This Tesla Model S Hearse Will Keep Your Carbon Footprint Low All The Way to Your Grave
But it’ll cost you (or your beneficiaries) a pretty penny.
If you fit into the incredibly narrow demographic of Silicon Valley undertakers who have wealthy individualistic clienteles, and you happen to need a new hearse—then hot diggity—we've found the right vehicle for you. Listed for sale on a Norwegian classified ad site is a Tesla Model S hearse, which its builder, one Jan Erik Naley, says is one of only four Tesla hearses worldwide.
This car came about as a result of an inquiry from a Trondheim, Norway funeral home, which was interested in a coffin-carrying Tesla. Naley played with the idea before pitching it to a company in the Netherlands, and before he knew it, he was building the first of now three Model S hearses. It's also the first based on a 75D variant.
"Right now there are only four Tesla funeral cars in the world, I have sold three of them," Naley told Broom.
To accommodate the hearse's grim payload, Naley and crew had to lengthen the Tesla's wheelbase by 80 centimeters (31.5 inches), and that meant cutting the car in half crosswise to add material to the car's midsection. Even with Naley's lengthy history of hearse fabrication on which to lean on, the Tesla's unibody proved a challenge to modify (Simone Giertz would know), in part due to its aluminum construction.
Nevertheless, after reportedly adapting manufacturing techniques from the aerospace industry, the Tesla held together, allowing Naley and crew to start the newly constructed fiberglass body. With the car, at last, looking like a hearse, it now had to function as one, so that meant partitioning the front seats from the cargo area, installing equipment to secure coffins and bedecking the rear in fineries you'd want for your loved ones. White leather, dark wood, and polished metal.
One could always buy this hearse and throw a mattress in the back to make a bizarre camper, though the value-for-money proposition isn't compelling. Naley has this hearse listed at 1,999,000 Norwegian kroner, or about $224,000. That kind of money can get you a new, high-end Winnebago, which would fulfill the camper role far better, but this being a hearse, it's probably better that it's used as intended, even though it apparently costs twice what your average hearse does.
"It is a bit cool, and it shows that we in the funeral industry can also think new," Naley said. "That being said, I do not think this is mainly a financial matter for the customers, but rather a gimmick."
