105 - What Tesla Does Best and the AION V Review
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Term
dashcam
A dashcam is a small camera that you put in your car to record everything that happens while you drive. It's useful for safety and can help if there's an accident.
Company
UNIDAN
UNIDAN makes dashcams, which are cameras that record what happens while you're driving. They help keep you safe by documenting any incidents on the road.
Term
Tesla Supercharger Network
The Tesla Supercharger Network is a series of charging stations where Tesla cars can recharge their batteries quickly. This makes it easier for Tesla drivers to travel long distances without worrying about running out of power.
Car
Dodge Charger
The Dodge Charger is a big car that looks sporty and can go really fast. It's popular because it has a strong engine and a cool design, making it fun to drive.
Car
Chrysler Country Town
The Chrysler Town & Country is a big family car that can hold a lot of people and their stuff. It's designed to be comfortable and practical for families on the go.
Term
Kia
Kia is a car brand from South Korea that makes different types of cars, including electric ones. They are known for being affordable and reliable.
Term
Mercedes
Mercedes is a luxury car brand from Germany that makes high-end cars known for their quality and performance. They offer a range of vehicles from sedans to sports cars.
Term
Tesla Superchargers
Tesla Superchargers are special charging stations for Tesla cars that let you charge the battery quickly. They're placed along highways to help you travel longer distances without running out of power.
Term
charging network
A charging network is a group of places where electric cars can recharge their batteries. It's important for people who drive electric cars to have access to these charging stations.
Term
kilowatts
Kilowatts is a way to measure power. For electric cars, it tells you how much energy the car can use or how fast it can charge.
Car
Tesla Model Y
The Tesla Model Y is a type of electric car that looks like a small SUV. It's popular because it can drive long distances without needing to stop for gas.
Car
Bmw I3
The BMW i3 is a small electric car made by BMW. It was designed to be eco-friendly and has a distinctive look, making it different from traditional cars.
Term
EV
EV means electric vehicle. It's a type of car that runs on electricity instead of gas, making it better for the environment.
Term
electric car
An electric car runs on electricity instead of gasoline. This means it doesn't need to stop at gas stations, making it a cleaner option for the environment.
Term
solar panels
Solar panels are special panels that capture sunlight and turn it into electricity. This electricity can be used to power your home or charge an electric car.
Term
range extender
A range extender is a small engine that helps charge the battery of an electric car, so you can drive further without running out of power. It's like having a backup power source when the battery gets low.
Car
Hyundai Kona
The Hyundai Kona is a small SUV that is known for being fun to drive and having a modern design. The Highlander is likely a more feature-rich version of this model.
Car
Hyundai Santa Fe Hybrid
The Hyundai Santa Fe Hybrid is a type of SUV that uses both gas and electricity to run. This helps it save fuel and be better for the environment.
Term
traditional hybrid
A traditional hybrid car uses both gas and electricity to drive, but you don't have to plug it in to charge it. It gets energy from the gas engine and also from braking.
Term
ludicrous mode
Ludicrous mode is a special feature in Tesla cars that makes them accelerate really fast. It's like a turbo boost for electric cars, allowing them to go from 0 to 60 mph in just a few seconds.
Term
regenerative braking
Regenerative braking helps cars save energy when they slow down. Instead of wasting that energy, it sends some of it back to the battery, making the car more efficient.
Term
self-protection mode
Self-protection mode is a safety feature in some electric cars that slows down the car's performance if it's being pushed too hard. This helps prevent damage to the car's battery and other parts.
Car
Porsche Taycan
The Porsche Taycan is a fancy electric car that is really fast and fun to drive. It's made by Porsche, a brand known for making high-quality sports cars, and it shows that electric cars can be exciting too.
Term
battery degradation
Battery degradation is when a battery loses its ability to hold a charge over time. For electric cars like the Taycan, this means they can still perform well even when the battery is low.
Car
Toyota Hilux
The Toyota Hilux is a tough pickup truck that people use for work and adventure. It's known for being reliable and can handle rough terrains well.
Car
ASX
The Mitsubishi ASX is a small SUV that’s good for city driving and can handle some rough roads too. It’s a popular choice for families.
Car
Ford F150
The Ford F-150 is a popular truck that many people use for work and play. It's strong and can carry heavy loads, which is why so many people like to buy it.
Car
GAC Aion 5
The GAC Aion 5 is an electric SUV made by GAC. It's designed to be eco-friendly and has many modern features.
Brand
GAC
GAC is another car company from China that makes different types of vehicles. They are working to grow their brand both in China and internationally.
Car
AON
The AON is a specific model of car made by GAC, which is a brand from China.
Brand
Geely
Geely is a car company from China that makes different types of vehicles. They are well-known and have bought other car brands to grow their business.
Car
BMW M8
The BMW M8 is a fast and luxurious sports car made by BMW. It's designed for high performance and has a powerful engine that makes it exciting to drive.
Term
cruise control
Cruise control helps you drive at a constant speed without pressing the gas pedal. It's great for long trips because it makes driving easier and more comfortable.
Term
DeLorean
The DeLorean is a unique car that looks different from most cars, with shiny metal and doors that open upwards. It's famous because it was used as a time machine in the 'Back to the Future' movies.
Car
Ford F150 Lightning
The Ford F-150 Lightning is an electric truck that works like the regular F-150 but runs on electricity instead of gas. This means it's better for the environment and can still do a lot of the same things, like towing and carrying heavy stuff.
LIVE
This is Two Blokes talking electric cars with Trevor Long and Stephen Fennig, thanks to NRMA Insurance and UNIDAN.
I'm struggling. It's like we're coming back for more days, eh?
Yeah.
Pressing buttons.
Struggling.
But we do it all thanks to the great people at NRMA Insurance helping Australians for 100 years and many more to come.
They are one of Australia's largest insurers of electric vehicles, so give them a shout if you're looking for renewal or a new insurance policy
if you're an electric car, give NRMA a call at least to get a quote.
And of course UNIDAN Smart Dashcams.
If you've got any car, you should have a dashcam.
It doesn't matter how old or new the car is, it's protecting your peace of mind to record what happens around you when you're on the road
because things happen and you want to document them.
You want to share them with your mates or you want to say, hang on a minute.
Very high quality too.
This is pristine quality. Front and back too. Get the back camera as well as the front while you're at it. Get both.
Stephen highly recommends the R model from UNIDAN.
Stephen, we'll talk about the AON 5 which we both driven a little bit.
I took it on a solid road trip.
I did tell the people from GAC that I was going to absolutely smash some case on it.
I think I did 1300. So we'll get to that specific car in a little bit.
But the thing that I wanted to reflect upon, and we've talked about it before,
but it kind of comes up whenever I do a road trip because it reminds me, is the Tesla Supercharger Network.
And you know, I posted on social media, it was a bit brash, I said, Elon's a goose.
But his best thing is the Supercharger Network.
And I'll give an example of why.
And again, it's a common road trip I make from Sydney down to Young and that means the Hume Highway down to Yass
and then off for about an hour down to Young and there's a charger at Young.
It's been upgraded, it's very good, but it's 50 kilowatt and it's just a good for an hour top up while you're getting breakfast or whatever.
But on the way down, I've gotten down to a nice fine point of going,
okay, I can drive one stop, decent charge, I can get all the way.
And what the kids knew was we've been stopping at Yass because there's 12 or 15 Superchargers there in a back street.
It's great, but it is, it's a small country town.
If you're there on a Sunday afternoon, you might not get a lot of things open.
So you're pretty much probably going to Woolies to get a snack or something.
And then my last trip down, I realized that opened a new Supercharger at Golben.
Now, Golben is a big spot on the drive down.
There's always been a Supercharger at Golben for probably a decade,
but it was closed only to Tesla drivers, right?
So you couldn't as a Aeon driver, a Kia or a Mercedes driver, you couldn't stop there.
But there's a new one opened up on the close to the highway at Golben.
So the Big Marino, the KFC, the Subway, the Shell Service Station, the Mackers, it's in that area.
So I go, well, you know, kids, let's go there because it's actually like two and a half hours from home.
So it's kind of halfway.
So we drive there and there are 20 stalls, 20 Tesla Superchargers.
There are five, six cars parked there, three of them, Tesla's, three of them, non-Teslas and then us.
And that's up to six, by the way, three Tesla's, three non-Teslas, that's six.
Yeah, one of them was us, right?
Okay.
And so firstly, it was a really good mix.
Yes.
Like it wasn't just this Tesla thing with a few others.
Were all the stalls open to anyone?
Yes, they're all open everywhere.
So every one of them are open.
Every single one of them.
And like, here's the thing that I noticed, the crazy thing, and I'll talk about with the Aeon,
we were able to bring our lunch and keep it warm.
And so we brought our lunch and we just ate lunch there, kids went to the bathroom and then I disconnected.
Like we literally stopped for lunch.
I unplugged.
So we didn't fill it to 100.
I filled it to probably 85, maybe 88.
And it was plenty.
We were stopped for 16 minutes and we're on our way.
Wow.
And we did the same thing on the way back.
And it was this weird thing where we didn't get all the way down to 20% or something.
We got to 50% and went up.
And so we didn't sit for ages getting to a point.
And it just showed me how important and how smart Tesla's planning is.
And they kind of laid the ground.
They laid the foundation really, didn't they?
They went out and did all this way before most of us had an electric car.
It also just kicks into my memory the fact that no one else is doing it.
There is no one else in Australia building charging networks like Tesla.
It's been created an attachment rate too with people to see all the Tesla charges.
And I think, well, Tesla sort of, that becomes little tick next to Tesla's name when they're considering buying an electric car.
I don't think that's as important because people see keyers and poll stars there and they go,
No, but just the brand recognition.
It's a brand recognition for me as a petrol station.
Like, if I'm going down a highway and I've got three options, going to a BP, going to an EV, or four options,
going to a charge fox or going to a Tesla, I'm just going to go to the Tesla every time.
Because the uptime rate is higher than I think anyone else.
Their speeds are phenomenal.
We've got 150 kilowatts out of the box.
And you said how long?
16 minutes.
That's nothing.
Again, that really busts a myth.
Two people say, oh, I don't want to wait an hour and a half.
This was a 500 kilometer trip.
We stopped for 16 minutes.
So shout out to Tesla.
I know people listening to this think I'm a Tesla hater.
Look, I don't love the cars.
Mainly on a design basis.
I prefer something with a bit more buttons and things inside.
They're a great car to drive.
I don't take away from that.
The thing looks like a toad.
The Model Y, new Model Y looks like a frog.
We've established that here, right?
But full credit to Tesla for their supercharger network.
It is outstanding.
And I haven't done the numbers, but I know that I paid more.
Yeah, I was going to ask that.
I think they charge like 85 cents a kilowatt as opposed to 65.
That's pretty expensive.
60, 66, 65.
But for the convenience and knowledge of knowing,
when I drive in there, it's going to be available.
You will have to pay the extra few bucks.
Yes, absolutely.
Absolutely.
That speaks volumes.
We'd love to hear your continued charging experiences,
wherever you're charging in Australia,
especially understanding those big trips and those big charges.
What are you relying on?
What's your go-to?
Let us know.
You can reach out anytime.
Send us a text 0477657657.
And let's go to your calls.
Now, Lez is on the line.
Good day, Lez.
Good day, Lez.
Lez, I'm fascinated by the message you sent me
because you said you owned a BMW i3.
Now, I don't know what year it was,
but I was working at SPS.
I'm pretty sure.
So it's a long time ago that I flew down to Melbourne
to get a first look at the i3.
This was a cracking little car.
It had all these Enviro eco-friendly materials and stuff.
And it was legit an early EV.
How early did you buy it?
2014, I got mine.
Whoa.
You've been in the game longer than we have.
Then what led you to that car?
I was getting petrol, what would you call it,
annoyed with pulling into petrol stations
and seeing the price of gas go up continually.
I thought it might be nice to be able to drive
past the petrol station with an electric car.
And at the time I was living in a home
which had solar panels.
So I had the option to charge at home.
I thought, yeah, why not?
So I did.
Even though the range wasn't fantastic,
it was only about 100k range.
I had a range extend a little petrol motor on it
which gave you an extra few k if you needed it
when you got stuck.
So yeah, I thought I'd go for the job.
And I saw the actual launch in Brisbane.
The launch you were talking about in Melbourne,
they had one in Brisbane at the BMW Outlet in Brisbane.
And I was quite impressed by the look of the car
and all its safety features.
And like you were saying,
the manufacturing details on the car was quite good.
I just had a look, it was October 2013, Stephen.
Wow.
That I looked at this car first
and we got to review it.
2014.
You must have got one of the early ones there, Les.
So what have you had since then?
I'm assuming you don't still have the i3?
No, once I moved out of my home
and had no more solar panels,
it became a bit difficult to charge back in those days.
So I went back into the ice vehicles
and had a few of those for a while
and then bought a Kona Highlander back in 2022.
Nice.
The EV version?
Yeah, the EV version.
An extended range.
Very nice.
So you've experienced all flavours of EVs now.
Back to hybrids and now EVs.
So where are you at the moment?
Are you still an EV or a hybrid guy?
No, I went back from I sold the Kona
because I'd moved into a unit block of units
and there was no charging facility here
and the public charging facilities were pretty limited
so I only held it for about a year and a half.
It was just getting too difficult to charge
so I went back into a nice vehicle again
and now back into a hybrid.
I've got a Santa Fe hybrid.
That's a nice car.
That's not a plug-in hybrid though.
That's a traditional style hybrid, isn't it?
Yeah, that's right.
So what sort of driving do you do, Les?
Do you get out and do some k's
or you go on trips and stuff?
Like what sort of driver are you?
I used to do a lot of driving
but now I'm basically in a good position
and I walk everywhere so I only drive the car
probably once or twice a week now.
So the hybrid suits me fine.
I hardly pull into a petrol station.
A little birdie says you've got something
with two wheels as well, Les.
Yeah, I've got a...
Fons are really awesome.
The electric scooters.
Are you making that up, mate?
Is that a made-up brand or what?
Is that really the brand Fons are really awesome?
Fons are really awesome.
Like as in the Fons out of happy days.
Exactly.
It's an Australian company.
They've been going for about 10 years, I think,
selling electric motorbikes.
Wow.
And they're still going and they're still a good little bike.
So it's an electric motorbike.
It's like a little moped, is it?
Yeah.
Yeah, a bit like the...
Yeah, a bit like a little moped,
but it's just...
Like a Vespa sort of style, is it?
Like a Vespa.
Yeah, like a Vespa.
So is that what you get around on nowadays or?
That's mainly what I get,
the short trips around the Gold Coast.
It's a great way to...
Oh, so you're up on the Goldy?
Nice, nice up there.
Yeah, yeah.
What's...
You've been in EVs longer than we have,
so I'm sure you've seen way more charges.
Is it more infrastructure now, you know,
noticing in sort of places like the Gold Coast
or tourist areas?
That's funny you should say that
because there's actually less.
What?
There used to be a council charger here
on the Gold Coast in Kool & Gadden.
They pulled that out, I don't know why.
And the only charges left are the electric highway
at the airport.
Isn't that madness?
So there's a place where there was charges
and there's no more.
I get it.
I get it if they upgraded to a newer site or something,
but you know, you should be seeing more of them
you would expect.
And in a place like the Gold Coast,
which as you mentioned Stephen, is a tourist area,
you'd think that people might be renting them,
they're on road trips, they're on holidays.
Do you think, Les, you would have seen more
in your area?
Well, especially on the Gold Coast
where there's so much high-rise and
most high-rises don't have
recharging facilities, so
most owners in high-rises have two cars.
So yeah, you'd think there'd be a lot more
public charges around the area,
but that's not the case on the Gold Coast.
I wonder if there'll be public charges in the Trump Tower.
Are they building a Trump Tower?
Is that just a beat-up, Les?
They'll be the best charges.
You know what I thought, Les?
When I saw the headlines about this Trump Tower on the Gold Coast,
what I thought was, this is a smart developer
trying to just get attention.
He's just drawn it up and gone,
we'll just call it Trump Tower and just see what happens.
Or is that a legit possibility, Les?
I haven't heard anything about it.
Oh, okay.
It was on the news a couple of weeks ago.
Must have just been a beat-up, I reckon.
It'll be the best, it'll be the best tower on the Gold Coast,
the best...
It's like the one in Las Vegas to build gold, isn't it?
Well, exactly, yeah.
Yeah, well, no, it's certainly gold.
He loves his gold.
Well, there's lovely to hear from you, mate.
Glad to hear you're still somewhere in the electric space
with a hybrid.
That's not a bad thing.
The little Fonzarelli, mate.
We might...
We need to get it up.
Do you know what we need to do, Stephen?
We need to get our motorbike licenses.
Yes, we do.
We need to get some Vespas happening.
And get on the Fonzarelli, do you reckon, Les?
Yeah, we're under that.
Well, I can hardly recommend them.
It's a great little bike.
Very good.
All right, great to hear from you, mate.
Okay, thanks for having me.
Thanks, Les.
Cheers, mate, no worries.
Yeah, I mean, look, I'll be honest.
I make this statement about us getting our licenses,
but my wife would divorce me if I got my motorbike license.
Yeah, I floated the idea.
I actually was inquiring on how to do it late last year
because we do get a lot of bikes, too.
Emails, yeah.
And the first question I got,
have you got your motorbike license?
I said, unfortunately, no.
We've basically got an unwritten prenup.
Really?
Get your bike license.
Get your motorbike license.
No motorbike.
It's over.
Really?
Yeah.
That was a funny thing we used to say
among our mates growing up where our parents,
most of our parents said,
no motorbike, no motorbike.
So that's the rule in the long household, too.
Oh, mate.
It's set in stone.
Well, Joe, I don't think he has expressed
any kind of concern there.
So I don't know whether I should be worried about that
or not.
Look, you've got good life insurance, too, yeah?
I think I do, yeah.
Yeah, that's, I mean, look, you know, let's,
I'm not, get a motorbike.
If you've got one, you love it.
Good on you.
But, you know, there's, the injuries that occur
in a motorbike accident are quite severe.
And Amanda's like, I'm not looking after you.
All right?
So.
Really?
If you've got a, if you've got a D&R,
have you ruled, have you, mate?
Yeah.
Do not resuscitate.
If it's motorbike inflicted.
Yeah.
If it's motorbike inflicted,
you're just going to go click.
Yeah, you're on your own, mate.
Yeah.
You should turn the machine on.
Yeah, exactly.
Okay.
Solid, solid, Amanda.
Good on you.
I'm Mike Lez.
We'd love to hear from you.
Thanks for voting for us.
Send us a text, 0-4-double-7-6-5-7-6-5-7.
Great to have you company.
0-4-double-7-6-5-7-6-5-7.
If you want to be on the show,
wherever you're at in the world of EVs,
you're looking to buy one.
You've bought one.
You've sold one.
Like our previous caller.
Yeah.
No longer owns an EV.
Yep.
But still listening to EV podcast.
They bought one like 12 years ago.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Unbelievable.
Greg is on the line today.
Greg, how are you doing?
Fantastic.
Mate, great to have you company.
Yeah.
Mate, you sent a fascinating text
because you don't own an EV,
but you had a question about acceleration.
What is it that you wanted to know?
I want to know if an EV uses a lot more power
in the sudden acceleration
compared to a Petromater.
Yeah.
When you floor a Petromater,
it sucks up so much use.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I mean, it's a fascinating one
because normally,
and we've talked about this
with highway versus city consumption,
normally we say that an electric car's consumption
of battery is the opposite to a petrol car.
Yeah.
But in the sense of acceleration,
it's exactly the same, mate.
You are saying go with everything you've got.
Your foot's to the floor.
It will do, within its power,
it'll do everything to suck the battery down
for those two to seven seconds, whatever it is.
But it is fascinating because it depends
what car you're talking about, Greg,
because, for example, the GACA on,
which we'll talk about in a little bit,
honestly, its acceleration is nothing at all.
You would not report it to anyone.
It's not of any great consequence.
So, yes, when I accelerate,
I'm using more than I normally would,
but I don't think it'd even show up on a register.
But if you're in a Tesla and you put it in ludicrous mode
and you give it a squirt to show you, mate,
you're definitely using more battery
than if you just went at a normal acceleration.
So, does that worry you?
Is that something you're looking into?
No, it's just something curious.
I'm a mechanic by trade.
I have been a long time ago.
And I know when you put your foot down
in a petrol car, the squirt of petrol uses
a fair bit of petrol.
But in an electric car,
because you're only doing that acceleration
over a short period of time,
like, say, if you're jumping from, say,
one set of traffic lights to the next,
is it less economical to go hard
to get up to that next set of traffic lights?
I can always say, you get to that speed faster
and you can then...
the power deliveries to facilitate that squirt.
But the second you take your foot off the accelerator,
depending on the car as well,
you get the regenerative braking happening.
So, that's going to deliver more power to the battery.
But you're right.
It's going to get to that speed faster
but then settle back down to the speed that you want.
And then, well, in my opinion,
would probably be in the long term less petrol,
less than petrol.
I look at it.
Every electric car I've ever driven has a bit of a gauge.
And it's normally a positive and negative gauge.
So, it's a gauge that shows you your consumption,
you know, you're using it.
And then it'll go down below a line in a different color
to when you're regenerating.
And I often look at it, Greg, and I go,
okay, well, I'm like,
if you're trying to be stupidly efficient,
like I'm at 100% charge here at the office
and I want to get home and still be on 100.
So, I'll be like,
if I just slowly go to 60 or whatever the speed limit is,
and then I take my foot off and let it ease at 60
and maybe I'm going down a hill, I look at it and I go,
was it in the negative for as long as it was in the positive?
Have I put the same amount in that I've taken out?
You could overthink it, I think,
but honestly, the bottom line is,
if you squirt it at full rate,
it's definitely less efficient than a normal acceleration,
and that's the same in a...
And if you do it often too, like, isn't the Tesla,
you slam that hard after a few turns,
like you go to a track or something,
you go hard on a Tesla, after three or four goes,
it'll say, no, mate,
it'll essentially disable that mode.
You're going to take it easy now.
It's like a self-protection mode.
I remember interviewing Mark Webber at the launch
of the Porsche Taycan in, like, 2018,
and he said one of the things Porsche did was build this
so that it could be driven on an Alpine road, you know,
those, you know, little upper, up full hairpin,
up full hairpin, up like those windy roads up a hill.
He wanted to know that you could squirt it every time,
you know, in, like, a hill climb,
and they built it so that it would never degrade.
It would, even if you only had 10% battery left,
if you wanted to use that 10% to give it a good squirt,
you could.
But a lot of cars won't allow that, Greg,
which is kind of fascinating.
What sort of car do you own and are you in the market
for an EV?
Right, I've got a two-wheel drive Hilux,
which is a fantastic car.
We took it up right up to the top of Kate York
a few years ago.
And, yeah, we're looking at,
we're looking it up, well,
I'm looking at upgrading to a Shark 6.
But, like I said, I've got to get that past
the Minister for War and Finance.
Yeah, well, like we always say, mate,
you set up a really good marketing campaign
and you never know, you never know, you never know.
I mean, have you looked at the Shark already,
like it had been and sat in, had a good look?
Yes, I dropped into Tugra BYD
on the Central Coast,
and the people there could not have been better.
I didn't have time for a test drive at the time,
but they said, just take it, drive it,
do whatever you want with it.
Really? Wow.
Well, I'm relieved to hear that.
I am generally, because obviously the last few weeks
have been pretty damning for BYD.
The opposite of that was the stories we heard.
So does that encourage you to take the misses in?
Because I would imagine, and no disrespect to the Hilux,
but I would imagine the Shark is a vastly different car
to sit in than a Toyota Hilux.
Oh, yes, yes.
Because my Hilux is a 9 model,
so it feels quite small when you're sitting in the Shark.
Does the minister have her own car,
or does she use the Hilux as well?
No, well, she has an ASX,
which is only a couple of years old,
so she's probably not going to do any...
She's good.
Right, well, first point of the marketing campaign, Greg,
is don't take the ASX to the dealer.
What you want to do is muddy up the Hilux
on the inside and out,
so it's not a comfortable place to be.
There's clothes, socks, whatever on the floor,
so she gets out of the Hilux at the dealer,
and she's sitting at B-Wide,
because this is beautiful.
Unbelievable, you know what I'm saying?
Yes, yes.
Well, at the moment, what I'm thinking,
I did hear that there was a car rental place in Sydney
that rents them, so I'm thinking I'm going to rent one of those,
and we do a lot of the trips up to Bryby Island
from the Central Coast here,
and I thought I might take one for a drive up there.
Look, the other thing I'd say is,
I don't know how good the budget is,
and this may be well out of it, but I had a caller...
This is going to sound weird.
I had a caller next week on the AFTM podcast
who we've had on this show before.
My God, his name's going to escape me,
but we've had him on the show.
He talked about being fully off-grid,
and he talked about the F-150 lightening from Ford,
and how he wouldn't mind having one.
Anyway, he tells me that there's some of the right-hand converted
F-150 lightings, not by Ford, but by a third party in Australia,
are being basically sold off now at about 115 grand.
Now, 115, 120 grand is a lot of money,
but the F-150 lightening is one of the greatest-looking
electric trucks you can get.
Fully electric?
That's fully electric.
That's a proper Ute fully electric.
Dude, that's probably going to be a bigger sell
to the minister, though, unfortunately.
Yes, yes.
He doesn't even want the hybrid retirement.
You want the hybrid to be able to tow you.
He said you were towed.
Are you going to tow stuff on your trips?
We don't have anything at the moment,
but we are looking to find a caravan in the near future.
Yeah, right.
He wants something to handle that.
Well, here's a couple of great things.
We've learned and reminded ourselves about acceleration
and the way EVs work, but most importantly,
we've got some great feedback about a BYD dealership, a Tugra.
So shout out to BYD Tugra.
Well done for looking after Greg when he came in,
and Greg, it sounds like that's the place you'll go back
when you want to have a look and maybe take a little test drive,
let alone do something more and maybe even put some money down
with the minister for war and finance.
That's what I'm planning to do.
Good on you, Greg.
Great to hear from you, mate.
Thanks, Greg.
No worries.
Thanks for your patience as well, Greg.
We appreciate it, mate.
I've enjoyed your show for a long time.
That's very kind of you, mate.
Thank you so much, Greg.
Good on you, mate.
We'll hear from you again sometime soon.
Yeah, I mean, it's good to hear some good feedback.
That is nice, yeah.
Especially, you've got to remember the people who go into the dealership
so often, most times, it's their first EV they're going to buy.
So it's their first, you know what the saying is,
you only get one chance to make a first impression.
So this is their impression of an EV.
You want it to be a good one.
Yeah, I mean, it's, I'm glad.
I mean, to be clear and in defense of BYD in a small way,
we've had a few texts here and there saying,
oh, my experience has been good.
Yeah.
Not everyone is willing and able to come on the show,
but I wouldn't say, I absolutely do not believe
that the last three weeks of kind of bash up of BYD
has been out of the ordinary from the messages we've received.
It's not like we've picked the bad ones and gone,
let's get them on.
Oh, no, there's been a lot of positive,
especially if you look at the comments on our YouTube,
the YouTube show last week, there was,
I reckon more than half were very positive.
In fact, I reckon 75% of them were positive.
Yeah, but it doesn't take away from the hardcore truth
of the negative ones.
That's true.
All right, get in touch if you want to have your say.
Oh, four, seven, six, five, seven, six, five, seven.
Great heavy company.
If you're listening, wherever you're listening,
doesn't matter if you're watching, that's okay too.
We enjoy our audience on now.
It's a smaller part of the audience on YouTube,
but it's very active because there's a lot of people
leaving comments below, which is great.
We appreciate those comments, but at the same time,
if you're willing to leave a comment,
you should be willing to come on the show.
So it's almost anonymous.
You know what, I'll leave you in a little secret.
When you see the text, we don't know your name.
You can say anything.
You can use a suit in them, is what we say.
If you want to come in and be Bob from Blacktown,
we can do with that.
Why would you want to do that?
Well, that's some people.
We had one caller, what was his name last week?
He actually put a little story up on Instagram that he goes,
I appeared on this show.
Well, I mean, we appreciate it.
It was a shout out.
It was great.
I collaborated on that one on that post.
Yeah.
Good on you, Stuart.
Good on you, Stuart.
Yeah, it doesn't matter.
Like, if that's what's holding you back,
just use another name.
Yeah.
It's all good.
We're not going to buy it.
We're okay.
Send a text message or a WhatsApp 0477657657.
We'd love to hear from you.
We currently have a couple of cars in the driveway.
We'll talk about a BYD next week.
Looking forward to that one.
But we're driving something called the GAC.
Yep.
AON 5.
Now, this is a tough one because...
You're a V or is that a 5?
I think it's a 5.
It's a V, right?
Okay.
Well, I mean...
I'd put a 5 in car land if it was a 5.
You'd put a number 5.
They're trying to be different.
I reckon.
I'm going to call it V.
I would say very clearly GAC is the brand.
AON is the model.
Yep.
And 5...
Well, 5 is the model.
I think AON is actually the brand.
So this is...
And I'm being genuinely innocent here.
I don't know.
But I feel like GAC is like a Geely Group.
You know, a very big automotive group.
And Geely themselves have Geely branded cars.
But they also own Zika and all these other ones, right?
AON is the brand.
V or 5 is the model.
And then there's two variants.
There's AON on the steering wheel.
That's right.
So let's go with that.
And I remember being in China and there were AONs everywhere.
Like this is...
Popular brand, eh?
This is not a small...
They're not turning out 10 of these.
They're turning out tens of thousands.
And it's a fascinating car because first and foremost,
and I genuinely believe this will sell well for one reason.
Can you guess what that reason is?
It is a very, very aggressively priced.
Yeah.
This is between 45 and 48 on-road for us.
We're doing a calculator for New South Wales.
Yeah.
For a mid-size SUV.
That is really...
That punches above its weight in terms of styling
and the interior, the appointments,
like nearly a 15-inch screen in the middle.
Yeah.
It feels like a more premium vehicle.
And look, I know you've pretty much done a couple of trips
basically here and back and a little, a couple of others in it.
But I did 12 on a car.
What is this thing?
We drove to Young.
Yeah.
And then the next day we drove out to Griffitham back.
We did, yeah, 1200Ks over three days.
And look, the kids didn't complain.
And they will complain about something if it's not comfortable.
Vivi was in the front the whole way.
Harry was in the back because he chose the back left,
which has a tray table.
It does, yeah.
Like a legitimate tray table.
Well, I took...
Remember that we did the night at the museum with my daughter.
Yeah.
And I took my...
Me and my wife and our mothers in the car.
And they were in the back.
And yeah.
And my mother-in-law was pulling us off.
Can you please put your tray tables back in?
We're about to come in for a landing.
But you know what?
It's a nice little...
And Joe loved the mirror too.
The passenger side mirror in the, you know, in the visor is massive.
Yes.
With a light around it as well.
Vivi said this is like an iPad because the cover on it...
I could do my makeup in this thing.
The cover on it folds off like an iPad cover.
Yeah, exactly what Joe said.
Victoria pointed out the same thing.
So these are little, little features that really endear itself to you.
I'm going to give you a couple of things that frustrated the hell out of me about the car.
And it's nothing to do with how it drives or anything like that.
Yeah, yeah.
It is ridiculously simple.
Firstly, the Apple CarPlay integration is unreliable.
Okay.
Some days...
It doesn't automatically connect.
Some days I get in and it's not connected.
So I have to click the app button in the Apple CarPlay and then choose my phone.
Yes.
And then it says you want to disconnect from Bluetooth.
I'm like, mate, just...
What are you doing?
Yeah, I had that too.
Then the first day we were on the road trip, I couldn't get it working.
I...
CarPlay at all.
We sat in the driveway for 20 minutes trying to get it working.
We couldn't get the car working or anything?
The CarPlay, Apple CarPlay.
CarPlay, right.
And, mate, I need ways.
Yeah, of course.
Not because I know how to get it.
I need to know where the cops are.
I, mate, I was so frustrated because I'm a very good wazer.
I log when there's people parked on the side of the road.
So I'm driving in the freeway going, I wish I could log this person being on the freeway.
But anyway, so that was really frustrating.
And frankly, it's connected every day since, but it's still ad hoc.
Like, some days it'll connect to Bluetooth, some days it'll connect to CarPlay.
I had the same issues from the get-go.
In fact, I was...
When I...
Because I picked up the car, right?
Yeah.
I got it first.
And I was in the driveway of the dealership for like half an hour working that out.
It just wouldn't connect straight away.
And I don't know what I did, but I eventually hooked it up and that we were on our way.
But then the next time I got in the car, it said, oh, hang on, CarPlay not available.
I'm thinking, what do you mean?
And then I pressed my phone and it had to...
Tell a couple of thoughts while I get a prop because I feel like the next thing I want to talk about,
I need to share a visual.
So just stand by.
Well, I tell one other, it's a quirky little feature.
Well, not quirky.
There's a super power saving mode.
And I got in the car and this was engaged, right?
So I'm thinking, and to get back from the...
The dealership was in Burwood.
So for me to get home, I had to go through the M8 tunnel.
Yeah.
And in M8, the limit is 90.
And I'm in the M8 tunnel and I'm sort of going...
Keep an eye on my speakers.
There's speed cameras in there.
I've got my foot to the floor and I'm thinking, how come it's not going faster than 90?
And it said something flashed up maximum speed in this mode.
And I went, what?
So...
Definitely not in this foot mode, then.
Foot to the floor and not at 90 or so.
Yeah, it's saving power.
Right.
But also, you know, it can protect you.
Anything over 90 is what kills the...
But I can remember driving here then.
Remember coming here and on the M4, I'm going to go 100.
And I'm thinking, hang on, why isn't it?
And then I'm like, well, I'm driving.
I'm looking at the mode and I turned the power saving mode off.
And it was like the DeLorean here back to the future.
So I just went boom straight over.
And so I'm eternally grateful for you to turn that mode off
because it would have annoyed the crap out of me on a little drive.
And while you're in cruise control mode, you know, there's a little picture
on the dashboard of the cars on the road and everything.
And if you're in cruise control and you accelerate, so you take control of the speed,
it's like that you're in a wind tunnel.
There's these animation on the screen as if you're about to be the DeLorean at 88 miles an hour.
It's hilarious.
But the thing that I wanted to mention is my secondary issue is this.
It's a key.
They've given us a key in a small plastic bag.
A little baggy.
If you're watching on YouTube, you can see it here, like literally a key in a bag
because inside that there's no way to hook.
There's no ring.
There's no way to put a key ring on it.
Now I've got no doubt, Stephen, that it is possible with this car to have an app
and unlock the car, all that.
Great, well done.
Congratulations.
But if I choose to use a key, why can't I put it on my key ring?
Yeah, exactly.
That is so dumb.
And just to be clear, there's a lot of EV manufacturers that do that.
There's a lot of manufacturers.
A lot of them are Chinese.
Yeah, they think, you know what, maybe that's a thing.
You've got to carry your keys separate.
Your car keys separate to everything else.
So the honest, and this is going to sound insane.
But the reason I would not buy that car, the car holders.
The car holders are very tight.
Mate, you put a can.
I'm so glad you said that.
The tight car holders, yeah.
I spilled half my coffee getting it out.
So I tried to do a video, and honestly, I'm going to get laughed at in it
because it doesn't really demonstrate it.
But when you've got an open can that you've only sipped from
and you put it in, you've got to go push to push it in.
You can't just sit it in there.
Okay, it's got grips around it.
Right, great.
But you've got to push it in.
And mate, I'm telling you, there's Coke and Sunkies all over that car.
Because I'd push it in and Vivian'd push hers in.
And also, to be honest, they're in a crap spot.
There's a lovely armrest.
They're right where your forearm would be.
So I put the cup holders forward, bring the wireless charger back.
It's just, honestly, it's a great car.
Genuinely, nice to drive.
Electric seats, all the tech and all everything.
Vintage seats on a 40 degree day is beautiful.
Very nice, yeah.
I think it looks good.
I don't think it's very spacious.
The ADAS alerts are not overwhelming.
They're not too annoying.
They're just there.
Not bad, yeah.
Easy to turn off.
We've had worse.
I'd say the boot isn't great.
I'd say it's okay.
Yeah, if you've got the golf clubs, you've got to put the golf club tests,
put the seats down.
And the last feature I tell you is so good,
but it's still not enough to get me over the cup holder.
The center console fridge, right?
Fridge, freezer, heater.
Wow.
So here's the thing.
We had warm cans, put them in there in freezer mode.
Harry's like, I'll put it on minus four down.
I'm like, okay, buddy, let's go.
And mate, they went cold.
Telling you cold.
So then we kept it on fridge at like two degrees.
Beautiful.
Here's what happened.
We're driving down.
How big is the fridge?
How many cans?
Six cans.
And where is it?
In the middle or in the back?
It's the center console.
Under your arm.
Under your elbow.
So we decided we always stop at Sutton's Forest,
to the Hetherbrae's pies.
We stop, get pies and eat,
because they've got gluten free for the kids.
And then there's no charger there,
which is there are Tesla chargers there,
but they're Tesla only.
And so I said to the kids, here's the problem.
We're going to stop.
And then we're going to stop again.
And then I went, hang on a minute, Harry,
let's try the heater.
So coming into Hetherbrae, I said,
mate, turn it on the heat mode.
Put it on heat mode at 50 degrees apparently.
It says back there.
So we buy three pies.
We put them in there.
And we drive for half an hour to Goldman,
to the supercharger I mentioned earlier.
We get to Goldman.
Pies are warm.
Pies are nice and toasty.
Pies are lovely and wooly.
Really great.
And we have our lunch.
We charge the car.
We drive on.
And we've only really stopped for five minutes
for a pee break and to buy the pies.
And then 15 minutes for the charge.
16 minutes for the charge.
And we're off again.
Because I do notice on the website
that that's one of the features,
apart from the range,
which is like what, 510 kilometers.
But one of the call outs is
30% to 80% in 16 minutes,
which is kind of what you have.
We did 50 to 90, I reckon, in 16 minutes.
And that's obviously with a little disclaimer.
It's going to be like 150 kilowatt charger.
Yeah, it doesn't actually say that.
But I'm assuming there's a disclaimer.
That's what that means.
But look, it's really strange
to have a gripe about little things.
But I think it's also critical.
If you're in the car every day,
you're going to own this car.
Wouldn't that pee?
You buy coffee every time you drive here.
Yeah, I do.
That was your car.
Yeah.
It happened to me.
I had my Diet Coke guy,
and I've had that in there.
I had my coffee in there.
And I remember trying to pull the coffee out.
A little gift slip,
and I've left a Diet Coke in the fridge for you.
Oh, giddy up.
That's nice.
I don't know if it'd be cold
by the time you get in it, but...
That's very nice, yeah.
But I'll be taking another one from here anyway.
It's a weird thing,
but we've talked about dealership experience
and test drive experience.
We're really lucky.
We get to drive them for days.
The average person is driving a car
for 10 minutes on a set.
Like, honestly,
these are the things you want to test in a car.
You want to go,
I want to sit in it,
even if they don't let you take over a drive.
I want to sit in it.
I want to take my cup of coffee.
I want to feel that.
Take it in my driveway.
Sarah Aubrey,
who on TikTok is electrified,
this does a...
I would say silly thing,
but it's because I don't drink wine.
She does a wine bottle test.
Does it fit in the door?
Or in the...
Where does it fit?
If you go and buy a bottle of wine,
where do you put it as you're driving home?
Those are the little things.
Everyone's got their thing.
Well, when you think about it,
the test drive,
you know it's going to drive well.
It does drive great.
It finds a car that doesn't drive well.
Great feel.
Yeah, nice.
All that was great.
Smooth, all of that.
But it's these little finicky things
that you look for
that would potentially annoy you
over a long period of time.
So those little things that we're talking about now
in our review
are the things that you should have a heads up about
before you get in the car.
You would hate to discover those things
having taken ownership of the car.
I'm not sure whether...
Look, for some drivers,
those little things are a deal breaker.
They think, well, no, I can't have that.
I need this.
So it's important to...
Yes, it drives well.
And it does it fit in my garage,
all that sort of stuff.
But these other little things...
The Apple CarPlay thing could be fixed
with a software update,
and I hope they do.
Perhaps, yeah, true.
I genuinely think that's a failing of the system.
Yeah, yeah.
The car holder though,
if I owned it,
I'd be ripping them out
and looking for a third party thing.
Yeah, you can buy those.
Oh, yeah.
Yeah, and put a little hole up here
to put your key ring on.
You know what Stephen will be doing here?
He'll be 3D printing a cover for this.
A little thing to go around with.
Great idea.
I'm going to do that.
We're both in 3D printing well.
And another shout out.
I think I'm really, really bad with names,
and I apologize.
The person who I had on the EFGM podcast
that said nice things about our podcast
and also said,
talked about the F-150 Lightning.
He also said,
you need to promote all your podcasts more.
People don't realize that you do other shows and stuff,
and so I think my point...
We call it all tech.
If you want to hear about 3D printing,
that'll be discussed on last week's episode,
this week coming up,
of Two Blokes Talking Tech.
Yeah, and also...
Two Blokes Talking Tech coming up to 15 years of shows.
In a few weeks, yes.
And it's on my...
I talked about the 3D printer on my Tech Guide podcast as well.
And I've got to say that it's created a bit of an obsession.
Yeah.
So I said that in my review.
We would love to hear from you about...
A good challenge, mate.
3D printer, a little cover for that.
I'm going to take it home today.
Check your bamboo hand-in
and see if there's a story,
if there's a mold for it already.
Two Blokes Talking Electric Cars.
We appreciate your listing.
We love your support.
And we'd love to hear from you.
Get in touch anytime.
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About this episode
Trevor and Stephen dive into the strengths of Tesla, particularly its Supercharger Network, which they argue is unmatched in Australia. They share personal experiences from a recent road trip, highlighting the convenience and efficiency of charging at Tesla stations compared to others. The episode also features a discussion with a listener about their journey through various electric vehicles, including the BMW i3 and Hyundai Kona, and the challenges of finding charging infrastructure in certain areas. The blend of personal anecdotes and listener interactions makes for an engaging exploration of electric vehicle ownership.
Original notes
Trev's been on a roadtrip again, and the remarkable business that is Tesla Superchargers just continues to impress. Why do they do it better? Why can't others do the same?
And the GAC AION V - what's it like? Why would it be a possible hit, and what's to look out for?
Plus your calls on your EV questions and EV journey.
All thanks to NRMA Insurance and Uniden Smart Dashcams
Two Blokes Talking Electric Cars - The EV Podcast
Trevor Long and Stephen Fenech
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