A YouTube video of an unhappy Tesla owner in Finland, who blew up his car by using a dynamite, has caught the world's attention.
After using a 2013 Model S electric sedan for eight years, Tuomas Katainen, the owner, started having trouble with it. He was getting multiple error codes on the instrument cluster due to software glitches that even affected the car's semi-autonomous driver-assist system. Finally, he used a tow truck to take it to the nearby Tesla service centre.
After a month-long wait, he received a call from the EV company's service engineer, saying the entire battery pack needs to be replaced as the problem can't be fixed. It would cost him about €20,000 as no warranty was available for it at the time.
While a third-party service would have been cheaper, Tesla's closed ecosystem does not allow for this.
All Katainen wanted was to tell the world how expensive the maintenance cost of electric vehicles could be. So the infuriated Tesla owner decided to blow up the car by using a 30kg of dynamite. Before the explosion, Katainen and his crew set a doll of Tesla CEO Elon Musk inside the car.
A small crowd watched the drama set at an old quarry at Jaala, a village in south Finland's Kymenlaakso region.
The explosion barely left only charred parts of the car, which were accumulated in a pile. "There's nothing left. Absolutely nothing," Katainen said. But he felt happy that he is the first person who exploded a Tesla car. "Maybe, I am the first person in the world who has exploded a Tesla. So maybe, made some history," he said.
