104 - A great EV means you buy a second EV!

This is Two Blokes talking electric cars with Steven Fenwick and Trevor Long. Thanks to NRMA

Insurance and UNIDEN. Hey, hey, hey, hey, welcome. Great to have my company. And we're here thanks

to the great people at NRMA Insurance helping Australians for a hundred years and with many

more plans to do more. They're one of Australia's largest insurers of electric vehicles. So you

should give them a call when your insurance is up or if you're buying a new car. And of course,

thanks to UNIDEN, smart dash cams. Thanks to Brad and the team at UNIDEN. If you're looking for

a dash cam for your car, get yourself a UNIDEN. And we always say look for the one with the R in

the model name. Gotta have both. Gotta have front and back. Front and rear. It gives you

peace of mind on the road, no matter what's happening around you. Steven, before we get

to your calls, because there's a lot of calls that are coming through, we'd love to hear from you.

Send us a text or a WhatsApp O477657657. The Australian opens on at the moment and

here, obviously naming rights, massive, massive sponsor. They use that opportunity to launch the

EV4. So I would describe this as a Model 3 slash SEAL competitor. Because it's really,

it's a mid-sized sedan. They really got a car at every level there. So what did they start

of the two? EV3. Three, four, five, six, nine. Yeah, so the three, the five and the nine are SUVs.

The four is the sedan and the six is a sedan coupé sports car. Whereas I would say the four looks

a bit sporty too. It does. I do think overseas there is a Kia EV, like lower numbers. I believe

there is an EV2 that may have its place in Australia in the near future. And we were talking

about this off air before the show. We know nothing about the EV4 and I look forward to driving it

when it comes. We'll get into it sooner. We'll get into it when we can. But what I find fascinating

is Kia, they're not one of those companies that five years ago said we're going to go fully electric,

like Volvo, and then they've had to go back on their word. They're not one of those companies

that's just going, oh, we've got an EV to tick the numbers. I feel like they've got a strategy of

going, we've got all our petrol cars there also. We've got some hybrids there. And here's our electric

range. They've actually got a range of electric cars. I'll say as far as much as in terms of a

legacy brand. You've got your Teslas and your BYDs who would just come through with EVs,

but Kia, as a company that's been around for a while, I'd say their introduction of electric

vehicles into their fleet. It has been, I think, probably one of the best examples of a legacy

brand catering for everyone. That's right. I think other car manufacturers could take a leaf out of

their book and do it their way. I think the biggest challenge for someone like here is the risk,

because EV9 is a massive risk. They probably sold 300 of them, maybe. Not many. It's meant to be a

flagship car. They can't be judged on sales numbers on any of their vehicles because

it's really about just being in the market. I'm sure they would love to sell more because

they're essentially a premium vehicle. But in the end, what they need to be doing is selling

enough that it makes them EV ready. Dealerships need to be EV ready because that's the other

thing here is by having enough EVs, you start to maybe train your dealerships better and your

salespeople. And also it's going to help them with the new vehicle emissions standards because

they're going to have more EVs in their range and that's going to help offset the petrol cars

that are in their range as well. Just the customers too. Customers who were Kia drivers,

they've had a Kia for a while. Now they know that if the next vehicle, if they consider an EV,

they've got five to choose from. And I genuinely think your wife, Joe, is a great example of

someone. If she went into a dealership with her Kia Sorento... Sorento. That's Sportage.

Sportage, sorry. Yeah, the smaller, mid-size SUV. And said, what's the new Sportage worth? And they

went, it's worth this much. And by the way, have you considered the EV5 or the EV3? And she sat in

them. That should be the process. We've got a Sportage. Absolutely. Here it is. It's new and

it's probably hybrid. The new petrol version. It's great, whatever's available, but also have you

consider it. You know, we're not going to sell everyone. But some people have actually, I didn't

know Kia did an EV. You know, I thought it was only Tesla. So I played to them. Like I'll use

myself as the example. Mercedes has, I've went from Tesla back to Mercedes and I'm finding the

Mercedes don't have like my leases up in a few months. And they, there's really not many choices.

Like they've got hybrid choices, but fully electric choices are quite limited. In fact,

the model that I'm driving, they've discontinued. Well, it was a one and done model. So other

other brands, you know, they need, they need to follow the Kia's lead here and

Kada for everyone. Literally catering for all kinds of drivers. It's a fascinating looking car.

The Kia EV4, if you want to look it up, you're in that, if you're in that seal,

model three area looking for a sedan, you know, like a nice traditional car. It looks more like

the EV6. So it looks like it designed, they've got three design teams at Kia. One of them does

all the petrol cars and they've taken some lead from the guy that does the electric cars.

But in the electric car range, there's someone that designed the EV6 years ago and that person's

still there and they've gone, mate, you do the four. We've got you. You stick to the even numbers.

We'll do the odd numbers. That's exactly what it is. That's so good. I love it. All right,

two like story electric cars. We love to hear from you and we'll get straight to your calls right

after this. Great heavy company here on two bikes, story electric cars. If you want to be part of

the show, we'd love you to be part of the show. It's very simple. Open up your contacts on your

phone. It's create a new contact or whatever you want to. You could come up with a nickname.

If you do come up with a nickname for the two bikes, feel free to screenshot that and share it

with us on socials. Call it TBTEC or just the TB, the TB, the two bikes. That kind of thing.

Exactly. Save us in your phone. Send us a text. Let us know where you're at in the world of EVs.

Love them. Hate them. You need to say the number to you haven't said the number. I'm getting to it.

Because they've just opened up their phone. During this process, they've been writing the name.

You've got to choose first name, last name, and then company. So it could be two blokes.

Yeah, because it offers you a first name, last name. I mean, what are you going to do?

Anyway, O4 double seven, six, five, seven, six, five, seven, like what a number, honestly.

You're not going to forget that. I don't think so. Well, I to date haven't got a personal number,

by the way. O4 double seven, six, five, seven, six, five, seven. And someone who did just that

is Byron. He joins us on the line again. Hey, Byron.

How are we? Oh, mate, very good if I press the button to bring you on the show.

Where are you out in the world of EVs, my friend?

Mate, so I've joined the EV club probably 12 months ago. I picked up a Polestar 4 as my

my drive car. And mate, absolutely loved it so much that three months later,

I convinced my wife that she should do the upgrade as well.

And she's picked herself up a little Z-Gar X. Nice.

Oh, that's the first thing that we drove. Yeah, that's a nice car.

That's a cracking little car. So just quickly on the Polestar. The Polestar 4 is the one with no rear

window. Yeah, that's the one. How does that grow on you? Because I didn't love it as a driver for

a week at the first, I thought. Yeah, I've got to say, right, because I'm a bit short-sighted.

So I wear glasses and it was like a bit disorienting maybe the first couple of times I drove it.

But after about a week, you don't notice. It just becomes second nature.

And so it's not something. And in fact, it's probably an advantage. I know that the cars that

do have those camera mirrors, that they seem to get a lot more vision when you're driving around,

if there's low light or raining conditions or that sort of thing. So those camera mirrors.

We've driven a couple of cars with camera mirrors and I always look in the wrong spot.

I'm looking because where the camera is is usually where the mirror is.

No, you're talking about side mirrors. We're talking about rear mirror.

I know he is. But even having a camera replacing a mirror is a little disorientating.

Yeah, I think when we talked about it, the biggest problem I had and you mentioned it there,

Byron, was I just can't focus on. Yeah, you got to sort of focus.

Because we both need glasses for reading. And so I was like, I can't actually focus on

the mirror. So you say you get through that.

You do get through that. And just in terms of the positioning, it's not a mirror. So you

don't position it like a mirror. You point it toward yourself. And I think that makes a difference

as well. You know what I found, Byron? I found that the camera made it appear that the cars were

closer than they actually were. Are you finding that or is that just me?

That is the case. I'm thinking everyone was tailgating me. I said, this makes a tailgater.

And he wasn't. And if you get a cyclist parked behind you in the traffic,

basically you would see the pores in their face, right? So don't they do a big place?

So the wife, you love having an EV so much. The wife obviously was on board with it as well.

Why the Zika? Yeah, well, not initially, right? Because she loved the car that she had, right?

So she was driving around in a Prado Kakadu, right? So it was a big change. But our kids are

getting older and we didn't need it. And the car itself was getting a bit long in the tooth.

So it was probably time to change. And so we looked around. So when I bought the Polestar,

I basically bought that off a spec sheet. So I'd unseen it. I just wanted it.

Right. But when we're looking for Joe's car, it was more about we sort of went out and we

test drove a whole bunch of them. Initially, we had our sights on the EX30 from Volvo.

And when we went and test drove that, and it was okay. But we didn't like the interior. Then we went

and checked out a couple of the BYDs. And they were again, the smaller ones of those were a little

bit. We just didn't quite like them. I don't know what it was about the BYDs, but they were kind of

95% there for us, but they weren't quite 100%. And I said to her one day, let's go and,

you know, we were sort of just pottering around. And we said, let's go and check out the Zika and

give it a go. And when I drove that thing, because initially she was too nervous too,

so I drove it. And it wasn't quite as good as the PS4, but it was pretty close in terms of the drive

and the feel of it. I mean, the handling is not perfect, sort of floats around a little bit,

but geez, it had some go. And it just felt nicer. And so we went, well, let's take a chance on this

thing. That's good. So this is obviously, the Pulse was your first EV, the Zika's her first EV.

So how is she getting accustomed to the whole EV thing now? Is she up with it?

Yeah, she's right on it now. So I mean, her her commute to work is like three and a half k's,

right? So she's a perfect candidate for an EV. So, you know, we're literally charging it once every

two weeks. But, you know, so for her, it's just a perfect little runabout. And, you know, the one

thing that she's worried about was losing the space because, but we haven't found that as an issue

now. So yeah, she's right. She really enjoys the car. You mean having a smaller car, you mean,

losing the space? Yeah, just downsizing from the Prado to the Zika's car. That's massive. I mean,

downgrade in terms of size. I mean, can I ask, is that a family like the kids have grown up or

like that's a big change in the kind of car that you would, you would own?

Yeah. So my, my eldest just started driving. So we don't typically need to have the three

kids in the back anymore. And we're not driving around their mates as much. And so we sort of,

we bought the Prado thinking, you know, we'd go on long road trips and family camping holidays

and stuff. But the reality was we just didn't. I think we drove it with one long trip in seven

years. So, you know, if we're going to do that again, let's rent something.

And so what's your charging situation with, with the two EVs now?

What are you going to do? Yeah. So the first thing I did, first thing I did is I put in a wallbox

before, before I picked up delivery of the car, actually, we went with the Evnex smart wallbox.

Which is, that was an interesting process too, right? Because you basically send photos of

your house to them and then they, so they give you a quote over the phone.

And then they just come in and install it. So it was pretty easy in the end.

But I also have some, a couple of charging bays in the office where I work. So I typically, you

know, I drive to work, top up the car, drive home, you know, getting harder and harder to get

access to them as more and more people get. It's a great idea to have them in the office and use

them. But at some point, the number of, it's like, I mean, it's not a great analogy, but disability

park are often looking and go, what if there's only two spots and there's four people? It is

pretty much first come, first serve. And that's what you get with EVs. And you might have it for

a couple of years where you, you dominate because it's always available for you. But then three

other people buy EVs and the native ad at least and all that kind of stuff. And then you share it

around, you just have a chat with your workmates. You do need to have a bit of mutual respect in

the office, don't you, Barix? Yeah, yeah. So you try and, you try and take it off as soon as you're

done. But you know, it looks complete. We're kind of arriving in the office earlier and earlier

these days. So it's quite, yeah, I gotta say, I'll tell you a quick story. I turned up, I walk with

the, the South's past players six AM every Friday. There's four charges there out the front. The last

time we went walking. So last week, all four charges were in use at quarter to six in the morning.

So there's a heavier demand on them now. And what have you learned most about being an EV

driver in the, in this time? Obviously, you're double converted now. Do you become an advocate?

Double converted. Oh man, two cars. Do you find yourself preaching or is it just

advice and knowledge as it comes? Well, I mean, I absolutely love my car. And I'm an advocate

these days, but I guess there's two learning curves, right? So there's the EV experience itself,

right? Learning to charge and dealing with electric motor, but then there's these software-defined

motor cars. And so dealing with software updates and features that don't quite work and getting,

that's been the real learning curve for us, right? So initially with the Polestar, lots of problems

with the opening the doors and batteries running out and this sort of thing. But that's not an

issue anymore, right? So once they sorted out the digital key with the telephone, it's, it's

not an issue. So, but it was, so it's a better car today than what it was when I picked it up.

But yeah, the software aspects of the car are probably the harder bit to come to terms with,

and it is the actual EV element of the car. Yeah, we had issues with the key, remember? The

Polestar has just, there's no button. There's just really, there's one or two buttons on it,

as I recall, it was a car that needed to be taken away on a truck. Yeah, we couldn't get it open.

Yeah, it was just, it would not open. It was a car, I drove it here, remember? And then it was

stuck. And it was dead and they paid for me in a Uber to get home. And look, look, that was partly

our fault, but also, you know, lack of knowledge. And you know, these cars, we like, we just pick

them up and go, you know, you don't, you don't try and learn about it. There were two tap and go

keys inside the car, but we didn't have them out. I mean, they were just, they looked like

cards to me. And if I take those out of a press car, I'm going to forget to put them back in. So,

look, it's always a different experience as a, you know, one week driver than it is as an owner,

because you don't get a handover from the dealership that don't teach you anything. So

I never, I never took that as a slide on the car. But it's fascinating that there were issues in

some ways, in some way that I had issues with the key with the 12 volt battery and stuff like that.

And it's all getting fixed with software. It's really a matter of how many people get burned

by those experiences and their friends hear about it. And, you know, because I, if you, if you were

to ask my wife about issues with the Kia versus me, I'm going to sell them differently too. You

know, I'm going to tell you that it was a known issue and I knew what was coming and we called

and then we need a software update. Whereas my wife's going to say, I was a complete pain in

the ass. I was stuck at the car park and you know what I mean? Like you're, you're, we've kind of

got a bias towards our love for the car too. But it sounds like, mate, you're a very happy man.

But Byron brought up a really important thing too about the, the, the car getting better

with the software updates. That's one thing that I learned day one of when I got my Tesla back

eight years ago, they improve over time because of those software updates. So it's one of those

things. Just consider it another thing you got to update. Like another thing you got to charge

an update. You got your phone and all these other devices, your cars, another one. Yeah.

Well, that's awesome, mate. Really great to hear from you. Keep us in touch with the,

with the experience and the learnings that you have and your road trips you do

so that everyone can learn from you, buddy. All right. Thanks for that. Good on you,

mate. Thanks for getting in touch. It's good to hear from you. Um, yeah, great experience and,

you know, to, to buy one and then go and buy another is a huge endorsement of his wife's

name is Joe as well. I'm also married to a Joe. So I'm trying to convince her to, to get an EV as

well. You don't need to convince her. She's on board. She's sort of halfway there, I reckon.

I think you just need to write the check. It's right. Yeah. I'm only buying you an EV or three.

I don't know. We don't know yet. She'd be good in the Z-Correx. The Z-Correx.

She loved the Porsche. Wouldn't be bad for her. Yeah. I agree. You might want to talk her out of

the Porsche. Yeah. Well, it'd be my Porsche and she'll be driving it. Oh, you think that could

be the issue? Yeah. She'll want to drive it all more. That's fast. That's really fascinating.

You've owned a Tesla Model S. You've got the Mercedes EQE and Joe's never driven either of them.

Is it a big car thing?

Yeah, it is. Low, big cars. Yeah. But the SUV, not a drama. All the SUV EVs I've had,

most of them, I've offered her to drive it and she's like 90% of the time, she's like,

yeah, I'll give it a drive. If I do my job right and keep you in a press car, you can become a one

car family. You know, get rid of the key. Perhaps. So I'll be buying my wife a Porsche

McCann, is that what you're saying? Yeah. It's kind of feels like that's where it's going.

Right. Is that what it's hitting? Get her a Porsche McCann. Just buy yourself something

simple like a BYD. So you've got the backup. Yeah. All right. Two likes talking electric cars.

We'd love to hear from you. 04777657657.

Let's keep going with your calls. If you want to talk EVs, we'd love to talk to you.

Lots of responses. We should acknowledge a lot of responses to recent episodes on YouTube.

Yeah. I mean, the funny thing about podcasting, Stephen, is we only really get feedbacks.

We've been podcasting 15 plus years, right? Yeah.

You get the odd email and things from people. But, you know, the publishing of our video

podcast on YouTube means, Jesus, there's some comments. And, you know, the last few weeks,

there's been a few comments because there's been a lot of conversation about dealerships. So

happy to hear your comments. We don't want to become the dealership bashing podcast,

but Jesus, if it's an issue, we want to be real though. We want to present everything as you

experience it. So we're not sugarcoating anything. The EV industry is open for inspection.

Yeah. 100%. So if you've got something to say, let us know. And I think you'll find Stephen

Grant is on the line and he has a bit to say. Grant, how are you, buddy?

Yeah, good. Thanks, boys. Mate, you were watching a recent episode and you've had an experience

shopping around for EVs yourself? Yeah. Yeah. I'm in the same boat. I don't want to bash these

car companies, but just some of the policies they've got, you know,

just need to really go back to the old school. So what was your experience, mate?

Yeah, over the Christmas period, you know, car companies closed down a lot of people. Yeah. I

went to my local dealer and he's got like Ford, Kia, Renault, BYD, Hyundai. So I thought, can I get

a Kia just over the Christmas break? You know, a couple of days, do a good test drive,

make sure it's 100%. What I want to spend the money on, because, you know, cars are expensive

nowadays. Yeah. Yeah, happy to do that. Oh, wow. Same dealership. Oh, can I do the same with BYD?

Salesperson went around next door whilst finishing up with Kia, come back. No, can't do that.

You have to go with the salesperson. They got three, they say a course, but, you know,

three roads. Yeah. You drive with the salesman. And we're going to test it, you know, fully with

my family. And I want to do it at night time, you know, test the headlights, make sure I can see

the road. That's an interesting point, you know, headlights are a really important part of a car.

Absolutely. And some do have great headlight technology built into them. Some of them just

have better lighting. You know, you want to get, you know, say to the kids, just come in, jump in,

jump in the car, I want to go around the block, see if you're all leg room, whatever. I want to put

it into my carport, my garage. Yeah, that's important too. Like little things like that.

I've taken it to my driveway, make sure it doesn't scrape up in any way I've done that before.

So where did it leave you, Grant? What was the kind of next step for you?

Well, I couldn't test the BYD, you know, the shark. I wanted to test the shark, but I wanted to test

the, you know, the other cars they've got, because I'm nearly six foot and my son, one of them,

he's nearly the same tall as me. So, you know, backseat wise, I want to make sure the kids can

fit in there. Yeah. So, and the whole point is, you know, you want to test it.

You could have driven the BYD, but it was just a short test drive with the salesperson. You

couldn't take it away overnight. So you could do it, but it wasn't. I had to be on a set course

with the salesperson and you couldn't do anything of your own kind of decision.

Yeah. So it's like putting a line through a car company without, you know, doing a test.

So, locally, there was a second-hand dealer. So, and he had the shark, so I contacted him.

And even though he's a second-hand dealer, the brand BYD, the coal company's under one brand,

who owns it in Australia. So, it's like he's pressuring me saying, oh, I can get you a test

drive at night time, but you have to, like, buy the car. And it's like, I don't know if I like the

car. How am I going to say, oh, yeah, I'll buy the car after the test drive. Yeah.

Normally, it's the test drive first and then you buy it later. Isn't that how it works?

Yeah. Wow. And you're saying that even though it was a second-hand model at this dealership,

that they're still under BYD's control, of course. Yeah. Yeah. Because, you know,

I guess that dealership is under the umbrella of the parent company as well as BYD is.

But in general, though, they were trying to be as accommodating as possible. Because last week,

as you probably heard, some of the stories were pretty horrendous about the treatment they got

at these dealerships. But generally, was it professional? Apart from the rules? Yeah.

Yeah, they were professional about it. But just the second-hand one was like, well, I can get you,

but do you have to sign the contract that you're going to buy a car? That's pushing.

Yeah. Even though it was like saying, would you buy a new or a used? Like,

yeah, just put me off a little bit. Okay. So where have you ended up? I mean,

you're obviously actively in the market. Are you just still shopping around?

Yeah. I like the interest of hybrid. Okay. So you got that flexibility?

Yes. Yeah. So any others that you've test driven or you've got a couple extra test drivers?

No. I've got plans like I contacted Zika to do an overnight test drive. It's like, oh, $750.

It's like, what? Really? Is it like a deposit you get back or is it just a payment?

Yeah. Probably like a guarantee that you're not going to do anything.

But you get the money back once you have it. Okay. Have you heard of that? No.

I mean, look, I'll be honest, it kind of makes sense in a way. If car dealers never existed in

the world and you said to yourself, we're going to buy 50 cars, put them in a lot,

and we're going to try and sell them to people, and then random people are going to take them for

drives, you'd say to yourself, well, how do we stop people stealing them insurance out of the

car? Take a deposit and give it back to them. It kind of makes sense, right? But in the world

where we've had car dealerships for decades and decades, it's insanity. Well, you know what?

For an entry level brand trying to win business, like if we're talking about a Porsche or a Lamborghini

or something, maybe. So basically, mate, you're still stuck in the tractor waiting for the right

opportunity to come along. Yeah, yeah, I'm still stuck in my old little car. I mean, why is X car

that I'm struggling to get in and out of? I just want to get back to a big car. Yeah. Yeah. It's

just a shame because cars are expensive. Yeah, exactly. You've got to make sure it's right.

Yeah. So has this sort of, you still want to drive an EV and you were mentioning also possibly a

hybrid? Has it put you off to in that? No, it hasn't put me off. But, you know, it's just like

these new companies, I think they're trying to go on more hype than reality. And yeah, it's just

Yeah, fair call. Yeah, right. Interesting. Well, your journey is but young. And I guess you just

got to hope that you either find a dealer that's willing to help you out or you find somebody

buys one, let you drive one. But it doesn't sound like they're going to change policies

anytime soon, Grant. But if we hear anything, we'll let you know. And otherwise, you keep us

in the loop on your journey, my friend, all right? Yeah, no worries. Yeah. I don't want to be negative

and all that. I just heard your story last week and I thought I wouldn't mind giving my story.

Yeah, absolutely. You've done that and you did it well. Good on you. Thank you, Grant.

Thank you very much, boys. Thanks, mate. Cheers, no worries at all. Yeah. I mean,

look, the fact is, it's clearly an issue. We've heard from too many people, you know,

primarily about BYD, we can't deny it. That's getting the most. But, you know,

we've heard about car dealerships generally. You bring up a good point though about these new

brands wanting to obviously sell cars and make a name, right, and establish themselves.

They're the ones that are putting up these rules and putting up the... They should be the ones

that are going... Limitations. Yeah, they should say, of course, you could take it home. Of course,

you could take it for the weekend. You've only ever heard of us in the news because we're selling

lots of cars. You're seeing lots of them on the road. We want you to experience them. Come drive

one. Yeah. Like, I don't know. Absolutely. It feels like a missed opportunity for someone to just

be a proactive customer-focused dealer. I'd say so. I wonder after last week's episode. That was,

look, we had a lot of people listening and watching and commenting. And to be fair, there were a lot

of comments to say, no, I had a great experience with BYD. A lot of them said this dealer, that

dealer. That was amazing. It was great. Others said, yeah, it was a bit frosty.

But it amazes me that this... That last three foot of the sale isn't the best

possible experience you can have because that's where your decision's made, isn't it? You don't

make the decision at home. You make the decision there. I feel like they've lost the art of the sale.

Isn't that a book? The art of the deal. No, that's a trouble. There's a lot of books written about

sales. And I feel like they need to go back to basics. I agree, mate. It's not like we're knocking

on door doing vacuum and encyclopedia sales. We're talking about a building that people walk into

with the intent of looking at a car. That's the thing that they've got to realise. They're not

walking in there just for something to do. They're not walking in there to possibly buy a car.

They're not walking in there just to waste time. It's your job to go, okay, what I need to do is

have a chat with this person. And they might find out pretty quickly that it might be like me. If

I'm just a browser at that time, don't talk to me. Let me just look around, right? So you've got

a type of person. I'm just looking, mate. Thanks very much. Look, I know that must be like we're

sitting here on a podcast. We're not in a dealership every single day. I reckon the biggest annoying

thing for them would be all the tire kickers thinking, oh, yeah, it's not bad. But Stephen,

that's your job. Yeah, true. That's your job is to go, I'm going to size this person up.

I'm going to, oh, they don't want to help. Cool. But I'll keep my eye on them. And if they look over

here, I'll let them know. If I can help you in any way, let me know. If there's someone that's

equipped with knowledge, then you work that out pretty quickly because they say I'm looking for

the BYD, Shark 6. I'm like, oh, have you driven one yet? If they've got no knowledge, but their cars

just died and they've got to get a new one, your job is to sell them on this brand and this vehicle.

I mean, I don't know. It's not rocket science. Maybe I'm missing the point. But I feel like

car sales need to go back to being car sales. And look, I'm sure there'll be a lot of people

who can tell the same story from regular car dealers, from not just EV dealers, but

it is one of those things where there's a lot of people who are a little bit, I know,

a lot of people may be intimidated by the experience. They're thinking, well,

you know, they're going to try to screw me on the price and stuff like that. But we're finding now

that, and you've probably noticed this too, that the price is the price now. I don't think there's

anything such thing as haggling anymore. There's not a lot. That used to be the tricky part of the

deal. Now it's just getting a test drive is hard. Unless you're well connected like we are. Yeah.

And if you're buying from one of the big legacy brands, we might be able to help you out. Yeah.

Our connections might be able to get you a better deal. And you know what? Here's the thing.

We've said this before. We don't clip the ticket. We're not earning money from this. But if we do

connect you with our man Aaron, and he's able to give you a quote that's better than what you've

seen before, you know, you can take that quote to a dealer and they may, they may, your local

deal and they may better it. Or you might find that Aaron, his team have just better, better at

selling you on service over the phone and email, whatever it is. But you can actually ring around.

Now, in a lot that if the car is super popular in high demand, good luck getting a better price.

But, but if a car is having in waves and at this time of the month or whatever it does,

it's not selling or they've got stock, they might want to get rid of it. So always ask the question.

If you're in the market, especially Kia, but any of the big brands, let us know, not really the

entry level Chinese brands, unfortunately. But yeah, let us know. We've got a great contact

with Aaron and we can pass on your details and we can at least pass on the details. I reckon

if I've passed on 20, I reckon eight of them are bought cars. And the other the other 12 have just

gone, not that I can get a better deal or it's easier local or whatever it is. Totally fine. We

don't mind. It costs nothing to ask. Correct. And we'd love to hear from you, whatever the case

and wherever you're at in your EV journey, get in touch anytime 0447 657 657.

Great to have you company. We'd love to hear from you.

Stuart's on the line. G'day, Stuart. Hello. How are you? Mate, really good. You've been on the

show before. If I recall and then prompted by your very great text message, you own a Mustang. So

we're talking muscle car, throbbing sound, all that stuff. And then you bought a Hyundai IONIQ

5N, which is basically the sportiest EV you could own. Is that correct?

Yeah, that's correct. That was two years ago. Wow. And you still got it? You still loving it?

I've still got it. I love it. It's the best daily driver I've ever owned. Wow. And combination of a

sports car and daily driver, it's unbeatable. Mate, I'm sending that clip to Nikki Bill and

Guido at Hyundai. They'll absolutely love it. That's a big endorsement for someone who's a car

guy, right? And I've talked about this, Steven, with some of the cars we drive. Some of them are

emotionless. And I'll be honest with you, the BYD Auto 2 that you're about to take,

it's a bit emotionless. Emotionless. No emotion. I don't feel connected to the car.

Although it does ride pretty well. But as a car guy, Stuart, you're feeling, you want to feel

good in the car as you drive around a corner, but you want to feel comfortable at the same time.

That's what you mean by daily driver? Yeah, absolutely. Like all EVs are basically really

fast in a straight line and anybody can drive fast in a straight line. That's not hard. But the

5N provides a whole heap of feedback when you're driving it that I just really get a lot of

satisfaction from. From the steering, the feel of the brakes, the handling, the feel

basically through your butt. It's a true sports car. It's heaps of fun. Yeah. So you just described

the experience and the way you drive the car, a lot differently to most other drivers. The most

other drivers just sit in the car and think, okay, it drives well. You're a bit more sort of more

connected to the car. And so you're able to, as you described, able to tell us the exact feeling

you get. The ex will kind of emotion that you get out of it. Has that been something that

has been easy to convey to fellow rev heads? No, it's not. It's really a car that you have

to experience. And as you know, it's the car that's got the artificial sort of engine sounds

as well, which I actually don't use that often. I don't feel I need to. I get enough engagement

otherwise. But I'm a bit of a track rat. And I go out the race track quite often. And I do

turn the sounds on when I'm at the race track, just because it gives a bit of extra engagement.

But it also gives you another point of reference when you're driving on track for as far as speed

and your braking points and all that sort of thing. So yeah, I've had it out on track up here

in Queensland quite a few times and I'm having a ball driving it. Wow. And when you take it to

those track days, are there other EVs or is this open to all cars or just EVs or who else is on the

track with you? No, up here in Queensland, I normally go out to Queensland Raceway and just

attend the General Street Sprints, which is all sorts of cars. And there is another

EV that does attend quite regularly, which is a highly modified Tesla. And he goes really quick.

He's done a good job with that car. And I think a lot of people are surprised at how quick these

EVs are around a track. Yeah, you always turn heads. I've got no doubt. But you also mentioned

when you reached out to us that you'd taken a bit of a road trip. Was that a daunting experience

for an EV? Yeah, for me, it was a little bit because I'm probably not a typical EV owner. I

really care about the charging, you know, saving money on charging and the environment wasn't really

my motivation for buying the car. And Hyundai and Australia put on a free track night at Sydney

Motorsport Park and they extended it to all IONIQ 5N owners. So I thought, well, I've never driven

Sydney Motorsport Park before. It's on my bucket list. And I thought, I'm just going to jump in

the car and drive down there. And I did it with basically petrol car levels of planning, which

is basically none. Wow. So how did you end up like that? How did you go? Well, I charged it to 100%

and jumped in the car and started driving and just relied on the car's native system Satnav

to direct me to charges. I didn't use... I just wanted to see what it was like for someone who's

not an EV enthusiast, for someone to just get in and go like he would a petrol car. And yes,

I didn't use Plug Share or any of those third party apps. I didn't look up stops before I left

or anything. I just got in and it was an interesting experience. So it was both good and bad.

Right. So I started looking for charges when I got to about 40%. And by that time...

Mate, that I'm already freaking out. Like, I'm going for a drive on Friday with the kids. And

there's no way I'm waiting until 40% to decide where to look. So you're a brave man. Well done.

Yeah. Well, I figured that between Brisbane and Sydney, it's a pretty busy road and it should be,

you know, fairly populated. But yeah, there's not that many charges

in rural New South Wales. So I did make it to the first charger with what turned out to be

enough charge. But one of the struggles I then faced was I'm in rural New South Wales. I luckily

already had the EV app. It was an EV charger at Tyndale. And I had no phone reception.

We have heard this in several places. I had it at Tesla in Chatswood. It's in the

boughs of a building and there's nothing but Tesla there. I've had it in the middle of nowhere

where it's just nothing. I used an EV charger recently too. But isn't there a facility where

you can just tap your credit card? There's a way to tap your... If you've ordered a tap and go

EV card, but very few of them have actual credit card tap and go facilities.

Yeah. So what did you do, mate? How did you end up there?

Well, I spent probably a good 15 minutes running around the forecourt of the servo,

just trying to get a bar of reception and then be close enough to then quickly tap it

and get it charging. And it did take me about 15 minutes to get that to work.

That would have been stressful. Well, I think it's one of the weakest points of owning an EV.

While you cannot just tap your credit card is beyond me, imagine if Petrol service stations said

you can come to our Petrol service station, but you have to download our app and you have to open

the app. You absolutely nail it there. And Stephen made the point. Why can't you just...

And there's definitely to be clear and people, ring us, let us know where they are. But I'm sure

there are some around. I remember having one. I actually think one of the newer NRMA ones in

Tamworth, it might have been, had it. And I'm like, oh, that's interesting. Or it might have been

actually... Anyway, it was a regional area. And I remember tapping up card and thinking,

that was interesting. But it's just like, how's that not fundamentally built into it?

Doesn't matter whether you're BP, EV, ChargeFox or anything. The idea of making someone essentially

build into your ecosystem, download your app, become a user. Christ, just take my money.

Okay. What you do is exactly what the Petrol companies do and say, look,

if you want to shop at 7.11, download our app, you can lock in a fuel price, get it.

So it's cheaper maybe if you use the app. So make it 65 cents tap and go per kilowatt.

But make it 57 cents if you've got the app. Like incentivize me using the app. And I'll

tell you what, Stuart, I'm like you, I wouldn't give a rat. I just tap my card for simplicity

every single time. Yeah, that's it. So that was my biggest frustration. And then I got on my way

again, it was a relatively, it was a 350 kilowatt charger there, which was really good. And I got

on my way again. And I realized that if that charger had been broken or busy, I would have

as I progressed. And I ended up making three charging stops to

Sydney Motorsport Park, which took about 2045 minutes worth of charging in total.

Yeah, incorporate stuff into that. Or did you feel like it was inconvenience?

Yeah, no, I did. And I could have, I made a YouTube video. I've got a YouTube channel

performance car lounge where I've documented my road trip. And I stopped three times. But on the

way back, I stopped twice and I did a bit of planning on my trip back. And my total time

charging on the trip back from Sydney Motorsport Park was only an hour and 45. And I recognize

if I was driving a petrol car, I would have stopped for about an hour and a half easily to

have lunch and stretch my legs and go to the toilet. And that sort of thing. So,

yeah, it was a good experience. Unfortunately, when I was at Sydney Motorsport Park,

I'd done a few track days on the tyres before. And I gave them a good ragging out on track. And

on the highway back towards Brisbane, I had a little bit of left hand down on the steering wheel.

So I had to make a diversion to Newcastle to buy a replacement set of tyres.

We're replacing tyres in our car, mate. We're doing that through failures of our own for not

inflating tyres correctly or bad wear or whatever. You're fangin' it, mate. That's your own bloody

faults. Yeah, I mean, 2.2 tonnes and it's a fast car. It takes it out on the tyres.

Mate, you know what? You paid a lot of money for that car. You're getting the use of it. And that's

what I love about you, mate. You paid a lot. That's a very expensive car. And you are using it the

way it's intended to be used, which is to enjoy it daily, but to fang it when possible. And mate,

massive respect. I hope you've found some great Hyundai mates down at the Sydney Motorsport Park

event. And that's the great thing. It does become a great community. So you've had a good run there.

It is. I'm glad you learned about your road trip on the way back. I love your courage to go unplanned,

but yeah, planning matters. I think we can all say we've learned that here, haven't we?

Yeah. And I think I talked to a lot of people about buying EVs and they talk about road trips,

which they would do maybe once a year, I reckon, if they're lucky. And for me, I charge my car at

home just with solar on a granny charger. I hadn't used a public charger for 12 months,

leading up to the road trip. And I think most people could probably get away with doing the

same. And they're making car purchasing decisions based on such a limited use case of that one

road trip they may or may not do a year. And if you just put a little bit of planning into it,

it doesn't take much more time. That's what we've been saying. And it's, yeah, yeah.

Great, great, great learning. One other point. Yeah.

Yeah, great. I had only been on track before the Tesla. I was on track at Sydney Motorsport

Park with about 10 other Ionic 5Ns, and it was just great. And a great bunch of guys. So shout

out to those guys. This is on YouTube channel too, didn't you? That is your miss for YouTube?

Yeah, I did. Yes, it is. Yeah. Performance car lounge, YouTube.

Performance car lounge. Yeah, we'll take it out, mate. We'll tune in.

Great stuff. Always great to hear from you, mate. Well done.

Thank you very much. Thanks for getting back in touch. That's awesome. And that, you know what,

that's a learned experience, the road trip portion of it. And yeah, I'm going to look up

his little YouTube there and see what it looks like on track. Especially the road trip part.

Yeah, yeah. I mean, look, the fact is, you learn every day when you're an EV owner.

Absolutely, yeah. But you know, that's a really good observation where

some people are buying cars based on the thing they'll do once. Yeah.

You know, I'm going to, it needs to do road trips. How many road trips are you really doing?

Like that's just. That's true. And yeah, you're right. It's, that's probably a rare scenario

where you're going to be in the middle of nowhere having to charge your car. But

as he said, and we've said a little bit of planning goes a long way.

Yeah. Now, speaking of planning, we're at the start of the year. Can you believe we're already

nearly at the end of the first month? Can you believe it? Anyway, let's not talk about that.

We've got a bunch of cars coming up. And I just wanted to reflect on the last few weeks

over Christmas. I had a Mercedes C 350E, which is a plug-in hybrid. Now, great car. You know,

it's a Mercedes. It's going to be a great car to drive. And it was, but this is a plug-in hybrid

with a full electric range of 100 kilometers. Right. Now, the electric Mercedes has several

modes like hybrid mode. I think there's just a sports car petrol mode, then there's an electric

mode. And then there's a B for battery mode, which basically says, look, the batteries are 50%.

I want you to, I want you to use the engine and the battery enough so that it stays at 50%

for this trip. So for example, when I took it back, it was at about 100% battery and a full

tank of petrol. I put it in B mode. So when I got there, it was pretty much full of everything,

you know, to just whittle away a little bit of battery and a little bit of petrol. But here's

what I noticed. And I want us to explore this during the year. And I'd love to hear from people

who have bought or own a plug-in hybrid because we've neglected that, that sector a little bit.

And that's because we do want to focus on fully electric cars, but it is a huge growing sector,

the plug-in hybrids. You'll notice Jku, GWM, Mercedes, they've all got these plug-in hybrids

because they know people have range anxiety. You watch, you watch Cherry and Jku, the way they

market these cars is, you know, for range. You can, it's super hybrid, they call it. It'll do

a thousand kilometers, et cetera. We have got booked and I'll go through the cars in a second.

We've got the Leap Motor C10 again, but it's a range extended version. So that's a version of it.

But here, my observation of this was, you know, I've got a charger at home, I've got a charger at

the office and I've got a hundred kilometers of battery in this, in this Mercedes. And I would

always be in electric mode. I want to drive an EV. And it felt great, like an electric car. But I

would get to zero regularly. Like every few days I'd be at zero and then I'd be like, yeah, whatever.

And I'd charge it now and then. So I used three quarters of a tank of petrol in the month, let's

call it a month, that I had the car maybe three or four weeks, which is more, I had to fill this

car with petrol. It was weird. I haven't done that for a long time. But I genuinely worry

that too many people are not charging their plug-in hybrids. I genuinely worry that people aren't,

because essentially with a plug-in hybrid, you should charge it, you should charge it every night.

It should be on a trickle charger every day when you get home. You plug in every day, you're always

going to be electric, because I never drove more than a hundred kilometers. Never. But I did use

the petrol because I failed to charge the car so many times. And I think that's fascinating

observation. I'm not sure people with FEVs are as diligent on their charging as perhaps they could

be and should be. Yeah. And I suppose that's always what we hear that people, they go towards a hybrid

because they're not quite ready for an EV. It goes without saying, if you're going towards an EV,

your battery is your only fuel source. That's it. You've got to be diligent about that.

Having the hybrid, you've got a massive safety net of a full tank of petrol.

Yeah. And I think it's a safety net people are leaning on too much, potentially. And we'd love

to hear from you about that. So if you've got experience with a FEV, plug-in hybrid, you've

got a petrol and everything, let us know. 0-4-7-7-6-5-7-6-5-7, send us a text or a WhatsApp,

because what I've done, I've booked cars now, we've got cars through the middle of the year,

and I'll run through what we've got so people know, so folks know what to expect.

We currently got a BYD Ato2 and an Aon. Do you say Aon or Ion? I'll call Aon.

We should ask. Ion V. Then we'll move into a Jku J5, which is for the electric. We did have a

Jku once before, which was petrol, electric, and a Genesis G80. Then we'll move into a

Kupra Terramar and another Genesis. Then we've got the Ioniq 5N, which Stuart just talked about.

And we've got our first Lexus, the NX450 hybrid, which is great. So that's their hybrid version.

We've got the DPAL E07, which is that Ute truck kind of hybrid wagon-style fully electric car.

Can't wait for that. We toss the golf clubs in that one. Yeah, for sure. And the Hyundai Kona.

Then we move into another Ioniq 5, just a two-wheel drive and a Mercedes GLC350 plug-in hybrid.

Lovely. Then we've got an Alfa Romeo Junior Ebrida, which I believe is a fully electric car.

Fully EV, yeah. Then the Hyundai Insta, which I can't wait, which is their little car.

Insta, it's called Insta. Insta. Yeah, yeah. Insta. No, Insta, not Insta. Then the Leapmotor C10

RWEV, so range extender, and the AMG E53 plug-in hybrid. We've got a couple of Skotas. There's

two new Skotas launching. These ones are literally brand new to the market. So we're getting them

nice and early, the LROC60 and the NJAC60. We've got some Havels, the Havel H6.

See a lot of them on the road. Yeah, and what we've done, I really appreciate the way they've

let us book this. We've got both versions. They're both plug-in hybrids, the Ultra and the GT,

at the same time. So which is great for us, because then we're kind of going from one to the other,

you'll notice the difference. That's how we do it. We have the cars for two weeks. I drive it for

the first bit, and then I come here, we record, we swap cars, and then we drive it for a week,

and then we come back again and swap them back. So we'll literally be in the exact same car,

but different variants, which is really cool. Then we've got a GWM cannon and the GWM tank.

Then we move into another Lexus. A cannon and a tank. A cannon and a tank, yes.

And then Toyota have been generous to come to the party with the BZ4X. Can't wait to drive that.

They're fully electric car. That's their first fully electric car, isn't it?

And mate, yes. And then we're in July, so... Wow.

And I'll be looking, my lease is up a month later, so I'll be looking and making a decision.

Yeah, yeah. So we've got a big year of electric and plug-in electric cars coming up. We'd love to

hear from you. Thanks for voting for us. Send us a text or a WhatsApp 0477657. Whatever your

electric journey, we'd love to hear from you. Love to talk about it. Good, bad, or indifferent.

We're here to listen to it all, Stephen. Absolutely, yeah.

All right, mate. We'll do it all again next week. Right here, two bucks talking electric cars. See you

then, folks.

104 - A great EV means you buy a second EV!

About this episode

Z-Gar X

Polestar

Porsche

Tesla

Request an Explanation

Want to learn more?

Help improve this episode

More from Two Blokes Talking Electric Cars - The EV Podcast