Rich Benoit of Rich Rebuilds: Content Creator, Car Rebuilder and Tesla Fan

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I'm Guy Kawasaki. I can't even do the intro without laughing because this episode is so funny. Try that again. I'm Guy Kawasaki and this is remarkable people. Today's episode's remarkable guest is Richard Benoit. He is a remarkably funny guy, as you will soon hear. He creates content for a YouTube channel called Rich Rebuilds. This features his adventures rebuilding and repairing cars. His automotive saga really took off in 2016. At the time, Rich needed to own a Tesla, but Teslas were $100,000 new and $70,000 used. He was too cheap to pay these prices, so he found a Model S sitting in a field in New Jersey on a website that that sold wrecked cars. It was damaged by salt water, which is a terrible condition for any car, much less an electric one. So what did he do? He bought it for $14,000 and planned to rebuild it in his garage. Of course, his first step was to run a dehumidifier for three days. At this point, let me tell you a small detail. He had no training in car repair. He was an IT support guy. Oh. Also, only Tesla certified shops can buy parts. The rest is history as he documented the process and shared his story online. To put it mildly, he has a love hate relationship with Tesla. Because of Tesla's, shall I say, reluctance to embrace any right to repair sensibilities. Benoit is doing quite well as a YouTube creator and he also has repair shops called the Electrified Garage in New Hampshire and Florida. I would say he is the wittiest person I've had on my podcast. Actually, he and Margaret Atwood are tied and that's saying a lot for both of them. You may be offended by parts of our conversation, but I promise you it's never boring. Tell me, did you get that joke? I hope you got that joke. Underneath the humor lies a remarkable story of curiosity, perseverance, and ingenuity. This episode of Remarkable People is brought to you by Remarkable the Paper Tablet company. Yes, you got that right. Remarkable is sponsored by remarkable. I have version two in my hot little hands, and it's so good. A very impressive upgrade. Here's how I use. One, taking notes while I'm interviewing a podcast guest. Two, taking notes while being brief about speaking gigs. Three, drafting the structure of keynote speeches. Four, storing manuals for the gizmos that I buy. Five, roughing out drawings for things like surfboards, surfboard sheds, and office layouts. Six, wrapping my head around complex ideas with diagrams and flowcharts. This is a remarkably well thought out product. It doesn't try to be all things to all people, but it takes notes better than anything I've used. Check out the recent reviews of the latest version. I'm Guy Kawasaki, and this is remarkable people. And now here is the witty, remarkable, funny, and maybe a little nutso Richard Benoit. This is a funny factoid, but you are the first black man on my podcast.

I know, I was.

I.

That's why I was so. I was so excited. I'm just joking. I didn't know that. No, no, no.

I've had a.

You know what's funny now? No one could say, oh, wow, that guy's racist. You know, now it's like, no, no, no, no, no. I had richby bills on there.

One of my best friends. But I've had many black women. Yeah, many, many.

I don't know, man. Well, that's the thing I use. So this, this is about influential people, right? It's for inspirational people. Yeah. And I guess, I don't know, maybe black women just really like being on your show.

I figure I start with you and then I'll call up Barack and say, brock, listen, Richard was on. So, you know, that's.

That's what it is when you. The safety in numbers. So when someone looks at your, your, your, Your overall profile.

Yeah.

They say, okay, let's see how many black guys. But now, now they have me. It's like the floodgates have opened.

Now there's going to be one more black man than there is any Republican.

Yeah. I think what you do is cool. What really blew my mind. So you. You did a TED Talk? Yeah.

Yeah.

How did you. I know you're supposed to be asking me questions.

Yeah.

Like, is this a two way conversation?

Yeah, yeah, whatever you want. Yeah.

Okay. I wasn't sure if this were you. Like, you dig up some. Some old Internet records of mine. Publicly shame me.

But that time you went on a double date with Cuomo.

Yeah. Please don't tell anyone. So. So you want a TED Talk and I. Ted Talks always inspire me.

Yeah.

Because I feel like that's the best of the best and the smartest and the smartest and the brightest of the brightest people.

Oh, my God.

As well. People that could articulate themselves very well.

I hate to burst your bubble, but. Okay, keep going.

No, I mean, that's what. That's what it seems like if you're on a stage that, you know, people are talking and you're like, wow, it must be a really smart guy. So how did you get into that? How did you. How are you recommending. Does. Does some guy named Ted call? Hey, what's up, man?

Well, so first of all, it's kind of like Tesla's. There's the S and there's the three, and there's the X. Okay. So the TEDX talk happens all over the. I mean, there could be TedX of Framingham, there could be TedX of whatever, Milpitas, and then there's Ted. And Ted is the one, you know, 2,000 people go to, and Jeff Bezos is sitting next to Bill Gates. So I haven't done that one.

But for your TEDx is like.

It's like, for kids. It's like the NBA G League or whatever. The B league.

Yeah, yeah.

It's where Jeremy Lin plays after the Knicks.

Oh, it's like jv.

Yeah, exactly. It's the farm club.

Whenever I see someone that's been on a TED Talk, I'm like, wow, I need to listen to this person. But honestly, now that I know, full disclosure that it's really only like TEDx, I'm probably gonna cut this short.

Okay. I'm gonna talk. I'm gonna talk fast. Then.

We could wrap this up. Yeah.

Well, thank you for being our guest. I really appreciate taking out the time this Friday night. Even me. You get a headphone?

Yeah. Right. Thank you. Yeah, let me get on. Get my headphones.

I'm going to get Sony to sponsor this. That's a MX3 or MX4, right?

MX3. Yeah. Yeah. I'm on a budget. I couldn't do the fours yet.

I don't think that I've uncovered that you had any education or training in mechanics or electrical engineering or anything like that. So how did this come to be?

You know what's funny is that I thought you were going to say, rich, you have no formal education at all.

Oh, is that true?

I don't know. Which is partially true. So with what I do with. With working on Teslas and stuff, I don't have any formal education, Engineering background. None of that stuff. I'm just a person that just said, you know what? I was really driven by how cheap I was and money was a factor. I said, you know what? I got to figure this thing out. So I just got kind of scrappy and I just used process elimination and I just started doing some stuff. So.

So what were you doing at the time in your day job?

At my day job, man, I was. I was an it. IT manager. So my career trajectory was, you know, hell of a help. Desk person. Like, I crawl under desk. I'm like, hey, I'm gonna plug this in for you. Have you tried IT rebooting your computer? And that solely progressed to an IT manager role where I told other people.

To crawl under the.

Above their computer and. Yeah.

And this was at Reebok or something or some large company?

No, it was that. What was it? It was at this artificial intelligence company that worked at. I don't want to say their name.

Okay.

Like, they're a great company, but they're not paying this for an ad at all. So, you know.

Are you still there?

No, no, no.

Okay.

So I. I left my day job about a year ago, year and change ago to. To be a full time YouTube personality.

They say you're like Jeremy Clarkson meets Mike Rowe meets Herbie Hancock.

I could see that.

I thought about that a long time.

That's really good. I'm used to being called the. The Dr. Frankenstein of Teslas, which I do not.

That's negative. That's a negative.

Yeah, right? Yeah. It's not a good thing. And people keep saying that. Oh, you're like the Dr. Frankenstein. Please don't call me that.

No, not at all.

It was a good. It was a good sound bite.

That's true.

Because when I was doing an interview.

Someone was saying for TedX.

Wait a minute. Yeah, exactly, right. I didn't even answer the phone. TedX. Oh, gosh, no, no, no, I'm not answering that. No, we. He's like, so, yeah. You consider yourself, dare I say, the Dr. Frankenstein of Tesla's. And I was just like, yeah, I guess you could say that. And ever since I said, yeah, you can say that. It's been all over the world.

Oh, yeah.

Dr. Frankenstein. It's just all over the place.

Hey, it got you a million followers on YouTube. So.

It did. I am forever grateful.

Yep, Yep. So I need to ask you if you are the East Coast's largest user of baking soda and rice.

You know. You know, it's interesting. Here's a fun factoid for you okay, so I don't. I don't work on Teslas anymore.

What?

Surprise.

Only sprinters. Only sprinters for your homeless.

Let me tell you a story.

Okay.

Okay, next story. So I was kind of pushed out of the Tesla nest in a sense, because I had different ideas about Tesla and I didn't really.

To put it mildly.

Yeah, to put it mildly. I didn't stroke. This is the thing. I'm. I'm not an ego stroker. And. And what kind of car do you drive?

I have two mattresses and a Cayenne.

Oh, wait, wait, wait, wait. Toyota Matrix. Like a Matrix?

No, metrics. The Mercedes Benz full size van.

Oh, okay. Metris. Okay, okay. A little Mercedes full size van. What do you have, like a choir?

No, no, no. They're set up for surfing and camping.

Wait a minute. Are you. Are you a van lifer?

No, I don't. I've slept in it one night. I don't. You know.

Oh, so you're not about that life.

No, no, no.

Casual.

Yeah, I'm about looking. I'm a pretender.

Okay, so you're about looking the part.

That's right.

That's right. I respect it because I got my.

Racks, you know, I got my toilet, I got my gas.

You know what? They're not. They're not cheap though, man.

Nope, nope.

So as you. As you know, I'm building one now, right? For my homeless assistant. And they're not expensive. Okay, back to stuff real quick. So I. I have varying ideas about. About Tesla now. I don't. I'm one of the few people that doesn't stroke their ego. Because a lot of people like, oh, my gosh, Tesla's so great. They're perfect. It's the best company in the world. I can't believe you even considered buying anything else. Why are you buying anything that's powered by gas? You're hurting the environment. Don't you care about your children? And I think one day I just exploded and I said, guys, shut up. Like, it's not. It's not that serious. It's not that big of a deal. And you know, I'm. I'm not the smartest guy in the world, but I'm not sure if buying a hundred thousand dollar car to save the environment is the thing that. That's the. Is that the answer? I don't know. It just doesn't seem like it. But don't get me wrong, they're great. They're great cars and everything, but it's the. The cars by themselves are awesome. But you're not buying into the cars. You're buying into the cult family. It's almost like finding, like, a really pretty girl. Like, she's really, really pretty, really smart, down to earth, but her family's crazy. And you're thinking to yourself, no big deal. Whatever. I'm just spend time with her. But when you marry her, you're really married her family. Well, that's what I did when I bought a Tesla. I'm really buying into all these, like, psychopaths.

Well, I could draw a parallel with Apple. So I think you could love Apple's products but hate the company. I mean, that's correct, right? I mean, same thing, right? I mean, in a sense, Tesla feels about the right to repair the way Apple does. You can't open up an Apple and do anything. All you can do is buy more dongles.

So, yeah, at 100 bucks a pop.

Exactly. So when you started off this path, was it a right to repair evangelist? Was it about sustainability? Was it the intellectual challenge? Or you just wanted to shove it to the man?

None of that. No, none of that. What is cheap? Nice car. That's what it was. I mean, you can lie. Grew into those things. Okay, it grew into those things. I probably should have lied for that, but. But it was. It was along the lines of, listen, I really like these cars. I mean, a Tesla, it's an awesome car. I knew I wanted one, and they were just too much damn money. So I found a cheap one, rebuilt it, and it was only after that I started realizing that Tesla's business practices really didn't line up with what I was used to. For example, if I wanted to part, they were like, hey, your car has been in a wreck, and we don't really deal with that kind of stuff, so you're kind of on your own. You know, go. Go to the. Go. Go to whatever trash can you got these parts from, and. And just do it again.

And to what do you ascribe that perspective of Tesla?

You know, my first impression of Tesla was that they were a very green company focused on sustainability. Mm. It was a great angle to play and say, hey, you know what? We're all about green saving the Earth. No need to focus on gas, cars. Electricity is the future, cut down on emissions and our carbon footprint. I thought that's what they were about. And the more I realize it is, at the end of the day, they are a company. They do have to answer to shareholders. And even though the idea of sustainability and saving the Earth is great, to help People buy more cars. I'll say it. I mean, yeah, it's true. They are a company. If they're not selling cars, they're not happy.

And do you think that their philosophy is we're trying to protect our customers from doing stupid things that endanger them, or do you think it's because we want to force people to buy new cars and scrap their old one? Is it profit or is it looking out for the best interest of their customer?

I would say for profit. Yes, absolutely. Because if you think about it, I have data that'll have a listing of all of the prior wrecked Teslas that were ever sold on insurance. Okay, so I have that number. Yeah, it's a very small number of cars. No, it's not even like 10,000 cars. And the likelihood of you even driving past a Tesla and it being a rebuilt one is almost slim to none because there's so few of the cars on the road. They'll play it in the thinly guys. In the thinly guys excuse of we're trying to protect you because this psycho doesn't know what he's doing and you don't want your cars to blow up? In reality, the cars have no problem blowing up on their own off the showroom floor, but they're like, hey, listen, we're trying to protect you. And every time a Tesla blows up, it looks bad, but in reality, they want you to buy another car. Okay? They just simply do.

Now, objectively, do you think Tesla's catch fire more often than other cars, or it's just that the microscope is always on Tesla. So anytime a Tesla catches fire, it's a news story. But If a Ford F150 caught on fire, nobody cares.

Exactly. If a Ford F150 catches on fire, no one cares. And it happens every single day, all day long. If I Google search Ford F150 on fire, like a million results. You're right. Tesla is under a big microscope. And when something bad does happen to one, it makes the news. It's like, see, this is why you shouldn't get electric car, because I'm gonna catch fire. And all this stuff. Not realizing full well that if you think about a gas car, when you're swinging your gas car literally three feet in front of you, there are tiny little explosions going at multiple times per second with literal gasoline being dumped on those explosions. And then two feet behind you, there's a giant suitcase full of a combustible liquid that could explode whenever it feels like it. People don't really realize those Things as they're driving their cars. And when I explain it to my kids, even they have a hard time thinking to himself, why would you drive a gas car? This could blow up at any time. Just drive electric. It makes more sense.

Yeah, okay.

But to answer your question, they don't blow up any more than anyone else. If you think of the data, there's about a million passes on the road, and in terms of exploding percentages, it's lower on average than its gas counterpart. Okay, so far.

So you arguably may be the best qualified person in the world to objectively discuss the quality of Tesla manufacturing and parts, because you've taken apart more than anybody else in the world, probably. So do you open them up and say, oh, my God, this is like duct tape holding this car together, or do you say, oh my God, it's the greatest thing ever.

I would say that I'm probably not the most qualified person. There's people that actually do that for a living.

Okay. But they can't talk.

Yeah, well, yeah, people do it for a living that disassemble the cars and they analyze each component and figure out what the overall quality of each one is. In the beginning, when Tesla first started, I swear some of those cars were held together with wood screws from Home Depot. And because I have an earlier vehicle, I have an earlier car from 2012, and the build quality was a lot different back then. Since 2012, they've come leaps and bounds. I've taken apart several things from Tesla, but you have to understand that in the earlier cars, not all the parts were Tesla parts. So the steering rack, that's Mercedes and Land Rover. So they take a lot of individual components from other manufacturers and kind of put them on their own. Like the window switches, those are Mercedes. The steering column, like the switches, the turn signal stocks, that's all Mercedes type stuff. So they're almost like sticking their hands in various parts bins to assemble their own vehicle. But honestly, the biggest problem that they had as of late are more so rushing the cars to production. So, like, off the showroom floor. Sorry, off the assembly line, you'll have minor paint issues, you'll have door alignment issues. And what they'll do is they'll send them out and they'll know that 10 cars are bad. But if only four of them come back. Yeah, maybe that's not that bad.

Yeah, it's statistics. Yeah, yeah. It's like insurance. It's the probability.

Right, right. And then you have some Tesla owners that are saying themselves, I don't care What? The build quality. I don't care that I just spent 100 grand on this car. This build quality doesn't bother me because I never owned a Mercedes before.

But.

But on the other hand, you'll have people that will nitpick and say this. I just took a digital caliper all over the car and this door is 4 millimeters off.

Right.

And I. This can't be. So everyone's different.

You just mentioned Mercedes and you're working on a Mercedes Sprinter, which arguably might not be representative Mercedes.

That's not a good example.

Yeah, but how would you stack up a Mercedes versus a Tesla today? Two cars right off the line in.

Terms of what we talking bill?

Quality.

Yeah. I mean, Mercedes takes the cake. It's a luxury manufacturer and they've been doing it for a long time.

Yeah.

You know, there's a lot of things that Mercedes wouldn't get past a quality assurance check. A lot of the Tesla cars would have got sent back if they were sold through Mercedes. They hold their post purchase inspection or part pre purchase inspection to a higher standard than Tesla does. Because remember, the guys that work for the shop are all former Tesla employees. So they know exactly what happens the second those cars come off that semi and they go into processing to go to their new owners.

Okay.

It's a very different experience.

And when you hear stories that Apple's gonna have a car. I don't know about you, but I laugh. What's your reaction?

I have to give Tesla a lot of credit. Yeah. Because if it weren't for them, a lot of these manufacturers wouldn't even bother.

Yep.

I mean, Apple. The only reason why Apple's like, I want to get a piece of this pie is because they have endless money and they know electric cars are hot.

Yep.

So they want to get into the mix too. But yeah, it's, it's funny. Everyone wants to get a car. I don't think they realize just how hard it is. They might want to stick the phone.

I was, I was a Mercedes Benz brand Ambassador. So I, you know, I kind of know what goes into a car. And a car. A computer. If it crashes, you reboot. If a car crashes, you die. And yeah, you crash. You're not in the wind and the rain and the sleet and the snow and driven by an idiot who has other idiots coming at him at 100 miles an hour driving through potholes. That's not how you use a MacBook Air. And I swear, if Apple made an electric car, it would not work with the standard Charger. Unless you bought a $2,000 dongle. Right.

I mean, I'm dying to see what their price point is because. Because Apple is a premium product and brand. You're not finding an Apple product much less than a thousand bucks if you think about it.

Yeah, that's the dongle.

Yes, the dongle is a thousand bucks. But I'm curious to see how they're going to price point this car. Because it's going to be. It's an electric car, so by default, it's not going to be inexpensive.

Right.

And who are they going to market it to? Like, is it. Are you marketing it towards people that just hate Tesla products that much? They refuse to buy one, and they're waiting for another manufacturer to come out. I don't know who they're selling it to.

You and Marquis are going to get the first two in America, I promise. And. And if it's an Apple electric car, you know, it's going to be a great car till about 2pm and then it dies.

So, yeah, pretty much. Yeah. I really. It would be fascinating to see what they come up with and how it looks because there's a lot. There's competition now. There's real competition.

Someday, 20 years from now, when Apple is the leading car manufacturer, they're going to dig up archives of this podcast. They see these two dumb asses in.

2021, I'll probably work for them. You know what? I have the foresight now.

You know what would have happened to you, the arc of your life, if you called up Tesla and said, yeah, I need this part. And they said, yeah, no problem. What's your Visa number? I mean, the fact is that they said no and they stonewall you. That's what set you off on this path. Right.

You know what? If they sold me parts, my sentiment toward them would be better, but I think I'd still be in a similar position because I'd still be working on them. They would just be a lot easier to work with. And people like the struggle. They like the fight, they like the drama, which I think is why a lot more people may have tuned in.

Yeah.

Probably still be doing the same thing.

Do you think that there's any manufacturer that handles parts and right to repair? Well.

That'S a very good question. For the most part, everyone that I've been dealing with so far has had a pretty high willingness to sell me parts. It's the first time I've ever been stonewalled by someone because they didn't like the way the car Was I have a BMW and when I go to BMW for parts they're just like, what's the VIN number? We don't care what the jars is doing. We don't care if it's on fire. We don't care if it's underwater currently. We just want to sell you this part to get you the hell out of our door.

What if you wanted to buy the little plastic thing that covered the bolt? I love that phone call. This is guy during the editing phase. I thought I'd better explain this story a little bit more too. So Rich tried to buy a little plastic part that covered a bolt in a Tesla and he couldn't do it. That's how hard it was and is to buy a part for a Tesla.

Listen, that was, that was, that's. I replay that in my head sometimes. It's so traumatic that they said hey, why do you want this? It's like what? But you know what, that video was taken such a long time ago. People weren't really buying parts for Teslas and installing things themselves because this was back when I think it was before the Model 3 came out. So tests were at a higher price point. Your average Tesla owner didn't want to deal with that stuff.

Sure.

A lot of them weren't aren't car enthusiasts. They're just like, hey, I just bought this hundred thousand dollar car and I want to go to my, my yacht club and show off to my friends a little bit and then take my model wife back home and then I'm gonna go see my model girlfriend later on. So that's, that's what they were reserved for. But now It's a Model 3 advent.

It's okay.

It's more likely now because the cars are a different price point and people might be more likely to work on them themselves.

So in one of the videos after all this bullshit from Tesla. Yep. Did they really come to the opening of your garage or was that a parody? I couldn't tell.

They came.

They really came. How do they have the chutzpah to come?

I have pictures of them at the event. It's kind of funny. You know, it's, there's two different things. There's Tesla corporate.

Yeah.

And then there's Tesla local.

Okay.

The local Tesla boys, boys and girls, they're great. Tesla corporate, it's a little bit different. They don't really like people going to shows and like Tesla representing themselves at various events. But it was great. They came, the sales team came, they gave. They probably had between five and Seven people from Tesla there, and they brought a whole bunch of cars to people to test drive. So it's. Why are you being. Why do you have so much animosity when we could help each other? They literally came to the event to sell cars.

Yeah.

And I had no problem with it. So what's, what's the big deal?

Corporate to draw another parallel with Apple that, you know, if you walk into any given Apple store, the, the genius and the salespeople and the manager are very nice, cooperative people. But, you know, he knock on Cupertino's door and say, hey, I want to.

Yeah, they released the house.

Very different experience. So what has been the general reaction of the Tesla community? Are you the Antichrist? Are you Christ?

Yeah. No. You know, someone had a really interesting quote. They said, either you die a hero or live long enough to see yourself become a villain. And I'm living long enough to see myself become a villain.

So now you're a villain in the Tesla community.

Well, yeah, because at first it was, it was, hey, I'm doing my thing. It was cute and funny. But as I realized more and more about the company that I didn't like, I started voicing my opinions and people really didn't like that that much. Like, well, why are you being so negative? Tesla's done so much for you. And when I'm like, like what? And then they run away because they have no, they have no answer for that. You can't say anything bad about the Tesla because it's everything welcomes. Perfect, perfect company. Elon's perfect. He's done so much for our environment. He's sending us all the space. He's building cool cars, he's digging tunnels. So a lot of the nerds have someone to look up to. So when some rough around the edges, random black guy that, that claims to know what he's talking about starts talking slick about their, their commander in chief, they don't like it.

Yeah.

Yeah. So better than that. No, it's. It's not that serious. It's, it's. I did. I did a lot of Tesla stuff and I started a company, Electrified Garage, that services and repairs electric vehicles. And we're doing fine. And I really kind of got bored of Tesla stuff, but mostly because the fanboys were kind of getting me too much. But Tesla only makes what, like four cars? Model 3X, Y and S. Yeah, and whatever ones are coming out in the future after we've done everything with them, what else is there to do? So I decided to make a switch to work on other stuff too.

And yet aren't you making a V8 Tesla? The ice T. Okay, so now explain that one. Let me interject a little bit of information here. ICE T obviously is a pun on the wrapper, but ICE stands for internal combustion engine. So ICE T is internal combustion engine Tesla. I keep telling you, Rich is a funny guy.

You know, ice tea was an interesting thing because I love Teslas. Fun fact is that I still personally own like five of them and even my daughter drives one. So I love the company, love the cars, but honestly they do get terribly boring. Yeah, don't get me wrong, they're, they're good looking, but after a while it's okay, I get it. They also have to look the same if you own a shop that they come in and out of. They get kind of old after a while. Okay, So I said to myself, what can I do that's different? What can I do with the Tesla that hasn't been done? Because my MO has been doing things with Tesla that hasn't been done. Yeah, you know, I, we switched batteries, motors, upgraded the car, made them faster when people haven't really been doing that. So I said, what's the next step? What's the next thing that no one's been done that could be cool? And I said, you know what, I have another salvage Tesla. The car is underwater. It needs a motor, it needs a battery, it needs the majority of the internal electronics, it needs everything. And if I wanted to fix that car, Tesla's not going to sell me a single part. So what if there was a manufacturer that would sell me parts? And that manufacturer is General Motors. I got a V8 and I could walk into any store, any, any you name, AutoZone or Pep Boys or whatever and I could say, I need these parts for my engine. They will happily sell me anything. So it was more to like, kind of like a tongue in cheek and prove a point. To say, hey listen, if you won't help me fix this car, I'm gonna find someone else that will. I thought it was kind of fun.

And how far is it from being finished?

I'll tell you. Little advice for you. Converting a car from gas to electric is very easy.

Really?

Electric, back to gas, extraordinarily difficult.

Why is that?

So it's, there's a lot more systems and there's a lot more things to think about. Because with it, with an electric car, the basic components are as such, it's a battery. You have the motor, you have the controller to tell the battery. How much power to give the motor. The kind of three very basic and simple components, and they're easy to package and configure. You could have like a big motor, a small motor, and you could stick the battery somewhere in the car. When you're talking about an internal combustion engine, you have to think about the massive size of the engine. You have to think about the fuel tank, the fuel pump, where to put the fuel tank. And you also have to think about how to get rid of the gases, the poisonous gases. You have to have an exhaust system routing. It's, it's, it's a lot and only that. But you have to figure out how to integrate the systems together. So you have a gas engine in a car that was originally made to be electric. Mixing those two together. When the Tesla's looking for a speed signal from an electric motor and not a gas engine, it's, it's a, it's definitely a daunting task. But I love it because it's just, it's just different. No one, no one's doing it. So why don't you do it?

Another interjection of a bit of information. The term LS swap refers to swapping out engines. It comes from the LS series of Chevy engines. People would get these Chevy engines and swap them into other internal combustion engine cars. Of course, in the context that we're using it here, we're referring to the process of taking out the gas engine and putting in an electric motor, which is not exactly an LS swap, but the concept is the same. Swapping, let's just say source of power. Why don't you become the LS swap of electric to gas.

Bring in your funny, Bring in your.

El Camino, bring in your Mustang, bring in your Challenger, and we'll convert it. Isn't there a business there?

What you mean convert to electric? Yeah, there's a huge business there. But people think that they want electric stuff. Yeah, they really think they do.

Yeah.

But a lot of them have never lived with an electric car.

And what's it like?

So when you have a powerful car, let's just say a Corvette, Okay. For example, right. I'll be like, you should convert your Corvette, whatever. They don't realize that in order for that Corvette to have the, the kind of acceleration and the overall crazy experience that Tesla's have, you have to spend 50, 75, $100,000.

Yeah.

And people aren't willing to do that. So, you know, right now, the Corvette, my probably Corvette probably goes 0 to 60. And let's just say like 3 seconds, 3 point something seconds.

Okay.

And I'm perfectly happy with it. And the car is paid off, and I drive it. Fine. Let's just say I have the crazy idea that I want to make it electric. I have to rip everything out. The Corvette's a lot smaller than a standard Tesla sedan. So I have to figure out how do I reconfigure the batteries in the car where I still have reasonable storage space, Right?

Yeah.

And I have to think about how I could position the motor. How much more weight am I going to add? Because thinking about it, an engine and transmission and gas tank don't weigh much compared to an actual battery pack.

Yeah.

You know, the battery pack in the Tesla Model S is damn near 11, 1200 pounds by itself. That's for the battery. So you're adding all that weight, and then you realize, wait a minute. Where am I going to charge my Corvette? I thought I could just go on twisty back roads. It turns out there's no EV charging up top of this mountain. So people think they want them, but, like, they realize, hey, you're not going to get the same range you do now from your gas tank. It's going to be a lot more challenging.

Can I just, as an aside, ask you, what the hell does your wife say about all this? Because.

Doesn't care.

She doesn't. Can I interview her? I just want independent confirmation.

Honestly, there's a couple times where I've. I've come out of the basement and I've literally told her I found a cure for cancer. She's like, oh, yeah, that's pretty cool. But you know what I mean. Like, the stuff I work on, I think she's just so numb to it. And she hears all the time and she's like, that's. That's just what my husband does.

What does she do?

She's a school teacher. Oh, yeah. So. So she doesn't really have time for my crap. So she's mostly focused on her kids. And the more I could stay out of her way, the better off everyone is. So. Yeah, but no, she really doesn't. She doesn't really. She thinks what I do is cool, but in terms of caring about it on a daily basis, it's just like, no, that's my husband's job. It's like. It's like anyone having a job, you know, let's just say the two people are married and your husband is an astrophysicist.

Let's just say.

Yeah, you know, so. So what?

Yeah.

Yeah.

Cool. You're a business.

That's cool. What's for dinner tonight? You know, it's. And, and you, and you, you have to listen to your husband come home every day about how difficult being an astrophysicist is. And after you hear it for a while, you're kind of desensitized. So for her, she's like, yeah, my husband takes junk cars and makes one junk car out of two junk cars. So what?

Oh, God, I'm gonna date myself. You're too young maybe to know Sanford and Son.

Of course. Yeah.

That's you.

Yeah.

Not to be racist or anything.

No, no, you're not racist at all. No, it kind of is like that.

Yeah.

If it's. I, I consider it as more of recycling and upcycling. I, I was, I remember I was in school when I was a kid. Yeah. Little jingle that goes, recycle, reduce.

That too.

And I got that in my head. I'm like, why are we throwing stuff away? As in this society, we're such a, we're such a rich society. I get that. But there's people that don't have anything and we just throw stuff away like it's no one's business.

Yeah, that's so true. Yep, yep. Absolutely.

It's almost, almost sad.

I have to ask you what you think of the Porsche Taycan?

Love it.

You love it?

Yeah, I want one. I, I'm, I was in the market to get one and then I saw the price and I was no longer in the market.

Well, are you just gonna wait for one that gets flooded and.

Well, no, to be fair, they introduced the cheaper rear wheel drive one.

Right. For like 85 grand or something, right?

Yeah, it's like. Yes, I think 80. Yeah, 80, something like that. So which is, which is enticing, but at the same time, it is also $80,000.

But is it, you know, with its 300 mile range, is that good enough? I mean, where for Americans does the range anxiety trail off?

People are funny. People want all the range in the world, not realizing that the cars they drive now don't have the same range that they're looking for. You know, I mean, oh, I want 500 miles range. You drive a car now that does not get 500 miles of the range. So people are, will continuously make excuses for why they don't want to buy electric car yet. Well, I'm not ready yet because it doesn't have 1,000 miles of range. And then when they do get a thousand miles of range, they'll be like, well, I don't want to pay that kind of money for it.

Yeah.

But the Taycan is great. A lot of people say, you know, the Taycan is not as good as the Tesla Model S, but I am so sick of looking at Tesla's right now. Anything, anything looks good.

Has Porsche sent you one?

No, they haven't. No one ever talks to me like.

No, seriously, if I were Porsche, I would send you one in a second. I would cross my fingers and cross my toes across every part of my body I could. But to think of, you know, Dr. Frankenstein of Tesla loves a Taycan. I mean, how much better can it get than that that happened?

That's a slap in the face. So Elon Musk.

Yeah.

This is, how funny is, I love Elon Musk. Bill Gates.

Yeah.

He makes a decent money for himself.

Yeah.

He's doing okay.

Yeah.

He was in the market for electric car.

Yeah.

And when you say electric car, everyone first thinks Tesla.

Right.

He bought a Taycan.

Oh, he did?

Yes. Bill Gates has a tycon. And when interviewed, when Elon, when someone asked Elon, hey, Elon, what do you think about Bill Gates getting a tycon? He said, I've always found our conversations very underwhelming. Like there's gotta be, there's gotta be something else you could say. But it's just, it just, it just goes to show, it's like a lot of people take it personally.

Yeah.

You know, if so, I, I, I have a company that pays electric cars and if someone went someplace else to get their car fixed and serviced or someone chose not to go with me for some reason, I'd say, okay, cool.

Yeah.

I mean, it is what it is. They chose it for different reasons. There's different ways you could say things. But to say, you know what, I've always found our conversations underwhelming. It's almost like it's not personal. You know, he just likes the way the Taycan looks. It's a very good looking car.

True.

I think it's very refreshing. It's good looking. It has the prestige of a Porsche. And I remember I went to an electric car meetup and just let you know, I don't recommend electric car meet up before it looks like a Tesla parking lot. It's literally a Tesla parking lot.

Not any bolts in there.

There's hardly any bolts. There's no Nissan Leaf because they can't make it. A Nissan Leaf has 4 miles of range. Unless it's 4 miles near your house downhill. Yeah, exactly. Unless you're Being told all the Nissan lease are towed there. So I went to a meet and the. It's a sea of Teslas. Yeah. Which I, I just get nauseous if I want to see a whole bunch of Teslas. I would just go to a Tesla service center.

Yeah.

And a tycon showed up.

Yeah.

Everyone flock to the tycoon. Yeah. Because the tycon's the alpha. Everyone's so sick of seeing these. Like, like, honestly, it's. It.

Okay.

I'm gonna go into a rant now. Now I'm gonna get upset.

Go for it, man.

I'm sorry. I'm sorry. But it's. But they're, but they're like cockroaches. I call them the California Camry. They're everywhere. They're literally everywhere. And, and, and, and the cars, the cars are great. They're absolutely great cars. I will never take that away from them. Okay. But if I see another one, I'm going to get sick. Because not that they like cockroaches. They're everywhere. So I pride myself in being a little bit different.

Yeah.

Not like following the trend of the norm. And I'm seeing the more Teslas I see show up. I'm just like. I think it's time for me to switch. So it's refreshing not being, well, you know, another test on the road. I don't know. I'm just complaining. I'm just so sick of seeing them. I'm sorry.

The greatest video ever will be when you go to that electric car meetup in your V8 Tesla heads will explode.

As much as they hate gas powered cars.

Yeah.

As much as the fact that gasoline infuriates them, even though everything that they see and touch around them is delivered to them by gasoline.

Yeah.

How do you think the Teslas get to the service center?

On the back of a truck.

On the back of a diesel truck.

Yeah.

And they still hate them. They don't want to admit it.

Yeah.

And if you look carefully, all the Tesla PR shots.

Yeah.

When you have all those model threes being delivered, if you look at the angle, the diesel truck pulling all those cars is always cut off. They want to be like, oh, wow, how are these cars being delivered? I have no idea if they must just emerge. But no. So, yeah. As I was saying before, as much as they hate. As much as they hate what I'm doing. As much as they hate the V8 Tesla. If a VA Tesla shows up to a Tesla car show.

Yeah.

It's the only thing they're going to be Talking about it's true because it's. Because it's different. It's because this, this there's. When you, when you buy a Tesla, it's unfortunate that not a lot of people tend to modify them. It's like a small group.

Yeah.

Because with a Tesla, all you could do is change the tires, change the wheels, brakes, and wrap the car. You're not making it any faster because very few people go into the software aspect of things.

Yeah.

Whereas my background is all turbo four cylinder, turbo eight cylinder, forced induction cars that you want to make faster and model. So when you go to a Tesla car show, you will see three of the same exact car. The only difference with those car is the color of the skin of the owner. Maybe you'll have one black guy, maybe you'll have two Asian guys. That's the only discerning difference between them.

Oh, my God. A more serious question. Do you think battery technology is about to take a huge leap so it would not be wise to buy electric car right now?

Everyone keeps saying that. Yeah, you know what? You know that right now I don't like that term where it's like, oh, you should wait.

Yeah.

And. And. And do it later. Because the technology for these batteries is advancing so fast, it's not even funny. So I bought a Model X, I want to say, like two years ago, and that car is instantly outdated. However, if I waited to get one now, in two years, it'd probably be outdated just as fast.

Yeah, yeah.

So battery technology is advancing so fast. I mean, the best time to buy a car is now. Just buy the damn car. Dude, life is short. And I'm constantly reminded of that every day, how short and precious life is. Why are you waiting? What are you waiting for? You could die tomorrow. Just buy the damn car.

Okay, Tell my wife that tonight.

Yeah, tell that.

Okay, so I have some quick questions for you. I'm gonna let you go soon. Okay, so quick question. Let's, for the sake of this discussion, saying, you know, money and that kind of stuff doesn't matter. It's just what does your heart tell you? So Taycan Turbo S or model S plaid?

Oh, damn, you did it.

The.

Model S plaid.

Really? After all. Yeah. Why?

Who's. Who's buying it?

You.

Oh, well, hold on, hold on.

Well, who'd you think was buying it?

No, the, The. The type. The top of the line Taycan is damn near $200,000.

Yeah, I'm saying money doesn't matter.

Money doesn't matter. I'd still say still Maybe the. Maybe the plaid. Yeah, maybe. However. Hold on one second. Hold on. Give me, give me, give me 20 seconds. I'm pulling up a photo of a Turbo. Okay. Turbo S. Dude, it's a gorgeous car.

I know.

Here's my problem. So I'm allowed to change my mind, right? I changed my mind officially from the Plaid to the Taycan because I have a Model S now and it's a pretty quick car.

Yep.

Me buying a plaid Model S for $150,000, I am not getting that much different of an experience compared to the Tesla that I have now. If I'm going to spend that kind of coin, I'd rather spend it on going out of left field.

Okay.

So I'd probably go the Turbo S. Okay. Fun fact.

Yeah.

I said this before, but it went nowhere. The record for the Cannonball EV run.

Yeah.

Is held not by a Tesla. You can remember Tesla. Look at our supercharging network.

Yeah.

We could get to the United States, across the United States, in. In a matter of no time at all. Even with the scandals around its short range, the Taycan has officially beat the Tesla coast to coast. You can get a Taycan faster from coast to coast than you can the Tesla, which is the supercharging king.

By minutes or by hours.

Hours.

Really? Wow.

I mean, even if it was seconds.

Yeah.

Doesn't matter.

Yeah, yeah.

Because Tesla prides itself on how fast the cars could charge. But for a brand new manufacturer that supposedly has no idea what they're doing, that's not that bad.

Well, but Porsche has been making cars for a lot longer than Tesla.

Not electric cars.

No, yeah, yeah, that's true. But I mean, as far as making the door gaps all 3 millimeters or.

Whatever, they're good at that. Yeah, but no, it's, it's, it's okay. You know, the technology is advancing.

Okay, next quick question. And we're going to go out of the electric car phase, just into cars. All right? So stick shift, sports car.

Stick shift, sports car. Oh, man, I would. See, now I got this whole Porsche thing stuck in my head. No, no. Oh, man, that's not. That's automatic. You know what's sad? There's so many cars that are. That are manual now, automatic now.

Yeah.

Automatic now. It's. It's sad. You know what car I really like?

Yeah.

That I wish was manual? The Alfa Romero 4C. It's a really cool compact, tiny car, and I've driven it and the raw feeling you get is fantastic. But it's automatic. But to Answer your question, man.

Well then how about a Miata?

Oh, gosh, that's not. No, don't do this to me. Miatas are great, but I'd probably go for that 11 Turbo. Okay.

Not a GT3 Turbo.

I go for the turbo. Yeah, that's. That's too rich for my blood. Okay. But I probably got the Turbo because the turbos you can upgrade.

Oh, God. Okay.

I know, I'm crazy.

Okay. Hot hatch.

Hot hatchback. Oh, my gosh. What hashbacks are out there still.

Civic R. There's a Golf GTI and.

Golf R. I would say Golf R. Okay. Golf R. Big fan of them. And they can be made extra extremely fast.

Oh, my God, I'm seeing a tree.

I know, I know. I. Listen, I. I love modifying cars, man. If there's very few cars that I'll leave as is.

Okay. God forbid, what if you had to buy a truck?

So, fun fact, I own several trucks.

Oh, really?

Yes. I own a GMC Sierra Duramax, a Diesel. I own a military Humvee. A Hummer. You know, like a military one thing.

Yeah.

I own a Toyota Tacoma pickup.

Yeah.

And I also own a Sherp. I don't know if you're a Sherp is or not.

Never heard of them.

A Sherp is. Gosh, you have. You have to look it up. It's the most bizarre looking thing that.

Is it made in Russia?

Of course it is. Yeah. I have a shirt. It's. It's. It's amphibious tank.

Oh, okay.

So it goes off road.

Is it six wheels? Eight wheels?

12. I only have the four wheel one. I couldn't afford the, the 12 wheel one, so I have one of those too. But I love, I love everything. It's not just, not just evs. Okay, so back to the point.

I was saying before.

So I recently kind of stopped doing EV stuff and now I'm just doing my own thing.

Last car. God really forbid. Minivan.

I think a Sienna.

Yeah.

Because of the Sienna.

Because it's a hybrid.

It has. I think there's all wheel. They have an all wheel drive option.

Yeah.

Which I like. About a while back, I was looking for a minivan and yeah, the designs are kind of cool. Okay. A lot of people dish the minivans and say all their crap, but I'll tell you right now, there's very few things that you can use to haul people and things. So if you have no people to haul, you can fold all the seats down and you could, you could make a Home Depot run. Yeah, it's Like a pickup truck.

Yeah.

Yeah, they're great.

Okay.

I wouldn't drive one, but they're great. I have questions for you. How do you. So how do you. How do you, like, make money and stuff?

You mean in the podcast or in life?

What is. It's in general. How do you cut. How do you. How do you make your money? I know you're. You're. You're a venture capital. You're. You're a big deal.

No, I'm not. Not as big as Joe Rogan. So, you know, I sell advertising and sponsorship for this podcast, but I also. I'm chief evangelist of a company called Canva, which makes an online graphic design service. And that company is rocking. It has tens of millions of monthly active users, so that's where the money is. But podcasting, for me is just, like a passion that I hope will turn into something that's financially viable. So this podcast has had two sets of guests that. I'll tell you who they are. First one is Sheila Nazarian, and she had a show on Netflix. And sid and Shay McGee also had a show on Netflix. And I kid you not, I think that you should have a show. Show on Netflix. I think it would be fantastic.

Really? You think so?

I really do. Like making. You know, watching you make the Sprinter and. Or making the V8 Tesla, which is an oxymoron in most people's minds, that would be utterly fantastic. And taking them through your garage and showing them all.

I'll tell you something.

Yeah.

I pride myself in not answering to anyone.

Yeah.

You know, so I wake up in the morning, what am I gonna do? And I'm just like, you know what? Whatever. I don't have to do anything today because I'm my own boss.

Okay.

And then the next day, I freak out because I did nothing today before. But I. If I could have a show where I dictate all the content and I don't have to really answer or clean up my act for anyone, I would do it in a heartbeat. But it's hard to find because, like, sometimes I want to. I want to. I want to be a pig. Well.

Well, Jeremy Clarkson certainly isn't a milquetoast kind of guy, so.

That's true.

Right. Okay. And then the last thing I have to tell you. Go for it, is that I don't know if you care, but I found a typo in one of your videos. Are you an OCD kind of guy? Who, that. No.

CD guy. Get out of here. No.

You don't care. Then I won't tell you.

No time. What is it?

So in the video called How Tesla Rewarded Me for Telling the Truth.

Yeah.

At the nine minute mark, you spell it's I, T S. And it should be. It apostrophe S. Ah, man.

You know, I'm gonna take down the whole video. Thank you for, for telling me that. No, I, I, I, I pride myself in just not even caring.

Okay, well, then you don't have to do.

I just thought actually, you don't have to look very hard to find many, many errors.

Okay.

My videos.

Your videos are very well done. I mean, they're raw, but they are.

Thank you.

They're very well done.

So thank you. I really appreciate that.

Yeah, you should be on ted.

I should do it like tedx. So what are you thinking?

No, I think if you did care, I would tell you, but because. No, the big leagues.

What would I talk about? My journey. My journey.

Yoga. Yoga. And the black man. Yeah, black man's yoga.

You know, I, I should do that. Hey. Hey. What's it like being black in America and owning a Tesla? I actually made a video called Black Tesla Owners. It was well received. It was well received video. It's just showing that, like, there's no. They were hardly. At the time of the recording, there were hardly any black Tesla owners. And when there were, they'd reach out to me and they say, hey, someone thought I was you.

So this is like Morgan Freeman called you?

Yeah, yeah, pretty much like Marquez.

Kanye called you.

Kanye said, hey, bro, you know, hey, you're that guy. So that's part of the reason why I stopped doing, doing Tesla stuff. Because whenever people would see a black guy in a Tesla, hey, that's rich. That's a guy. And it happens a lot. Even, Even a couple of my buddies that are out in California, they're black. And like, dude, everyone thinks we're you. They see a black guy, like, that's. That's the guy. That's the guy. So I stopped. I stopped driving one.

Well, so black Tesla owners, lives matter.

They do, they do.

Well, I'm proud to have interviewed you.

So honestly, this is. You always remember your first. So I'm really your first, like, African American male guest.

You really are. And it's not on purpose.

You won't forget this.

Thank you so much. And I will need your address. I'm gonna send you one of these remarkable tablets, which.

That is crazy. Like, at first I was like, you know, what's in this for me? I'm joking. The tablet's Cool. That's pretty cool.

I'm gonna send you one. You just email me your address.

Okay, I'm gonna send you my address. Yeah, tablets. So you just, like, write stuff. It's like paper, but not really.

Yeah. And it's. It has this pencil and this pencil, unlike the iPad, pencil doesn't have to be charged, so you don't need to worry about this. And it feels like you're writing on paper. Paper, not on an iPad.

So I want that.

Yeah, you'll probably open it up and make it color.

Yeah, no, no, I'll open it. I'll be like, wow, this is pretty cool. I'll use it. I take notes a lot. I have, like, you know, post it notes literally everywhere.

See, the beauty of this is that all your notes will be in one place. You don't have to wonder which notepad. Oh, shit, I forgot to ask you my one. Okay, I promise you the last question.

Dude, I have all the time where.

Part of the pitch of the this tablet is that it's single purpose for taking notes. It's not like an iPad. You check email, social media, and you get all defocused. So one of the questions we like to ask our guests is, so where do you do your best and deepest thinking?

In the morning in bed, when I. When I wake up in the morning, all of the ideas that I had the night before manifest, and I immediately grab my phone and I just start writing different ideas down.

Well, now you'll grab your tablet and write ideas down, Right? Okay, Rich, thank you so much. It's been. Oh, man. I just.

Thank you.

It's been a blast. It's been a blast. All right, thank you. And send me your address. I'll send it out this weekend.

I will. I will send you my address. And I am excited to receive my. My token of appreciation from you. I'm gonna start doing that. I'm gonna start convincing people to. To come on my show by offering them gifts. Well, I offered you the gift. You agree? I'm joking. I'm joking.

But hey, I am dead serious. You should have a Netflix show.

Show.

I'm telling you, you are perfect for Netflix.

You really think?

I really do. I really do. I would watch your show.

That. That. That means a lot. And you know what's funny? I think I should. I should go and play. Play the race card and say, hey, Netflix, hey, how many people a car you have in your shows?

That's true.

More than half. Okay, never mind.

That's not true. That's not true.

You know, but, yeah, I think it'd be cool, too. As long as they allow me to retain most of the creative control. I would do it. I would do it in a heartbeat. This, I think, again. But. But what's the difference between that and what I do now? I have my own show now.

$5 million.

They won't care.

Okay, so settle for two and a half.

Yeah, yeah, I'll do. I guess. I guess I'll settle for two and a half. Whatever.

You know, I'll ask my friends, former guests who have Netflix shows, how they got them. Maybe.

Seriously, I want to know. I'm dying to know how. How is the next. Because you hear like, oh, you got that Netflix money. Because if you think about it, Chappelle's on there. Yes, Rock. All the big names are getting paid. It's a ham black, too. I'm kind of funny.

But they're on there. As entertainers. You have this electrification. Cars. Lots of people love cars. Mike Rowe is doing all the dirty jobs.

That was a great show.

That was a great show. Yeah. I love that show. Okay.

You know. All right, all right.

Thank you so much.

No, thank you for having me on your show. I. I really appreciate it. I. And what I'm gonna do is when I. When I do my TED Talk, I'm gonna shout you out. Yo. Hey, man. You know, I don't know about this TEDx stuff, but one guy, he realized.

What talent I had before anybody else. Actually, you were on Joe Rogan's show before mine, but that's a.

Okay, you should have called. You didn't call me first.

Oh, I didn't know who you were.

I would have skipped his. I skipped Joe Rogan. Be on this show.

Well, there you have it. Rich Benoit, the Dr. Frankenstein of Tesla. Although he hates that description, and it is no longer accurate, but so what? It's a great positioning statement. I hope you learned about ingenuity, perseverance, love of cars. If you're a Tesla owner or a TEDx speaker, you're probably offended. But I just want you to know some of my closest friends are Tesla owners. In fact, a member of my family is a Tesla owner. If by chance you work for Porsche, take a piece of advice from me. Send Rich a Taycan. And frankly, you should send me a Taycan, too. I'm not buying a Tesla. And as far as TEDx, I've spoken to many TEDx's and had a great time, but I have never been invited to Ted the big leagues, so I'm making fun of myself, too. If by chance, you work for Netflix, you really should make a Netflix series with Rich. I've sent Reed two emails, so I tried. Anyway, that's Rich Benoit. Rich rebuilds on YouTube the electric garage if you want to get your Tesla repaired. Hi, I'm Guy Kawasaki. This is the Remarkable People podcast. Speaking of remarkable and funny people, my thanks to Jeff C. And Peg Fitzpatrick. I hope none of this blows back on them. All the best to you. Mahalo and aloha. This is remarkable people.