Finnish man blows up his Tesla rather than buy exorbitant battery replacement
Rather than pay for an expensive battery replacement, a Finnish man handed his car over to YouTubers Pommijätkät who blew it up with 30kg of dynamite. — Pommijätkät/YouTube screengrab
Ever got an eye-watering repair estimate and wished to just get rid of your car instead?
A Finnish man lived the dream, choosing to blow up his Tesla rather than replace the battery which cost more than a third of the car’s original value.
The Verge reported that Tuomas Katainen made the outlandish decision after being faced with a US$22,600 (RM94,535) quotation for a battery replacement for his Tesla Model S model that typically costs around US$60,000 (RM250,980) new or around US$30,000 (RM125,490) used.
Katainen said he only got around 1,500km of driving out of the car before error codes started popping up, leading him to take it to a Tesla repair centre where he received the eventual, unacceptable quotation.
He handed his electric car over to YouTubers Pommijätkät (Finnish for bomb dudes), who strapped the car with 30kg of dynamite and brought it to an old quarry in Jaala, Finland for safe disposal.
In the 8.26 minute long video, the explosion, set to triumphant music, is seen obliterating the car, reducing it to a spray of shrapnel.
Asked by the Pommijätkät crew if he had as much fun driving the car, Katainen replied “No, never enjoyed this much with Tesla”.
This is a largely unspoken potential problem with anyone buying an electric vehicle.
ReplyDeleteWhile the batteries are overall said to be Very reliable and usually last for many years of use, a small number will fail prematurely.
When that happens, especially after the warranty period , tough luck.
Batteries cost a large percentage of the car's original price, far more than, say, replacing the engine in a conventional petrol or diesel vehicle.