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There was a time, not so long ago, when hitting debris on the highway was a minor inconvenience, a bent rim, a cracked oil pan, maybe a chunk of aluminum embedded in your undertray. You’d pull over, curse the Department of Transportation, throw a wrench or two, and be back on the road after a weekend in the garage with a six-pack and some elbow grease. 

When Road Debris Leads to Expensive EV Repairs

But in the electric era, when a 4,000-pound techno-pod glides silently over pavement with a lithium heart beating beneath, the stakes are wildly different. What once cost a couple hundred bucks and a few swear words now threatens to write a five-figure check and throw a wrench into the entire green-car utopia we’ve been sold.

"My wife passed over metal can in highway with her new Tesla 3 2025 , Tesla told me that i need to change the whole battery , i am disappointed that battery is not protected with any metal. Insurance told me they will cover repairs in Tesla certified garages only not Tesla itself ,

Any thoughts about certified garages , i am in Montreal ?

** These photos in Tesla service center after they towed there , they told they will send me the estimate tomorrow to replace the whole battery , There is Battery Coolant Leak as well.

That’s the reality of owning an electric vehicle in 2025, a reality wrapped in laminated spec sheets and sold with the aroma of progress. One metal can on a Quebec highway, and suddenly, you're looking at a full battery replacement, not a patch job. 

$15K+ Costs and the New Reality for EV Owners

Not because the car exploded in a lithium-fueled inferno, but because the underbody battery pack, the core of the vehicle, was compromised. There’s a coolant leak and a dented casing, and now a tech at a Tesla-certified shop is running the numbers on what’s likely a $15,000-plus ordeal. Welcome to the age of plug-in fragility.

Back in the days of crankshafts and cam lobes, this would've been a two-hundred-dollar problem. Maybe you cracked the oil pan, maybe you dripped some oil onto the driveway, maybe you cursed your luck. But the fix was surgical, targeted, and rooted in decades of mechanical logic. 

From $200 Fixes to $15K Replacements

Not anymore. Now, a stray soda can trigger a cascade of diagnostics and a full battery swap, as though the only acceptable solution is total organ replacement. It’s the kind of overreaction you’d expect from a bureaucratic health insurance plan, not a modern car company. More troubling still is the environmental contradiction. 

Essential EV Battery Insights: Longevity, Warranty, and Replacement Costs

• Electric vehicle (EV) batteries are designed to last between 15 and 20 years under optimal conditions, depending on the manufacturer. ​
• Most automakers offer warranties covering EV batteries for 8 years or 100,000 miles, ensuring coverage against significant degradation or defects during this period. ​
• Over time, EV batteries may experience reduced capacity, leading to decreased driving range. Signs of degradation include diminished range and longer charging times.​ Replacing an EV battery can be costly, ranging from $5,000 to $20,000, depending on the vehicle model and battery size. ​

The electric car was pitched as a beacon of sustainability. But where’s the sustainability in replacing an entire battery pack over minor underbody damage? That’s 1,000 pounds of lithium, nickel, copper, and rare earth materials heading for either an industrial refurbish plant, or worse, a landfill. It’s a wasteful response to what should be a routine repair. The absence of proper underbody shielding, no steel plate, no sacrificial panel, nothing, feels like negligence disguised as engineering efficiency. A few millimeters of aluminum could’ve prevented this mess entirely.

How Bureaucracy Drives Up EV Repair Expenses

Of course, it doesn’t end there. The insurance labyrinth adds insult to injury. Tesla won’t perform the work unless the insurer signs off, and the insurer won’t cover Tesla’s own shops, only third-party “certified” garages that often lack full access to proprietary repair tools and diagnostics. The result is a bureaucratic standoff while the car sits lifeless in a garage bay somewhere in Montreal. The owner is left pacing between adjusters and service advisors, fighting not just a coolant leak but the opaque policies of an automaker that seems allergic to its own customers.

The Growing Pains of the Electrified Auto Industry

This isn’t a Tesla-only issue, it’s systemic. It’s the growing pains of an industry sprinting toward electrification without considering the mechanical realities of daily life. EVs are marketed like smartphones, but roads are not sanitized Apple Store floors. They’re littered with cans, rocks, potholes, and the occasional rogue muffler. Until manufacturers harden their designs and rethink the “replace, don’t repair” philosophy, these small incidents will continue to balloon into headline-worthy disasters. It’s not that EVs are inherently flawed, it’s that they’ve been built for the showroom, not the street.

The Paradox of EV Sustainability and Fragility

And therein lies the central contradiction of the modern EV: A promise of progress wrapped in fragility. Tesla and its peers need to learn something ICE cars figured out decades ago, real-world durability matters. People don’t drive in controlled environments. They drive through snow, gravel, city filth, and yes, even over metal cans. And when a $200 oil pan fix becomes a $17,000 battery replacement, it’s not just a repair issue, it’s a design failure. Until that changes, every soda can on the highway is a reminder that the road to sustainability is still full of potholes.

Noah Washington is an automotive journalist based in Atlanta, Georgia. He enjoys covering the latest news in the automotive industry and conducting reviews on the latest cars. He has been in the automotive industry since 15 years old and has been featured in prominent automotive news sites. You can reach him on X and LinkedIn for tips and to follow his automotive coverage.