Your TESLA doubles as a boat, says Elon Musk

It turns out that despite the fact that it’s an electric vehicle, it’s entirely possible to take your $70,000 Tesla Model S for a dip. Just ask Tesla C.E.O.Elon Musk.“Wedefdon’t recommended this, but Model S floats well enough to turn it into a boat for short periods of time,”Musk tweeted. “Thrust via wheel rotation.”

Musk’s comments follow a video that emerged over the weekend, in which a man in a Tesla Motor S appears to drive, and then float, through a flooded roadway in Almaty, Kazakhstan. Once the driver hits the water, the car starts to float. In most internal-combustion-engine cars, the exhaust would flood, rendering the vehicle useless. But in the electric Tesla, that doesn’t seem to be much of a problem, since there’s no exhaust pipe.

In the future, perhaps we’ll see a Tesla boat, or a submarine. In 2013, Musk bought the Lotus Esprit car from the James Bond movieThe Spy Who Loved Me,with the intention of turning it into its own submarine, and he’s made clearhis intentions to createa submarine sports car that can drive and float. The Tesla Model S’s battery pack and cockpitaresealed, and presumably water resistant, but it’s not clear if trying to float your Tesla is a violation of your car’s warranty, so for now, it may be best not to try driving it through deep waters.

(VANITY FAIR)