom of any sedan to shreds. Wouldn't it be nice to have them stamped with a serial # to trace back to the owner.