One Tesla owner in Canada has been locked out of his car since its battery died.
Mario Zelaya has garnered a 34,000-strong following on TikTok after sharing the story of his 2013 Series S beginning in August. While he claimed the electric vehicle was once his “dream car” when he purchased it for over $105,000, he now refers to it in his social media posts as a “piece of trash.”
After less than 75,000 miles were put on the Series S odometer, its battery died. It would cost over $21,000 to replace the battery since the warranty was a year out of date.
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@supermariozelaya My opinion: Tesla shut down my car over the air because my videos after refusing to pay for a new battery. #tesla #car original sound – Mario Zelaya
“My opinion: Tesla shut down my car over the air because [of] my videos after refusing to pay for a new battery,” Zelaya wrote in a Wednesday TikTok post that earned him 10.3 million views, the most of any of his entries.
His account was subsequently banned temporarily from the social media platform, according to his account. He will be allowed back online on Wednesday.
Zelaya opted to sell the car as-is, seemingly for parts, despite some difficulty in getting the car’s documentation papers, as they were inside the locked car during the sale. He was able to order documentation copies for $30 instead.
Another Tesla owner reported a similar problem, according to Zelaya, who now drives a Ferrari V8.
“Tesla’s trying to sweep it under the rug,” Zelaya said. “They won’t give them any explanation of why their battery died.”
“I’ll never buy another Tesla again. That’s the long way of me saying stay the f*** away from Teslas. They’re brutal cars, brutal manufacturing, and even worse, they’re a 10-year-old company.”
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The Series S battery has also had complaints surrounding its burn capacity, with its emergency response guide claiming a fire could require anywhere between 3,000 and 8,000 gallons of water to extinguish. In reality, it is more like 20,000 gallons at times.
