HE BLEW UP His Tesla! | Gruber Motors 

I wish that you could open up your company in every area that has a Tesla service center. We need you, Mr Gruber!

Hey Gruber! I own a 2013 Tesla MS and the Tesla service center is replacing my 85kw battery under warranty. I was incredibly lucky since my warranty period ends at the end of this year. If I had to replace my high voltage battery out of pocket I’d probably ship my car to your shop instead of paying the $22k service. Thank you for your insight on the estimated cost to Tesla of the packs, I’ve always wondered if Tesla is making money hand over fist on these repairs and I’m happy to be proven wrong. I love my MS but the sticker shock on the HV battery replacement would’ve pushed me to look for a 3rd party repair shop, a gas car, or something similar to what Finnish bro did. Love your channel and the work you do for keeping Teslas on the road.

Is it me, or does Pete Gruber at any moment going to offer you the blue or red pill

The option to go through the damaged battery pack removing the dead batteries and assembling a reduced power battery at minimal cost. This would keep the car useable.

while I refuse to buy a tesla for now (I dont like their UX and vehicle control) I wholeheartedly appreciate the effect they have had on the industry and even more so people like you and your company. Thanks to Louis Rossman for exposing me to you. Cheers and happy new year! Edit: Out of curiosity where are you guys based out of?

Thanks for the facts 🙂👍 There will be a time when battery packs are cheap.

Once again, Pete delivers an unassailable conclusion! Thank you, Pete!

Thank you for a voice of reason in the ocean of clickbait.

Very informative video Mr. Gruber, thank you.

The cost analysis is good. The problem is that they expect the old battery as a core return AND $22K. I can almost guarantee the price is way higher without the battery core to exchange.

Thank you for this concise and easy to follow explanation of costs and components. I, and others I’m sure, are anxious to follow the mule testing and development of the graphene battery replacement possibilities. Your concise well rehearsed delivery makes each new segment something to look forward to. Thank you !!

Repairing a vehicle at cost after the warranty has expired is just one more reason to own a Tesla! With companies like Gruber motors and many others that are sure to follow will help bring down the costs of repairing our Teslas when the warranty finally runs out! I’m sure other aftermarket repair shops for other EV manufacturers will come but will these other OEM’s be willing to sell parts at cost like Tesla? Not likely!………………. 💎🙌🇨🇦😎TESLA

Tesla does not install a new battery pack, they install so called refurbished packs so that $22,700 price is for a new pack

It would be interesting if LFP batteries could be a reasonable alternative option for a Tesla Model S. I know they are much cheaper to make but right now they can only be imported so your paying tariffs. If they made them in the US, this could be a good alternative. There might be some limitations, but my 2013 only gets about 240 miles anyways on a charge but with LPF you can charge to 100% all the time, much less degradation, million miles (means you will likely get 3x the logical life on them). I keep my Model S in meticulous condition so a battery repair or a reasonable replacement makes sense. Tesla should also offer regional battery repair shops like Gruber. Replace defective whole modules not the whole pack. That would be more cost effective even if it was 3-5K to replace a module. Any Tesla has to be making at least a little money on them. I'm sure automation and robotics could make it quick and easy to replace a module. Maybe they take the old ones apart, test them and use them as spare refurbished parts and install them on cheap. When batteries are being replaced, I'm sure its just a couple of bad cells that makes the scrap the whole pack which is crazy. Where do the old batteries that they are replacing go? I'm sure they are either recycling them or they are going into the Tesla Powerall or their industrial grid storage systems. They are not running at cost. They have to make something off of them even if its on the backend. There is so many options here that could be done cost effectively and profitable. If nothing else, Tesla should encourage an ecosystem of 3rd parties to tackle this problem so they don't have to. There is a market here for someone who is creative and thinks out of the box.

Thank you for this video! Seemingly the only video that adds value to this story.

I suspect that owner had some legacy help in filming that video.

The key being - unless you have someone like your company in the area! Otherwise, forget it for now - or only lease them. Long-term ownership outside of warranty doesn't make sense currently IMHO, especially for me - which is a shame since I really would like to replace some vehicles with one at some time. Personally I own and maintain 6 vehicles (sons drive 2 of these full time) including a '90 VW Corrado, '93 C1500, '03 VW Jetta, '05 Subaru Outback XT, '06 VW Touareg, and '09 Ford Escape. None of these have required anywhere near $20k each in repairs after 8 years. And at no time has it been a huge hit all at once, with the most costly being engine replacement for the C1500 (~$2500) and the VW Corrado (upgraded to an '05 1.8T for about ~$4000 with larger turbo and tuning). Admittedly I do all my own maintenance, excluding any transmission work (other than clutches), which saves about 2/3 on any repair or maintenance on average. My largest costs are tires.

Gruber Motor Co: Taking the pi$$ out of Tesla FUDsters.

Thanks for this analysis!

A rumor around the "exploded tesla" (that i cannot verify alas, so take it with a grain of salt) was that the owner already had a newer battery put in, (either by him or the previous owner) by a third party. After around 1500km, there were error codes appearing, and tesla refused to service or diagnose the car because they did not install the battery in question, and only offered a new battery as a solution. I honestly don't think they really care about these older batteries/cars. Otherwise a company like tesla could have easily set up component level repair for these batteries, lowering cost dramatically. In the end, i believe their business model to be focused nearly exclusively around selling new cars and components, while providing the minimum amount of service required to maintain customer satisfaction in the warrenty period, but that is just my opinion.

Great video. Thanks By the way. Your videos are always lower volume than other videos on RU-vid.

Great explanation!

There is a Vlogger , his RU-vid channel is Auto Auction Rebuilds, he goes to and Oklahoma Copart wrecker to bid on ICE cars, many of the cars are Audis , BMWs and Mercedes with their ICE that have gone kaput, often with less than 200,000 miles, fixing those cars is often uneconomical, hence they are scrapped, the rebuild to original specs drivetrain of a AMG Mercedes can easily run to $20,000 .

Good to watch this vid again.

The question is, does $22500 get me a completely new battery pack or just a refurbished one with years of lifetime already passed ? And also as mentioned you can't keep the old battery pack. So I don't agree with Tesla passing battery packs at manufacturing cost. That old pack can still be used for solar at least $750 per battery module should be possible! That is 14x or 16x modules per pack. Of course some disassembly cost is there too. But I guess it's not that much Rich could do it with a kitchen knife.

You didn't answer the question of how much money you could get for old battery in Tesla. If you could get $5000 for old battery that would help.

Often it is just 1 module or even one cell which brings the pack down. Or a faulty contactor. But unless you have a 3rd party repairer in your country (not many have) you have to fork out US$22.000. That makes it a huge gamble to keep a Tesla after the 8 year warranty.

I hope the Finish guy will have to pay for a council for littering the environment with hazardous materials! It’s absolutely nonsense!

The point is: which is the real cost of a 18650 battery cell for TESLA, you say 2$ but this looks like a guess, based on a reverse computation derived from the known cost of the complete spare battery pack. If a good cell retails online for 9$ for a single unit, a bulk cost of 2$ paid by a company that buys millions of cells and has even strategic partnership with the main manufacturer seems still to be quite high. Of course TESLA invested huge capital in the improvement of the battery technology and in the building of the production plants, this is a cost that they have to recover and they need also the right margin to operate their business with profit. But also the company that manufactures the cell that retails for 9$ has invested money for its production and needs to operate its business with profit. Great to see the effort of your company to offer viable alternatives for EVs customers !

What I’m hearing is an EV out of warranty is nearly worthless to the owner unless an account for battery replacement is saved for from the start. I’ll look at leasing.

I dumped my 2013 mainly because of this 8 year warantee end. Now I'm driving. a 2018...and Im hoping that #1. Gruber starts making the battery packs available for a competitive price and #2 Mr. Gruber take off the sunglasses during his presentation.....

Very informative, great content.

This reality of EV battery pack manufacturing cost is simply making a 10 year old EV into a negative value financial land mine. No average consumer can afford this. There needs to be a different design strategy for battery packs, so that repairs could be made on individual cell level.

Can you keep the old battery or is the $22k for a swap?

wonderfull tesla and ev lover. this guy with awesome detailes. wonderful

I asked about battery replacement at my Tesla servicecenter here in Denmark and they said that 85KWH pack replacements under warranty are refurbished. A new pack is now only 90KWH packs that would cost 180.000 DKK incl. VAT and installation.

Hey guys I think your video to-date is the best so far your detailed analysis 🧐 is wonderful I wouldn’t in a heartbeat think twice in working for you guys …. Shame I am in England Leeds .. but to say everything you stand for is me throw & throw … I will keep my fingers crossed for that big moment when Elon checks your shop out and some great interaction .. hope you don’t mind my end Fingers crossed 🤞🏽 . Keep the awsome videos coming 🙌🏾 ps the chap with the silly 🙃 bandana on makes my dyslexia go off the Richter scale 😩 x

You should develop a half sized battery for old cars to make them useable even with less range

New subscriber from India ❣️

There are however after market shops that claim that disabling cells or changing modules is not a repair and the BMS will disable the battery after a short while again - or at least lose expentionally more range than it should

This is what I was afraid of electric vehicles. And why I don't think the traditional smoke belching vehicle are here to stay.

Good video, Pete. Do you have any facilities for overseas refurbishment? Just asking.

But the battery pack isn't a single part, as you demonstrated, and those parts should be replaceable. What Tesla is doing is like GM saying yiy have to swap the whole engine. Not replace a head gasket, not re-ring, not replace injectors, throttle body, etc. just replace the whole engine. And then Tesla is disabling stuff (like fast charge) if you dare fix it instead if replacing. Imagine if GM limited the engine to 2500 RPM if you replaced the throttle body or head gasket. Or locked out gears higher than 2nd if you changed a bad shIft solenoid instead of the whole transmission.

Pete, I had the same Idee you can could have repaired this pack. Rolf

Can you keep the old battery?

I would love to see after 25yrs owning one of these battery cars the owners is willing to put a replacement or repair a battery pack for $25g or $14g, time will tell.

Just cut some fuse wires so those bad cells are not connected, problem solved in most cases. Mainly labor costs.

Don't buy a Tesla,unless you like alot of problems.

I can't see the point of replacing the whole battery pack for a cost approaching the market value of the vehicle, when you can just repair the existing pack for a fraction of the price, and keep using the vehicle until such time as battery prices drop to the point that new batteries make economic sense. The Model S has useable range even at 70 to 80 percent of original capacity, so even a used pack from a newer wrecked vehicle could be a viable option. Never throw away components that still have value. Just throw away the bad cells and reuse the rest. Makes more sense than blowing up an entire car just because a few hundred cells in the battery pack went bad.

Most prices you mention already include gains/ are retail prices, not the fabrication cost. You don't really think Tesla pays 900$ for a BMS board etc? The difference between sales price and what they pay will be at least the one as the 9 vs 2$ for the cells. 1000 work to change the pack... ?

Oh Tesla won't fix a damaged coolant hose connected to the side of a battery for any amount of money without having to replace the whole pack? Oh it's also out of warranty, screw it, put aftermarket batteries in it, reflash the electronic computer, custom make it yourself and call it a day!

Right...a $40-60k list price car which has a $22k battery pack, and the manufacturer makes a %30 margin on each vehicle? Someone is exaggerating or hiding the real reason. I suspect that there are compatibility or design issues since Tesla improved the battery packs over models and years, thus making it hard to (impossible?) replace batteries with current production items. So yeah, lease a Tesla and let someone else figure it out.

What's the deal with the sunglasses indoors? I can't trust a guy who does that without good reason.

There is not any companies in Europe that can help for this reparations, so what?

Doesn't Tesla make their own cells?

fan boy arguments. they designed the pack to be a throw away. just like many impossible to work on ice cars. a very simple solution could have been allowing a bad pack bms to bypass the bad pack... or a bad group within a pack. a hardware fix would have screwed the battery assemblies together to allow disassembly & reassembly. many other obvious answers exist.

you can fix it but you are not all over the world

So Tesla knows this is a problem and to save their PR side, offering it at cost - that's pretty impressive sad batteries cost this much. I want electric cards to succeed and shove it to the oil tycoons out there. Seems tesla is still for those well off in their finances for these issues to arise :(

Great video as usual. If individual 18650 cells fail, what then is a typical cost to repair (vs fully replace entire pack)? Thanks!

The only way to buy a used Model S would be with a new battery pack otherwise a big roll of the dice. ICE cars far from finished

Have anyone compared cost against other EV cars like VW, MB, Ford, Hyundai, Crystler etc etc? not fair to just poke on Tesla so everyone compare it to Petrol and diesel cars...becuse that is what everyone knowish anything about or just see the big numbers of cost.

To bad ALL if the EV manufactures are so intellectual property crazy. It makes most of the components unusable. All you can do is transfer parts from one model [something] to another model [something]. Even then many vehicles throw a fit because something as simple as swapping a motor causes faults because the numbers don't match. Forget giving a EV battery a second life in a less demanding application such as solar storage.

Dan is the $22,500 replacement battery pack new or refurbished from Tesla?

Your sunglasses annoy me.