Video of vehicle floating through flooded Kazakhstan tunnel suggests electric cars can turn into makeshift boats in a pinch – but Musk doesn’t recommend it

There’s a common misconception that electric vehicles don’t like water any more than gas guzzlers, but apparently that isn’t true. It turns out if you find yourself flooded, a Tesla Model S can float and effectively drive on water.

Elon Musk (@elonmusk) We *def* 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’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.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Tesla’s Bond-themed Wet Nellie Easter Egg doesn’t mean the Model S turns into a submarine, but as a makeshift boat it’ll do for crossing flooded roads. Photograph: Samuel Gibbs/The Guardian

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.