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Can lightning harm an electric car?
If lightning strikes an electric car while it’s being driven or on the charger, will it fry the vehicle’s electronics?
Jason Crosby · Updated on
Reviewed by Shannon Martin, Licensed Insurance Agent.
If lightning strikes your
electric car
while it’s charging, your vehicle should be just fine. Though it makes sense to worry, we’ll go into a little bit of detail about why there’s not much to be concerned about. In the rare event that lightning would strike an EV, the electricity would travel through the body of the car (not the cabin), and exit through the tires into the ground. Remember—your electric car is grounded by 4 rubber tires that have constant contact with the ground, which would inadvertently deflect a lightning strike.
It’s possible that you could have a
blown fuse
in your garage or a flipped breaker if the lightning strike was close enough. However, breakers are designed to prevent electronics from getting fried if too much current tries to run through the system they’re receiving power from. So in both cases, your electric car should be just fine in the uneventful chance of a lightning strike. The only time that occupants of an electric car would be in danger of injury from a lightning strike would be if they were touching or were very close to a vehicle that has been struck, which might cause the lightning strike to jump from the metal and pass through their body. Just like the electrical system in our houses, too much current can quite literally fry our circuitry, making lightning a rare, but very serious threat.
Being struck by lightning is rare—but getting overcharged for car insurance isn’t. That’s why
Jerry
does all the hard work of finding cheap quotes from the top name-brand insurance companies and buying new car insurance. Jerry will even help you cancel your old policy.View full answer
- Gregory R.
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Jerry partners with more than 50 insurance companies, but our content is independently researched, written, and fact-checked by our team of editors and agents. We aren’t paid for reviews or other content.
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