Tesla Owner £17k Bill After Driving In Heavy Rain

[irc]

Just driving in the rain he claims. What odds he drove through deep standing water? Still an eye watering bill though

https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/s...

[ajap1979]

"When I first got the call I thought we would get bill for £500 or £1000"

I wonder why? If my nearly new car broke down for any reason I wouldn't expect any sort of bill.

[ajap1979]

"They say they waited nearly five hours for roadside assistance from Tesla support.

After dinner the car just wouldn’t move. Eventually we had to contact the Tesla Roadside Assistance - around 10pm. After a few annoyingly difficult further calls, and one failed collection attempt, our car was collected by a firm suitable for Tesla collection and delivered to Tesla Edinburgh about 1am"

Unless my math ifs ailing me, that's 3 hours.

[irc]

ajap1979 said:

"When I first got the call I thought we would get bill for £500 or £1000"

I wonder why? If my nearly new car broke down for any reason I wouldn't expect any sort of bill.

You might if you had just driven through Rufford Ford. There was torrential rain in central Scotland last week. Many roads blocked. So it may have been more than just heavy rain involved. But who knows?

[ajap1979]

irc said:

ajap1979 said:

"When I first got the call I thought we would get bill for £500 or £1000"

I wonder why? If my nearly new car broke down for any reason I wouldn't expect any sort of bill.

You might if you had just driven through Rufford Ford. There was torrential rain in central Scotland last week. Many roads blocked. So it may have been more than just heavy rain involved. But who knows?

Quite. Can they tell the difference between rain water and flood water?

[6pi]

It's a BEV, so it's not like hydrolocking the engine was a thing. Batteries are supposed to be waterproof, otherwise just driving in the rain would be impossible.

Probably a quality defect on the battery that Tesla is trying to blame on the customer.

[Nomme de Plum]

6pi said:

It's a BEV, so it's not like hydrolocking the engine was a thing. Batteries are supposed to be waterproof, otherwise just driving in the rain would be impossible.

Probably a quality defect on the battery that Tesla is trying to blame on the customer.

Waterproof is an an absolute and practicably unachievable for every circumstance.

Water resistant is a better term. There are IP (Ingress protection) ratings for electrical equipment covering effectiveness of ingress of particles including moisture. I'm not sure of cars batteries are covered by these standards.

I believe Tesla have stated their batteries are not Waterproof and should not be submersed or exposed to standing water. They have stated the batteries are water resistant.

[OldGermanHeaps]

Surely the tesla has eleventy milloin dashcams so they can prove for certain whether they went through standing water or not or just heavy rain.
I am biased from having a couple of friends with hugely unreliable teslas but i would be angling that these vehicles are not fit for the purpose they were sold.

[Nomme de Plum]

OldGermanHeaps said:

Surely the tesla has eleventy milloin dashcams so they can prove for certain whether they went through standing water or not or just heavy rain.
I am biased from having a couple of friends with hugely unreliable teslas but i would be angling that these vehicles are not fit for the purpose they were sold.

How would you do that?

Would it apply to all cars that have had general recalls for certain models?

[6pi]

Nomme de Plum said:

Waterproof is an an absolute and practicably unachievable for every circumstance.

Water resistant is a better term. There are IP (Ingress protection) ratings for electrical equipment covering effectiveness of ingress of particles including moisture. I'm not sure of cars batteries are covered by these standards.

I believe Tesla have stated their batteries are not Waterproof and should not be submersed or exposed to standing water. They have stated the batteries are water resistant.

You are correct and I wouldn't expect the battery to survive if the car was at the bottom of a lake for several days.

However there are many examples out there of Tesla driving through puddles (even the infamous Rufford Ford) without issues, so I'm thinking something was wrong in this particular example. Of course Tesla is being overcautious in its disclaimer... But if you think about it even in normal use a car is already submitted to a lot of pressurised water (for instane on the motorway under heavy rain).

[Nomme de Plum]

6pi said:

You are correct and I wouldn't expect the battery to survive if the car was at the bottom of a lake for several days.

However there are many examples out there of Tesla driving through puddles (even the infamous Rufford Ford) without issues, so I'm thinking something was wrong in this particular example. Of course Tesla is being overcautious in its disclaimer... But if you think about it even in normal use a car is already submitted to a lot of pressurised water (for instane on the motorway under heavy rain).

I have no idea of the true circumstance of this incident other than from the statements made. I can't see any point in speculating as it serves no purpose.

Many years ago I received a full refund plus compensation from the dealer of a demonstrator TVR Cerbera 4.5 which i purchased. It took over one year to achieve this and I employed an expert engineer to investigate the many issues I had with the car which was only on the road for about 3 out of 12 months.

If these owners feel sufficiently agrived they can take similar action.

[Matthen]

Water damage? That'd be an insurance claim then.

I'm sure Tesla have water ingress markers in the battery pack that are showing wet.

[James6112]

6pi said:

….
Probably a quality defect on the battery that Tesla is trying to blame on the customer.

Why just make something up, with zero evidence?

[OldGermanHeaps]

Nomme de Plum said:

How would you do that?

Would it apply to all cars that have had general recalls for certain models?

What are you on about recalls?
I am saying the customer can proove they didnt drive through standing water with dascham footage, or tesla can prove that they did.
If they just driven the car as normal on a rainy day and that killed it the car isnt fit for the purpose of driving in Scotland and the customer shouldnt have to pay a penny if the car is under warranty
Looks like the guy isnt very lucky with water though
https://www.edinburghnews.scotsman.com/news/people...

Edited by OldGermanHeaps on Monday 16th October 21:34