electric shock??!!!

[IrwinJ]

last night my husband was exiting the car on our way to a restaurant. He already had the door open but touched something on his passenger door near the vicinity of the door handle and trim above it, and says he got a really significant shock. It had been raining all day, and possibly there was moisture on the car. But he hadn't yet put his feet out of the car. Later inspecting that door, it seems everything is plastic and upholstery, even the door handle seems to be hard plastic. So how could he have been shocked?

Any thoughts?

Sponsored

 

[Ambroos]

Static electricity is annoying and does not need metal to occur.

If there was an electrical current on something you would feel it continuously when touching it. If it's a static charge you'll feel it discharge once and then it'll be gone (until either you or the thing you touch builds a charge again).

I get it a lot depending on what shoes and sweater I wear, and it'll happen touching random things (or even people).

 

[IrwinJ]

so you think there's no way it could be from the battery?

 

[OTPSkipper]

You would know it was the battery because it wouldn’t be a momentary shock. It would keep arcing. You would get severely burned at the r red very least.
The stormy conditions are ideal for the car shell to build up a static charge.

 

[Archimedes]

so you think there's no way it could be from the battery?

Was your husband laying on the ground smoking from his temples afterward?

 

[tbinmd]

Static electricity, if it was the battery you would not be able to talk to him afterwards.

 

[IrwinJ]

Ok thanks - that’s a relief!!!

 

[W1NGE]

Static electricity is annoying and does not need metal to occur.

If there was an electrical current on something you would feel it continuously when touching it. If it's a static charge you'll feel it discharge once and then it'll be gone (until either you or the thing you touch builds a charge again).

I get it a lot depending on what shoes and sweater I wear, and it'll happen touching random things (or even people).

Static electricity as mentioned above.

 

[scav]

Not to be a dick or anything, but did you seriously believe that, or are you just trolling?

 

[whitex]

Fun fact, HV batteries in a Taycan source DC voltage and are not grounded (to Earth), therefore you would need to touch two terminals in order to get shocked, or rather, electrocuted (yes 800V, or 400V, DC can be very lethal). Also, while cars usually utilize the car's body for the negative terminal of 12V battery supply (saves 50% of wiring by using the car's body as the conductor), the high voltage battery does not do that - both terminals are fully isolated from the body. If by some chance there was to be a short between one of the terminals and the body of the car, the current would still not flow (no return path to the other terminal, unless for some reason there was one through the 12V negative), and if both terminals shorted to the body, the body would start heating up real quick, possibly melting.

The only way I could see someone getting shocked due to a technology failure of any kind would be if the car was plugged into AC charging and something went really wrong at more than one level. AC charging, as the name suggests, runs on AC source which is grounded to earth, so if there was a short of any kind to the body of the car, you could get electrocuted by just standing on the ground and touching it. HOWEVER, for this to happen the AC EVSE (external charger) would have to be faulty and/or the car's charger would have to have some major issues. Normally the EVSE provides the ground/Earth connection and the car is supposed to tie its body to that, then the EVSE is supposed to monitor the current and if any of it doesn't return through the live phases, it is supposed to trip instantly (think GFCI functionality).

Bottom line, unless you were using something like this to charge the car (PLEASE DON"T)

what is described here is almost certainly a simple static electricity buildup which happens to all cars, ICE cars too (sometimes a cause of fires when fueling up when a spark arcs between the fuel dispenser and the car). If this is a common problem for you, there are products out there which literally ground the car (dissipate any static discharge buildup on the car).

 

[AHayat]

Static electricity is annoying and does not need metal to occur.

If there was an electrical current on something you would feel it continuously when touching it. If it's a static charge you'll feel it discharge once and then it'll be gone (until either you or the thing you touch builds a charge again).

I get it a lot depending on what shoes and sweater I wear, and it'll happen touching random things (or even people).

Agree, happens exactly the same way to me and primarily is dependent on shoes

 

[BigBob]

It might be worth switching out his polyester socks, underpants and jumpers for cotton ones....

 

[f1eng]

IME if wearing shoes with synthetic soles and moving feet on a synthetic carpet or clothes against synthetic seat material a fairly substantial static charge can build up.
It has been an irritation to me on cars with "cloth" seats but is OK on leather IME and if I only wear leather soled shoes and cotton or wool clothes.

Sponsored