Most people ring in the new year with colorful fireworks. Tuomas Katainen capped off 2021 by blowing up his Tesla Model S.
As Gizmodo reports, the Finnish man chose to detonate his 2013 vehicle rather than pay some €20,000 (more than $22,600) to replace the car’s battery.
At a snow-covered former quarry in Jaala, Finland, Katainen, YouTuber Pommijätkät, and a team of “Bomb Dudes” strapped 30 kg (66 pounds) of dynamite to the white Model S.
Katainen was initially happy with the Tesla purchase. “The first 1,500 km were nice,” he said in a roughly translated video (below). “It was [an] excellent car.” Until, that is, he started receiving error messages. After a month in the shop, he learned there was no easy fix, short of replacing the lithium-ion battery, which would cost “at least” €20,000. “So I told them that I’m coming to pick [up my] Tesla [and] I’m going to explode [the] whole car away.”
With the vehicle back in his possession, Katainen enlisted Finnish power blaster Henri “Pommi-Henkka” Kiviniemi (aka Pommijätkät), who, according to the car owner, was “excited and willing” to help. But blowing a Model S to smithereens is not as easy as it sounds.
The safety-conscious group—considering factors like the direction of the blast and subsequent pressure wave—carefully directed the explosion by attaching all sticks of dynamite to the same side of the car, forcing fragments into a rock wall rather than the wall of human spectators.
So, what’s better: owning a working Model S or demolishing the car with 66 pounds of gunpowder? “Sort of both,” Katainen said in the video, which features a dummy wearing a mask of Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s face. “Maybe more explosion.”
From a nearby bunker, Katainen & Co. watch the fiery eruption (shown from numerous angles), which sends shrapnel flying and leaves behind only piles of charred scraps. “Never enjoyed this much with Tesla,” Katainen exclaims in the aftermath, suggesting he’s “maybe made some history” as the first person to blow up a Tesla.
