A YouTuber has stated he bought a $140,000 Lucid EV for just $4,100. That was because the car was completely broken, but Rich Benoit, the man behind the Rich Rebuilds channel, said it didn’t take long for Lucid’s legal team to get involved.
Repairing an EV that has effectively been written off is never easy. Benoit knew that when he took on this luxury electric car, which soon became two, after he took delivery of another dead Lucid from a fan named Peter, who had been quoted $20,000 to ‘reshell’ his EV.
It wasn’t easy for Benoit to even attempt to repair his own EV. He and his team were even forced to cut used bumper components in half and then stitch them together because spare parts are so rare. It was a real nightmare for him and his team to work on the car.
Yet they persevered, and Benoit was soon able to get his own Lucid to take a charge. He even bypassed software lockouts with a ‘trick force feed’ that jump-started the high-voltage system. But it was as he began making this progress that Lucid got in touch.
Lucid’s Lawyers Contacted the YouTuber
Not long after he was able to get the $ 4,100 to take a charge, Beoit received a shocking e-mail. “Lucid’s lawyers emailed me, and it wasn’t a cease and desist,” he said. That probably took you by surprise reading that, and it certainly took the YouTuber by surprise. Incredibly, they came to offer him a lifeline. They offered to pick both cars up and reset them so they would be out of the ‘service mode’ or 10mph “turtle mode” they were in.
But there was a catch. Lucid would only pick up both cars if they could drive themselves onto the trailer under their own power. They could not be towed on. Yet Benoit and his team bypassed the electronic parking brake faults, topped off the coolant systems, and somehow got the EVs moving again. This really was against the odds, as both of these cars were totally dead when the YouTuber got his hands on them.
These are not easy cars to get going again. EVs are very different from cars with regular engines, as the YouTuber discovered. Getting around the software and ensuring the car can take a charge are two of the biggest hurdles you can face when trying to repair an EV. Remarkably, Benoit and his team got both cars going at all, as just getting one moving again would have been a big enough challenge.
Both EVs Were Recovered and Driven Down the Road
Near the end of the video, Benoit drove his own Lucid EV down the road at 35mph. Considering the state of the car when he first got his hands on it, and how the car wouldn’t even take a charge, that was an incredible achievement.
“This is what you get when you buy a Lucid, I guess… You get what you get, and you don’t get upset,” he said. The car was in service mode, but that was enough for Lucid to agree to come and pick it up.
If this car gets put back on the road again, it could be the bargain of the year.