096 - Petrol RANGE questioned but not reported, and an EV Sales update

This is Two Blokes talking electric cars with Trevor Long and Stephen Fennig

thanks to NRMA Insurance and Unidan. Great people, NRMA Insurance helping

Australians protect what matters most for a hundred years and planning to do it

for a hundred more and they're also one of Australia's largest insurers of

electric vehicles and along with them Unidan smart dash cams who provide you

with a great dash cam at many many price points and no matter what your budget

there's a dash cam for you and to suit your car and we recommend getting the

rear camera as well as the front because you never know. Both sides are both front

and back and also these are award-winning cameras too and they've won not only

awards for how good they are but also how good they look. Design awards as well.

They're not mucking around Unidan so get a Unidan dash cam in your car and

you'll have a bit of peace of mind as well. We'd love to hear from you 04

double seven six five seven six five seven is our direct line. Yes. It's not

Stephen's number it's not my number but we have a direct line to the studio and

we won't miss you. We won't miss your text. You can send a text or a whatsapp.

We love talking to people about their electric car journey. Whether you are in

the market for an electric car, whether you've just bought an electric car, whether

you want to know. You want our advice about a car too. You're kind of on the fence

about the whole thing. We've heard some myths. Let's myth bust. We've gotten a few

people off the fence in the past with the car choices so we can help you do

that as well. So don't be on the fence about that text message. Just send it.

Just get your phone 04 double seven six five seven six five seven. Save us in

your contacts as the two likes. That's a good idea isn't it? That's the best way to

get through to us. Now a few months ago I'm going to say there were headlines

everywhere about the disgrace and the disaster that is electric vehicle

range. The triple A, the Australian Automotive Association, I don't know what

it stands for, in Victoria had done this real world testing of a bunch of

electric cars and the headline was that a couple of the cars had range in

everyday life that was far less than what the sticker had said. The actual range.

And it got us talking about whether or not, we remember in the weeks following we

looked at databases about that actually showed the different ranges of highway

and stuff so you can get that sense. It got us thinking about whether or not you

should have a sticker on the window that says city range and highway range,

different things like that. Sort of like the NBN, evening speeds around here.

And like petrol cars actually differentiate between city and highway

range, all those different things. And I just distinctly remember the

mainstream press from newspapers to TV to dedicated online talking about

what a disgrace this was. Well seven days ago at the time of recording I

received a press release from that same organization, the triple A. And it says

the gap widens between cars lab tests and real world performance. And I'm

going to hang on a minute, we've got another one here, it's a bit of a drama.

But here's the thing. This is, they call themselves Australia's national peak

murdering body. They've done some real world testing on some petrol cars.

Yeah. Okay. It's cars like the Toyota Camry Hybrid, one of the most popular

cars in Australia. There's more Ubers driving Camry Hybrid than anything else.

The Subaru Cross Trip Hybrid, the Nissan Cache Chi, my mother and father-in-law

own, the new Cherry Tigo 4, the Lexus UX, a Cooper 4 Mentor. They've tested a lot

of different cars here, right? Ford Ranger Raptor, a big, you know,

burly beast of a thing. And the real world variance exists here as well.

Now, there's a couple of cars from note that their real world result was 8.3

litres per 100 and the lab result was 8.5. So that's a win.

That's a pretty spot on, yeah. Let's look at the Toyota Camry Hybrid, which

claims... The most popular car on the list.

Well, yeah, I think it probably is. Of this list, I think it's the most best

selling. The claimed fuel economy of a Toyota Camry Hybrid is four litres

per 100 kilometres. The actual real world is 4.8. That is a 20% variance.

The Cherry Tigo has a 7.3 litres per 100 sticker. It's 8.8. Now, to be clear,

this is not petrol, hybrid bashing here. I'm just saying, now, everyone,

go to your interwebs and Google AAA, no, no, Google AAA, real world test hybrid.

And just see how many headlines were written about this article.

Yeah. Zero. Not many. I saw a couple, but they were not

absolute. They were not Yahoo 7 and all the different ones that went

hard on the EV thing. I can remember watching the EV story on

seven news and nine news. Everyone covered it. Yeah. And it just...

Look, we work in the media, but we're also independent of all the media.

And I just wanted to... I wanted to fuel the EV lovers out there with a bit

of rage. Forgive the pump. On this, yes. Because this, to me, it just

demonstrates how anti-EV, a story can be. That's sentiment.

Well, I think what the angle would have been, right, the producer would have

thought, ah, you know, EVs, everyone's talking about how you save money

and the range and all that. And here's a respected body, really, basically,

sort of taking them apart a little bit. That's the story.

Well, as I recall, the range differential for the BYD was something

around 20%, a little over 20%. So we're talking about the same thing

with the Cherry Tigger on the Toyota Camry Hybrid here. The Ford Ranger

Raptor, quotes 11.5, gets 12.3. So you reckon, how's this for a scenario?

Do you reckon the producer may be pitching... When they pitched the EV angle,

I thought, oh, yeah, that's a great story. Let's cover that. And then,

do you reckon someone would have pitched this to say, well, you know,

petrol's not cheap at the moment. There's cost of living here.

Like, your pay for petrol is expensive. And if the fuel economy is not

the same as what they're stating, then that's going to cost you more money.

And I think the challenge, what I would have done if I was the AAA trying

to inspire that, I would have gone to the trouble of equating this to range.

So I think... Yeah, if they just got cost per litre...

Remember, we don't talk about range with petrol cars, because we never did.

No. You never... Well, that's because there's a petrol station

in nearly every corner, right? So no one worries about that.

If you ask a petrol car owner how far did their car go, they go,

I don't care. It's the petrol station. I reckon 90% of them wouldn't know.

They wouldn't know. They wouldn't know.

But if you... And I haven't done the... Maybe in preparation for this show,

I should have done the calculation. But if you took a 7.2 litres per hundred

and went, OK, let's just go 50 litre tank across all of these, what is the variance?

Now, every one of these cars has a tank size, so we could probably look it up.

But the variance in kilometres would be, I believe, quite similar

to the variance of the electric vehicle. I reckon what you just said there

and is why it wasn't a TV story, because they'd need to do...

There's an extra layer of research required. Yes.

Whereas the EV figures were range, discrepancy.

Yes. Boom. Yeah.

Even though there's a percentage discrepancy listed here and everything like that.

It wasn't... It didn't appear as sexy as the EV one because the EV one was right there.

You would... You got to dig a bit further with the petrol hybrids.

So the AAA, since starting in 2023, has tested 131 internal combustion

and hybrid cars, Vans and Utes, finding 76% used more fuel on road

than indicated by the lab. 76, that's three quarters.

76% of cars go for less than what the sticker says.

Used more petrol than what the sticker says. Wow.

I mean, I am legit blown away by this.

I think it's hilarious to me and as a lover of EVs as we are.

Yeah. But we're not evangelising them, right?

They've just been fairness in reporting that.

It's just an example.

So what we're doing right today here is, folks,

you're most likely either interested or a fan of EVs because you listen to this show.

Because you listen to this show, yeah.

So we're just giving you...

Every now and then, we love talking about just things in the EV space

that help you with the barbecue.

They help you at the dinner table because you know there's always that person

who doesn't say, yeah, bloody EVs, they don't go.

And there'll be that person at that barbecue that says, yeah,

but the sticker range isn't what they don't go as far as the sticker.

And you can say, guess what, pal?

Can I stop you right there?

The Toyota Camry, claimed fuel economy is 20% off.

So we're just helping you with that information for your next EV debate.

These are your little narc weapons.

Narc weapons. I love it.

So look, it's not widely reported, but you've heard it here.

And so you can take that with you now.

The reason we're talking about it is we want, there needs to be some fairness.

We want equality.

It's fairness in the whole reporting of it all,

because that's half the problem with EVs is there's so many myths and misconceptions.

Think about that, that's stopping it.

Think about the number of, of the hundred of people we've spoken to,

let's say probably only three of them are this nerdy,

but we've had at least three people say, I did a spreadsheet,

I did the plans, I did the calculations, right?

So now imagine that person is literally on the fence between EV and hybrid, right?

Because you're probably going to be close to the either one.

And you're doing a spreadsheet about EV, range, cost saving, etc.

And you're doing one on the on the hybrid, the Camry hybrid, for example.

Well, hang on a minute.

I think it really matters to have real world data

about the cost of driving a certain number of kilometers per year

because there's going to be a 20% variance in it, 20% higher cost, essentially.

Do you think that the the story about the EVs and wasn't the Tesla one

that had a decent description?

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Has it had any effect on like BYD was the one that had the biggest difference?

Has it had any effect on sales?

It doesn't appear to me. I don't think so.

No, I think it's merely made a dent.

I don't think it has anything to do with it.

The, you know, I'm trying to find that story.

You know what? Because I wasn't on their media lists back then.

The story has been reported, but I don't want to look at the story.

But yeah, I think Tesla was on the list.

A BYD and I think at MGD, they tried.

They, the MPD, I remember seeing,

because that's what helped bring the story, bring it to work.

Of course.

That just mentioned Tesla in anything and also BYD, the big Chinese manufacturer.

Australian Financial Review.

Buyer beware that this EV doesn't do what it says on the tin.

Well, I wonder if the AFR have written a story about the Toyota Camry.

I highly doubt it.

I doubt it.

Yeah, we should get in touch with Ryan Krop and Simon Evans

from the Australian Financial Review and see.

So I'll quickly, quickly mention it because I found it.

Model Y was 8% off its number.

The key EV6 was 8% off.

The Tesla Model 3 was 14% off.

And the BYD Addo 3 was 23% off.

So the BYD Addo 3, in defense of the AAA and the reporting,

is higher than the Toyota Camry and the Cherry Tigo.

And the Smart Hashtag 3%.

Yeah, 1% or 2% on the Cherry Tigo, which was 21%.

So, yeah, let's just use that as what you call it, NARC fodder.

Yeah, NARC weapons.

But, you know, fair is fair.

You've got to if you it's you've got to you've got to make the same comparison.

If you if you rule of thumb on the EVs one way, then

they've demonstrated with the petrol cars and the petrol hybrids

that there is just as much discrepancy on their side as well.

Two bikes, two electric cars.

We'd love to know your real world experience

because the AAA have got a very clear and they've sent me a map of the circuit.

I do agree that it's fairly fair in terms of its split between city

and highway driving and stuff, and it's fair because every car does it.

But let us know what your range experience has been.

And also talk to us about range experience in different weather conditions as well

because that absolutely matters.

It's cold or hot.

Yeah, some cars affected by it more than others.

We'd love to hear from you about your car.

Get in touch, send us a text 04777657657.

We are nearly at the end of the year.

We're already believe it.

It's mid-November.

Mid-November.

It's ridiculous.

But we we're getting data every month on new car sales.

And it's been a while since we've touched base on it.

But in October, the BYDC line seven one thousand three hundred and forty one sales.

That's epic. That's big.

That's a big number.

Yeah, BYD.

And we were just talking a moment ago about the they were one of the biggest

discrepancy in the range.

Has it had any effect on sales?

At three, still a top five selling car.

Well, there you go.

Isn't that awesome?

Yeah.

I'm really impressed with this C line seven.

I love the look of it on the road.

I think it's a great competitor to the Model Y.

I think that it's interesting that the Tesla sales in that month of October

were only seven hundred and thirty five for the Model Y and one hundred eighty one

model three wonder why that dip happened.

Well, remember, Tesla has shipping fluctuations.

Yeah.

That one month they'll bring in four thousand cars and deliver three thousand

of them and then there'll be two months before another ship arrives.

So they have those fluctuations.

It's always better to look at the the kind of annualized sales data.

Now, we should we should note that again, Polestar and Tesla do not report

their sales numbers through the same organization as everyone else.

They now report them exclusively through the E.V.

Council, who we've had on the show.

Tesla overall sold nine hundred and sixteen cars in October.

Twenty twenty five compared to fourteen hundred and sixty four.

The same time last year, year to date, they've sold twenty three thousand cars

down from thirty two thousand the year before.

That's a number that I think matters.

Bit of a slowdown for Tesla.

Yeah, they're down twenty six percent year to date.

Do you think like how many callers have we had talking about, you know,

just the fact that Elon Musk is the head of the company?

They're not they're really not entertaining.

There was there was a couple comments on the on the YouTube channel

on last week's episode saying who or it might have been there.

Who who cares about the ownership of a company and makes a choice of the car on that?

But some do make some people definitely do.

But model three sales year to date down sixty one percent.

I noticed in this one, the October list here.

Wade, like second last on the list.

Yeah, like the the VW sold more.

Was that the ID? Is that ID four?

Is that the ID for that?

And that's that's also very new.

So that probably accounts for it.

I noticed Gilly. Look at that.

The X five is third. Yeah.

Yeah, they're making some good inroads.

That's about. Remember, we've talked to a couple owners there.

That's a forty thousand dollar car. Yeah.

That's being bought value number.

Yeah. Well, the C line seven.

What's that on the road about?

Sixty something. Sixty. Sixty odd.

Again, great value.

And again, the Zika seven X comes in at the tenth

because that's when they started deliveries.

Yeah, it's a nice spike for deliveries.

They're they're November figures will be a bit higher.

I think so, because they'll probably be kind of really rolling out the numbers.

Yeah, he has had a few entries to the V five, the V three.

Pretty solid. Yeah.

So BWD got one, two, three, four models in that top ten.

Let's look at Kia as a brand overall,

because I've got the V fax data specifically in front of me.

And it's fascinating because, by the way, just talking petrol cars,

because it's fun to talk cars generally,

the Ford Ranger was the number one car, like four and a half thousand vehicles.

So beat the beat the Toyota Hilux.

It's number one competitor.

So we're talking thousands of vehicles, right?

You BYD shark came in around a thousand, not not number three.

I think it was number four, but that's still a thousand vehicles.

That's you know, that's steady after nearly a year on the road.

They're still selling a thousand.

The Kia Tasman, that funky looking thing that's petrol.

Yep, mate.

They only sell five hundred and seventy, five hundred and six hundred and twenty

of them last month. Wow.

That's not good. So it's not good at all.

But Kia in the space of advertising for it.

So the EV three, two hundred and forty one sold in October.

EV five, three hundred and forty sold.

The EV six, eleven, the EV nine, fourteen.

And just for comparison, so the Kia EV five, right?

That's a mid size, pretty much your average family family size.

Yeah, we'll talk about it next week.

I think three hundred and forty sold.

Right. That is that is lower than nearly every other petrol car,

but only a hundred lower than the new K four

sedan they've got.

The Kia Sorento, which is probably a similar size to the EV five,

five hundred and fifty sold.

So two hundred more.

I think that's a good result for Kia, is to be able to sell three hundred and

forty EV five. Yep.

Compared to the bread and butter car, the most popular car.

Yeah. Wow. I think that's good.

And the the little Stonic, which or maybe the Celtos would be closer

to an EV three sells much better than the EV three, probably again on price.

I'm surprised at how far the Model Three's dropped down that list.

The Tesla Model Three. Yeah.

Yeah. I mean, that used to be.

I said to you, I said to you, it was probably a supply thing.

But year to date, OK, they've sold.

I don't don't believe that's true.

Year to date, they've sold five thousand, five hundred and ninety seven

Tesla Model Three's in twenty twenty four year to date, fourteen thousand

four hundred. Wow. It is sixty one percent down on sales.

Well, OK. Sixty one percent.

That's massive.

I think a couple of things.

Maybe people don't like Elon Musk, that's their business.

But the other thing, too, is it's just so many other choices now.

Well, so many value.

There really is, you know, Polestar three sold seventy eight,

Polestar four sold sixty six, not a direct competitor,

but I think that seal seal seven.

Yeah, the seal, which is basically like the Model Three competitor, really.

Two fifty nine sales in October compared to the Model Three's one eighty one.

Let me give you some BYD numbers for the whole range.

BYD sold three hundred and eighteen out of three, three hundred and eleven

dolphins, two hundred and fifty nine seals, six hundred and sixty

sea lion sixes, which is the hybrid, thirteen forty one

sea lion sevens, the best selling electric car and a thousand and seventy shark

sixes. So that's three thousand nine hundred and fifty nine cars for BYD.

That's a lot. That's massive for they've had a good month.

They've had a good.

Mate, they're doing very well.

Yeah, well, plus remember, they've got the two out of one coming.

Yeah. We'll talk next week about pricing on those

because that'll be announced by then.

I'm bullish about the market in terms of the overall share of market.

They're down.

E.V. sales aren't as strong as they were a month before.

Yeah. But, you know, I don't think it's a sign that the industry is collapsing.

I do think the industry is plateaued.

Yeah, maybe I reckon next year, like a new year, you know, people

learning more about about E.V.s for a start, learning and making the decision.

I think there'll be a lot of people that we get off the fence and may into an E.V.

Yeah, you think? Absolutely. I think price will matter, too.

Yeah, there's another brand.

I can't think what it is, but there's the the Addo one.

But there's also another car coming in that is going to be cheaper or cheap

as cheap or cheaper than that.

So we're going to have a couple of cars under $25,000.

Well, that'll move the needle for sure, because, you know,

one of the barriers for people is price.

And although there is some great value in sort of the mid the mid range there

up to 40, 50,000.

But you get some people who maybe want to step on in that sort of entry level

price point if there's an E.V. option, which there wasn't in years gone by.

I remember the difference, the price difference, 20,000 for the E.V.

version of the car.

That that's if that's come down to a more affordable point that again,

may get people off the fence.

And just again, on the overall car market, yeah, top brand is still Toyota.

Ford is down year on year, but still number two, Mazda number three.

Mazda, by the way, I have an ounce of electric car

and hopefully we'll get a better look at that early next year.

The brands are a bit slow off the mark, Mazda.

Oh, yeah. Toyota.

Toyota, they've got an EV.

They've got an EV and it's selling like Paul Paulie.

Yeah, right. Very Paulie.

And Ford as well, like Ford also.

Yeah, the mark. They've got the Mustang.

The Mustang.

I don't know how many that's sold.

Yeah, probably not many.

Mark E. Ford Mustang, Mark E. 75 of them sold.

In one month. In one month.

Yeah. Wow. It's sold 389 this year.

Yeah, that's slow down.

But we drove those. I didn't mind.

They're a good looking car. They're not a bad car.

The Toyota is called the BZ46YX11.

I've got to find it in the list.

They're selling a lot of cars.

They've got a lot of models on the market.

Well, you don't reckon, like, while you're looking for that,

the Toyota Camry, imagine a fully electric Camry.

You don't reckon that it's sell like hot cakes?

The Toyota Camry, they sell 1,000 a month, right?

The Toyota Corolla, they sell 1,400 a month.

Toyota Corolla Cross, which is a kind of SUV style, 1,200.

They sell 3,700 Hiluxes.

They sell 1,000 Land Cruises.

They sell another 1,400 Prados.

They sell 4,400 RAV4s a month.

That's last month.

Do they have a hybrid model of that?

And yes, there's a hybrid in nearly all the range.

And the BZ4X, have a guess how many they sell?

The EV.

The EV, full EV.

In one month?

In one month.

Twenty-seven.

Hundred and twenty-one.

I was only a hundred off.

It is only behind the Supra.

Only sells 14.

Supra?

The Toyota Supra sports car, yeah.

The Tundra, which is a big, big car.

The G86, 56.

So it's basically their worst selling car.

Wow.

Yeah, I think Toyota.

So back to the list of brands, though.

Toyota, Ford, Mazda, Kia is the number four brand in Australia.

Hyundai, the number five, Mitsubishi.

Again, another one that's nowhere to be seen.

Number six, GWM, which is doing a lot in different spaces.

But I wouldn't say their result is up to because of electric.

BYD, the number eight brand in Australia.

It's a fully electric brand.

With a hundred and twenty-eight percent year on year growth in sales.

Not fully electric.

So they're ahead of Tesla, right?

Oh, yeah.

So who's this Tesla next to?

No, MG.

And then MG's because they got a lot of petrol cars, too.

Hey, yeah. Wow.

Yeah. Well, Tesla's after.

Last thing I'll do is I'll bring up the MG split.

How do you spell?

There it is. MG.

So they sold five cybersters in October.

OK, they've sold forty seven this year.

That's a hundred thousand dollar car.

HS is not electric.

I am five forty seven.

They sold I am six seventy.

They sold the six.

So the SUV sold more higher than the sedan.

Yeah, the MG three, which is not not electric.

The MG four is electric.

That's one hundred and six they sold.

This says the MG five is a different car.

The MG S five is electric.

There was two hundred and eighty two of those, which is not bad.

And then the MG U nine must be the Ute.

It's a hybrid.

I think it's hybrid.

Yeah, yeah. So you saw it at South's performance.

There's no doubt that the MG three and the MG HS,

which are petrol cars, are the bulk of their cells.

Still still and the ZS, which again, is a bulk of their cells.

Yeah, the SUV MG should be doing better in in in electric.

Yeah, they're getting there.

They're doing their best. Yeah.

Well, let us know what you think of the sales market

and if you've seen any trends yourself.

Oh, four, double seven, six, five, seven, six, five, seven.

I made a huge concession

in this fortnight period.

I decided to leave the keys of the Porsche

McCarn to Stephen Fennig.

I haven't driven it.

Dear Porsche, I'll be in touch about getting the car again next year

because we failed to do what we committed to do.

Mainly because we all know if you're a long time listener,

we all know this is the first contender for Stephen's next car.

Stephen has Mercedes Benz EQE and next year it'll come off lease.

And he has a decision to make.

Is he going to keep it and extend the lease?

Yeah. Is he going to get rid of it

because he has a great buyback offer on the table and get something new?

The something new is a big unknown.

Stephen, tell us your thoughts.

I want to know what you thought.

So it's a great thing we get to do,

especially Porsche, because it's a dealership.

They kind of hand you the keys.

What was it like to sit in first time?

Yeah, because, you know, the size of a vehicle

Yeah, it is critical in the first I can remember.

Before I got my Mercedes EV, the Taycan was one of the contenders.

I found it a little small.

It was hard to get to sports car.

It's a low to the ground sports car.

In my EQE is low to the ground and sedan, but way, way bigger than the Taycan.

So I thought, yeah, Porsche sort of were off the table.

But sitting in the car and I'm thinking, wow, this it is quite roomy.

It's it's really comfortable for like I'm a big guy.

Is it obviously small in the EQE when you sit in?

Obviously, that's a question because it is a smaller car, but it doesn't feel it.

Does not feel interesting.

I don't I never ever thought, oh, wow, this is so small.

Yeah, it was it was quite comfortable.

The size of it was great.

So that was a big tick for me.

That was important.

And of course, it's a Porsche.

So looking around, you know, let the seats and really nicely appointed.

Tram, yeah, the whole thing was just pure class.

The the displays are, you know what?

I would have loved bigger, bigger screens.

I reckon the screens in the car were a little conservative.

I reckon that's probably what I don't think Porsche is sort of an over the top

sort of brand that you remember.

They've got this.

I don't know if it was three screens, not a passenger one.

There is a passenger screen.

Well, there's four, because isn't there one for the one down low for the other?

There's only just the air con, but it's not a screen.

It's just like it's digital display now.

It's a digital screen.

It's tiny little thing.

I wouldn't count that.

It's a fourth display.

I wouldn't count it.

It's a display.

It's got the one, the curved one in front of the driver.

Yeah.

And it's got the middle or the main middle one and then the one for the passenger.

That which is I've learned to that everything's an optional extra.

I have I'll admit I have I have specced a couple up since I've been driving this

for the last couple of weeks.

Because yeah, I really liked it.

I think I texted you saying, wow, I like this.

This could be on the shortlist.

Yes.

And driving it, of course, was a dream.

It's really, really nice, nice to drive.

Very smooth.

The color of the car that we got was papaya called a papaya.

Papaya metallic.

And and I've got to say this car has probably attracted more attention

to any other car I've driven.

Yeah.

Because there be I remember my neighbor spotted me at East Gardens one time

and he says, hey, how's the Porsche?

Yeah.

And I think it's very nice.

The neighbor across the road said the same thing.

But there's $128,000 optioned up with what you're driving.

It's $167,000 because they do love an option at Porsche.

Don't know what you can have an option for everything.

The Porsche crest on the headrest is $900.

Yes.

And and there's even, of course, you get the choice.

I think the car I'm driving has the 22 inch wheels.

The passenger display is 2700.

Yeah, I wouldn't be getting that.

Yeah, Joe, Joe, Joe said Joe doesn't need to see

the speed. Well, no, Joe said to me, like, she loved it.

And she's she's driven it too.

She loves it. She's encouraging it.

So she's she asked me, she said, what color would you get?

I went, oh, OK, I would have said, what color are you getting?

What color will we get?

I should have said that.

But no, so she's she's on board.

She knows that this car is worth around the same.

Does it feel like a like a Porsche?

Does it feel a bit sportier than the than the luxury you're used to?

Absolutely.

OK, look, I've got to say, the Mercedes, still, to me,

is more on the luxury side, whereas the Porsche is more sports side.

It's a sports car. Yeah.

So in terms of luxury, I think Mercedes has got the got the company like Porsche.

And it's a decade old now in terms of it, but is dragged kicking

and screaming into the SUV space because they're a sports car company.

But they know that SUVs are selling and there's also partners,

husbands and wives of Porsche owners that want a car for the kids

so to drive the kids around.

So that's why it exists.

Yeah. Well, I noticed the only sedan they've got is the Taycan.

And they're not really a sedan.

I wouldn't call it the 911.

It's a sports car. Sports car.

But the Taycan is it's a non SUV.

OK, yeah, OK, yeah.

So the majority of their range are SUVs, yeah.

But and the fact that it's an SUV, like my wife says to me,

he goes, you know, you should have a car that's higher off the SUV.

You are getting older and hang on.

Well, here's what I want to know.

How's Doris with it?

Getting in and out.

Is it easier to get in and out for her than Mercedes?

Well, that's an I think that's a validation that SUV needs to be the next thing.

Because you're perhaps you're the most wonderful son.

You see your mum more times a week than I see my mum in a year.

And so you drive a place.

So I think her getting in out of that car is a critical thing and she she loved it too.

We bought my mum's little Mazda, which was a kind of mini SUV,

the six three or six 30 purely because it was higher.

Because at that time her mum was still alive

and it was she was going down to see her so much

she wanted to make sure she could get in and out of the car easier.

Absolutely. Now performance wise, of course, you know, amazing.

Like I think zero to 100 is like less than five seconds.

It has a 520 kilometre range.

I think around 540. This is interesting.

So the electric range is quoted in the six hundreds in the spec sheet.

OK, on the McCartnett's six fifty four.

I wonder whether that's the the NEDC instead of the WLTP, perhaps.

But everywhere I've read, it's a definitely a 500 plus range.

It's really good.

But let's talk a couple of negatives.

Yeah, there were a couple of times I got in the car

and some of the displays didn't work.

Right, I got in the car and I, you know, because you get in the car,

you approach the car and it unlocks.

The screen comes to life.

You don't often have to turn the click the on button.

Right. That's mainly the off button. Right.

So you get in the car, lights up.

You know, because I never had a I don't have an account.

I kept have to log on as a guest.

Guests, right. So that was OK.

But there were occasions where I'd get in the car.

It happened with one when I picked my mum up one time.

The middle display and the passenger display,

the middle display just said Porsche on it and didn't change.

And the passengers, one just said McCann, it didn't change.

So normally car play and I'm thinking, how can I make this work?

And nothing, nothing happened.

So that was that was one case.

There was another time where I got in and the middle screen

and the passenger screen were working driver display dead.

No, nothing. Wow. Just black.

And I stopped the car, turned it off, turned it back on again

and still nothing.

So I'm thinking I might when I drop the car off,

or maybe hopefully beforehand, I'll be going to pop into Porsche

and say, is there a way for me to reboot the car?

Because I remember with my Model S. Yes, it's a button combination.

You hold the two buttons and it reboots everything.

Yeah. And I'm wondering if that was the similar thing

you can do with the Porsche.

Maybe just needed a just a bit of a kick up the bump.

And what else? But that's the only negative.

Yeah. And just the just the expense of the car,

like everything is an option.

Yeah. Every every little detail is an option time in the configurator.

I have. Yeah. Yeah.

And what's the what's and let's be real,

what's the lowest you can get it to?

In terms of like if it's 128, which is the base price, base model,

without driverways, right?

What what are the what does it come out at

to just be satisfactory in that sense?

Yeah, I think the biggest things that put the price up

is the size of the wheels.

Like I'd go the 22 inch.

I think you're going to go get an SUV, get the big wheels.

No, mate, you are losing your mind.

You've had the drama with big wheels.

These aren't low profiles, though.

These aren't low profile tires.

These are big tires.

By getting bigger wheels, you're getting lower profile tires.

They're not the 22 inch wheels.

Yeah, slightly lower, but no way to the space

that the tire takes up is the same.

It's the profile changes.

I'll settle because you get option 20, 21 or 22.

Maybe I'll go settle the middle to get 20.

You'll have an extra inch of rubber.

Yeah, maybe the 21, which is my lucky numbers.

That could be the one.

There's that.

There's also two.

Now, I think the heads up display on this car,

one of the best I've seen.

It's really clear and really nice.

And the I noticed on the configurator was you can get

I think the heads up display standard,

but you can get like an augmented reality.

Right. It displays and all that as well.

The passenger screen is another option as well.

And see, I look at the list that's in your car

that you're driving now.

And I think a Bose surround system, that's 220 is a yes.

220, 2200.

2200, yeah.

I get that.

I don't think it depends on your paint choice,

but that's probably going to cost you some money.

I'd get a metallic color.

Yeah, so that'd be a couple of thousand.

The black and crayon is a three in leather packages,

3,300.

Is that always going to be the case?

Yeah.

22 inch wheels are 7,700.

Made it adds up quick.

But there's a bunch of little things like exterior mirrors

painted in the exterior colors.

I'd keep that wooden, but well, you know, I'd have my card

color would be a dark color anyway.

So we didn't match it anyway.

The same. Yeah.

So that wouldn't matter.

The Porsche puddle light is five hundred and forty dollars.

Panoramic roof system is three thousand dollars.

Yeah, you'd want a sunroof.

Like is there a glass roof and then you can get a sunroof?

Or is it just a sunroof or nothing?

Yeah, yeah.

And that's not even drive away.

There's nothing included.

You've got to speck it up.

So that was the other negative of it that you can't like for

one twenty eight, you're driving out with just nothing.

Just the just the steering wheel and the heads up display.

And that's it.

And you know, the funny thing that they wouldn't even have one

in the showroom that is spec is standard.

They stand no way.

Like, can I just drive for 10 minutes?

The base model car?

Yes. What's that?

Yeah, yeah, because that's not how it works.

You don't you don't buy a Porsche off the lot.

You buy your computer.

You design and configure a Porsche.

And I need to ask you, like, what would the how long would it take

from between order and delivery?

Oh, it'd be months.

It'd be months.

Yeah, it'd be like six months.

Probably because my car's lease on the Merc is up in August.

I think you need to have

to be getting ready Monday when you take it back.

You need to be going just to kind of a ten minute conversation

with it with it with a rep.

Yeah, fair.

But just for basic questions, like what is the time between order

and for shipping and configurator and stuff like that?

Because it could be huge.

Although I did get I did.

I told you I got stopped by the neighbors,

but there was some bloke stopped me about the color.

He says, mate, that color is amazing.

What color? I like it.

I think it stands out.

Yeah, it wouldn't be what I would choose.

I don't mind it having it driving it,

but it's not what I would choose.

Although the guy who he I mean,

my mum would park in to get a coffee somewhere.

And the guy goes, oh, mate, what's that color?

That's amazing.

And then I remember that it's papaya, their papaya color,

which if you're a McLaren fan, McLaren call themselves.

We want to talk about papaya rules today.

That's interesting.

OK, so can we can we say for now on the list?

Absolutely.

On the short list.

Well, I'm glad I'm on the short list.

I'm super glad about that.

I'm going to try to narrow it down to four or five cars.

Yeah, probably on your Penelope.

Probably four.

And that'll be that.

That's definitely on one of the four.

Do you know what is it?

Have you got any sense of the other three?

Because I don't know what the other three are.

The other three or the other thing you got?

Look at it.

Mercedes have it.

Well, Mercedes have a new electric SUV

coming out next year as well.

I think the Mercedes CLA.

The CLA is the other one.

Yeah, the CLA electric.

The CLA of the size.

Yeah, it's a bit smaller because, you know what?

I don't have many people in my car.

So having a CLA, which is smaller than my car now,

that would do me.

Well, interesting.

One of the complaints in reviews about the McCarny

is the back seat's quite small.

It's like how many times do you get on the back seat?

I had my I picked Mario up the other day

and he sat in the front.

My mum was in the back.

No problem.

She was fine.

It was it was pretty roomy.

We need to find another brand

that we can get Steven into outside of Mercedes and Porsche.

I'm thinking I'm going to find you an Audi to look at.

OK, we've given a couple of hours.

I know, but I want you to see the current new generation

and see what we can find there.

The electric SUV.

And is there any chance that you'll consider a new brand?

Yeah, I would.

I would.

What have you got now?

You've got the Zika 7X.

And that's pretty nice, isn't it?

I'll talk about it in a couple of weeks.

But I'll tell you right now.

I love it.

Yeah.

But and you'll save a lot of money.

But the electric doors are driving me insane.

It's got a push button.

The doors open themselves, which is a wonderful gimmick.

Present.

Can I just can I just shut the door?

No, they open all the way.

You can choose how far they open.

But is there a handle though?

There is a handle, but it never comes out.

And I've looked through the setting.

I'm going to talk to Zika about it.

But that's that's next week's review.

Probably in a couple of weeks.

We've got a bit.

We've got a bit to get through next week as well.

Yeah. All right.

Well, it's on the list, folks.

The Porsche McCarn, Steven Fenwick, maybe an owner.

You never know.

You're lucky in a big city.

And just for the record, Porsche was my dream brand.

That's why I love it so much.

It was a dream brand.

And Joe knows that too, Joe.

That's why Joe's been so encouraging with this.

I know I've always wanted a Porsche.

That's awesome.

She's also a big fan of Louis Vuitton.

And so if you don't think you have to get some LV

when you get a Porsche, you're mad.

Yeah, I'll say look, I came with the car crash.

Yeah, that's great.

To like story electric cars, we'd love to hear from you.

You don't have to be buying a Porsche.

You could be buying a Zika.

You could be buying an MG.

You could be buying a BYD or an Aeon, whatever

that new brand that's coming in next year will be.

There's a lot of cars out there.

We don't care what you're buying.

We'd love to talk about it.

0-4-777-657-657.

Save it as the tube.

Like send us a text.

We'd love to hear from you.

Steven, let's do it all again next week.

I will see you then.

I'll be right here.

OK.

096 - Petrol RANGE questioned but not reported, and an EV Sales update

About this episode

BYD Addo 3

Sea Lion 6

Sea Lion 7

Request an Explanation

Want to learn more?

Help improve this episode

More from Two Blokes Talking Electric Cars - The EV Podcast