There are times in life when you have to chose between paying a boatload of money or watching a very big explosion. Well, not really, but Finnish man Tuomas Katainen sure did. Katainen is a 2013 Tesla Model S owner who was told he would have to pay more than $US22,600 (around $31,281) to replace the battery on his car. For him, it apparently wasn’t worth it, so he decided to team up with a YouTuber to blow up his Model S with 30 kg of dynamite instead.
According to Katainen, his Model S ran “excellent” for the first 932 miles (1,500 kilometres) after he bought it, but then the error codes started to appear. He sent his car to a Tesla dealer’s repair shop, where it remained for about a month, and was told they couldn’t do anything for his car. His only option would be to replace the entire battery, which would cost more than $US22,600 ($31,281), and he would have to ask Tesla permission to carry out the repair.
To put this in perspective, $US22,600 ($31,281) would go a long way to buying another used 2013 Model S in Finland, which appear to sell for more than $US42,900 ($59,378). But Katainen decides that’s not for him, proving that there is indeed a thin line between logic, rage, and insanity.
“So I told them I’m coming to pick up the Tesla,” he said in the video. “Now I’m going to explode the whole car away.”
To carry out his master plan, Katainen enlisted the help of YouTuber Pommijätkät, which roughly translates to “Bomb Dudes,” according to Google Translate. (Whether that’s an accurate translation or not, it seems appropriate considering Pommijätkät likes to make things explode).
While blowing up a car with dynamite may sound fun, it’s not an easy task. Katainen and Pommijätkät set up the operation in a quarry at Jaala, a small rural town in Southern Finland. The group had to consider factors like the explosive’s huge pressure wave and the direction the blast would go in order to ensure safety.
In the fascinating video, which features a dummy of Tesla CEO Elon Musk that’s dropped from a helicopter and ends with the very big explosion of Katainen’s Model S, Pommijätkät asks Katainen what is better: a working Tesla or exploding the car with 30 kg of dynamite?
“Sort of both,” he said. “Maybe more explosion.”