The rain damaged the battery in the Tesla. The bill? You better sit down
2:38 PM EDT, October 17, 2023
A couple from Edinburgh was shocked after the service, estimated the repair of their car to be over $20,000. The cause of the Tesla battery failure was...rain. And although ostensibly, the car owners weren't to blame for the weather, it turned out that the car's warranty didn't cover this kind of damage.
Johnny Bacigalupo and Rob Hussey couldn't start the car, so they arranged transportation for it to Tesla in Edinburgh. A few days later, they received a phone call with information that the battery had been "damaged as a result of water infiltration".
When they first called me, I thought we would get a bill for 500-1000 pounds. When they said it was over 20,000, I nearly had a heart attack - said Bacigalupo in a conversation with Edinburgh Live.
Some people prefer to sell their car instead of replacing the battery
In 2019, Elon Musk estimated that replacing a battery in a Tesla could cost from 5,000 to 10,000 dollars. However, in 2023, these numbers are expected to change. According to Recurrent magazine, which reports on the status of electric vehicle batteries, a battery replacement could currently cost from 5,000 to 20,000 dollars.
The car owners heard that the eight-year car warranty does not cover this type of damage.
A similar incident occurred a year ago when a Tesla owner from Canada was told that the battery replacement in his car would cost 26 thousand dollars.
The owner, Mario Zelaya, shared his experiences in a TikTok video and said that once the battery died, he couldn't use his Tesla Model S. Zelaya said he eventually sold his Tesla after he had to spend $30 (about $32) to obtain replacement ownership documents that were locked in the vehicle.
Electric vehicle batteries can degrade at different rates, depending on many factors, including the way they are charged and the environment in which they are driven daily.
