“I don’t want others to fall into the same trap I fell into,” says Ole Tubbesen at Sundance to Netafsen.
Tobissen was cursed after his Tesla battery died. In 2020, he bought a used Tesla S with a full set of equipment for NOK 280,000. It then had 170,000km on it and the battery was changed during the previous owner’s warranty in 2019. Very satisfied with this purchase. He drove the car for three years, for a total distance of 45 thousand kilometers.
But after a long trip to Haugesund, the battery said thank you for the trip, so it wouldn’t start again.
“There was no loss of range up front,” says Tobissen.
The cost of changing the battery pack plus the cooling pump is NOK 184,000.
– It has collapsed now, after only nine years. It is not very environmentally friendly. I will never buy a Tesla again.
He also says that when you change batteries, you are not getting a new battery, but what is called a “remanufactured” battery where essentially minor changes have been made to the existing battery.
– In some cases, the battery was not opened, but only cleaned, he says.
Car assembly company: – Bad deal
Grønvolds Bil-Demontering in Bromunddal was not surprised. They’ve heard this before, says Nettavisen general manager Tom Grunvold. They dismantle and recycle 3,000 cars a year. Most of them suffer collision damage, but they also buy many Teslas privately. Often due to problems with the battery.
Grunvold says the batteries are not subject to overhaul, meaning they perform better when they are serviced at Tesla.
– They call it “fixing it”, but it’s not. They have been inspected, inspected, units changed and re-glued. They are not repaired, they call them “refurbished” or “remanufactured”. In fact, they are used batteries that should be equivalent or slightly better than the ones they replaced
This means that he thinks buying a Tesla is a bad deal.
-I will not own a Tesla out of warranty.
On top of complaints to the Norwegian Consumer Protection Authority
Tesla is very popular and 21,303 new cars were sold in 2022, according to NRK. The Norwegian Consumer Protection Authority recently presented new figures on the mediation of complaints related to the purchase of new cars. It turns out that out of 168 cases, Tesla was responsible for 83. Tesla is overrepresented in complaint cases. However, it’s not the battery that people complain about most in new car cases, the Consumer Council reports.
The Consumer Council regularly receives questions about electric cars, but we haven’t encountered many questions about electric car batteries that stop working, Thomas Iversen, chief legal advisor at the Consumer Council, tells Nettavisen.
The battery is the most expensive part of an electric car, and replacing it can be very expensive. It is then good to know that you have a five-year complaint period on the battery, plus many manufacturers offer a battery warranty for several years after the statutory complaint period has expired.
The Norwegian Consumer Council voted it the best battery warranty earlier this year.
– If certain brands or models are found to have a battery drain problem more than others, we will closely monitor whether consumers are getting the rights they are entitled to under regulations and manufacturer warranty.
– Electric cars have a shorter lifespan
At KNA, the automotive organization, they’ve heard stories about battery problems in electric cars.
– We have heard stories about changing individual cells in batteries without getting any guarantee on how long they will last, KNA Secretary General Bori Skerker tells Nettavisen.
He says KNA doesn’t have data on the lifespan of electric cars, but adds that it will have an impact on both the car owner’s vehicle maintenance costs and climate calculation.
– We currently do not have experience numbers. Eight to ten years ago, many people were pleasantly surprised by how long electric car batteries lasted. But we’ve also seen examples where the lifespan of electric cars has been reduced to six years. The reforms have come at a cost we are not accustomed to. The car may be worth NOK 150,000, so you get a repair cost of NOK 180,000. This calculation does not add up. Many people then choose to get rid of the car.
Skecker says that the environmental impact of an electric car during use is less than that of cars with a combustion engine.
– From a global climate perspective, you need to have correct figures on the amount of emissions generated by producing the car, charging it, using it and finally disposing of it, i.e. the entire life cycle, so that you can assess whether or not an electric car is viable or less harmful to the climate than other types of cars. .
You also have to drive several thousand kilometers to get to zero, because producing electric cars often has larger climate emissions than producing a car with a combustion engine. When it comes to climate, climate calculations are certainly not as good as many people think.
Today, one thing is clear, Skecker says.
– Until we get experimental numbers about the lifespan of electric cars, we can note that combustion engine cars live on average about 17 years.
Loss of value
Tobisen now warns others.
Buying a car is the second largest investment you’ll make after buying a house, and you should think about a little more than just horsepower, nappa leather seats, and the coolest sound system. There’s a reason why a BMW i5 or Mercedes EQE with similar performance costs more than a Tesla Model S. Likewise, there’s also a reason why a BMW i4 or Hyundai Ioniq 6 costs more than a Model 3 with similar performance. You often get what you pay for. People can, of course, argue that they can always sell their Tesla before the warranties expire, but one disclosure after another will result in a huge loss in value for Teslas with little or no warranty, Tobisen says.
Nettavisen wrote this week that a significant decline in Tesla prices has been recorded.
Tesla did not respond to Nettavisen’s inquiry by phone or email.
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