This Rivian R1T floated 150 feet during Hurricane Helene

R1T EV owner expected he’d need to call insurance company to report truck total loss, but it worked out well

As you probably know, electricity and salt water are like cats and bathrooms, or more appropriately, like Teslas and Florida floods, as evidenced by a recent viral video of a man in Spontaneous combustion after swimming.

However, what may give Tesla fans pause is that the Rivian R1T caught in the chaos of Hurricane Helene shows that not all electric cars fall apart at the sight of water. Apparently, some people can handle an impromptu bath.

Take this particular R1T for example. Its owner parked it outside a U-Haul facility near the Swannanoa River in Asheville, North Carolina, blissfully unaware that a wild Category 4 hurricane was about to turn the entire area into a swamp.

More: Hurricane Helene destroys 672 vehicles at a Kia dealership in Florida

It destroyed thousands of cars, and when the owner returned to his R1T, probably expecting it to be destroyed, he discovered that it had floated about 150 feet away from where he parked it. It is also covered with a thick layer of soil.

The owner admitted in a video uploaded to Facebook that he fully expected to be able to report the Rivian’s total loss to his insurance company over the phone. However, it boots up like nothing happened and is still fully functional. Drivers can even charge it without any problems.

Now, perhaps it’s not surprising that Rivian has gone to great lengths to ensure that water doesn’t get into its battery pack, considering the R1T has been designed to be a capable off-road vehicle. A Rivian spokesperson recently confirmed in an interview with InsideEVs that the brand seals all battery packs. It also uses an isolation monitoring system that automatically cuts off power if water is detected in the battery pack.

Read: Rivian gets into the used EV game with pre-owned program

Nonetheless, the owner of this R1T would be wise to take it to a Rivian mechanic for inspection to be 100 percent sure that it is indeed completely safe to drive and is not at risk of accidentally shutting down or catching fire.

Photo credit: Joshua Vincent Sauer