Tesla owner locked out of his car until he pays $26,000 for a new battery

The owner of a Tesla was left furious after discovering that he had been locked out of his car.

Mario Zelaya, from Canada, labeled his $140,000 Tesla a 'piece of trash' after discovering he would have to fork out for a new battery, or the doors wouldn't open.

In a video on TikTok, the vehicle was shown to have locked itself automatically due to the battery being dead.

On a different car you could just open the doors, or at worst call a locksmith if you lose your keys. But this wasn't possible with the Tesla as the doors required power from the battery to open.

The owner was left furious after being locked out of his car (Smith Collection/Gado/Getty Images)

Unfortunately for Mario the battery wasn't just drained, but was no longer working properly, meaning that he would need to have it replaced.

And when he found out just how much that would set him back, he was left fuming.

That's because a new battery for the Tesla would cost Mario some $26,000.

He captioned the video: "$26K for a new battery. Locked out of car. Recalls are needed."

In the end, Mario decided that he was simply going to sell the car as it was just no longer worth keeping it with the price of a new battery.

But there was a problem - to do this he needed the proof of ownership papers, no prizes for guessing where those were.

Yep, that's right, they were locked inside the car. Oh dear.

He said he had to resort to selling the vehicle (Kent Nishimura / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)

As a result Mario allegedly had to spend $30 to get another copy of the ownership papers sent to him before he could even move forward.

He had bought the vehicle back in 2013, a year where Tesla models had a technical issue where fluid leaks onto the battery.

Models from 2014 also sometimes experience this fault, which can cause huge problems in the car.

The motorist added: "I got Transport Canada involved, and they actually did an investigation on the car. Not only did they do an investigation on this car, they're gonna be doing one that Tesla doesn't realize is coming up."

Mario explained that he'd been in contact with another Tesla owner who allegedly experienced the same problem.

"Tesla's trying to sweep it under the rug," he said. "They won't give them any explanation of why their battery died."

"I'll never buy another Tesla again," Mario claimed. "That's the long way of me saying stay the f**k away from Teslas. They're brutal cars, brutal manufacturing, and even worse, they're a 10-year-old company."

Eventually Mario was able to sell his car, explaining in another TikTok that the buyer had plans to disassemble it in order to get it charged up.

But he was thoroughly disillusioned with the vehicles, saying: "That's going to be the end of my Tesla journey. It's out of my life. Keep it out of yours."

UNILAD previously reached out to Tesla for comment.

• Tesla employee laid off without any warning explains how he lived in car at factory
• Tesla owner forced to pay $14,000 repair bill one day after buying a Model Y
• Tesla Cybertruck's sharp design raises major safety concerns according to experts
• Tesla self-driving car blamed for eight vehicle pile up