The estimate to replace the battery on Tuomas Katainen’s Tesla Model S was $22,600.
Katainen did what anyone might dream of doing when facing such an outrageous bill: He blew the car up.
Katainen, who lives in Finland, bought the 2013 Model S used and started having trouble after only about 1,000 miles.
Tesla told him the only option to fix the problems was to replace the battery, but he decided to save the money and choose a more cathartic solution instead.
He teamed up with the people behind the YouTube account Pommijätkät — Google says that translates to “bomb dudes” — who covered the car in 66 pounds of dynamite. They also put an effigy of Tesla CEO Elon Musk in the car and parked it in an old quarry.
Katainen triggered the explosion himself from the safety of a bunker and watched the car disappear in a ball of flames. The YouTubers documented the event in an eight-minute video that shows Katainen and others cheer as pieces of the car rain down.
The video, which has been viewed nearly 5 million times, ends with Katainen being asked if he had ever had that much fun behind the wheel of the car.
“No, never,” he answered. “Also, maybe I am the first person in the world who has exploded a Tesla. So maybe made some history.”
