It’s not abnormal for it to rain in Scotland. It is abnormal, however, for it to rain so heavily your electric car battery gives up the ghost.
A couple from Edinburgh was shocked after receiving a £17,374 (A$33,370) bill to replace the battery on their Tesla Model Y, after the vehicle wouldn’t turn on after driving through heavy rain.
The owners told Edinburgh Live they left home to enjoy dinner in Edinburgh on October 7 and arrived at the restaurant with no issue, but say their electric car wouldn’t start once they returned to the vehicle around 10pm.
The couple allege it took nearly five hours for Tesla’s roadside assistance to tow the car to an Edinburgh dealership.
After the car was inspected, the couple was told the battery was damaged “due to water ingress”, and a replacement would cost £17,374 (~A$33,000) – more than a third the price of the SUV. That’s despite the couple denying having driven it through “any huge puddles or anything like that”, let alone submerging it underwater.
“After finally getting to speak to a manager, he told me [the battery] had water in it due to the fact the weather in Scotland has been so bad. That was the issue. They said it’s not necessarily my fault but it’s not Tesla’s to pay under warranty. He reminded me there was a yellow weather warning in some parts of Scotland,” one of the owners told Edinburgh Live.
The news outlet reports as of October 15 the couple still hadn’t had their car returned.
“If I had known the customer service would be so bad I’m not sure I would have bothered buying the car. Do they know that we’re in Scotland? That weather was not abnormal for living here.
“I can only see the number of claims on problems like this going up. The thing is, Elon Musk could buy everyone in the world a Tesla if he wanted to.”
The news outlet reports it has reached out to Tesla UK and Europe for a comment, but hasn’t heard back at the time of publishing this article.
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Fingers crossed this battery stayed dry
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