Massachusetts man buys banned Chinese EV for just $2,900 to see if he can rebuild it and get it running

This Massachusetts man had gotten his hands on a banned Chinese EV, and now he wanted to see if he could get it running again.

Having spent $2,900 on a Polestar 2, YouTuber Rich Rebuilds wanted to get it back on the road.

It’d been written off with reported undercarriage and battery damage.

But did that mean it was truly out for the count? Rich was going to find out.

Rich Rebuilds has taken on a lot of ambitious builds

Rich Benoit, known as Rich Rebuilds on YouTube, has gotten his hands dirty with a lot of car rebuilds.

And these endeavors usually come with a lot of risk.

There was the time he bought a damaged Bentley Arnage from a junkyard for $5,000.

Or how about the time he took a salvage McLarren 720S that everyone else said would be ‘too dangerous’ to fix?

Some builds are harder than others – this flood damaged Lucid Air being a prime example – but then others were turned around ridiculously fast, as in the case of this ‘dead’ BMW i3.

How would things pan out for him when it came time to fix a banned Chinese EV?

The banned Chinese EV in question? A Polestar 2

Rich secured this Polestar 2 at an auction, after Hertz put a fleet of depreciating EVs up for sale.

This came after a regulatory crackdown on Chinese-made electric vehicles in the US.

Purchased for $2,900, Rich had one goal in mind – to get it running for less than $3,500.

With a reputation of finishing projects on the line, Rich got to work inspecting the Polestar 2.

Despite 80,000 miles of ‘rental abuse’, the build quality had held up remarkably well.

The battery is what needed the most attention for the time being, so Rich removed it for a bench-charge.

He praised the car’s simplicity.

“Looking at the complexity between this car and the Lucid we just worked on, this thing is pretty much like building blocks compared to the Lucid,” Rich said.

“Lucid’s like the space shuttle. This is a lot simpler.”

But things were going to stay simple for long, as the car clicked to life and alerts came through immediately.

Perhaps the most urgent was this: ‘Critical Cooling System Warning’.

Could Rich Rebuilds work his magic on this banned Chinese EV?

Rich cooled off the dry coolant reservoir and used a ThinkCar scanner to pull 14 diagnostic trouble codes, most of which revolved around the battery coolant control valve.

The sole visible issue with the battery came from its cracked underbody shielding and severed coolant line at the pump.

This prompted Rich into a messy repair, but that still wasn’t enough to get the car moving.

Suspecting that the high-voltage interlock was at fault, Rich did some digging – and discovered that the fuse was missing entirely.

He ordered a replacement from eBay for $200, but diagnostic trouble codes still remained.

Deducing that the multi-port coolant diverter valve motor was stuck, Rich found a replacement on line for $12.

He installed it, cleared the trouble codes, and the car’s state of charge leapt up to 11 percent.

Happy days, right?

Well, he still had to drive it to be sure.

Taking the car out for a spin

It didn’t take long for issues to arise once the Polestar 2 was in motion.

In fact, the car was barely rolled down the driveway before loud grinding noises came out from the rear suspension.

The shock absorber had snapped in half at the top mount from a previous accident.

“The one component that fails on this car, if it’s not made in China, that would be the funniest thing ever… Made in Japan,” Rich noted.

“The one non-Chinese part broke.”

However, once that was set right, they could finally get down to business.

During high-speed runs, they managed to do a 3.9 second 0-60mph launch on 47 percent.

“And this is one of the best kept performance secrets. Hands down. No question,” Rich concluded.

It just took a lot of work to get to this point.

But if anyone can do it, it’s Rich Rebuilds.