Tesla’s salvaged vehicles make for an excellent project for rebuilders, or a chance to have an industry-leading electric car for a discounted price. Some members of the community have even made the act of rebuilding wrecked or damaged Teslas a career, like Rich Rebuilds, who runs a prominent YouTube channel. However, Tesla stopped allowing Supercharging on their salvaged vehicles in February 2020. This move ended fast charging capabilities for the owners of wrecked and refurbished Teslas, but now rebuilders are reporting that the electric vehicle company is taking away more functions.
We received a tip from a Tesla salvager who says the company is now refusing to update ownership records, nor will it activate the smartphone application, which enables some functions for the electric vehicle in question. However, Tesla has a reason for doing this, and it has to do with revenue and passenger safety, which is something the company is under a microscope for from its harshest critics.
But the real reason we are talking about it this week is because there is a valid argument for both points of view, and both should be examined in an open platform. When you decide which side you are on, please e-mail me and let me know your thoughts.
First, let’s look at the side of the salvagers. They have a few main points on why taking away vehicle privileges is wrong. One issue is the fact that salvaged Teslas, if not repaired and resold, will end up sitting in a landfill for basically the remainder of the time.
It is a shame that a car that is capable of repair could end up in a landfill to sit and rot away for the rest of time. Not only is it a waste of space, but its a waste of a perfectly good high-performance vehicle. Not to mention, project cars are a hobby and a career for some. Eliminating the possibility of preparing or working on a Tesla electric vehicle to bring it back to life reduces the industry of bringing the cars back to life.
Next, the revitalization of these salvaged vehicles creates an opportunity for a more affordable Tesla ownership experience for some. Rebuilding vehicles creates profit for the person responsible for bringing the car back to a driveable state. At the same time, the owner can sometimes receive a discounted price on a perfectly drivable vehicle that could have low miles.
The industry of rebuilding crashed, or damaged cars are advantageous for multiple parties financially. The issue is the cars are not always repaired by mechanics properly, which can lead to quality and safety issues down the line. However, this could be another opportunity for Tesla to train salvagers, mechanics, and collision repair technicians across the world. The idea of making repair seminars or courses available for those who plan to revitalize a Tesla vehicle could lead to an influx of people who are familiar with the cars inside and out.
To the flip side, Tesla’s arguments are just as reliable as those of the rebuilders. Tesla has maintained a reputation for having extremely safe vehicles that are capable of saving people from severe injuries when they are involved in scary and violent accidents. When cars are damaged and end up in salvage yards, ending up in the hands of those who are interested in repairing them, they are never really the same. The most severely damaged cars can have chassis and build issues that can never be fixed fully, only masked, and pushed as close to perfect as possible. They’ll never be “factory issue,” and they’ll never drive precisely how they would when they rolled out of a production facility. However, they can be fabricated, rewelded, and adjusted to specifications that are incredibly close to how Tesla intended them to be. But this is a case that would require the individual inspection of each repaired vehicle by a Tesla representative. With 1,000,000 Tesla vehicles manufactured in the company’s history, this would be near impossible, even if .01% of them were salvaged and repaired.
The likelihood of a Tesla rep traveling to the location of a rebuilt vehicle and going through hours of inspection: making sure all parts of the car are correctly installed, properly connected, and aligned safely would not be cost-effective, smart, or worth Tesla’s time. However, it would be necessary. Like I said before, this company has a reputation for building safe cars. When someone in a Tesla gets in an accident, the short sellers and the Elon haters come out of the woodwork looking for answers. Why? So if someone got hurt, or heaven forbid, killed in an accident, they could use it as justification that the cars are not as safe as Tesla advertises, and somehow that means Elon is a fraud.
It is a ridiculous train of thought. I’ll never understand Tesla’s short-sellers celebrating other people’s injuries. Instead of rooting for someone to get hurt, why not root for the company to make safer cars? It would only make other automakers want to match Tesla’s quality, and it wouldn’t be such a horrible thing to have more safe vehicles on the road.
Regardless, Tesla has to account for the fact that if someone gets hurt in a revitalized vehicle that was formerly a salvage, it will be a never-ending storm of media harassment. I can see the misleading headlines now…”Driver killed in Tesla proving cars aren’t so safe after all,” or something to that effect. It is a risk that they simply cannot take, and it is not worth the company’s future.
Additionally, Tesla makes money when they sell new cars, not when people buy wrecked ones and decide to rebuild them. Let’s not forget, this is a car company, and ultimately a business. While Tesla’s mission is to provide people with safe and affordable electric vehicles that benefit our environment and our well-being, they need to make money.
In the end, Tesla’s decision, while financial, is also a safety issue. Sure, Elon would love to see some custom projects. I’d bet he would like to see his cars developed into something different than what Tesla builds in their factories. But I also bet that he wouldn’t want someone to get hurt or killed as a result of negligence while refurbishing a vehicle. Ultimately, it would end up being blood on his hands, and this risk makes it entirely too risky from a business standpoint.
While people are still free to rebuild the cars, they will undoubtedly run into roadblocks—no Supercharging, issues with transferring ownership titles, so on and so forth. Tesla is doing it for money, but it is also doing it for safety. In the big picture, that’s why I think what they are doing is okay, even though I feel for the rebuilders.
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Lifestyle
EV fans urge Tesla to acquire Unplugged Performance for edge in fleet and security industry
Unplugged Performance has built a name for itself by producing performance upgrades for Tesla vehicles.
A growing number of Tesla enthusiasts and longtime community voices are calling on the electric vehicle maker to acquire Unplugged Performance, a California-based aftermarket company best known for tuning Tesla vehicles and developing specialized government fleet solutions under its UP.FIT division.
The idea was once considered a niche proposal among EV fans, but it is now gaining serious attention not just as a performance play but as a strategic move to deepen Tesla’s roots in the fleet and security industry.
A strategic fit
Unplugged Performance has built a name for itself by producing performance upgrades for Tesla vehicles, from track-optimized components to visual and aerodynamic upgrades. But in recent years, its UP.FIT division has pivoted toward a more functional future by outfitting Tesla vehicles like Model Ys for police, military, and government use.
That work has sparked growing calls for closer collaboration with Tesla, especially as the EV maker increasingly leans into autonomy, AI, and fleet services as core components of its next chapter.
“I posted this four years ago, but I think it’s more true now than ever,” wrote Whole Mars Catalog, a well-known Tesla investor and FSD Beta tester, on X. “Tesla should buy Unplugged. But not just as a Performance division. What they are doing with UP.FIT unlocks large government and commercial fleet purchases that can improve utilization.”
Tesla fans such as shareholder Sawyer Merritt echoed the sentiment, calling Unplugged a “great fit within Tesla.” adding, “They are literally located directly next to Tesla’s design studio in Hawthorne.”
Enabling the next wave
Supporters of the idea noted that integrating Unplugged into Tesla’s corporate structure could help accelerate the adoption of autonomous technologies in government sectors. With UP.FIT patrol cars already in use across some U.S. police departments, Tesla fans envisioned a future where self-driving Teslas could potentially revolutionize law enforcement, search-and-rescue, and public service logistics.
“Just imagine how autonomous patrol cars could transform policing and bring us into a safer future,” the veteran FSD tester wrote.
The benefits could also extend to Tesla’s existing consumer base. “They also have some incredible products in the works that I think will appeal to many ordinary Tesla drivers — not just those looking for performance or mods. Stuff that’s so good it should have come straight from the design studio next door,” Whole Mars Catalog noted.
Unplugged Performance, founded in 2013, shares not just a product vision with Tesla, but also geography. Its Hawthorne headquarters sits directly adjacent to Tesla’s design studio, and the two companies have maintained a close working relationship over the years. The aftermarket firm has long positioned itself as a “mission-aligned” partner to Tesla.
In response to the recent calls for acquisition, Unplugged Performance acknowledged the support from the community. “Our very existence is to support the Tesla mission with @UpfitTesla and @UnpluggedTesla,” Unplugged CEO Ben Schaffer posted on X. “We love working with Tesla and are grateful for the community’s support since 2013!”
Elon Musk
X account with 184 followers inadvertently saves US space program amid Musk-Trump row
Needless to say, the X user has far more than 184 followers today after his level-headed feat.
An X user with 184 followers has become the unlikely hero of the United States’ space program by effectively de-escalating a row between SpaceX CEO Elon Musk and President Donald Trump on social media.
Needless to say, the X user has far more than 184 followers today after his level-headed feat.
A Near Fall
During Elon Musk and Donald Trump’s fallout last week, the U.S. President stated in a post on Truth Social that a good way for the United States government to save money would be to terminate subsidies and contracts from the CEO’s companies. Musk responded to Trump’s post by stating that SpaceX will start decommissioning its Dragon spacecraft immediately.
Musk’s comment was received with shock among the space community, partly because the U.S. space program is currently reliant on SpaceX to send supplies and astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS). Without Dragon, the United States will likely have to utilize Russia’s Soyuz for the same services—at a significantly higher price.
X User to the Rescue
It was evident among X users that Musk’s comments about Dragon being decommissioned were posted while emotions were high. It was then no surprise that an X account with 184 followers, @Fab25june, commented on Musk’s post, urging the CEO to rethink his decision. “This is a shame this back and forth. You are both better than this. Cool off and take a step back for a couple days,” the X user wrote in a reply.
Much to the social media platform’s surprise, Musk responded to the user. Even more surprising, the CEO stated that SpaceX would not be decommissioning Dragon after all. “Good advice. Ok, we won’t decommission Dragon,” Musk wrote in a post on X.
Not Planned, But Welcomed
The X user’s comment and Musk’s response were received extremely well by social media users, many of whom noted that @Fab25june’s X comment effectively saved the U.S. space program. In a follow-up comment, the X user, who has over 9,100 followers as of writing, stated that he did not really plan on being a mediator between Musk and Trump.
“Elon Musk replied to me. Somehow, I became the accidental peace broker between two billionaires. I didn’t plan this. I was just being me. Two great minds can do wonders. Sometimes, all it takes is a breather. Grateful for every like, DM, and new follow. Life’s weird. The internet’s weirder. Let’s ride. (Manifesting peace… and maybe a Model Y.)” the X user wrote.
Lifestyle
Tesla Cybertruck takes a bump from epic failing Dodge Charger
The Cybertruck seemed unharmed by the charging Charger.
There comes a time in a driver’s life when one is faced with one’s limitations. For the driver of a Dodge Charger, this time came when he lost control and crashed into a Tesla Cybertruck–an absolute epic fail.
A video of the rather unfortunate incident was shared on the r/TeslaLounge subreddit.
Charging Charger Fails
As could be seen in the video, which was posted on the subreddit by Model Y owner u/Hammer_of_something, a group of teens in a Dodge Charger decided to do some burnouts at a Tesla Supercharger. Unfortunately, the driver of the Charger failed in his burnout or donut attempt, resulting in the mopar sedan going over a curb and bumping a charging Cybertruck.
Ironically, the Dodge Charger seemed to have been parked at a Supercharger stall before its driver decided to perform the failed stunt. This suggests that the vehicle was likely ICE-ing a charging stall before it had its epic fail moment. Amusingly enough, the subreddit member noted that the Cybertruck did not seem like it took any damage at all despite its bump. The Charger, however, seemed like it ran into some trouble after crashing into the truck.
Alleged Aftermath
As per the the r/TeslaLounge subreddit member, the Cybertruck owner came rushing out to his vehicle after the Dodge Charger crashed into it. The Model Y owner then sent over the full video of the incident, which clearly showed the Charger attempting a burnout, failing, and bumping into the Cybertruck. The Cybertruck owner likely appreciated the video, in part because it showed the driver of the Dodge Charger absolutely freaking out after the incident.
The Cybertruck is not an impregnable vehicle, but it can take bumps pretty well thanks to its thick stainless steel body. Based on this video, it appears that the Cybertruck can even take bumps from a charging Charger, all while chilling and charging at a Supercharger. As for the teens in the Dodge, they likely had to provide a long explanation to authorities after the incident, since the cops were called to the location.
Tesla rolling out Robotaxi pilot in SF Bay Area this weekend: report
Tesla is ready with a perfect counter to the end of US EV tax credits
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