To protest the high cost of replacing his battery, a disgruntled Finnish Tesla owner detonated his vehicle and an Elon Musk statue.
Motorist Tuomas Katainen blew up his Tesla S Model 2012 with 66lbs of dynamite after its battery failed and he was faced with the whopping £17,000 repair bill.
Instead of stumping up the cash, the 26-year-old contacted the local Youtubers Pommijätkät ‘bomb dudes’, run by a group of friends who like blowing things up.
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Finnish Tesla owner disgruntled has set fire to his Tesla electric car (pictured) along with an Elon Musk-effigy in protest at the price of a new battery
The two of them agreed to blast Musk’s car. They even put Musk, a billionaire Tesla founder, inside it.
The vloggers shackled Tuomas’ motor with sticks made of dynamite, before Tuomas hit a button to blow the car out.
The explosives were strapped to the car on rugged and snowy terrain of Tuomas’ Finnish native Finland. Youtubers then trained high-definition cameras onto the car in order to capture it in its full glory from as many angles possible.
A huge fireball engulfed the motor as it was blown into tiny pieces, with the detonation being met with cheers from Tuomas and the other spectators.
In the Pommijätkät Youtube video, Tuomas said: ‘When I bought that Tesla, the first 1,500 km were nice, it was an excellent car so far.
“The error code was entered, and I ordered a tow truck for my vehicle to be taken in service.”
The Youtubers put a dummy with billionaire Tesla co-founder Musk’s face (pictured) inside the motor before it combusted
Pictured: A fireball is seen in this video grab in the split second before the Tesla was blown up by its Finnish owner Tuomas Katainen and local Youtube Pommijätkät, or ‘bomb dudes’
Katainen blew up his Tesla S Model 2012 with 30kg of dynamite after its battery failed and he was faced with the whopping £17,000 repair bill. Photo: The Tesla’s fireball explodes
Photo: A aerial view showing the Tesla exploding. In the background, you can see other observers and the car’s owner taking shelter in a bomb shelter.
The car spent almost a year in the Tesla dealers workshop before finally they told me that my car couldn’t be fixed and the only solution was to replace the whole battery.
“The price would be around Euro 20,000 [£17,000]Tesla must be contacted to give permission for this operation.
“So they told me that I would blow the car up because it was impossible to guarantee anything.”
He joked that he had just denotated the motor and said: “So now there are bombs attached to a car, and Tesla is ready for action.”
Tuomas lives in Jyväskylä, Finland.
The Tesla S model 2012 reportedly cost between about £37,000 to £67,000 when it was released.
Pictured: Motorist Tuomas Katainen stands in-front of his soon-to-be-blown up Tesla Model S. He said he opted to detonate his vehicle rather than pay the £17,000 fee to replace the battery
Pictured: Toumas holding the detonator ready for Toumas’ Tesla Model S to explode
Footage captures the Tesla Motor being strapped with sticks and dynamite by the Vloggers before Tuomas hit a button to blow the car out of the air.
Musk is 50 years old and still the biggest shareholder.
Teslas and other electric cars have been promoted as eco-friendly alternatives to internal combustion engine gas-burning engines.
Popularity of electric cars has grown over the past decade. Tesla, Elon Musk and others are frequently credited for helping to prove the viability or battery-powered vehicles.
Other owners have had to change their vehicles’ batteries and have found the cost to be quite high.
According to electric vehicle news website Electrek, another Tesla owner in the United States was told a battery pack replacement would cost him $22,500 (£16,800) at a Tesla service centre.
Instead, he went to an independent garage and was told it would run $5,000. That’s less than 25% of the original quote from Tesla.
Concerns about safety have also been raised regarding a range of features such as Tesla’s automated driving capabilities and use of batteries.
Reports of Tesla accidents in which batteries were involved have raised concerns about the safety of the batteries.
Two people were injured in an automobile accident in Texas in April. One of them was a Tesla driver.