098 - Why your electric car isn't charging as fast as you thought

This is Two Blokes talking electric cars with Steven Fenwick and Trevor Long, thanks to NRMA Insurance and UNIDEN.

Great, heavy company, and we do thank the great people at NRMA Insurance.

If you're looking for insurance for your electric car, they are one of Australia's largest insurers of electric vehicles.

And they've been around and helping Australians protect what matters most for over 100 years and here to do 100 more.

And with the great support of the wonderful people at UNIDEN.

And if you're looking for a dash cam, there's only one brand to think about, that's UNIDEN.

You can get front and rear dash cams, 4K, multi-view, there's so many options.

Great app to look at the videos that you've recorded.

And of course, it's just peace of mind for you on the road as you drive around in hopefully your fancy new electric vehicle.

Steven, lovely to be with you, mate.

Great to be here too, Trev. Plenty to talk about today.

Yeah, we've got your calls coming up.

Some great callers as well.

If you want to get in touch, we'd love to hear from you.

0-4-7-7-6-5-7-6-5-7, send us a text or a WhatsApp.

Thanks to Vodafone, we will get you on the show as best we can.

Now, before we get to calls, I just wanted a little EV owner factoid.

We should probably come up with more of these and we are committed at some point to getting our act together

and doing a first-time owner and EV searcher episodes.

What you need to know.

It'll be early in the new year, but we'll get to that.

But this was an interesting one because I get it a lot and it's about charging speed.

I'm not going to say it's deceptive conduct, but it's a really important thing to know about charging speed

with regards to the cars, the chargers that are out there.

It doesn't matter if there's amp-hole, BP, charge fox, EV networks.

It doesn't matter where you are.

If I pull up at a single charger and it says the charging speed is 125 or 150, right?

Let's say 150.

And I plug in and my car charges at 75.

I'm thinking, what's going on here? Why am I not getting 150?

That's ridiculous, right?

And you're the only car there.

Well, no, if there's another car there, that's probably wrong.

You're sharing the load, aren't you?

You're sharing the load.

So what they talk about is the amount of power going into that big thing sitting there.

So I look at it.

There's a new BP charger opening on Pentadil's road down at North Rocks

and I know another one down at Artarman.

I look at these two big chargers and often they'll say there's 300 kilowatt charging.

That might be spread across four plugs.

Now, if you are the only person there, you may get close to that.

You may be the lucky person to get a big number.

But here's the other thing.

Often it's also determined by what else is happening at the site.

So for example, the ampoule I go to, I often only get 70 odd when I'm the only car there.

But see, if that's in the middle of the day

and the ampoule itself is powered up, fridges are on, lights are on, whatever's happening in there, right?

Then the actual site, so the actual location only has a certain amount of power to offer the charger.

And so if you go there at two o'clock in the morning, you might find you get better speeds.

So it doesn't matter whether you're talking about your local service station one

or whether it's on a massive highway, you do need to look at the...

What I love still is the PlugShare app.

It's the dodgiest looking old-school app in the world.

But you do get people...

Enough people kind of comment on this.

I am charging now. This is the rate of charge I'm getting.

So you can get a sense of what people have been getting.

You do get that.

But I think often too, like our expectations and our cars.

Like the cars, I remember happen to me.

Remember when I installed my wall box at home, thinking that my Mercedes

was capable of 22 kilowatts, it only does 11.

And that was the car's decision not to do that.

If it was up to me, it'd be charging at 22.

And you know, there are cars being sold today that only do like 120 kilowatt charging.

There's others that might even maybe more affordable cars that only do 75 kilowatt charging.

There are limitations at the car.

But I think the real unknown is people that, you know, install the apps,

go for a road trip, look at a thing saying it's 150 kilowatt and I'm going to go there.

And they pull up and they get 70 or 50.

And it's because it is a tough thing to have.

I'm not saying it's false advertising, but it's just a lack of knowledge by us all

to understand and realise that that might affect who's there.

And what else is happening on the day might affect the speed of your charge.

I can remember when I got my Tesla and it was a learning process for all of us

right when we had our pulling up at a charging, charging spot.

But I'll remember being told, look, if there's don't park right next to someone

who's charging as well, space out so you all get the best, best possible charge output.

That was kind of the etiquette of charging at that time.

And well, now, you know, if there's only two spots, then you got no choice.

But often Teslas, there's like six, eight, 10 spots.

I will tell you a quick story about using the ampoule charger the other day

because Jackson's driving my Cooper most of the time.

And I knew that he had some stuff to do for us as a family

and I knew that it was low, it was like 20%.

I thought, yeah, he could drive it on the way to work and do it.

But he's a teenager, he'll sleep.

I don't want him to have to get up early just to do that.

And when I got up in the morning, I went and charged the car, no dramas.

You know, sit and read the paper basically.

It's often what I'll do on a Saturday or Sunday morning in the car.

So I went up there and I charged it.

And I was going from 18%, I wanted to get to 80%.

I wasn't going to go to 100%.

He just needed to get to 80, so he had plenty for the week.

And I'm at, I'm going to say I'm at 25, maybe 35.

And a Tesla Model Y reverses up.

And look, Steven, in my defense, I don't talk to people.

That's why you're going to be offended by everything you're about to hear.

You're not going to strike up a conversation with Trevor, are you?

There are people going to yell at their radio, at their phone,

and at their YouTube right now.

I'm just not that kind of person, right?

Anyway, so I'm sitting there and this guy gets out.

He's wife goes and orders a pizza.

I know this happens all the time at the ampull up near me.

They order a pizza and they park there.

And anyway, so his wife goes into that and he's standing there.

I'm thinking, mate, you can't charge him.

What are you doing?

There's a chat-a-mo and CCS.

So you have to wait for me to leave.

Ooh, okay.

But he gets out.

He opens.

He's charging, but he grabs the chat-a-mo and he's like,

Oh, no.

And I'm like, he doesn't know.

Yeah.

Trevor's going to have to talk to someone.

No.

I did not.

He just left you to his own devices.

I left him to his own devices.

Really?

He put it back in.

He sat in the car and then I thought, you know what?

I know the thing says now we've got 10 minutes left.

Right.

If they'd have looked at me, made eye contact,

or stood at my door and looked in,

I would have definitely ran out of the window

and had a whole conversation.

Yeah.

But they did not attempt to do anything of the sort.

They didn't give him the 10 minute or anything like that.

But it's visible to him though.

He could see the 10 minutes.

He could see that.

No, the displays don't often tell you how long left.

They often just tell you the charge number.

Ah.

So he knew that I was not at 80.

Right.

So I'm not being a hog.

So he knew the percentage.

We've talked about that.

We've talked about, you know,

people that hoggle the way to 100.

Yeah, of course.

But mate in the end,

she picked up the pizzas they left.

I don't think they were there

for like a proper charge.

They were there to take advantage.

He was just going to pick one up.

They were just taking advantage of the time they were there.

Of course.

No harm.

What sort of pizza do they get to?

Did you find out?

I didn't.

I didn't speak to them.

I want to ask them that.

Yeah, but I don't ask.

Supreme.

We've talked about this.

I don't talk to people.

Anyway.

Hang on a minute.

If that was you in the other car

and you were having some difficulty,

would you have appreciated someone saying,

hey mate, you need to wait for me.

You're not going to work there.

Would that have helped you or not?

No, I felt like an idiot then.

I'd be like, oh geez, I'm an idiot.

How did I know that?

You know what I mean?

Every day is a school day.

You learn stuff.

I could be a better person.

I hear you.

I'm not.

Sorry.

You should be a better person.

Sorry.

Anyway, if there's little tips that you've learned

as an EV owner that you think people should know

as prospective buyers or new EV owners.

And do you talk to people?

No.

Are you like Trev?

Stop it.

Are you willing to help people,

educate people?

Don't say I don't help people.

I've always been like helping people.

I understand.

On the podcast and radio.

Would you be, I'm that person.

I'd get out of the car and say,

there you go.

You know what else you can be?

A punish.

No, I can't.

I'd be like, I don't want to talk to you,

mate.

Who are you?

Go away.

I would have sensed that,

and I would have said,

okay, see you, mate.

I'm not boring.

I promise you,

I'm not going to boring you.

Anyway,

if you've got something that you think

we should be sharing with more people

as they are new owners of EVs,

get in touch,

0-4-7-7-5-7-6-5-7.

My favourite part of the week,

talking to the great people who enjoy

our program, Stephen,

two black story electric cars.

If you want to be on the show,

you want to have a chat about anything

electric in your world,

whether you're in the market,

you're on the journey,

or you don't understand it,

and you want to understand it,

we can try and help you out.

0-4-7-7-6-5-7-6-5-7

is the number to call.

Justin did that.

He said a text.

Sorry.

He said a text, actually,

or a WhatsApp.

Don't forget that.

He said,

a text, actually,

or a WhatsApp.

Don't forget, folks.

0-4-7-7-6-5-7-6-5-7.

WhatsApp or text.

Justin's on the line.

Good day, mate.

How are you doing?

Yeah, good, fellas, yourself.

Mate, really, really good.

Tell us why you got in touch.

What's your EV story?

Oh, look,

I guess I'm a couple of years down the track.

Technically speaking,

I've got three in the household.

Well, my son has one as well.

Geez.

Okay.

What have we got?

Oh, look,

I've got an EV6,

an EV5,

and an Ato3.

Geez.

Okay.

So a couple of keys and an Ato3.

I want to guess.

Is the Ato3 your son's?

Yeah, pretty much.

Can't imagine how you guessed that.

No, well, I mean, you know,

there's a priority

of the preference order going on now.

So only a couple of years,

you've gone all in

in a very short space of time, mate.

What brought all that on?

Look, the tax laws

and all the rest of that sort of stuff.

I jumped into my EV6

when the rules pained

and did the FBT thing.

And the novated lease

and all the rest of the fun stuff

that went with that

got out of a Everest.

So I do miss my four-wheel drive,

but hey,

I got everything else out of that.

And you, obviously,

you were the instigator here.

Did you have to drag

the other members of the family

kicking and screaming

or were they willing to move

into the EVs pretty easily?

No, not so much.

You know, my son's

probably well-bought up

by his Scottish heritage,

and he's a tight arse.

So it means he doesn't have to pay for fuel.

That works.

And Dad's paying for it

off the roof, right?

Yes.

I didn't realize I had Scottish heritage.

Because my son is also

a complete tight arse.

Well, there you go.

It's not a bad thing.

As his mother says,

that's not a bad thing.

If you want anything from your kids,

they're not wasting money.

Absolutely.

Well, it depends how quickly

you want them out of your house, Rob.

This is an interesting point.

And while Dad's providing

free power during the day

or whenever it is,

mate, it's not going to happen any fast.

Just before we talk about charging,

because I think that's why

you got in touch.

Anything about the cars

that, especially for you

with two QIES,

is there something about the QIES brand

that drew you to those two cars?

Definitely the reputation aspect of it.

Yeah, an established brand.

I've had QIES in the past.

Yep.

Yeah, an established brand.

Seven year warranty,

all the rest of that sort of stuff.

So you had Petrol EVs.

You know, I'm still dealing with dealers.

You had Petrol QIES, I should say,

before you had the EV version.

So you're a QIES customer.

Yes.

I think the first sportage

that ever came out here.

Wow.

I think my wife drives a sportage.

Yeah, probably not the one I had.

No, you paved the way, mate.

Something like that.

So you mentioned you got Solar.

How else do you manage the three cars?

Because that's a lot to juggle,

to be honest,

especially if there's some QIES being done

fighting over the charger.

How's that all going?

Really, really well, actually.

I've got a wall box in the garage

with a decent table on it.

And I do probably 450Ks a week in EV6.

Still only gets charged one per week.

Wow.

So managing it is more of a I get priority

because, hey, it's my charger.

And everyone else charges around it.

But it just hasn't been an issue,

even with all of the rain

and everything that Queensland

had the last six months.

So you have a lot of poor charge days.

Yeah, so you've had,

you say you've got Solar

and you've got your charges.

Do you still have a,

do you still get a bill

from the electricity company?

And if so, which electricity company are you with?

Look, I do.

But you know, given on what it used to be

before I put the Solar up there,

it's negligible

and it isn't because I'm paying for the vehicles.

It's more just day-to-day usage

that I have a house battery.

That gets me to three AM most mornings.

And I charge during the day.

Easy.

That's very good.

Too easy.

So the wall box,

I think for you,

I understand you've had a couple of issues.

Yeah, look,

the wall box has been fantastic for most of its life.

It's been there for two and a half years,

as long as the EV6 has been around.

But in recent times,

the, let's call it the automated

update function,

which you guys being IT related

would understand that.

The most recent one has

effectively disabled my charger.

What?

So when it does an auto update,

I get three charges

and it stops charging.

It just says,

Kara.

Wait, you get it?

It always works three times

and then doesn't.

Yep.

So what a wall box, so just reset it.

Well, then you got to keep doing that

every time, though.

Well, no, no, it's not

reset it as in reset it

and it will charge three more times.

It's factory reset it.

Oh, that's even worse.

I mean, you've got to set it up

in the app and everything again.

Yep.

And it goes back to version,

the ancient version that it was shipped with.

But it works

and it doesn't work three times.

It just works

until the auto update fires.

You can't turn off auto update.

Yes, I have turned off auto update.

Have you noticed

what features you're missing

with that update notice?

Yes, smart charge.

What?

So the solar?

All of the smart charge functionality.

Yeah, yeah.

That's kind of been turned off

or wasn't necessarily all readily available

in the older version

that's on the silicon.

Look, I'll be honest,

it's fascinating to me

because I've had a good experience

with Warbox support.

Twice, in fact.

I've never had to use them.

I had to send one back

and then we had a cable issue with one.

Yeah, I've had them.

Or maybe it was just one that was replaced.

Basically, I've done two.

Was it local or UK though?

No, it was local.

Are you dealing with a local mob?

No, well, I am now

I'm chatting to Jet Charge directly

but I've been dealing with the UK Warbox team.

Jet Charge.

Now, I've never dealt with them.

I was dealing with like Warbox support

and then I ended up with

it's a company called Electric Future.

I'm sure is where we bought it from

because when you try and buy the Warbox

on the Warbox website,

it doesn't let you buy it,

it sends you to,

like it doesn't let you pay for it.

It lets you kind of order it

and then a reseller gets in touch with you

and says you got to pay us

and we're the local distributor.

And they're a company...

Yeah, which is how I got mine.

Electric Future.

Are they not around anymore?

I don't know.

I've been directed back to Jet Charge.

The current support team have basically got to the point

where they threw their hands in the air and said,

well, we'll get you a new one

and we're giving a credit to the Australian people.

And they said Jet Charge.

I had a look.

There is a Facebook group

that I'm looking at right now.

Warbox EV Charge owners.

And they suggested what you did

where the factory reset turn off the auto updates

and that solves the issue.

So then if a future software update,

they'll give them a chance to get their act together.

But it is very frustrating,

when things like you expect just to work,

they don't work.

Especially when they work

and then they fail because of a software update.

That's the worst part about it.

That's the thing, right?

Yeah.

Two and a bit years of fantastic service.

It just worked.

Wow.

Look, here's what I'm going to do.

I do have an email from someone who I was dealing with

at the Electric Future.

I've only got an email address.

I mean, it's worth at least asking.

Now, they're not a support person.

Yeah, cool.

They're the business development manager, apparently.

But interesting,

that's the person I dealt with when I got support.

So I don't know.

And this was at least six months ago.

So to be clear,

this email might bounce when I send it to you, mate.

But I guess that's almost the best I can do

is just say to you that I can share a content.

The problem here is really disappointed.

The challenge for Warbox now

is that they need to, once they sort out the update,

the write update,

they've got to now tell people,

okay, this is safety update.

All the people that turned off auto update.

They're going to say,

no, this one's good now.

So yeah, go for it.

And that's the paraphrase.

And chatting to Jet Charge.

Yeah, absolutely.

Now chatting to Jet Charge right afternoon,

their support guy was saying,

yes, I've had a lot of queries in this

just in the last week.

So it's obviously getting more broadly taken up.

So I mean,

so literally,

I just want to understand

because I'm worried about mine now.

Is there any obvious?

Don't go to Dot 33.

Just don't go to Dot 33.

Dot 27, fantastic.

I'm going to look at mine right now.

You're talking about the firmware version

of the Warbox, right?

Yep.

And is it renowned that that version just doesn't work

or is there something intricate about

Dot 33?

Your cars or your service that?

I think I had three cars.

Like I've got two, two kids, right?

Both a three face.

I do have three face power.

And I also have that BYD.

So very different charge characteristic on the BYD.

Yep.

And it's not any one of them that triggers the fault.

I just turned all the updates off.

So you're saying,

don't put that button, Trev.

No, no.

Dot 27, stay there.

So now we'll see.

6727.

Mine.

Uh-oh.

Is version six.

The update that's available for me is version 6.11.16.

Uh-oh.

Oh, you're old.

Mate, I've got problems.

Mine.

Mine says software is up to date.

6.7.33.

Yep, you're on it.

I'm in trouble.

Yeah, but hang on.

I'm on 611.

Hopefully you're not.

How's mine older if I'm 611?

Different model.

I've got a Pulsar Plus.

There is some variance, I believe.

We are bigger.

I've got the Pulsar Plus SN.

Where does it tell you that?

In here, the configuration.

Or even here, we go to the very start.

Great content.

See here, look, at the very start.

The interesting thing is that if they let us roll back

to the old version that my stability might come back,

but I don't think they know how to do that.

Oh, you know what?

And I haven't used the charger for Oregon.

I've charged outside.

I haven't charged it for a while.

Stephen actually doesn't use his home charger.

No, I do.

I do use my home charger.

I do.

And I use it.

I do listen to your stories.

I do use them.

That's why you giggled.

Let's set the record straight.

Yeah, yeah.

I'm with OVO because another listener recommended OVO,

and I use it between 11 o'clock in the morning

and two in the afternoon.

Free energy, hello.

And also overnight, if I do the 8 cents a kilowatt

between midnight and six, I've done that before as well.

Yeah.

And that's when the wall box gets a workout.

Last time I charged my car at home,

I would have been a couple of weeks here.

It's because we drive.

Yeah, but this has been going on for a long time for you.

Yeah.

My cars, I don't have to, we get all these cars to drive.

They're full charge to 100%.

So I'm not having to charge my car very often,

which is not a bad problem to have.

It's a first world problem, let's be honest.

Yeah.

But how I do do public charging.

You know, I'm in Warwick today,

and I've had the challenge from the two doubting Tomases

that are in the car with me today,

so whether I make it back to Brisbane via Tuomba

without charging, which I will.

Yeah.

But you know, the charging infrastructure here is questionable.

Really?

Wow.

I've got to poll some math.

I also got a state of charge report too.

Oh, really?

How'd that go?

Yeah, good.

The people that do the one that Pickles are using

have some other random people that are doing the service

directly.

So I got that done and 52,000 Tays,

and I'm at 97% state of health.

Oh, wow.

That's beautiful.

That's awesome.

97%, that's cool.

And how much did it cost you to do that?

Yeah, I was in complainant.

200 bucks.

Wow.

And that's on the EV6.

Yeah.

Yeah, excellent.

They were doing that price on any car,

if I understood correctly.

No, but the outcome, the 97% was on the EV6.

Yeah, the EV6.

So you said you've had your EV6 for a couple of years now.

What have you got?

Like a five-year lease, three-year lease?

What's the go-to?

No, I did the two years because of the uncertainty

around the FBT stuff.

So I've just jumped off fleece,

and that takes me onto my next object

that I won't go into that rabbit hole,

which is the resale.

But hey.

Yeah.

You didn't really expect that you were going to get

a great resale, did you?

Did you genuinely think you were going to get a great resale?

Yeah.

But, you know, doesn't the report help you?

Your battery health report is pretty high.

Yes.

Doesn't help demand.

Well, it does.

Yes.

So that's an interesting one.

So if you go to the wholesalers and say,

how much?

They'll give you a good price,

which is way closer to Redbook.

Whereas if you go to a retail yard,

they'll go, how does 20 grand sound, fellas?

Good job, AP Eager.

Oh, did I mention that?

Right.

So you're saying wholesalers?

Yeah.

So they're giving you a wholesale price, though, aren't they?

Yeah.

And it was a good price.

Right.

Not that I've changed it.

I did that more out of curiosity than anything else.

So you prefer to sell your car privately or just trade it?

What would you do?

Yeah.

Or I'll keep it on a valve.

Yeah.

I'll make it very insightful, very interesting.

I'll send you that text.

I've already sent it, actually.

Thank you.

And look, I hope it has some effect.

I don't know.

And we'll keep an eye on it

and keep it on those Facebook groups.

You never know what comes up.

But hopefully there's some resolution for you soon, mate.

Really appreciate you getting in touch.

Thank you very much.

Have a good one, guys.

Thank you, mate.

Great to hear from you.

Yeah.

I mean, that's frustrating on anything else.

Wow.

And my charger is at the same firmware update

that crippled his one.

Yeah.

So I've got a Pulsar Max.

Mine's Pulsar Plus.

I don't know what the difference is

because I've got the same features.

No, I don't think so.

Is it the same or?

Plus sounds bigger.

Mine's better than yours, I reckon.

You reckon?

Yours sounds bigger.

Plus versus Max.

Does it look bigger?

Now I'm nervous.

Was it how you used it, mate?

I thought we bought the same one.

I did, too.

Pulsar Plus SN.

Oh, Max, same features as the Plus,

but with better Wi-Fi and comes in more colours.

Fair enough.

Lardida.

Pro, same as the Max, but 4G on top.

I don't know why you need that.

Mine does the trick.

We've got Wi-Fi at home, folks.

We don't need that.

Hello.

Two bikes, two electric cars.

We'd love to hear from you.

Send us a text.

047-657-657.

Two bikes, two electric cars.

Love to have you company on the show anytime.

You can get a touch just like Alex did.

He's on the line.

G'day, Alex.

How are you doing?

Good, guys.

How are you?

Really good.

Where are you at in your EV journey?

What have we got in the driveway?

Well, I've got two cars at the moment.

I've got a BYD Ato3,

and I recently purchased a BYD Dolphin Premium as well.

Oh, right.

All in on BYD.

BYD fan customer.

We spoke to the boss last week.

Yes, we did, too.

You'll probably love what he had to say.

What drew you to the first one,

which I assume was the Ato3?

Ato3.

And how did the second one come about?

Was that just an automatic?

Because it was such a great experience with the first one?

Well, the first one was because I did want to transition

from petrol cars to EVs.

And at the time, that was August last year.

And I did have a look at a few cars like the Tesla Model Y

and a couple of Volvo's as well.

But the Ato3 was really great value for money.

I did have a, what's it called, a TAS drive.

I really liked it.

And we went for it.

Obviously, we didn't...

This is crazy, but 13, 14 months ago,

we didn't have so many EVs that we got right now in the market.

If it was right now,

I would have probably gone for a Ziga 7X

because it looks really good.

We can hear that so much.

I drive it.

I'll talk about it probably at some point here.

In fact, I might talk about it after this,

but what fascinates me is just the number of people

talking about that car.

What is it?

Are you really like a big researcher,

reader or watcher of EV content

and therefore it's come up in your YouTube and things like that?

Or what is it that has exposed that car to you?

Yeah, I do follow a lot of accounts that talk about EVs,

like you guys and a bunch of other people on Instagram

and YouTube.

Yeah, pretty much on top of most of the new models

in the market.

And the 7X really strikes me as

a more reasonably prized Volvo or Polestar,

which at the end of the day, I know it's not exactly the same,

but it does share a lot of the components

and it does look very, very good.

That's the reason.

But anyway, so I've got in that all three,

which currently has 24,000Ks, I believe.

And then the second car was because

we've got two kids, my wife and I,

we both work full-time, well, not me and them,

because I'm on parental leave, but anyways.

We work full-time.

We do need to take my oldest son to school

and then the little one to kind of say,

and my wife uses the car for work.

So we do need something else to drive around,

to be able to do it all.

So she drives the Adder 3 and you drive the Dolphin

or she takes the Dolphin?

Who's the who's?

They could share.

There's a bit of an unspoken rule

where the Adder 3 is her car, because of the Dolphin.

It's funny how the KV9 ended up being my wife's car,

but whatever.

Yeah, of course.

The Dolphin, even though it has the same battery

and motor, because it's a bit smaller,

it's so much fun to drive.

It's actually a lot quicker than the Adder 3

than it's really zippy around corn.

So that's my car.

How long have you been at the Dolphin for?

Just say?

Just a couple of months.

Yeah, right.

So I have to ask, and this may be a raw subject,

but did the announcement of the Adder 1

or Adder 2 give you any regrets?

No, not at all.

Okay, interesting.

Is that because of the range of those cars?

I saw the Adder 2.

And to me, to me, it's a bit underwhelming.

I think the range is not great.

There's about three in something W2P,

whereas this one is over 500,

which is actually, I do get a bit more than that

even driving around town.

We mentioned last week that the Adder 1

and 2 didn't really have great range.

We kind of didn't think about the fact

that that's actually their position in the line-up

of BYD cars.

They've got price, but they've also got,

hey, if you just did a shitty run about,

then these ones are competitive in price

because of range.

So that's a fair point.

Yeah, but I understand, Alex,

you've done a bit of a road trip too, is that right?

In the Dolphin or the Adder 3?

Was the Dolphin you took to the drive?

Yeah, that was in the Adder 3.

I did a Melbourne to Brisbane return trip,

and I'm actually doing it again in about 20 days

because I'm spending Christmas over there.

So yeah, 4,000 Ks roughly in the Adder 3.

No issues at all.

I know that there's a lot of people

and they are rights to be a little bit concerned maybe about range,

but it really is no issue driving from Melbourne to Brisbane

because every 40 cars you've got a recharge in station.

And if you, again, I got the BYD actually,

I'm one of those who went for a non-Tesla

because I'm not happy giving money to Elon Musk.

So you don't use the Tesla charger?

No, this is where I had to swallow my pride

because it is true that unfortunately at this stage,

the Tesla supercharger network is actually the most reliable network out there.

And these cars are compatible.

So I had no issues at all.

How do you find the range on the Adder 3?

Because obviously we talked recently about the AAA report.

We compared it a few weeks ago to the petrol car report,

which I thought was good to expose.

But just generally around town and on that road trip,

what did you learn about the car?

Because range can be affected by those long drives as well.

Exactly.

So I saw that.

I read that report and I actually think it wasn't very well designed in my opinion

because all the other cars had the WLTP range taken into consideration

whereas for the Adder 3, they took the NEDC range,

which is so unrealistic.

The WLTP range of the Adder 3 is 420,

they stated 480, which is the Chinese standard,

which really no one gets.

So if you look at the WLTP range of the Adder 3,

it's not 21% that's off, it's actually 12%.

And I remember having, this is one of the reasons why I wanted to get an EV,

or why I get so, let's say,

when people say or express their concerns about the range.

I used to have a Mazda CX-5, a wonderful car.

The stated economy was 7.2 litters per 100 km.

I was never able to get it below 8.7.

Mate, I've said it so many times.

The range I've seen or the fuel economy I've seen

in all of our petrol cars has never come close to what's been expected

and even that's when I leave it in the hands of my wife entirely.

So there's no Trevor driving there,

there's no spirited driving going on.

It is when I'm glad we had that conversation.

I've got a lot of comments on YouTube too,

that AAA conversation about fuel economy

is as important as the conversation about range

and it needs to be done on a holistic level for the industry.

So you've got two BYDs, you obviously love the brand.

What would you change about those two cars

if your design input was given to BYD?

What would you do differently given you've now owned them?

So I think there's one thing that these cars are missing

which is a great chance to improve the experience,

which is driver profile.

Something you get on a test drive.

You get your profile, you have everything set up for you

as a driver, including things on the screen and so on.

But every time I get on the car I need to select,

I like to use the native sat-down,

which is quite good at the moment,

for the latest upgrade.

But I have to tap on it every time.

If I want to use it at the same time as Spotify,

I have to select split screen and then Spotify.

If there was a way to make that the default conflict

based on my profile, that would be awesome.

But other than that, I'm fairly happy to be honest.

I think I'm not sure if I mentioned that

or the message that's on you,

but I'm getting an all-time economy

in my out-of-three of 14.6 kilowatt-hour per 100 km,

which, and this is after the road trip,

yeah, four 10 km.

And that is after the trip to Brisbane,

which obviously it brought it down quite a bit.

So, mate, I've got to ask you, Alex,

you've got two EVs.

What's your charging situation at home?

How do you keep both of those topped up?

It's a bit precarious at the moment.

I'm much as using the granny charger to be honest.

But I've had no issues.

I've had no issues with the granny charger.

I just, yeah, it just, obviously,

because it charges very slowly.

It doesn't get fully charged overnight.

But overnight, I get maybe 50% or 60% of the charge,

which is more than enough to drive around town.

And then if I need to do a longer ride or, yeah, longer trip,

I just leave it for about a day and a half.

Again, because my wife does use the car for work.

But if I have to go to the city of Melbourne to work,

I ride my bike.

So it's not that I use it every day, either,

unless I have to go get my kids.

So it's suitable for now,

no thoughts on getting a wall charger

or anything else, solar panels?

No, yeah, I do.

I do want to get a wall charger, to be honest,

because it makes it a lot easier.

But I guess the moral of the story

is you can't have two EVs with a granny charger

unless you need to drive 100Ks in each car every day.

That's the best.

And before that, before I moved to my current house,

we couldn't even charge at home.

We were charging in a public station

and because it was near the shops and stuff,

we were just leaving there charging the Auto 3

while I was shopping around

and it was really nosy at all either.

Yeah, I like to do that charge on the go.

When you're doing something else

and your car's charging, it makes sense.

I love doing that.

For sure.

Now, just finally, before we let you go,

have you become the EV advocate

in your friend and family group?

Is everyone come to you for questions

or do you keep a low profile on the EV spruiking?

No, of course I am.

I am the biggest EV advocate,

but I've had my friends have

and I keep nagging them to get an EV

if they're thinking about getting a new car.

Don't go for the public.

Plug in hybrids, the worst of both worlds.

Get a petrol.

I try to convince them

that the range is not so much of an issue.

But yeah, I'm definitely a bit of a pain in the neck.

Have any of your advice made or what?

Have you converted anyone yet or not?

Do you have a couple of friends

who are definitely thinking about it?

Obviously it's a big financial decision,

so it's not something you make quietly.

But it's people like yourself, mate,

and listening to our show,

we try to dispel the myths

and give people the real world view of EVs

and you've helped us do that.

Thanks a lot.

Good on you, Alex. Great to speak to you.

Thank you guys.

Thanks very much.

Cheers.

Good to hear from you

and we'd love to hear from whoever wants to get in touch

here on Two Blokes Touring Electric Cars

and you can do that very easily.

0-4-7-7-6-5-7-6-5-7.

Open up your phone.

Save that number.

Just save it at the Two Blokes.

You can just text it anytime you want.

It's actually Trevor's personal number.

And you can just send us a text or a WhatsApp.

We'd love to hear from you.

Thanks for buying the phones in that text.

We'll get you on the show

and we'd love to chat EVs with you.

Great to have you company.

Now I drove the Zika 7X a few weeks ago

while Steven was driving the Porsche Macan.

I was more a man of the people.

He said that like I didn't want to.

You offered it to me and I said okay,

I'll drive the Porsche.

I want you to have the best experience

in potentially owning the car.

And I was enjoying the Zika 7X.

The Zika 7X to me is a fascinating beast

because we've had so many calls about it.

So many people buying it and inquiries about it

and I don't know where that came from.

I'm still intrigued that the internet has created this success.

There's a buzz around today.

100%.

We both loved the Zika X earlier in the year.

Very premium car.

I gave it an award this year.

It's a great car.

So I was expecting a lot from this car

and it delivers.

The one we had was the Spectre the Hilt.

It was the all-wheel drive.

It had all the bells and whistles.

It had everything.

Which people, it's often funny you put a video up

and people say of course they gave you the best model

to run or whatever.

In the end I actually don't look at those specs.

I go what's it like to drive broadly

and I'm not looking at acceleration

and those things.

Though I did, me and Harry did enable sport mode

a couple of times.

It does go like the club.

She goes alright this one.

Sport mode is very nice.

Not to 100.

3 seconds, 4 seconds.

Fast.

Because I don't care.

You know I don't care about that number.

That fast.

It's zippy.

Range on this thing can go from 400 up to 680

or 615.

So you had a long range at all?

Well we had the all-wheel drive.

So that actually brings a bit of the range down

to like 550 or so.

Right?

But still good.

The good thing here is you don't need to worry about range.

You don't need to worry about the basics of an electric car.

This thing ticks all the boxes, right?

Yep.

It does have 22 kilowatt charging.

Lovely.

Love that.

Big fan.

Love that.

And I've got to be honest with you.

I'm going to start to expect that from my next car.

Absolutely.

Yeah, me too.

Because there was a point where I actually didn't do a lot.

But over two weeks because you had the Porsche for Sonal.

Over two weeks I did.

There was a point where I came to the office to do something

like just like my summer afternoon radio.

I come in here for like 40 minutes or something.

And I plugged in and I went back and it was 100%

because it like got the juice in.

Like I was only at 80 or something.

But it took it fast, you know.

So there's a big deal about that.

And we've spoken to more and more people lately

who have more than one EV.

So think about the multiple EV home,

three phase power.

That's important.

You should be starting to expect 22 kilowatt.

Yeah.

And it's very rare.

Smart hashtag three, the top model.

I think we found out had it.

The Zika 7X has it.

This is a beautiful car to drive.

It's very premium.

It is enormous in the back.

Like I'm talking, I had my normal driving position.

I sat in the back and there was 25 centimetres of knee root.

Like it was unbelievable.

So I could have sat in the back seat.

You wouldn't have touched my knees.

No question.

No question in my mind.

Beautiful fit and finish.

Nice big infotainment screen.

Plus a full instrument cluster dash for the driver.

Very similar to the Porsche.

Kind of like shaped.

Kind of shaped.

A little bit of a curve.

But more of the shape isn't like it's not a square.

It's a weird thing.

But I appreciate that rather than being a square,

it's this shape and they've gone to some trouble for that.

Absolutely.

That's not cheap, right?

It's premium.

And a head up display.

Tick, tick, tick, tick.

Has the head up display become...

I think it's a must for me.

I think it's almost a must have.

It's a deal breaker for me.

I think now if it doesn't have a heads up display.

Yeah.

I love it.

Now, so I'm all in wraps on this.

I'd nearly give it 10 out of 10 as a car.

Because it's beautiful.

Yeah.

However, you lose a point or so here.

Yeah.

When it comes to the doors.

Now, on the car, you can visibly see door handles.

Yeah.

Recessed in the car flush.

Yes.

They never come out.

Yeah.

Because you got the auto feature.

This is the top end model.

Because these have an auto opening door.

There's a button on the B pillar and the C pillar.

A little tiny round circle.

Yeah.

Now, let me tell you this.

When you're the driver of a car

and you're picking kids up from school

and they walk up to the car and go,

well, it's locked, Dad.

And they go, it's not locked.

And the window is down.

The window is up.

And I'm going, press the little round circle.

They're just not even open.

So you've got to know, this would be the worst Uber car.

Because your passengers wouldn't know how to open the door.

Now, it's unbelievable technology.

Because in the car, you can set it so the doors open to 100%

or 90%.

You can set the boot to have a certain height.

So its default opening is a certain amount.

But it still has sensors around.

So it won't door ding the car next time.

Oh, I was going to ask that.

You're not.

It knows you're there.

It won't open on you or anything like that.

So it does open on its own.

It opens on its own.

So no effort.

No effort.

Our driveway is a very slight incline.

Mate, it hated it.

So you open the back door and it opens itself.

And then it thinks there's a force on it.

So it closes again.

So it's like automatically closing.

I'm like, what are you doing, you bloody thing?

Is that a safety issue there?

It's like, are you getting out of the car?

Well, I mean, you're getting out of the car.

You just push the door.

It's never going to clamp you in.

It's just frustrating, right?

And here's the other thing.

Pouring rain.

What do you do with your car?

You go click open.

Mate, I'm like, hello?

Hello?

Let's go.

Let's open the door, you know?

It opens slowly, doesn't it?

You know, a couple of seconds then it starts open.

Like, oh, let's go, you know?

Have a Brawley ready.

But in the positive side, when you get in the car,

you put it from the brake.

Not only is the car ready to go, but the door shuts.

So it's this balance.

But I've got to tell you, after two weeks,

I went, just give me a bloody hinge.

I just wanted a hinge.

I take it this is meant to be a luxury feature.

And so for someone who doesn't want to do this,

oh, I've closed the door.

Did you do that again?

You know, that's too hard.

Yeah.

So you're saying, no, thanks.

I'm capable of opening the door myself.

I looked everywhere in the settings.

And even when I turned on manual door opening,

nothing happened with the handles.

The handles I'm told.

So they're there, but they just wouldn't call?

Gary, our EV club man has bought a Zika.

Okay.

The handles only come out in an emergency.

Really?

Yeah.

So, man, that's a tough one for me.

Because honestly, even with the,

even if you do it manually,

you always feel like you're pushing against the force of the mode.

Like actually, you know,

when you, when your boot doesn't fully close

and you go, I'm going to push it down,

you feel like you're pushing against something.

It feels wrong.

It always feels wrong to push the door.

Really?

Yeah.

So there's no way to disengage that

and just make it swing freely?

No.

No, you looked at the city.

There's no way.

There's no thin layer of getting allowed here.

No swinging freely.

And I love it every minute of it.

Wow.

That's my only gripe.

So when you're thinking about the Zika 7X,

I just encourage you to play with the doors.

Yeah.

So you're calling that an unnecessary luxury?

Correct.

Look, I said a few weeks ago about,

I think the Polestar or something else.

Yeah.

Sometimes there's just too much tech

for too much tech's sake.

Yeah, I agree.

We both agree on that.

But don't you reckon though,

is that meant to sort of make it

like you've got a show phone?

100%.

It's meant to be the, you know,

it's like a Rolls Royce.

Because I drove a Rolls Royce Ghost

or Phantom a few years ago

and there's a button there to open.

It's unbelievable.

Yeah.

But I'm not in a Rolls Royce.

Yeah.

Also, I'm the driver.

I just want to get out and in.

So.

Okay.

So when you've got,

so getting out of the car.

You've got to push the button.

You've got to push the button

and it opens.

So there's no little handle.

You've got to push the button

and then boop.

Yep.

And then does it take long

or is it the same?

Longer than going.

Like that.

Okay.

Couldn't do it.

Can you stop doing that now?

Yeah.

Anyway.

It's too hard.

A beautiful car.

I'm a massive fan.

I would get it in the green.

The green.

Green.

Makes it look gorgeous.

And what's,

what's,

what's tell them the price?

Well it starts at

on-road about 63,

which is exactly the same price

as a Model Y.

That's,

that's actually quite competitive.

And then the,

the,

the performance all-wheel drive

is 72 plus,

plus on-road.

So let's call it.

Do you agree with that?

It's good price.

Yeah.

It's good quality.

And there's a few other SUVs

that are well lower than that.

You get a $40,000 Geely

here in the same kind of sauce.

Oh, right.

Okay.

And,

So what,

what gives,

what,

what makes them want to charge 20,000 more

then for the,

like,

is it just the sheer luxury?

They're,

they're literally,

they're pitched as a luxury car.

A bit build quality.

You feel it.

Yeah.

Apart from the doors.

It feels good.

But there's no doubt this is a premium car.

No doubt.

Zika is a genuine

premium experience.

Maybe you'll let me drive it next time,

but notice that we booked them again early next year

so that we can swap it over.

Really?

We'll see what happens.

Who's to say we'll swap, mate?

Well, I'll pick up the Porsche.

I'd love that.

You can pick up the Zika.

No, well, that's fine.

That's fair.

I did enjoy the Zika

and I'm keen to try these doors

that you don't really like.

Yeah.

All right.

Two bikes, two electric cars.

We'd love to hear from you.

It might be on next week's show.

Get in touch.

0-4-7-7-6-5-7-6-5-7

See you next week, Stephen.

Take it then.

Take care.

See you next week.

098 - Why your electric car isn't charging as fast as you thought

About this episode

charging speed

charger

BP

Chargefox

EV networks

kilowatt charging

charging etiquette

Mini Cooper

percentage of battery

Tesla Model

Kia EV6

Kia EV5

Ford Everest

Kia Sportage

Nissan Pulsar

FBT

BYD Ato3

BYD Dolphin Premium

Ato3

transition from petrol cars to EVs

Volvo

Ziga 7X

Polestar 7X

Adder 3

KV9

Dolphin

Mazda Cx5

Porsche Macan

Rolls-Royce Spectre

Rolls-Royce Rolls Royce Ghost

Rolls-Royce Phantom

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