Tesla Owner Blows Up Car Rather Than Pay $22K to Replace Battery

Tuomas Katainen blew up his 2013 S Model in protest after the company apparently wanted more than $22k to replace his faulty battery.

While Tesla warranties will cover the cost of battery replacement if it drops below 70 percent capacity within the first 150,000 miles or within eight years of purchase, owners with older models can find themselves out of luck with a hefty bill — of almost half the cost of the original car.

So rather than pay for it, Katainen, who lives in Jyväskylä, Finland, turned to local YouTubers Pommijätkät — AKA The Bomb Dudes — to dispose of it instead... in spectacular fashion.

Towing the crippled car to the outskirts of the stunning remote village of Jaala, the group set the scene in an abandoned quarry.

The doomed car even had a driver inside for its final journey: an effigy of Tesla CEO Elon Musk, whom they dubbed "Elon Mask".

In a YouTube video, Elon is unceremoniously dropped from a flying helicopter before being strapped into the faulty Tesla... which in turn has been strapped with 66lbs of dynamite.

"Well, Elon called us yesterday and told us that he really wanted to take that ride with the Tesla," one of the bombers jokes. "Enjoy your voyage! See ya!"

Watching from their protective bunker equipped with high definition cameras all around, the Pommijätkät sent the Tesla to the great scrapheap in the sky with the flick of a switch:

"When I bought that Tesla, the first 1500km were nice, it was an excellent car so far," Katainen explained in the video. "Then error codes hit in, so I ordered a tow truck to take my car in for a service."

He said the car spent a month in the Tesla dealer's workshop, until he finally received a call saying nothing could be done for it, and that the only option was to change the whole battery cell... at a cost of €20,000.

"So I told them that I'm coming to pick up the Tesla, and I'm going to explode the whole car away, because apparently there was no guarantee or anything."

He said he called Pommijätkät and asked if they'd be willing to detonate his car; unsurprisingly, they were "excited and willing to take on the task."

Asked whether he'd prefer a working Tesla or an explosion, Katainen giggled "both... but maybe more the explosion."

According to Elektrek, other drivers in the US have faced similar bills from Tesla to replace faulty batteries... only to find that third-party mechanics can do it for less than a quarter of the price.

Asked post-explosion if he'd ever had as much fun behind the wheel of his former car, a giddy Katainen replied: "No, never enjoyed this much with Tesla!"

"Maybe I'm the first person in the world who has exploded a Tesla... so maybe I made some history!"