Rich Benoit
Rich Benoit
Personal Life
He is an avid Technologist, and does the repairs out of a desire to fix broken goods. He lives in Massachusetts, where it is legal to repair one's own car provided that you have the same tools as the car dealership. Since Tesla does not have any dealerships, Rich is able to operate unhinged. [1]
Rich gave his wife a Tesla Model S which was submerged underwater.
Career
His YouTube channel is primarily about rebuilding broken goods, specifically Teslas.
After his Model S was trapped in a flood and its circuitry was damaged, he decided to buy another Tesla and combine the parts to make two functioning vehicles.
Vice Motherboard aired a 20 minute segment on Rich Benoit and his mission to one day open up his own Tesla repair shop. Rich has expressed his concerns about Tesla not providing parts to those wishing to work on their own cars, or hoping to salvage them, many times to the company itself. At one point, he believes he helped motivate the company to finally replace potentially faulty airbags. [1]
At the time, Benoit had over 220,000 subscribers on YouTube.
He has spent $20,000 on a destroyed Tesla which had been submerged in a Florida Bayou.
Rich repairs the vehicles not only out of a desire to fix things which he loves, but he says that it is "almost painful" to see such a great piece of technology be inoperable in a dump or backyard.
This motivates him to help people use their Electric vehicles and achieve goals of sustainability. Even vehicles which were once on fire have parts which he is able to salvage, including raw materials such as aluminum.
In the winter of 2018, Benoit partnered with a former parts manager for Tesla, Chris Salvo, to open up their own repair shop, The Electrified Garage.[13]