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The Rogue Tesla Mechanic Resurrecting Salvaged Cars

MotherboardCited 3× on HN, 2020–2021
YouTube
documentary · general · 2020–2021 on HN

A Motherboard documentary on Rich, who buys wrecked Teslas, rebuilds them from salvaged parts and shares the process as Rich Rebuilds. It shows the obstacles to repairing cars Tesla won't service.

HN cites it in right-to-repair and EV battery discussions as an example of independent Tesla repair.

Repair, teardowns & right to repairCars, EVs & motorcycles#tesla#righttorepair#salvage#evbatteries

3 comments from Hacker News

@mdaniel2021-07 · in “Tesla’s $16k Quote for a $700 Fix Is Why Right to Repair Matters”

There's a related YT channel "Rich Rebuilds" showing the silliness he has to go through to be able to repair salvaged Teslas: ▶ this video

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@hardwaresofton2021-06 · in “Help All data in WD mybook live gone and owner password unknown”

So this reminds me of the dude that was doing repairs on teslas from a few years ago -- The Rogue Tesla Mechanic Resurrecting Salvaged Cars [0]. He runs a channel called Rich Rebuilds[1] (I'm not a subscriber) a company in New Hampshire that specializes in repairing Teslas, and has a recent video on his relationship with Tesla (and the community of fans)[2] (which I haven't seen yet, but watching now). I don't follow this channel but I do not remember Tesla being particularly encouraging of the trend, similar to other defacto closed ecosystems. They're definitely not egregious but just a little bit closed-by-default. [0]: ▶ this video [1]: link [2]: link

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@djsumdog2020-06 · in “Used EV Batteries Could Power Tomorrow's Solar Farms”

Used EV batteries could just be used in cars, but Tesla makes it incredibly difficult to fix their crashed vehicles. It's almost impossible for regular consumers to buy OEM parts unless it's for their specific purchased car. This guy has salvaged batteries and tons of other parts from junkyards: ▶ this video

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