– I don’t want others to fall into the same trap as me, says Ole Tobiesen in Sandnes to Nettavisen.
Tobiesen is cursed after the battery on his Tesla broke down. It was in 2020 that he bought a used Tesla S with a full equipment package for NOK 280,000. It had then traveled 170,000 kilometers and had had a battery change within the previous owner’s warranty period, in 2019. He was very satisfied with this purchase. He drove the car for three years, a total of 45,000 kilometres.
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 at the front, says Tobiesen.
Changing the battery pack plus a coolant pump costs NOK 184,000.
– It has now collapsed, 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 do not get a new battery, but a so-called “remanufactured” battery where minor changes have mainly been made to the existing battery.
– In some cases, the battery has not even been opened, only cleaned, he says.
Car assembly company: – A bad deal
Grønvolds Bil-Demontering in Brumunddal is not surprised. They have heard this before, says general manager Tom Grønvold in the company to Nettavisen. They dismantle and recycle 3,000 cars annually. Most of them have collision damage, but they also buy many Tesla cars privately. Often because there have been problems with the battery.
Grønvold says that batteries are not overhauled, in other words that they get better performance, when they end up being serviced at Tesla.
– They call it “overhauled”, but it is not. It has been checked, checked, they have changed modules and re-glued. They are not overhauled, they call it “refurbished” or “remanufactured”. In reality, they are used batteries that should be equivalent or slightly better than what was replaced
This means that he believes that buying a Tesla is a bad deal.
– I would not own a Tesla that is out of warranty.
At the top of complaints at the Norwegian Consumer Protection Authority
Tesla is popular and 21,303 new cars were sold in 2022, according to NRK. The Norwegian Consumer Protection Authority recently presented fresh figures on mediation in complaints about new car purchases. It turns out that out of 168 cases, Tesla was responsible for 83. Tesla is overrepresented in the complaint cases. However, it is not the battery that people complain about the most in new car cases, reports the Consumer Council.
– The Consumer Council regularly receives questions about electric cars, but we have not experienced many questions about electric car batteries that stop working, says Thomas Iversen, senior legal adviser at the Consumer Council, to Nettavisen.
– The battery is the most expensive part of the electric car, and it can be very expensive to replace it. Then it is good to know that you have a five-year complaint period on the battery, in addition to the fact that many manufacturers provide a warranty on the battery for several years after the statutory complaint period has expired.
The Norwegian Consumer Council voted the best battery guarantee earlier this year.
– If it turns out that certain brands or models struggle more with battery death than others, we will keep a close eye on whether consumers get the rights they are entitled to under both the regulations and the manufacturer’s warranty.
– Electric cars have a shorter lifespan
At the car organization KNA, they have heard stories about battery problems in electric cars.
– We have heard stories about individual cells in the batteries being changed without you getting any guarantee as to how long it will work, says general secretary Børre Skiaker in KNA to Nettavisen.
He says that KNA does not have data on the lifespan of electric cars, but adds that this will have an impact on both the car owner’s car maintenance costs and the climate account.
– We currently do not have experience figures. Eight to ten years ago, many people were pleasantly surprised by how long electric car batteries last. But we have also seen examples where the lifetime of electric cars is down to six years. Repairs have come at a cost we are not used to. The car may be worth NOK 150,000, so you get a repair cost of NOK 180,000. That calculation doesn’t add up. Many people then choose to scrap the car.
Skiaker says that the electric car’s environmental impact during use is less than cars with a combustion engine.
– In a global climate perspective, you must have correct figures on how much emissions you have from the production of the car, shipping, use and finally disposal, i.e. the entire life cycle, in order to be able to assess whether the electric car is less harmful to the climate than other types of car.
You also have to drive many thousands of kilometers to get to zero because the production of electric cars often has greater climate emissions than the production of a car with a combustion engine. When it comes to climate, it is not certain that the climate calculation is as good as many people think.
Today, one thing is clear, says Skiaker.
– Until we get experience figures on the lifespan of the electric cars, we can note that cars with a combustion engine live on average about 17 years.
Loss of value
Tobiesen is now warning others.
– Buying a car is the second biggest investment you make after buying a house, and you should think a little further than just horse power, nappa leather seats and the coolest sound system. There is a reason why a BMW i5 or Mercedes EQE with similar performance to a Tesla Model S also costs more. Similarly, there is 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 revelation after another will result in a rather heavy loss of value for Teslas with little or no remaining warranty, says Tobiesen.
Nettavisen wrote this week that a significant price drop has been recorded for Tesla.
Tesla has not responded to Nettavisen’s inquiry by telephone or e-mail.
2023-10-22 07:15:18
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