About the author · Updated Oct 1, 2026

Lifei Zhou: the person behind this site

Copywriter, immigrated to Canada through writing

Founder of CBPath · Runs Maple Holiday · Model Y owner since 2022 · Hobby mechanic

I’m Lifei Zhou. Writing changed my life, and it left me convinced that explaining something clearly and honestly is worth more than any sales pitch. Nothing here is expert advice. It’s an ordinary owner doing my best to write down the mistakes I’ve made and the numbers I’ve run, so you don’t have to repeat them. Most days you won’t find me at a desk: I’m either on the road or in the repair shop.

• Ontario 310S apprentice (publicly verifiable)
• IRS Certifying Acceptance Agent
• 2 Canadian graduate certificates + accounting diploma

Articles I tested myself →Verify my credentialsContact & corrections

Writing my way to Canada

Writing is the thing I do best, and it’s how I got to Canada. I applied as a writer under the federal Self-Employed Persons Program, on the strength of my online writing, and became a permanent resident. As far as I know, I’m the only person from China to have done it through online writing alone.

I started my personal blog, Chenfei Blog (in Chinese), in late 2014, and writing has paid my bills ever since, first through copywriting and later through content work. Both of the graduate certificates I earned in Canada, Digital Engagement Strategy at Centennial College and Interactive Media Management at Sheridan College, are about digital content and communication.

I have a few businesses on the go, but I don’t do hard selling. I studied plenty of digital marketing in college, and the longer I work, the more I believe that what keeps people coming back is the quality and reliability of the product or service itself. The only marketing I really focus on is content, meaning writing: explaining clearly what I’ve actually used, done and worked out. That’s the most honest kind of marketing there is, and the most convincing.

It’s also how this site works. An article either holds up or it doesn’t, and what makes it hold up is real experience, numbers that have been checked and official rules spelled out plainly, not marketing talk.

Business, travel and cars, and how they feed this site

I was born and raised in China. Besides writing, my life revolves around business, travel and cars, and all three show up on this site, from choosing a car, insurance and electricity rates to road trips, opening a brokerage account and tax write-offs.

When I first arrived in Canada and had to buy a car, a lot of my questions had no clear answer online and I learned the hard way. Most of what I write now is what I wish I could have read back then.

Author profile

Name	Lifei Zhou (pen name Chenfei)
Profession	Copywriter, writing online since late 2014
Based in	Greater Toronto Area, Ontario, Canada
Status	Canadian permanent resident
Business	Founder of CBPath (cbpath.com), North American business setup and compliance services
Travel	Runs business operations for Maple Holiday (mapleholiday.com), Toronto; travels regularly to scout tour routes
Accounting & tax	Business accounting and tax compliance; IRS Certifying Acceptance Agent (CAA)
Education	Graduate Certificate, Digital Engagement Strategy, Centennial College; Graduate Certificate, Interactive Media Management, Sheridan College; Business Accounting diploma (online), Centennial College
Cars	Registered 310S apprentice with Skilled Trades Ontario, not yet licensed (how to verify); spare-time work at XIUCHE Auto Repair in Markham
My car	Model Y Long Range, delivered November 2022, my daily driver
This site	Started Tesla North America Guide in 2024 and runs both the Chinese site and the English site (/en/)
Elsewhere	Chenfei Blog (Chinese) · LinkedIn
Holdings	Owns SpaceX (SPCX) shares; Starlink customer at home
Contact	[email protected]

My car

I ordered it in January 2022, right into Tesla’s longest delivery backlog, and finally took delivery that November. It’s still the car I drive every day.

It has taken me a lot of places: every Canadian winter since, a 1,400 km Toronto–Ottawa–Montreal road trip on FSD, one badly miscalculated charging stop, several rounds of rethinking my home charging setup, and a yearly cycle of insurance renewals and tire swaps. So when I write about winter driving, home charging or insurance, I’ve already tried it on my own car and with my own money.

What working on European cars taught me about Teslas

An EV like a Tesla is actually simpler to repair than a gas car. A Porsche or a BMW is far more complicated mechanically: engine, transmission, timing, turbos, exhaust, cooling, fuel injection, and hundreds of parts that wear, leak or work loose. A customer says the steering wheel shakes a little, and that can mean half a day of diagnosis, checking one system after another.

A Tesla is almost the opposite. There are far fewer moving parts: no engine or transmission, no timing belt, spark plugs, oil or exhaust, and regenerative braking means the brake pads wear very slowly. Diagnosis works differently too. The car usually reports its own faults, you read the codes and logs to pin down the problem, and plenty of issues get fixed with an over-the-air update.

So does the shop work on Teslas? Routine Tesla maintenance is simple enough that most owners do it themselves, things like a cabin air filter or a top-up of washer fluid, so there’s rarely a reason to bring one in apart from the odd wheel alignment. Where the real money goes is dings and dents, meaning body and paint work, and that’s not something our shop does. My own Model Y was in a collision a while back and I had it fixed elsewhere. I knew nothing about how insurance worked at the time, my premium jumped, and that’s what finally made me dig into how car insurance works in North America.

Simpler doesn’t mean cheaper, though. Tesla parts and labour rates are high, about on par with Mercedes. EVs also cost money in other places: tires wear faster, the suspension carries more weight, aluminum and collision work eats up labour hours, and anything involving the high-voltage battery is expensive. So “EVs are cheap to maintain” is only half true; what you save on is routine servicing. Seeing both sides is what I lean on when I write about repair costs, whether a quote is fair, or whether an extended warranty is worth buying.

How to verify my credentials, and where they stop

Anything that can be checked publicly, I’ve listed with a way to check it:

Auto repair	Registered Automotive Service Technician (310S) apprentice with Skilled Trades Ontario, holding a Registered Training Agreement issued April 16, 2026, status Active. Search STO ID 25020037 or the name Lifei Zhou on the official STO Public Register; a screenshot is below.
ITIN acceptance agent	IRS Certifying Acceptance Agent (CAA), able to help with applications for a US Individual Taxpayer Identification Number (ITIN). See the program page on the IRS website.

Being upfront about what I can and can’t speak to matters more than dressing myself up as an expert:

• I’m a registered apprentice, not a licensed technician. In Ontario, earning the 310S automotive service technician licence generally takes about four years of on-the-job experience, three terms of in-school training and a certification exam. Working on cars is a hobby for me, and maybe one day I’ll earn that licence. When I write about specific repairs, I explain how things work, the common problems and what drives the cost; the hands-on work belongs with a qualified technician.
• The shop isn’t a Tesla-authorized repair facility, and we don’t do high-voltage work. When I write about Tesla repairs, I rely on Tesla’s published service manuals and policies, real quotes from owners, and what I know about parts and labour from the shop floor.
• Tax content covers general rules, not personal tax advice. What I write about taxes, write-offs and incentives is a summary of the public rules plus my own experience. Everyone’s situation is different, so leave the actual filing to the accountant or tax professional handling yours. I’m also not a financial advisor or an insurance broker.
• When I write about setting up a business in North America or about guided tours, I have a direct interest. CBPath is my own project and I run Maple Holiday’s business operations, and I say so whenever an article mentions either one.
• My first-hand experience is one car. For models I haven’t owned long term, such as the Model 3, Cybertruck and Model Y L, the content is based on official information, public data and owner feedback, and the article says so.

A short timeline

• Late 2014Started my personal blog and began writing for a living.
• Jan 2022Ordered a Model Y Long Range.
• Nov 2022Took delivery.
• 2024Started Tesla North America Guide to write down the answers friends kept asking me for.
• 2025Started working hands-on on cars in my spare time at XIUCHE Auto Repair in Markham.
• Apr 2026Registered with Skilled Trades Ontario as an Automotive Service Technician (310S) apprentice.

The questions I get asked most

After I got the car, I slowly became the person everyone asks about Teslas: coworkers, neighbours, strangers in group chats and, eventually, readers. I’ve never kept count, but roughly speaking, a few hundred people have ended up ordering one after asking me about it.

It’s always the same handful of questions: buy now or wait for the refresh, how much range you lose in winter, how to charge without a driveway, whether FSD is worth adding, and what insurance costs. After answering them enough times, writing them down made more sense.

Most of those orders never went through a referral link, since Tesla’s owner referral program only allows 10 referrals a year and once they’re used up, that’s it. While I have referrals left, I include my referral link in articles, and buyers who use it get 3 months of FSD (Supervised). It generally can’t be combined with the FSD trial that comes with a new car, and your Tesla order confirms the final perk. When the referrals run out, the advice stays the same.

SpaceX and Starlink

SpaceX. SPCX listed on the Nasdaq in June 2026 at US$135 a share. I bought at the $150 open on the first day of trading, inside a Canadian TFSA, through my Interactive Brokers (IBKR) account in Canada, the same broker I recommend in my guide to buying US stocks from Canada. I plan to hold it long term.

Starlink. I have it at home and use it every day, measured at 131 Mbps down in Toronto, and it comes along on road trips and camping too. Speed, monthly cost and whether it’s worth it are all in my hands-on review. Readers in Canada can get one free month of service (credited on the second bill) by signing up through my referral link. Under Starlink’s terms it only works for Canadian service addresses, so US readers can’t use it.

How articles on this site are written

• Topics: mostly real questions readers and friends have asked me, plus the mistakes I’ve made owning cars, working on them and running a business.
• Fact-checking: prices, incentives, taxes and policies follow official sources, including tesla.com, the IRS, Transport Canada, state and provincial government sites, the NHTSA recall database, and the published terms of insurers and utilities.
• First-hand versus research: anything I’ve personally driven, tried or paid for is written in the first person. Where I have no first-hand experience, the article says where the information comes from.
• Dated and kept current: every article shows its publish date and last-updated date. When Tesla changes prices or an incentive changes, I go back and update the articles affected.
• Corrections: if you spot a mistake, email me. Once it’s confirmed I’ll fix it and update the article date.

Does this site make money? Income and conflicts of interest

Honestly, this site barely makes any money; I run it mostly because I enjoy it. The affiliate commissions and referral rewards it brings in probably don’t cover the monthly server bill, let alone the time and effort I put in.

Even so, you should know where the money comes from, so you can judge for yourself whether my recommendations lean one way:

• Tesla owner referral program: when a reader orders through my referral link, I earn Tesla credits (referrals are capped and run out each year).
• Affiliate and referral links: Amazon Associates, accessory brand discount codes (such as JOWUA), Interactive Brokers (IBKR) referrals and Starlink referrals (Canada only).

This site does accept sponsored posts and paid placements, as long as they relate to Tesla or the Tesla ecosystem and the products are safe and legal. I review every request first, and anything sponsored is clearly labeled as such. As for reach: by my rough count, hundreds of readers have ended up buying a Tesla after reading what I write here, and in a typical month that’s about 10 to 20 new owners. The minimum budget is US$2,000. Evaluating a request, writing the piece, revising it and following up afterwards all take real working hours, and a smaller budget simply doesn’t cover that cost. Details are on the Advertise page. I have no affiliation with or employment by Tesla, Inc., and Tesla doesn’t review anything published here. The full details are in the affiliate disclosure and the disclaimer.

Articles based on my own testing

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Everything here is general information, not investment, legal, tax or purchase advice.
Page last updated: October 1, 2026