A man says he has another reason for prospective car buyers to avoid Tesla. That’s because he woke up one morning to find his Model Y inexplicably dead—despite the fact that he’d just charged it for eight straight hours.
TikTok user Nate (@nateipsen) is the owner of a small business that sells ties. In this video from over the weekend, however, he is discussing the status of his Tesla Model Y. “Just in case you needed one more reason to not buy a Tesla, let me give it to you,” he says to start the video, which has amassed 862,000 views as of this writing.
Nate explains that he and his wife left the Model Y plugged in to charge in their garage overnight. “Came out this morning to drive it,” he says. “The charger—the button won’t do anything. The charger won’t come out. The trunk is stuck open. None of the doors will work. I can’t get in my car. The Tesla app won’t work, won’t unlock the door, won’t respond.”
He continues, “So now we have a dead Tesla sitting in our garage. Although, it’s not dead because it was charging all night. But for some reason, it won’t respond to anything. Sweet.”
Viewers react and offer potential solutions
In the comments section, viewers said a dead battery is to blame. One viewer wrote, “I tow for tesla those 12v batteries only last about 2 years and the messed up part is it won’t give you any warnings, but once you jump start it all these warnings will pop up on your screen.”
A second viewer said, “It’s probably the 12 volt battery that needs replacing, I’ll tag you in a video.” Here is one such video from YouTube.
@nateipsen Thanks Elon. Tesla Model Y charged all night but the car won’t wake up from a deep sleep, charging cable won’t come out, doors won’t open, and the app doesn’t do anything. #tesla #modely #teslamodely ♬ original sound – Nate “The Tie Guy”
In a follow-up video, Nate is able to use the tow hook to open the front trunk and access the 12v battery. He then uses his Ford Raptor to jump-start the Model Y. After he does this, the doors start working again.
In another follow-up video, Nate reveals that he finally got a notification to his Tesla app warning him that the 12v battery in his Model Y would soon need to be serviced. “I guess better late than never,” he says.
How much does it cost to replace the Tesla 12v battery?
According to this Reddit post to r/TelsaMotors from three years ago, it costs around $120 to get a 12v battery replacement from Tesla Mobile Service.
One user wrote, “Yup and only $85 if you wanna do it yourself! I still paid the extra and had them come to the house. In and out in 10mins.”
The Daily Dot reached out to Nate via TikTok comment and direct message for comment. It also reached out to Tesla via press email for comment.
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