Trevor Long and Steven Finneck celebrate the 101st episode of their podcast, discussing the growing market for electric vehicles (EVs) and the unique online car dealership, Karma. They explore the experiences of EV owners, including a caller's transition from a Mazda to a Hyundai Kona EV, highlighting the importance of battery health and charging options. The episode features insights from Peter Wilson of Karma, who explains their model of buying and selling used cars, including EVs, and the advantages of this approach over traditional trade-ins. Listeners are encouraged to share their EV journeys.
Driving around Tasmania with an EV - simple says caller Mikey! While Adrian is curious to replace his small Mazda 2 with something electric!
Peter Willis from Carma joins us to explain the online dealership model and how Electric Car sales and interest is growing.
Be part of the show, send us a text thanks to Vodafone on 0477 657 657
"Well, I'm a huge fan of an EV point that I've got my second EV. Hyundai... So quality and finish understood and the range and economy of the Conor is just I can't you can't beat it really. That was your first and that was your first the first one you bought was the Kona."
The Kona Electric is a small SUV that runs entirely on electricity. It’s known for being reliable and having a good range, so it’s a popular choice for people who want an electric car without breaking the bank.
The Hyundai Kona Electric is a compact all‑electric SUV that offers a practical range for daily driving, solid build quality, and a reputation for reliability. It’s part of Hyundai’s push into affordable electric vehicles.
"Yeah, through the paddles. He's got the Regent paddles which I love because I use cruise control 98% of the time."
Paddles are little switches on the steering wheel that let you change gears or control power while driving, so you don’t have to touch the gear stick.
Paddles are small levers located on the steering wheel that allow drivers to manually shift gears or adjust engine power without taking their hands off the wheel.
"I do. I've got a seven kilowatt dual charger. Yeah."
It’s a device you plug into your wall at home that charges an electric car. This one can give up to seven kilowatts of power, which is a bit faster than the basic chargers most people use.
A dual charger is a home charging unit that can deliver up to seven kilowatts of power, allowing an electric vehicle to recharge its battery faster than a standard 3.7 kW charger.
"And I got to the point where she was even using cruise control and lane centering and all sorts of stuff on the way home."
It’s a feature that lets your car keep going at the speed you pick, so you don’t have to press the gas pedal all the time.
Cruise control is an electronic system that automatically maintains a vehicle’s speed at a set level without the driver having to keep their foot on the accelerator.
"[559.0s] And it's like the WLB T is 444 on 19s and 505 on 17s."
WLB T is a way to say how long the car’s wheels are apart from each other. It helps people understand if a car is big or small and how it might drive.
WLB T stands for Wheelbase Length in the transverse (side-to-side) direction, a measurement of how far apart the front and rear wheels are. It’s used to describe vehicle size and handling characteristics.
V2L lets you plug a laptop, heater, or other gadget into your car and use the car’s battery to power it. It’s like a portable charger that works while you’re on the road.
V2L means Vehicle-to-Load, a technology that lets a car’s battery power external devices or appliances directly from the vehicle. It’s useful for camping, emergencies, or off-grid power.
"[570.0s] Therefore V2G, which is coming up soon, hopefully."
V2G is a way your electric car could give power back to the electricity network, like a battery that helps keep the lights on when everyone else needs it.
V2G stands for Vehicle-to-Grid, a future technology where electric vehicles can send power back to the electrical grid. It helps balance energy demand and can provide revenue or savings for owners.
"[574.0s] Um, it's got the plug inside the car for a normal household plug."
It means your car has a regular power socket inside, so you can plug in things like a laptop or small appliance just like you would at home.
This refers to an onboard power outlet that matches standard home outlets (like a 120V or 240V socket), allowing users to plug in appliances directly from the vehicle’s battery.
The XV is a small SUV from Subaru that comes with all‑wheel drive, making it good for different road conditions. It’s a popular choice for families and outdoor adventures.
The Subaru XV, also known as the Crosstrek in some markets, is a compact crossover SUV introduced in 2012. It offers standard all‑wheel drive and a practical, boxy design.
"Obviously, you have a choice of rim sizes. But on the side, even higher than that. They said, no, no, no, you're getting 90s. I said, what, I want 17s."
Rim size is how big the wheel is, measured in inches. It tells you what tires can go on it and can change how the car feels when you drive.
Rim size refers to the diameter of a wheel, usually measured in inches. It determines which tires fit and can affect handling, ride comfort, and the overall appearance of a vehicle.
"[751.0s] I've currently got a Master 2.
[754.0s] It's a little runabout thing."
The Master 2 is a small van made by Nissan. It’s handy for moving stuff around because it’s not too big and uses fuel efficiently.
The Nissan Master 2 is a compact van produced by Nissan from the late 1990s through the early 2010s. It’s popular in Japan and other markets for its small footprint, good fuel economy, and practical cargo space.
"[897.0s] It's a Dolphin 2, not Dolphins,
[898.0s] another off-and-beard, other off-and-beard,
[899.0s] more range.
[900.0s] I'm not too familiar with that one, so.
[903.0s] So BYD already have the Dolphin on the market
[906.0s] that Stephen suggests,
[908.0s] which isn't quite a small car,"
The BYD Dolphin 2 is a small electric car from the Chinese company BYD. It’s designed to be cheap and practical, with a modest driving range suitable for city use.
The BYD Dolphin 2 is a compact electric hatchback produced by Chinese automaker BYD. It offers a small footprint with decent range and is positioned as an affordable entry‑level EV.
Car
Nissan Dolphin
"to anyone that owns a Dolphin, I think the add-on 1 is a far better looking car than the Dolphin."
The Nissan Dolphin is a small, everyday car that was popular in Japan. It’s easy to drive and has a simple design.
The Nissan Dolphin is a compact car that was sold primarily in Japan and some other markets during the 1990s. It’s known for its boxy styling and practicality.
"In the same way that I think the C-line 6 has aged, whereas the C-line 7 has this kind of model design"
The Nissan C-Line 6 is a small car that was made for city driving. It’s the sixth version of this model.
The Nissan C-Line 6 refers to the sixth generation of Nissan’s subcompact car line, which was sold mainly in Japan and some Asian markets. It featured a compact design suitable for city driving.
"[1119.0s] but the one we personally have experienced with [1121.0s] and paid for with our own money, [1123.0s] the Pulse R Plus and Max."
The Pulse R Plus is a small electric car made by the company Pulse. It’s designed to be easy to drive and good for city trips.
The Pulse R Plus is an electric vehicle model produced by the automotive brand Pulse. It features a compact design and aims to provide efficient urban mobility.
"[1217.0s] we've got to track down an 801, [1219.0s] and drive one."
The 801 is a nickname for an old Porsche 911 model made in the mid‑1970s. People love it because it looks like a classic car and runs on a simple, reliable engine.
The 801 is the chassis code for a classic Porsche 911 produced from 1973 to 1976. It’s highly sought after by collectors and enthusiasts for its classic styling and mechanical simplicity.
"[1223.0s] I think you should go and drive an MG."
MG is a car brand that started in Britain and now makes cars that are usually cheaper than many other brands. They try to look nice while keeping the price low.
MG, short for Morris Garages, is a British automotive marque that has been revived in recent years by the Chinese automaker SAIC. The brand is known for producing affordable, stylish cars that often feature a blend of classic styling cues and modern technology.
An electric car is a type of vehicle that uses batteries and electric motors to move, instead of gasoline or diesel. It doesn’t have a traditional engine and usually runs on electricity from the grid.
An electric car (EV) is a vehicle that runs on electricity stored in batteries, using one or more electric motors instead of an internal combustion engine. EVs produce zero tailpipe emissions and often have lower operating costs.
"...there were so many Tesla's sold Model 3s, Model Ys."
Tesla makes cars that run on electricity instead of gasoline. They are famous for their high-tech features and good performance.
Tesla, Inc. is an American automotive and energy company known for producing electric vehicles (EVs) such as the Model 3, Model Y, Roadster, Model X, and Model S.
"[2111.0s] That's Peter Wills from Karma.
[2115.0s] C-A-R-M-A is the website."
Karma makes fancy electric cars that are very expensive and built with a lot of attention to detail.
Karma Automotive is an American luxury electric vehicle manufacturer known for its high-end, hand‑crafted cars.
Select text to request an explanation
This is two blokes talking electric cars with Trevor Long and Steven Finneck. Thanks to NRMA Insurance and Uniden. We appreciate their support NRMA Insurance helping Australians protect what matters most for over 100 years and many more to come. And they're also one of Australia's largest insurers of electric vehicles. So if you've got an electric vehicle, your insurance is due. Do us a favor. Support NRMA Insurance because they make this show happen for you for free. Otherwise, we'd have to charge you for the show. And I'm not sure you'd pay.
But would you? So support the people that support us. And the other company you can support is Uniden with their smart dash cams. You can get yourself a dash cam for your new car. Your old car, your special car doesn't matter what it is. And as Steven always says, get the look for the R model, rear front and rear cameras. You need to have the whole picture. So get the Uniden cameras. They are award-winning for quality and design.
Peace of mind is what you want on the road with your Uniden smart dash cam. Merry Christmas, Steven. And this is our last show before the end of the year. Christmas is this week at the time of publishing. So Merry Christmas to everyone. Thank you to everyone for listening. This is our 101st episode as well.
Congrats. We should have mentioned that last week, you'll be honest. That would have been a good idea. We're in a triple phase.
We're in a triple phase. And these milestones, they mean nothing to us because we are old school long-term. We've got a show that does 700 shows. So let's 100. We're just scratching the surface, he folks. Just getting started.
We'll be around, we'll be around for many years to come when there's TVs at a heightened sales level and everything. But look, it's going to be, it's going to be a great new year.
There's a last show before a little couple of week break over new years. We'll be back on January the 12th with a brand new episode. And by then we'll have unpacked all of our Christmas presents, thrown all the rubbish in the recycling.
And I don't know, I don't think there's an electric car in my Christmas. But when that be nice, that'd be wild.
Imagine that little big, big ribbon on an EV in the driveway. That'd be beautiful. And that would be sure there'd be some people doing that.
They probably is. Let us know where you're at with your EV journey anytime. We love hearing from you. That's our favorite part of doing this show. He's talking to real people about real EV experiences. Good or bad.
We have no reason to care whether you've got good things to say or bad things to say. We literally just want to talk about it. If you hate your car, tell us.
If you love your car, tell us. If you love it, but there's some niggling things about it, let us all learn what those things are.
Absolutely right. That's the whole idea of the show is that we talk to people who are in the market, who maybe just bought it. We share our own experiences as well.
That's the sort of information that helps people make a decision on whether an EV is right for them.
Right here on two bike story electric cars, we're going to take your calls. And we're also going to talk secondhand cars with Peter Wilson from Karma, a used car dealer online.
We want that to come here on two bike story electric cars.
Great to have you company two bike story electric cars. And we'd love to hear from you.
Oh, four double seven six five seven six five seven. Thanks for the phone. Send us a text. Send us a WhatsApp. We'll get you on the show.
It doesn't matter what you want to talk about in the world of EVs. We'd love to hear from you. Mikey's on the line. Get a Mikey.
Really, really good buddy. What can we do for you?
Well, I'm a huge fan of an EV point that I've got my second EV. Hyundai.
Hey, owner.
Because I've done my research and found that they are the most reliable, well put together and have a good reputation.
So quality and finish understood and the range and economy of the Conor is just I can't you can't beat it really.
That was your first and that was your first the first one you bought was the Kona.
The third the first generation's third faith lift Kona and then when the second generation came out two years ago.
I got that.
As well as or
so to be clear, you own only one EV in the driveway, but you're on your.
You've been through it.
And so you're you said you drive from Hobart to launch system. How far is that?
How many cases that for us Northern Ireland and for us mainlanders?
North Islanders.
It's about 350 kilometres.
400 kilometres.
The thing about the car is the rich and capability of it. It's just fantastic.
There's got four stages, not including one pedal.
Not including one pedal.
No, just got zero one two or three.
Regent abilities and then you got one pedal.
Right.
As a separate option, is that something you enable through the kind of the stock settings or is one pedal just next one down?
Yeah, through the paddles.
Through the paddles.
Yeah.
He's got the Regent paddles which I love because I I use cruise control 98% of the time.
And then disengage it's where I'm comfortable lights by myself and use the paddles to stop the car.
And then it has a car inside of me.
It stays in cruise control.
And I just click the switch on the cruise control off we go again.
Yeah, right.
Okay.
So I know you just still get the case.
Were you the first among among your mates and those around you to get an EV or is it something that of several people now do?
I was the first amongst my crew.
Yes, absolutely.
And I remember of the Australian Electric Vehicle Association as well.
Yeah.
In Tazzy Branch.
And yeah, we go to demonstrations and displays and things like that.
But yeah, I was one of the first in my crew to get one and what else is still a bit down.
It's two younger technology yet.
I went, well, yes and no.
How long do you really want to wait and how much money do you really need?
Because one thing we're going to train people coming from ice vehicles to EVs is to filling up at a charging station.
Yes.
When you've got a nice vehicle, you're there and you just fill it all the way up.
Of course.
EV people need to realize you don't need to do that.
You need enough to get home and then you pay the cheaper rate when you plug it at home.
I mean, it's an educational rise on the road.
Is the, just how is the EV, how is it doing in Tasmania?
Is it on the rise?
Are you noticing more charges?
Absolutely.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Now we had an organization called Luxury Highway Says Manual.
It's now being taken over by NRMA.
Yeah.
And they're going to be updating and installing more and more charging stations.
So if you go on to Plung Shea, you can see there's quite a lot of charging stations around Tasmania.
It's just that the fear factor of range anxiety is sort of things.
Yes.
What's your charging situation at a do you charge at home?
Do you use the public charge?
I do.
I've got a seven kilowatt dual charger.
Yeah.
Okay.
It's happy.
It's happy V2.
Yeah.
It's fabulous.
It's just fantastic.
It just doesn't.
I love solar panels.
I've got 31 solar panels as well.
Uh-huh.
So, um, I had 10 like seven years ago and then transitioning to EV after all.
It's the solar panel.
So, it's all the car portion, um, never 31.
Any regrets, mate?
I mean, apart from the obvious learning that's required, is there...
No.
Is there anything that you pass on to people when they're thinking EVs or are you just all in?
Sounds like you're all in.
I'm all in.
Um, I'm afraid to mind that she was 79 at the time and she was going to move into an EV.
And I was going to give her a test drive of my car called Casper,
which was the first EV ahead.
And she's not mighty.
It nervous.
It's just case.
It's okay.
It has a steering wheel, accelerate, a brake.
And I know that happens to be electric.
That's the only difference.
Yeah.
Oh, my God.
I'll throw stuff in the flight deck of Star Trek.
Yeah.
So, if you're dumb or down like that, you're like, oh, you're okay.
And I got to the point where she was even using cruise control and lane centering and all
sorts of stuff on the way home.
That's which you've never done before in EV cars.
That's a leap.
And your current vehicle, Mikey, what do you put your reviewer hat on?
What are you liking about it?
What are some of things you might change or suggest to change if you have your say?
Um, messaging seats.
I mean, it's got, it's got a little latency.
It's already.
Yeah.
And I'm running on 17, which gives me an extra 60 kilometres over the 19s that were previously honest.
Okay.
Yeah.
I did the math on that.
It's all about physics, like the width of the tire, the weight of the rims, all that sort
of stuff.
Yeah.
And it's like the WLB T is 444 on 19s and 505 on 17s.
Oh, wow.
There you go.
Jesus station.
Yeah.
Um, it's got V2L.
Therefore V2G, which is coming up soon, hopefully.
Yeah.
Um, it's got the plug inside the car for a normal household plug.
Yeah.
Right.
It's got new space.
Um, I'd like it all real dry.
If we could, because I like going off track occasionally.
Yeah.
Particularly in Tazami, because per capita, Tazami is the highest all will drive vehicle in
Australia.
Australia.
Yeah.
I picked up the batteries.
Um, and I took the first gen Subaru Saltera for test drive a couple of weeks ago.
And I previously had a Subaru XV.
Yep.
Very similar car, but fully electric.
Yeah.
Right.
Yeah.
And um, it was like stepping to a nice old comfortable moccasin.
It was beautiful.
Yeah.
Right.
So that could take place where you potentially in the future generations.
Yeah.
Oh, look.
I said the, um, the dealer, I said, look.
The deal breaker is it comes with 20s.
I want 18s.
Ah.
You're big on this.
Australia.
The added range.
Correct.
Because in Australia, you don't get the option.
Obviously, you have a choice of rim sizes.
But on the side, even higher than that.
They said, no, no, no, you're getting 90s.
I said, what, I want 17s.
Oh.
In fact, I wish I could have a built-in car.
They do, mate.
They do that purely for vanity.
So they look better.
They look when they're sitting in the showroom, slashing the stands.
But made on the road.
Yeah.
I want the extra buffer of the tyre.
Let alone, mate.
Exactly right.
Yeah.
Exactly right.
And Steven definitely wants higher profile cars.
Yeah.
I need the higher profiles on my car for sure.
Mikey, you've obviously an advocate for EVs.
You've had a very good experience with the Conor.
And I'm sure you'll have many more to come.
And it looks like you're open to other things, which is great.
So, mate, we look forward to following your journey.
And if you do end up getting something else, we'd love to hear from you again
and know what you've learned about that, all right?
I'll keep you updated, guys.
Good on you, mate.
Thanks for getting in touch.
A new like, Mikey, can get in touch anytime you like on 0-4-double-7.
6-5-7-6-5-7.
We'd love to hear from you anytime.
You can send us a text or a WhatsApp.
And we'll get you on the show.
Easy as that.
Oh, look at that.
Just timing.
All the decks.
I'm on the decks.
I'm going to use a mouse.
It's off-putting.
I need to get things working again.
Anyway, speaking of getting things working,
let's get your fingers to the text.
Open up your messages app or WhatsApp.
Send us a text.
Thanks for the phone.
0-4-double-7-6-5-7-6-5-7.
Send us a text.
We'd love to hear from you.
It doesn't matter where you're at in your EV journey,
whether you've never had one.
You've got one.
You're the first owner in Australia.
Or you bloody hate him and you want to tell us why.
We'll hear from you.
We don't mind.
Adrian's on the line.
Get out.
Adrian.
Can I go away?
Mate, really good.
Tell us about your EV journey.
You've got one looking for one.
What's the story?
It's a weird story.
I've currently got a Master 2.
It's a little runabout thing.
What year?
I've got a 2011, 2012.
It would be a 2014, I think it is.
2016, sorry.
It's on a decade, so are you looking to get rid of that one
and replace it with an EV?
Well, we had an incident parked it outside a building
and a window fell on it.
On the car.
Like a high-rise building?
Like a frame of a window.
Well, from the second story of a building.
The whole frame and window popped out of this building
after someone decided to let some fresh air in
and it just broke away.
Oh, wow.
And landed on your car.
No one was in the car.
Yeah, it's got a massive hole in the roof.
Oh, my God.
I was there an hour earlier,
but no one was in it at the time, thankfully.
Oh, wow.
So now we've got a big dent in the A frame.
Yeah, it quite says it's 12 grand to fix it.
So I was thinking the insurance card off.
Yeah, that's it.
So you look at a replacement.
It's so special about that Mazda 2, mate.
That's a write-off.
Yeah.
No, it's not too sentimental to me,
but it was a good little car.
But yeah, we're just looking at potentially
as a second car moving into the EV world.
We're getting some small car.
Well, that's more like what I'm thinking,
because we've got a Canva trailer
and we need a puller to pull that,
so that'd be the bigger car.
And then this would be the little runabout
that gets used most of you around town.
Have you driven anything electric before?
Only on the weekend, just last Saturday,
I took a BYD add-on 2 for a spin.
I was looking for the add-on 1, but they didn't have any.
Oh, yeah, because that was going to be my first suggestion
as an add-on 1, because it might be a smidge.
Smaller than a Mazda 2 wouldn't be much.
I don't think you'd notice it inside,
but it is genuinely a Mazda 2 competitor on price as well
at $23.99 plus on roads.
Yeah.
What do you think of the add-on 2?
Pretty good.
Was the premium one,
so it had a bit more get up and go
compared to the standard one I'm led to believe.
But it was a good little car, it seemed nice,
but I don't know if I'd want to go.
It's a Dolphin 2, not Dolphins,
another off-and-beard, other off-and-beard,
more range.
I'm not too familiar with that one, so.
So BYD already have the Dolphin on the market
that Stephen suggests,
which isn't quite a small car,
but it has much more range than the add-on 1.
So I would say it's competitive to the add-on 1,
but I'd also say with the greatest respect
to anyone that owns a Dolphin,
I think the add-on 1 is a far better looking car than the Dolphin.
The Dolphin's design, in my view,
has aged very quickly.
In the same way that I think the C-line 6 has aged,
whereas the C-line 7 has this kind of model design
that looks like it's going to be fresh for a while.
The add-on 1 has these sharp lines,
very different to the add-on 2 completely,
and both excellent options for you.
But if Stephen's right,
I think you should track down a BYD Dolphin
to look at it and just see if you like it and drive.
And mate, you definitely need to be finding an add-on 1 to drive.
Did the dealer say why they didn't have one?
I guess it's only now December, so...
They said mid-December,
to late December,
they were getting some stock.
So they have my number, essentially.
But this car that we have currently
is held together with Stiggy Taper through the roof,
so we're still able to drive it.
So it's got a big dent
and a firm dent in the slice through the roof,
into the roof itself and the a-frame.
So it compromises some safety potentially.
So we want to move on quickly.
I understand, too,
you are getting a solar and battery system installed soon, too.
We are into January,
that bumped us out to actually early February,
but yeah, we'll be putting some panels on the roof
and a 30 kilowatt battery.
Wow.
So was that an anticipation of you getting an EV
or you're just sick of having it all?
Not at all.
It was just...
Yeah, we thought it was about time.
And with the current office,
with the rebates and stuff,
I thought, mate, we'll give it a go.
Mate, since, didn't it?
And what's your driving style and how many kilometres are you doing
in this runabout and the Mazda 2 style car?
And how often is it home during the day?
Well, my wife and I both shift workers.
So we're in and out and sometimes work late
and sometimes overnight.
So during this, generally,
that car would be home most times during the day.
I ask that because obviously,
getting solar means you can juice that thing on the solar
and that's during the day, yeah.
As well as obviously charging your battery
because you've got a home battery.
So you're going to want to keep that juice up.
And that's probably probably the priority
would be to juice up the home battery
and then secondarily the car on a daily basis.
Maybe once every three days,
you prioritize the car.
But that's the benefit of being, you know,
shift workers, like it is,
you might have that ability to charge it at home on the solar,
which makes it the cost of running that vehicle much, much lower.
For sure.
So yeah, that'd be the plan.
So I guess we'd have to invest in a home charger as well.
All charger, yeah.
That's a good old charger.
Yeah, good idea to do that.
But just remember,
you know, that that would have been able to charge,
like we got the wall boxes
and we can specify we want just solar
to charge our vehicles
or a bit of greed or whatever.
So, look, to remember this,
the yellow one.
Yeah, so we talked to this before,
fine the episode.
But you know, with a basic charge
that might cost you 600 bucks,
or less maybe plus installation,
you can basically just direct power to the car.
With a more advanced one,
and there's different models out there,
but the one we personally have experienced with
and paid for with our own money,
we have the wall box,
the Pulse R Plus and Max.
But basically,
you put an extra little panel in your circuit board
on the home,
and you can set in the app to be full green,
so just solar,
eco, which is kind of a mix of solar and grid,
or just charge it.
I don't care how I need power, right?
Yeah.
And so that allows you to,
so at our place,
it's set to just solar during summer,
so that I don't want to use the grid at all.
And there's plenty of plenty of time
to tell you when to plug into
when there's a lot of power coming through the panels,
it says, yeah,
good time to plug in your car.
But it's also worth noting
that the Ado1 has a relatively small battery,
and with a normal granny charger
we call them,
Trichle Charger,
which might come with the car,
should come with the car,
you just plug into a normal power point,
and it'll charge.
And hopefully,
and I hope we haven't tested it,
but hopefully the BYD allows you to set it,
so you can say, you know what?
Only charge between midnight and 4am.
And so you're getting your cheapest formal electricity,
hopefully,
because you're on a plan that allows that.
Yeah.
You don't need to install a charger.
That might be a second thing you do,
but it's also,
there's a bit of investment going on,
you may as well, you know,
get it done.
There's a lot of specific energy plans
that for EV owners.
Yeah.
I actually, through being recommended
by a caller on this show,
I'm with Ovo.
Ovo offer.
They've got an EV plan.
You get free electricity,
11am to 2pm,
and then overnight,
it's eight cents a kilowatt
from midnight to 6am,
and that's worked out really well for me.
And Ovo, I'm not advertised on this show.
I'm just literally telling you
what I've got in my place.
Yeah.
You've got a solid journey ahead, mate,
so I think the number one thing now,
we've got to track down an 801,
and drive one.
There isn't a lot of other options at that price.
I think you should go and drive an MG.
It's a little more expensive than the,
like it's more like a $30,000 car.
That's a nice car.
You might see the size in that
and range in that is being appealing,
but I think you need to drive a couple
of different brands of electric car.
That's all.
But yeah, the BYD is going to own the market.
Yeah.
Just get a feel.
Yeah.
That, that, that, that,
that smaller size BYD's got the jump.
But yeah, there are,
I'd say the MG's a good suggestion.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And maybe, yeah, what about a,
what about a, what about an EV?
What's the lowest key at EV?
EV 3, EV 3, man.
EV 3.
Yeah.
Yeah.
EV 3.
Drive one of those as well, mate.
So you've got a, you've got homework.
Well, I've got a bit of a test driving going on here.
Yeah, mate.
Yeah.
There's, you won't be,
and then I'll be records.
You drive, you drive 16 or 16 times,
but go and drive some cars, mate,
and then come back to us when you've driven a few.
All right.
We look forward to hearing from you again
when you've, when you've got a few on the tank.
Absolutely.
We'll keep updated.
Thanks for the advice boys.
You go, you can get in touch as well any time.
04, 007.
6, 5, 7, 6, 5, 7.
We'd love to hear from you.
So we'd like to show you electric cars,
and we would always love to hear from you.
04, 007, 6, 5, 7, 6, 5, 7.
Anytime you want to send us a text,
or what's up, we'll get you on the show as soon as we can.
Now, something we've talked about in the past,
and it comes up now and then is second hand.
Electric vehicles.
For several reasons.
The price of them, depreciation,
the value is going up down.
Where's the market at?
And you'd think something that would know
might be a destination online that, you know,
basically works entirely on pre-owned cars.
And that is Carmer, C-A-R-M-A.
See, it's a play on words there.
Carmer.
Yeah, I love that.
Good Carmer.
It should be good Carmer.
This is good Carmer.
Peter Willis, Carmer's Director of Buying,
joins us on the line.
Peter, how you doing?
Very well.
Thanks for having me here, guys.
I appreciate you joining us.
So let's go keep it simple and basic for us.
All, tell us about Carmer.
Tell us what it is and how it works.
That was a really good intro.
And thanks for that one.
Yeah, we are a digital destination for all things use cars,
high quality cars that people can click on, view, browse,
and buy.
And we deliver them directly to people.
And our customers all across Sydney
and expanding into the use case of Australia.
To live it to your door.
That's pretty good.
To live it to your door.
And so we, this is obviously an EV show.
So we're keen on the EV side of things.
How, what are you noticing that there's a larger proportion
of growing proportion of secondhand vehicles that are EVs?
Yeah, well, so you've got to wind it back a little bit.
The EV cars have been, you know, for the last few years,
really starting together some momentum for good reason.
And, you know, those cost of ownership.
And, you know, it is quite a worthy product for those people
that it fits.
And, you know, as the tech gets better, you know,
more and more people will sort of lean that way.
So from what we've seen, you know,
they're certainly a growing part of the community that likes that EV.
So it's good to see that still sort of, you know,
resonating now a few years past that.
So we definitely see that day to day.
But, you know, the used product always creates, you know,
a few more questions.
And, and I guess that the big question there is value.
And, and it's a funny one because we've talked so much here
about the negative side of a lower valuation on an electric car.
You know, people, you drive a car and people go,
yeah, but the depreciation on that's horrible.
And I'm like, I didn't actually buy my car for the second-hand value.
I bought it because I love the car and I'm, whatever.
You've got lots of people.
We've talked about how many big, no-vated leases were signed
probably three years ago.
We're going to see an influx of these cars coming up.
Is it a concern that the value,
well, let me put it to you this way.
Are people's expectations of price not matching
the actual market valuations out there?
Yeah.
There's probably a couple of points to that.
Yeah, the product came in, you know,
sort of the early adopters, you know, when it was sort of,
yeah, it was a niche product, you know,
it wasn't something that was mainstream, you know,
gathered some momentum sold 10,000 units.
There are a couple of years ago per month.
And you started to see those prices then started to be sharper.
Yeah.
And the competition in the market is sort of what's probably driven that
as well as the technology has become more widely available.
So there's more, more of these brands that now can sort of compete
with a similar product.
So I think that's really good for consumers.
So if you think about those points,
first and foremost, anytime you jump,
the gun, you're going by the latest and greatest phone or technology,
you know, you're one of those early adopters.
And some of that, you know, means you might pay a higher price
for that initial, you know, that initial purchase.
You know, we're seeing now what a good time it is for people to start to see
that value starting to creep in.
And, you know, certainly on the used side,
you're starting to see some good value on that side.
But it's, you know, the depreciation is a difficult one to really measure.
Because there was probably that initial spike, you know,
on that new car price because there was not a lot of, you know,
not an abundant demand there.
So the, you know, the manufacturers weren't able to offer that at a price
that could be as competitive as you'd like it to be.
So what are you, so you're saying the cars that were, you know,
new to the market, they had a bit of margin on them.
They're the cars you're seeing now that are sort of a bit cheaper as a second-hand EV.
And the second part of that is sort of what brands are you noticing?
Then I'll imagine there were so many Tesla's sold Model 3s, Model Ys.
Are they the real bargains to pick up now?
Look, yeah, the early Tesla's when you think about the, you know,
the roadster, you know, you think the Model X, you know, the Model S, you know,
they were well into the hundreds of thousands of dollars.
So, yeah, once their Model 3 came out,
it was definitely designed at the consumer that was looking for value.
You know, when you're talking about purchase price around 60,000,
which is sort of then very similar to many of the other incumbent models,
like the internal combustion cars around that same sort of price point.
So, yeah, there's your differences.
You know, those initial ones were really high price.
So, you know, they sort of look like they're out of step with what they should be worth today,
as well as you've now got that competitive tension within the market.
You know, lots of other manufacturers into the market and trying to get that price point closer
to where, you know, the average consumer wants to spend.
You know, the average consumer's sort of 30 to 35,000 dollars on a used car.
You're now starting to see some EVs in that point.
And Tesla's, you know, at the same sort of peak, you know,
you're starting to see a three or four year old Tesla, you know, sub 30 grand
with, you know, relatively decent kilometers for the year.
So, they're the points.
If I jump on Karma right now, there's not a lot of electric cars available,
but you're also not a marketplace traditional kind of online trading post,
as you might say.
Is your Model that you actually essentially buy the current whole solid?
Because you're obviously taking photos of the cars in the same situation.
Like, how does your Model work?
If I had a car, was looking to sell it through you guys,
your job title indicates that you're in charge of buying the cars.
So, is that how it works?
You're buying the cars from the users and then you're creating a dealership.
So, Karma is a dealership as opposed to what we might traditionally see as a listing site
for someone to sell their car.
Absolutely. We own the journey end to end.
So, you know, we buy the car, we control the product
and we control the quality of the car that is delivered to our customer.
So, yeah, we own the journey end to end.
But, you know, to your point, we buy, you know, hundreds of cars every month.
And when we buy those, you know, majority from the consumer.
And it's sort of similar. Karma was set up to be, you know,
a different point from, you know, the traditional model,
and to give customer, you know, have the customer at the forefront of everything we do.
What we do with purchasing is exactly the same.
You know, we want to deliver an experience which makes it actually seamless and fun.
And, you know, takes away all that friction and frustration for customers at all.
So, then easily to do jump on our website and submit us a form.
And we'll get your price back for your car today.
And hopefully get out there and buy it as well.
Do you, is just every car get a price?
Or do you say to some people, well, that one's not for us.
Because, you know, you're in charge of finding cars that can be sold as well.
You don't want to end up with something that sits in your lot essentially for too long.
Absolutely.
We do, if we certainly try and value every single car,
I'd be lying if I told you that it wasn't a couple that might get us to a point
where we don't have a firm price on, and you've got to understand
there's some very niche cars across the market too.
So, you know, we're certainly not buying and trading, you know,
Lamborghini's. We'll be able to look at our site.
There's some of those on there, but not saying that we won't.
You know, it's just one of those things that we want to be able to offer a fair price to people.
You know, there's a car that you look at, you know,
we're not going to be able to do that with any level of confidence.
But we really pride ourselves on delivering that fair value for every car that comes through to us.
So, if there's one that we can't naturally do that,
we'll obviously politely decline.
And so, I understand there'd be a process.
Of course, you buy the car and you check it out for value and all of that sort of stuff.
So, but when it comes to an EV, what do you do different when you're preparing,
you've purchased an EV off a customer and you're preparing it for sale?
What do you do if you run like do you do things like battery health tests or anything like that specific?
Or how do you put it?
It's a really good lead into the direction that we're actually been.
It's a challenge from customers, you know, battery health and range anxiety
as sort of two of the things that come up when you talk about EVs.
And yeah, that's hence why the hybrid product still,
you know, got great great consistency in the market.
But we're actually running that program.
We're starting that now where we've got all of the battery life and battery range measured
and that's done by a third party provider so we can give a consistent result
to give customers that confidence of what they're actually seeing.
So, that's certainly one of the things that we've seen in the last few years.
So, the battery health and those little specific things you do,
does that, I'd imagine that would play a big part in giving the car a value.
So, your car's got better battery health.
I'll assume that that means its valuation would be slightly higher than, wouldn't it?
Yeah, it's where we are at the moment.
You're still very early in the warranty periods and things like that to these cars.
So, most of the battery health and battery conditions are still very good.
The warranties on these are, you know, turned around seven years on most of the battery cars.
So, we're still inside that cycle.
We're not seeing anything as far as what we've seen so far
as huge degradation in battery.
And obviously you are supported by the manufacturers on that as well
because they want to get these things right.
But it's definitely one of those things at this point.
You've got to have a really good metric to be able to give people confidence about what they're buying.
And it's a natural query for people.
For our listeners who own an electric car, maybe they want to know about it at least
and they're now looking at getting out of that into another one.
We often talk and hear people in the car industry.
Forget electric cars for a minute about private versus trade in, right?
So, with your model, which is kind of unique and innovative,
I'm selling the car essentially to a dealer.
It's not a trade in, though.
Where do you sit generally in value?
Are you somewhere in between what you might get on a trade in,
which is obviously lower than what you get on a private sale,
but we all know the headache of a private sale.
Is that the benefit of coming to karma?
You've got a car, you've got a sale, it's a handshake, it's a check.
And then it's done with.
And you sit price-wise in between trading and private?
Yeah, look, it's obviously our point is.
We've got a platform, we've got $300 vehicles online
and really looking to grow that inventory.
So, we're aggressive in the market.
We hear this day-to-day customers come back to this and say,
you know, how to trade and offer and you guys were stronger than it.
Sometimes with thousands of dollars stronger.
So, I think it's certainly a really good point
for someone to be able to check their value,
make sure they're getting a fair one.
They've gone to trade.
But, you know, if you're looking for a quick, seamless and reliable method
of doing a transaction with a great group of people
and a company that's really at the customer at forefront,
it would be a great opportunity for customers to do it that way.
And yeah, that's where we sit.
We're aggressive in the market.
We work on all of our own cars.
We do all of our own reconditioning from end to end.
And so, because we were going to own production area
and we're doing all that work,
we're able to save money along the way doing that.
And that's the way we can sort of pass on that value to consumers.
So, not only the purchase price,
but to the seller that people are buying from us as well.
Are you noticing sort of a bit more curiosity around the EVs?
Are people asking more about an EV now?
Are they just coming in looking for a car
and not with an EV specifically in mind?
But are you seeing now with the so many models now coming in
and a lot of models coming from China?
Is there that interest there now for EVs?
People looking to go that way?
I would say for the last four or five years,
there's definitely been an active consumer sentiment.
More consumers are really active in that space,
wanting to learn more understand.
And the first points are,
we touched on those at the start,
the point around value,
the point around cost of ownership.
Those things are the things that people are really looking at.
The EV product has that lens of,
it's going to be cheaper to run.
And it's the questions around battery life,
and the questions about the value of the end of term,
which is probably the only thing that's solving a revolution there.
But really starting to see customers for the last four or five years
being active in this space
and wanting to know more about it
and certainly plenty of people still wanting to buy an EV or a used EV.
Fantastic. It's a fascinating space.
I love the concept of the business model,
because I love the idea of not having to trade in,
getting a slightly better price, potentially.
And you know, having someone that essentially cares about the car
enough to sell it to someone,
and the effort you put in at the virtual online dealership,
is a really cool thing.
I'm looking at the 360 images on the website.
I'm looking at the Kia EV6 right now,
2023 V6 here, pretty sharp price.
It's not bad.
It's a good-looking car and a good-looking price,
and there's a car that we've had quite good interest on.
I love the website myself.
I'm glad you guys have two.
What we're doing is,
what we're doing is customer at the very front of mind
with everything we do,
and you know, we love that feedback around what we're doing,
so I appreciate it.
We appreciate your time and sharing some time
and thoughts with us,
and we look forward to catching up.
Whenever you get data and information about EVs,
if it's good or bad,
we want to hear about it,
because we're trying to understand the market as a whole,
so we appreciate you joining us.
Sounds good. Thanks very much, guys.
Great stuff. There you go.
That's Peter Wills from Karma.
C-A-R-M-A is the website.
Good karma.
Good karma.
Honestly, you look at those listings.
Is that 360 video?
Absolutely. It's brilliant.
The car has been photographed on a turnstile.
It's very, very smart.
Very, very smart waiter.
And also, the indicators of the imperfections.
Like it shows you the spine.
It's spying in a line, essentially, right?
Exactly.
It's like doing any inspection.
There's a gallery,
and then you can even then look at it.
All the info. It's electric.
It's got how many Ks are on it,
or it's automatic.
And it even has finance information.
You can buy it outright,
or get it on finance.
It's an online cart dealership.
We love it.
We're all worth a look.
We'd love to hear from you.
If you've sold your car through karma,
let us know.
If you bought a car through karma,
we'd love to hear from you.
But if you're just in the market for electric carts,
what we do is love talking to you.
04-007-657-657-677.
Send us a text.
We'd love to hear from you.
Any time you'd like getting touched,
and we will get you on the show.
Stephen, we'll do it all again next week.
I look forward to a trip.
Thank you.
We're right here.
Thank you, mates.
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