Since Tesla blocked supercharging and fast charging in its cars with a salvage title, there has been a lot of discussion about the new policy. Then Rich Benoit, from the Rich Rebuilds YouTube channel, mentioned it was the best thing that ever happened to him. This video above shows why.
We previously asked if t or if that was sarcasm or if he really meant that. The bottom line is that both things were correct. The sarcastic part can be seen in all the situations the lack of supercharging or fast charging led him to stage. The sad thing is that all of them could have been for real.
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The serious part comes close to the end of the video, and it is fair reasoning from Benoit. He comes to the conclusion that supercharging is fundamental to the value Tesla cars offer. If they do not have that anymore, you either have a way to keep your vehicle charging for hours at home, or there is no sense in having that EV anymore.
That said, we bet Delores and the Model X that almost broke Benoit will soon be gone or be turned into pieces of a Rich Rebuilds museum as essential parts of the channel building – no pun intended. Tesla decided they cannot be practical vehicles anymore.
By removing features the cars had with the excuse of safety – broadly disputed by experts – Tesla’s message is that you should only have a new one. If you decide to bring one back from the dead – as Benoit did with Delores and many others – give up the idea right now.
The YouTuber already showed many of the cars declared as salvage could have had only cosmetic damages that were deemed as too expensive to repair. Not all of the write-off EVs present any issue with their batteries or drive systems. When Tesla decided all of them will lose supercharging and fast charging capability, it has condemned them to become junkyard material.
Ironically, Elon Musk fixed his 1978 BMW 320i with junkyard parts because he could not afford to pay for a new vehicle or brand new parts. That shows he knows the value of recovering cars, especially not to make more scraps as something environmentally responsible. Why did Tesla ignore that to oblige people to forget about salvage vehicles? Does it have to deal with an urge for more money?
In such a scenario, Benoit seems to have decided to give up on Teslas. He will probably rebuild an EV from another manufacturer, such as a wrecked Porsche Taycan or an Audi e-tron. Hopefully, because he also considers something much worse.
Benoit mentioned these two examples because he looks pretty sure these manufacturers will not change their policies all of a sudden. In other words, they would not take back features these vehicles already had. At least they have not done so for the last decades with other cars. He could also consider a salvage Kia Niro EV or a Hyundai Kona Electric. This last one would offer him very good jokes – at least in Portugal, where the car had to be renamed to Kauai.
The worst part is that the youtuber even considers rebuilding a gas car to get places if he does not manage to rebuild one of those other EVs. The truth is Benoit can no longer afford not to get where he needs because of Tesla’s new policies.
To sum things up, Benoit may have seen the policy change as something good because it forced him to have a new project. One he was not expecting, but that may help him reveal more about other EV manufacturers, bring a new clientele to the "Electrified Garage" and avoid "the club."
Could you imagine an EV manufacturer would ever promote gas cars? With its new policy, it seems Tesla has done precisely that, at least for Benoit. We hope he finds an adequate EV solution, whatever other company offers him a suitable one.