EV won't start after driving in rain, owner speechless when stuck with $20,000 bill

Americans thinking about buying a Tesla electric vehicle might have just gotten a reason to pump the brakes on their plans -- especially if they live somewhere it might rain.

According to the Scottish news outlet EdinburbghLive, the owner of a Tesla has been asked by the company to fork over the equivalent of more than $20,000 for repairs to a battery that was reportedly damaged by rain while it was parked on a street in the Scottish capital last week.

Sound like it might be a problem? The owner sure thought so.

According to the report, the vehicle belongs to Johnny Bacigalupo and Rob Hussey, a gay couple living in the Edinburgh suburbs. On Oct. 7, they drove into the city for dinner without any problem, but they found the car wouldn't start afterward.

They waited for hours for Tesla roadside assistance, EdinburghLive reported, which only resulted in the vehicle being hauled away.

But that was only the beginning of the trouble.

"After complaints from me, we received a call at 5:30 p.m. on the Wednesday, saying the battery was damaged due to water ingress and it was unfortunately not covered by the battery’s 8-year warranty, and so the repair would be around £17,500 [$21,351]," Bacigalupo said, according to the report.

“Did I wish to proceed? I was flabbergasted and couldn’t really find my words.”

The report, unfortunately, did not specify the make or model year of the Tesla in question, but a $20,000 car repair bill would leave just about anybody "flabbergasted."

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And the company's excuse -- that the electric vehicle was disabled by a rainstorm -- would have left a resident of the traditionally wet Britain even more so.

"After finally getting to speak to a manager, he told me it had water in it due to the fact the weather in Scotland has been so bad," Bacigalupo told EdinburghLive.

"That was the issue. They said it’s not necessarily my fault, but it’s not Tesla’s to pay under warranty. He reminded me there was a yellow weather warning in some parts of Scotland." (A "yellow" weather warning issued by the Met, the United Kingdom's national weather service, covers a range of potential rainfall, from moderate to severe in localized areas.)

Bacigalupo told EdinburghLive the weather didn't seem that bad -- "I honestly can’t remember any huge puddles or anything like that" -- but even if it was extremely foul, it's unlikely the owner of a vehicle with an internal combustion engine would have the same problem.

If heavy rains disabled car engines on a regular basis, states like Florida, where daily torrential downpours arrive like clockwork during the rainy season, would be a combination of parking lots and salvage yards. (And that doesn't even count the occasional hurricane.)

EdinburghLive said it had contacted Tesla about Bacigalupo's story, without apparent response. But the outlet also said it had reviewed "correspondence" that confirms the monetary figure Bacigalupo cited for the repair.

Obviously, one incident doesn't damn an entire company, much less an industry as big and growing as electric vehicle manufacturing.

But the story has to give pause to even enthusiastic adopters of the technology.

EVs in their current incarnation are in their infancy compared to the century-and-a-quarter life of the internal combustion engine for vehicles. And even if the technology ultimately wins out (not a guaranteed proposition by any means) there are going to be growing pains.

The problem is that the progressives on a global scale -- the Democratic Party in the U.S. -- are intent on pushing the technology on all motorists by arbitrary dates concocted in Washington and other capitals, rather than letting the free market do its job.

So governments like President Joe Biden's administration go out of their way to incentivize EV production and sales even if it damages the traditional auto industry. They insist that drivers make the switch even though the infrastructure isn't in place in any consistent way.

Americans thinking about buying a Tesla electric vehicle might have just gotten a reason to pump the brakes on their plans -- especially if they live somewhere it might rain.

According to the Scottish news outlet EdinburbghLive, the owner of a Tesla has been asked by the company to fork over the equivalent of more than $20,000 for repairs to a battery that was reportedly damaged by rain while it was parked on a street in the Scottish capital last week.

Sound like it might be a problem? The owner sure thought so.

According to the report, the vehicle belongs to Johnny Bacigalupo and Rob Hussey, a gay couple living in the Edinburgh suburbs. On Oct. 7, they drove into the city for dinner without any problem, but they found the car wouldn't start afterward.

They waited for hours for Tesla roadside assistance, EdinburghLive reported, which only resulted in the vehicle being hauled away.

But that was only the beginning of the trouble.

"After complaints from me, we received a call at 5:30 p.m. on the Wednesday, saying the battery was damaged due to water ingress and it was unfortunately not covered by the battery’s 8-year warranty, and so the repair would be around £17,500 [$21,351]," Bacigalupo said, according to the report.

“Did I wish to proceed? I was flabbergasted and couldn’t really find my words.”

The report, unfortunately, did not specify the make or model year of the Tesla in question, but a $20,000 car repair bill would leave just about anybody "flabbergasted."

And the company's excuse -- that the electric vehicle was disabled by a rainstorm -- would have left a resident of the traditionally wet Britain even more so.

"After finally getting to speak to a manager, he told me it had water in it due to the fact the weather in Scotland has been so bad," Bacigalupo told EdinburghLive.

"That was the issue. They said it’s not necessarily my fault, but it’s not Tesla’s to pay under warranty. He reminded me there was a yellow weather warning in some parts of Scotland." (A "yellow" weather warning issued by the Met, the United Kingdom's national weather service, covers a range of potential rainfall, from moderate to severe in localized areas.)

Bacigalupo told EdinburghLive the weather didn't seem that bad -- "I honestly can’t remember any huge puddles or anything like that" -- but even if it was extremely foul, it's unlikely the owner of a vehicle with an internal combustion engine would have the same problem.

If heavy rains disabled car engines on a regular basis, states like Florida, where daily torrential downpours arrive like clockwork during the rainy season, would be a combination of parking lots and salvage yards. (And that doesn't even count the occasional hurricane.)

EdinburghLive said it had contacted Tesla about Bacigalupo's story, without apparent response. But the outlet also said it had reviewed "correspondence" that confirms the monetary figure Bacigalupo cited for the repair.

Obviously, one incident doesn't damn an entire company, much less an industry as big and growing as electric vehicle manufacturing.

But the story has to give pause to even enthusiastic adopters of the technology.

EVs in their current incarnation are in their infancy compared to the century-and-a-quarter life of the internal combustion engine for vehicles. And even if the technology ultimately wins out (not a guaranteed proposition by any means) there are going to be growing pains.

The problem is that the progressives on a global scale -- the Democratic Party in the U.S. -- are intent on pushing the technology on all motorists by arbitrary dates concocted in Washington and other capitals, rather than letting the free market do its job.

So governments like President Joe Biden's administration go out of their way to incentivize EV production and sales even if it damages the traditional auto industry. They insist that drivers make the switch even though the infrastructure isn't in place in any consistent way.