This story began back in June 2020. Rafael set off from Spain to Germany on a short electric car trip, but he never made it to the finish line – a serious accident occurred. The driver himself was not injured, but his Model S 85 got quite a beating (he crashed into a guardrail on the autobahn at high speed) – the liftback suffered a serious impact to the body, lost its windows, and on top of that, all airbags deployed.
After the accident, the owner of the damaged car contacted one of the German service stations, where repairs were estimated at a staggering 71,000 euros (the price of a nearly new Tesla).
Since restoring the car for that kind of money made no sense, de Mestre took the electric car back to Spain, deciding to look for cheaper repair options.
Eventually, after some time, the Spaniard came across an auto service in Odesa that estimated the Tesla repair at 20,000 euros (3.5 times less than what was asked in Germany). The service station staff offered to load the electric car onto a van with a trailer and deliver it to Ukraine, which Rafael did – the 2,500 km distance did not stop him.
The Spanish owner's Tesla arrived in Ukraine in September 2020, and until today it has been under repair by local craftsmen.
And recently, the Odesa team solemnly handed over the fully restored electric car (including functional airbags) to its owner. Now Rafael wants to set off on a journey again, his goal is to travel the whole world in his Tesla.
