The Electrified Garage YouTube channel is set to grow into a library of "how to" videos that teach the average person how to work on their Tesla vehicles. It will also give insight into information that Tesla owners can share with their local repair shop if they don't feel confident doing the work themselves.
We've shared a few stories about Electrified Garage in the past. They came to us via Rich Benoit (Rich Rebuilds). Now that we've developed a new partnership with Kyle Conner (Out of Spec Motoring), who's leading the charge with our new InsideEVs YouTube channel, it's time to tell you more about Electrified Garage.
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At our recent EVs & Tea event in Miami, Florida, Conner introduced us to Chris Salvo of Electrified Garage. Salvo has also connected us with Rich Benoit. We are excited to see their business and YouTube channel grow. So, how did this all come to be?
Chris provides us with the details. The brief video above also clues us in on how and why Chris, Chad, and Rich decided to open The Electrified Garage:
"Chad and I worked at BMW together back in 2004/2005. Rich and Chad met around this same time while attending a mutual friend's wedding. Chad and I stayed good friends, and eventually, I started working at Tesla in January of 2013. Later that year, I convinced Chad to leave BMW and come work at Tesla. One weekend, Chad had a loaner Model S and brought it over to Rich's house to show him the car. Rich went for a ride and was instantly hooked on the acceleration and the technology.
Upon asking Chad how much they go for or how to buy a used one, Chad said they're north of 100k and it's a brand-new car, so there isn't a used market yet. So, at this point, Rich set about buying a flooded one and a crashed one and swamping all the parts to make one good car between the two. He chronicled his journey on the Tesla forums and on YouTube. This became the Rich Rebuilds Channel we know today.
During his rebuild of the car, he came to me at Tesla to buy parts and I was the one that told him " sorry I can't sell you parts for your salvaged Tesla." I was part of the original layoff that Tesla had in October of 2017. The following weekend I bumped into Rich at an EV Event where I was starting my company EV Tuning. We agreed to bury the hatchet and set about helping each others' businesses grow.
EV Tuning started as a place that carried parts and accessories from most of the major Tesla sites in one place. We started doing a lot of accessory installs on nights and weekends. Rich started to get inquiries as to when he was going to start helping fix other people's cars. EV Tuning had been consistently doing installs and upgrades on customer cars for the past 18 months. So, at this point, the three of us sat down and decided we were going to start The Electrified Garage.
We initially attempted to crowdfund it but many people expected an in-depth business plan just to donate $5 to the cause. We only ended up raising about $13k. This was a humbling experience where we figured Rich has 300k subscribers on YouTube at the time and if each one gave a dollar we would have a good base to start things. Instead, we had to go back to the drawing board and self-fund the initial build of a 1k sqft 2-bay garage.
Construction started in March of 2019 and was completed in June of 2019. Since then, we have had customers from as far away as Mexico, Utah, Indiana, Delaware, Idaho, Florida, New York, Montreal and all of New England come to get their cars serviced, upgraded, or modified by us. We get a lot of phone calls from people looking to follow in Rich's footsteps or just have general questions about their cars. We felt that starting a YouTube channel to help visually show and explain to people the parts of the car and how they work was the best way to get knowledge out to the public."
Needless to say, the channel just started adding content fairly recently. In the future, there will be much more. We hope we can work out some collaborations with The Electrified Garage, Rich Rebuilds, and Kyle Conner in the future. Our new track in North Carolina and our new YouTube channel in partnership with Conner could provide the perfect recipe for some unique content.
We've embedded The Electrified Garage's current content below. Check it out and leave us some comments.
Video Description via Electrified Garage on YouTube:
Electrified Garage: Backstory on The Electrified Garage
Short video from our open house that explains how Chad and Chris and Rich decided to open The Electrified Garage. Many people know who Rich is from Rich Rebuilds, but not many know how Chris from EV Tuning and "The Chad" all came together to form The Electrified Garage.
