108 - The Jaecoo J5 EV review and callers with BYD Sealion 7's

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

Helping Australians protect what matters most for 100 years and many more to come NRMA Insurance,

we appreciate their support, one of Australia's largest insurers of electric vehicles.

And whether you've got an electric vehicle, a plug-in hybrid or a good old-fashioned petrol diesel car,

a dash cam is there for you to protect what happens around you.

So, you know, if you swear something happened a certain way, a dash cam can back you up.

Front and back, but you know what, also parking mode, you know, when you're not in the car,

and a lot of accidents, you know, people back in car parks and stuff, and a lot of those things happen.

If they don't leave a note, you've got all the evidence you need.

Who's leaving a note?

Well, honest people.

Honest people, of course.

Honest people.

I wouldn't have a back-in to someone in a car park.

I'm a better driver than that.

Exactly.

Good to have that peace of mind then.

Peace of mind is what matters.

So, UniDen will hook you up if you're in the market.

Find the UniDen range and look for the one with the R, which means we're a reverse camera, a rear camera as well.

Lots to get through today.

We'll take your calls.

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

We'd love to hear from you whether you own an EV.

If you've owned one for a long time, you just pick one up.

You're learning.

You're learning about the EVs.

You're on the fence, maybe, and you need to get off the fence.

Yeah.

Or you've got no intention about an EV.

We can bust a few myths, as we have done on the show many times.

We absolutely can, and we'd love to do that with you.

So, 0-4-7-7-6-5-7-6-5-7.

Your call's coming up shortly, and we're going to talk about the JQJ5 EV in a second.

But, Stephen, I just remembered something.

I think it was after a couple of weeks ago, we had a conversation.

I think I talked about the road trip I took.

And someone emailed us or texted us.

I honestly can't remember, and I apologize.

I don't have your name.

But they said to me, because I was talking about the price of charging.

And the fact that I went to, I go to the Tesla because it's reliable.

It's there every time.

But it is slightly more expensive.

And where I go, it's like, it's a guarantee.

It's the perfect spot to charge.

And they said, you know, you can subscribe to Tesla for 10 bucks a month.

And you get cheaper.

And I went, okay.

So, recently, I had to drive to Canberra back.

And I thought, just as I left, I went, I'm going to log in,

and I'm going to subscribe for 10 bucks a month.

And to be clear, as the caller suggested to me,

you're not hooked to it.

You can unsubscribe.

So basically, I don't have plans to do a long road trip again for a while.

So I can now unsubscribe.

And what I've done is I've paid.

So think about this for a second.

I just paid $10.

So add that to the charging costs of what I just did.

I just did two full charges broadly at the Goldman site.

And so I thought I'd just compare,

because I've done the Goldman back and forth a few times.

Yesterday and the day before, I did two charges.

They were $22.1741.

Now, they were 33 kilowatts and 42 kilowatts.

So 42 kilowatts, it was $22.21.

A month earlier, or a few weeks earlier,

I did 27 kilowatts and it was $20.

So I've paid $2 more for almost double the amount of charge,

not quite, but close,

at $0.52 per kilowatt hour compared to $0.73 the time before.

So you save more than your $10.

Saving $0.20 per kilowatt on the charge.

Now, the thing is, and again, I was watching Paul Merrick and Alborz

who run Car Expert.

They did a YouTube video.

Actually, weirdly, I caught it in the middle

because I think it was premiering,

but they were driving an Audi diesel and an electric Kia EV6

from Adelaide to Sydney or something like that.

And they were looking at the cost.

And they got back and the cost was the same,

which is kind of funny because we talk a lot about electric cars being cheaper.

And I thought about it.

I thought that is the problem on a road trip.

It's actually not cheaper anymore because it used to be

that the price of the electricity wasn't so bad.

But these days it is.

So actually having that subscription brings it to a point

where it is definitely cheaper than a petrol.

Oh, absolutely, yeah.

Really good tip.

It's a great idea.

Really good tip for a road trip.

So you pay your $10 a month.

So the $10 just gets you a cheaper rate of charge.

You don't get a $10 credit.

You just get a cheaper rate.

Cheaper rate.

And you make back more than your $10 anyway per month.

Well, this is the thing.

If you're using Tesla Public Charges all the time,

that's like saying, you know, $0.20 a litre.

Let's just look at it that way.

You can get your coals and wooly four cents a litre

at the petrol stations, right?

Yeah.

But imagine there was a $10 a month subscription

that got you $0.20 a litre.

You don't tell me that everyone in a truck...

Absolutely.

Like, actually, why aren't the petrol companies doing that?

Yeah.

Do you remember on your shopping dockets,

you used to scan your shopping docks to get cheaper petrol?

How do they do the four cent thing now?

Yeah.

Same way, isn't it?

I think it's the same.

We just haven't filled up with petrol for a while.

It's been a while since I've filled petrol, yeah.

Anyway, the car that I was driving when I went to Canberra back

was the JQ J5.

Nice.

Like we've had in the driveway.

A fully electric one.

Fully electric.

Last year I drove the Super Hybrid they like to call them,

which is this Cherry Emoda JQ company.

You'll see the dealerships have all those brands in them.

You know, Cherry, they make super affordable petrol cars.

They're moving into plug-in hybrids and all that kind of stuff.

So they're going to have the full range of powertrains

across all these brands.

Yeah.

This thing's described as a compact SUV.

Yeah.

Bigger than that, man.

It's bigger than that, isn't it?

It's bigger.

It's a very generous compact.

They're compact.

Imagine they're large.

I looked and thought this was a mid-size SUV

and then I felt that the middle seat, the back seat,

was not very big.

So what I do is I sit in my driver's position

and then I go, okay, I'll jump in the back

and I'll see how much leg room I've got.

And the knee room was there,

but then there wasn't really spot to put your feet under the seat.

So it didn't really feel comfortable to me.

I don't think I would love that on a long trip.

Drop off to school and all I can say.

Yeah, maybe with young kids.

Young kids would be good.

Adult kids maybe.

I wouldn't jam four adults in this

for more than a 30-minute drive, maybe, right?

Okay.

That's one gripe.

Another gripe.

There's still no bloody key ring spot on the key.

Yeah.

What is it with that?

We will go on about this.

The fob is just going to carry it.

Well, again, I guess.

It's just happening in your pocket.

And we don't know this to those.

Can't put my rabbit-o's key ring on it.

The Jake who owner is yelling at their YouTube

or their Spotify or whatever right now.

If they've got an app and we don't know that

because we drive them and they give us a key.

They give us a key.

Yeah, right.

But that may be the reason for a lot of those cars,

that we will bag that until it changes.

Because honestly, it doesn't matter.

Especially this.

Put a little hole in the top.

Even if it is an app.

And everyone in the home uses an app.

The spare key for when the connectivity is down

or whatever is wrong.

Where are you putting that?

You're not hanging that on a key?

Yeah.

Where it's a...

Yeah, it's a storage.

Yeah, that's exactly right.

I'd like to...

I just want to put my key ring on it.

Yeah, just put a little ring on it.

And the only other gripe,

and I'm starting with the gripes

because it's predominantly a brilliant car,

was I found this weird situation that I...

I'm a real knock for when you're in an Uber

or a taxi with a driver

and they squirt the pedal kind of people.

When you're driving

and you squirt the pedal or hit the brake,

you don't feel it because you know it's happening, right?

Yeah.

But if you're in a taxi and they're just...

You can feel every bit of it.

And I've got to say,

I've been in a taxi with you and the driver.

You don't like...

You don't mind and you don't hold back on your criticism.

So, I'm driving this around

and I'm not talking about...

I'm on...

Let's say I'm on a 60 km an hour road

and you're hitting 60, 162,

so you throw it off a bit, right?

I'm not talking about coming to an intersection.

I'm talking about those moments

where you just go,

and I'm talking about millimetres of movement.

Mate, I'm telling you that the throttle mapping is wrong.

There's something wrong.

You feel it.

And I'm like, I shouldn't feel it.

So, you were sort of too jerky.

And I thought,

oh, I must be in like one pedal mode, right?

As you call it, eye pedal or whatever.

I'm in that mode.

No, I'm on the lightest possible region.

Yeah, right.

So, I just felt in terms of driving...

Is that how you normally drive with a light region?

No, I would normally be on full.

Yeah, I'd go strongest.

And that's why I thought,

I don't like the way this drives.

I was going to turn it off.

But it was on the lowest setting.

And I found that a little off-putting.

So, it was a simple thing.

It actually made...

It forced me to use cruise control far more

than I normally would.

Like, I'm using cruise control in 80 zones.

Just because it's a smoother experience.

The car is better at modulating its speed,

smoother at modulating its speed

than you could be...

Oh, right.

Okay, I understand.

Yeah, right.

So, apart from that,

mate, this thing's beautiful.

This is almost...

almost pole-style level quality inside.

Really high quality.

I love the finish.

The fit and finish is very...

It looks a lot more expensive

than it actually is.

100%.

It looks pretty premium.

Yeah, yeah.

And look, that's the bottom line here.

Got a big portrait screen.

It's also got, like,

the old-style Tesla...

I prefer portraits.

I'm telling you this.

I prefer portraits.

Yeah.

I like it better.

I think Apple CarPlay looks great in portrait.

Yeah, it does.

Because when you're in...

A whole thing.

Dashboard mode, so you see, like, your whole map.

And then you've got, like, nodules...

Yeah.

Modules or widgets underneath.

It's much better.

Not much as a different screen,

but I think it looks better

in portrait mode.

But the number one thing that looks good

about this car is the price tag.

It's $37,000 drive-away.

$36,990 drive-away.

Now, that's an introductory drive-away price,

they say.

But, mate, I'm telling you,

I thought this car was OK.

Yeah.

And then I looked it up and went,

oh, my God.

Yeah.

$37,000.

Yeah.

That is crazy good.

With that, too, you've got to remember, too.

It's got eight-year warranty.

Unlimited K warranty.

It's got an eight-year cap price servicing as well.

Eight years of roadside assistance.

Yep.

As well as the eight-year battery warranty.

So that's...

For that price,

that's a pretty solid piece of mind you got right there.

Eight years, all those warranties.

Well, think about it this way.

A BYD Ato3 drive-away is $43,000.

Wow.

So this kind of cuts the Ato3.

Wow.

This massively cuts the Ato3.

What about, though,

how does the Ato3 range compared to this one?

That's a good point.

The Ato's range is definitely longer.

I know they say up to $400,000 on the Ato3.

Yeah.

Because that's about the same as the J5.

This is $400,000 on the JQ.

Yeah.

So that's kind of where, when you think,

okay, the price is slightly lower,

that's one area where they say...

You immediately go,

hang on, they say money on the battery.

Yeah, the smaller battery.

But $400,000 for the right driver.

If you're not doing a lot,

you could even take that on a long drive.

You're just going to recharge.

I drove to Canberra.

Yeah.

And I stopped at Goldman.

Yeah.

And I stopped at Goldman on the way home.

Yeah.

Totally fine.

About 40 minutes each time, though,

because I will say it felt like this was chewing through

on the highway.

Oh, right.

I felt like it...

Well, it's either its estimation of range

or its consumption,

which didn't appear bad.

It was at 19s or 20s per kilowatt hour.

I just felt a kilowatt hour per 100.

It just felt to me like,

I watch the range every day.

I look at it when I'm on a long trip

and I go, I got 150Ks to go.

I wonder how much different...

How much battery is going to consume?

Yeah.

200Ks battery or whatever.

Yeah.

I felt like this thing was overregging

how much it was consuming.

But it didn't worry me at all

because the charge was totally fine.

Because you were good in there, right?

So, look, bottom line.

Super...

I think your spot on this is an Ato3 attack

from Jaiku.

That's total...

Totally, yeah, I think.

I would argue it's possibly a better-looking car,

but it's a bit strange at the front.

But otherwise, Ato3 is...

You know what the Ato3 is?

It's a conservatively good-looking car.

Yeah.

It doesn't try too hard.

This sort of has like an almost sort of

European-styling on it, right?

I think so.

Really, really, for its price,

it looks a lot more expensive than it actually is.

Yeah.

And that's a good thing.

Look, range aside,

if they would just work on that throttle mapping,

I'd be super in all-in on this.

And storage space,

decent amount of room up the back.

No, dramas at all.

If you need more room.

There's also a little front.

You can fold the seats down.

Yeah.

There is a little front.

Okay.

Yeah.

Which is something you can't save for the Ato3.

Yeah.

There you go.

So, yeah, it's a pretty good value,

I think, this one.

Yeah.

And these...

I think they're very competitive.

So, these are brand new brands in the market.

So, they're really fighting for market share.

And what a good way of doing it.

Offering a price like that,

a driveway price like that.

You know, now that I think about it,

I think they'd be very happy to be compared

to an Ato3.

Totally.

And be in the shopping list.

Yeah.

Because you drive an Ato3,

and the Ato3's interior is starting to date.

I feel like it's starting to age.

Because it was so funky and cool.

Yeah.

Excuse me when it first came out.

Whereas this is very neutrally European style.

Yeah.

And not too...

I think a good...

You know, the testers really bear.

And other cars just got a whole bunch of buttons.

This is sort of nicely in between.

Yeah.

So, I felt not...

It still gave you the feel of...

You're still driving a normal car,

but had that massive screen

and obviously gave you the EV feel as well.

Exactly.

However, check it out.

The JQ...

J5 EV.

37 grand drive away.

37 grand.

More cars in the weeks ahead right here

on Two Black Stalking Tech.

If you've got a car...

Two Black Stalking Electric Cars.

That's us.

Tech's our other podcast.

If we have run through...

A couple of weeks ago,

we ran through all the cars we got

over the next kind of five or six weeks.

But if there's a car

you specifically want to know about

or hear about,

let us know

or you can send us a text.

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

Great to have you company.

We'd love to hear from you.

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

if you want to be on the show.

Brad's on the line.

G'day Brad.

G'day, how you going?

Mate, really good.

We understand you've got yourself a new car.

Yeah, it's got the C-Line 7.

Nice.

This is a couple of weeks in a row.

We've had brand new BYDs.

Yeah, BYDs are really selling a lot lately.

So what way do you arrive

at the BYD C-Line 7?

Did you do a lot of test driving beforehand

or was it the BYD from the start?

No, well, I hadn't even thought

about an electric car

until probably November last year.

So definitely wasn't even on the cards.

And then my brother called me in November

and said he's bought a Tesla Model Y.

I sort of said, oh, what did you do that for?

And he told me about the,

because we're sort of internal combustion engine family

kind of thing.

Oh, OK, OK.

He told me about the novated lease incentive

with the French benefits tax exemption.

Yep.

And I hadn't heard about it.

I thought I must've been living under a rock

and he told me about it.

And so he came for Christmas

and brought his Tesla to it for a drive.

And I was impressed by how wide it was

and just reasonably impressed.

And then spoke to him again about the tax incentive

and started doing some sums and some spreadsheets.

And if my calculations were correct,

it would have worked out that I could basically

take that deal with any kind of electric car

and have money in my pocket

compared to driving the current car I was driving

to work without a loan repayment.

So it kind of made a massive sense to look at it.

So you were financially forced into an EV.

God love it.

Yeah.

So before the end of the year,

I'd taken a BYD through drives

because we really like the look of the BYDs, the C-Line 7s,

and compared it to the Tesla Model Y that I drove

and couldn't tell them apart.

I just liked the more of a car feel to the C-Line 7

than the simplicity of the Tesla.

We hear that a lot.

Minimalist versus traditional.

We hear a lot of people.

We've had callers talking about,

they love the idea of the Tesla

and the sort of spaceship and minimal sort of Spartan interior.

But other people just want to drive a car that feels like a normal car.

It just has buttons and things as well,

but it has all those future stuff as well and it's an EV.

So you were kind of sold on the C-Line 7 at that point.

Yeah, absolutely.

So before the end of the year,

we had paid the deposit

and received it a couple of weeks later.

How good is that?

So you weren't going to get a Tesla guy

because your brother's got one.

Would that have been an issue, mate,

if you hadn't got a Tesla as well or what?

No, it wouldn't have been.

It's just, I really like the look of the C-Line.

Well, I think Trevor agrees.

I do too.

The C-Line 7 is good.

Trevor's not a big fan of the Tesla.

The Tesla's a frog.

The Model Y.

You know what's funny to me, Brad,

is the C-Line 7 I think is a slick looking car.

The C-Line 6 looks dated.

So I feel it's really weird to me

that they've got such a vast design differences

between their vehicles.

The Seal, the C-Line 7, the Addo 1

are their top three looking cars.

The Addo 3 is probably next on the list

and then the others,

maybe the shark's a bit different,

but yeah, I feel like the Addo 2,

I'm not a massive fan of the look of the C-Line 6,

but you were just in love with the C-Line 7 from the get-go.

So you own it now.

What's it like?

Is it everything you hoped it would be?

Yeah, and more.

It's great.

We're really impressed.

The range is way better than I was planning on.

I was reading up and I was hearing 22 kilowatt hours to 100,

but I'm sort of averaging anywhere between 15 and 17.

So that's the sums of working better for me on that.

Yeah, everything's great.

Super quiet and smooth.

By the way, sorry, you own it now?

You're in it now?

Yeah, we're in it now, yeah.

On its hands free?

Yes.

Yeah, it's not bad.

It's really quiet and smooth.

I mean, we're tech guys,

so we often, and to be honest,

anyone that's called,

we've called, we'd love to get these.

We're like, can you take the headphones out?

We're pretty narky about the sound it calls.

This sounds excellent.

Sorry, I interrupted you, Steve.

Yeah, so what sort of driver are you, though, mate?

Are you just going to suit your...

Do you go on long trips

or is this going to be a major adjustment for you?

I was a little bit concerned about it,

but I don't think it will be.

We just took a trip to Tuomba and back,

and I was, we'll see, it's a small drive,

but two hours each way,

up a big range as well,

and got back with 30% battery still in the car.

Yeah, pretty good.

I mean, we could have easily stopped.

We were planning on stopping on the way home,

but yeah, we're looking at it like,

we actually don't have to.

We can easily make it back.

Yeah, the way home,

because you had the range on the way up was uphill,

but the downhill on the way home,

you actually had the benefit of the better consumption

on the way home.

Gravity helped you.

So what has been your charging scenario early on?

Have you gone for a charger at home

or are you going to rely on public charging?

What have you decided?

No, I was recently planning on just doing the granny charger

and on my spreadsheet, so I was working it,

because I do 120km a day to work round trips,

so I was thinking,

yeah, I'd have to leave it at home on a Thursday

while the wife's working from home

and charge it all day and catch up,

because I couldn't catch up overnight, basically.

And that lasted for about a week,

and I went and bought a DEV 7kW,

the DPOW 7kW charger, wall charger.

Okay.

And yeah, so I've got that installed,

and it's great.

Now I can replenish in, I think, four hours every day

if I want to.

That's nice.

Do you have solar at home,

or are you just paying the bill through the electricity company?

I've got solar, but I'm not really concerned myself

with that at this point in time.

I just charge overnight on the low rate.

You are a numbers man, Brad.

I thought you would have worked this out, mate.

Or you thought you would have got the spreadsheet out

for that one, mate.

I haven't had time for that one yet.

Well, mate, that's excellent, mate.

Here you go.

I was going to say, I did originally message you guys

because I had just finished my whole purchasing experience

with Northlake's BYD,

and was listening to the podcast about BYD dealerships

and the pylon, not the pylon, but...

It was a pylon.

Let's be honest, it went for weeks.

It was a pylon.

Yeah.

It was a pylon.

I wasn't screaming at the radio,

but I was looking at a gun.

Man, I couldn't have had a different experience

from end to end with my purchase.

Give him a shout out, mate.

Where is it?

Who helped you?

Give him a shout out.

Northlake's BYD and Gavin was actually the salesperson

in Brisbane.

Yeah, we went for a test drive.

There was no set route.

He didn't want to come with us.

Me and my wife took it,

and they didn't save you back by any time.

We originally booked one sea line.

I didn't say which one.

I didn't even know there was two at that point,

but we came back and said,

which one do you want, the premium or the performance?

And we said, well, we want to drive both.

So we drove them back to back,

and he didn't have a problem with it.

And then no pressure sales.

Yeah.

And then after the purchase, answering emails,

responding quickly was great.

You know what?

I just looked up BYD Northlake's on Google,

and they have several five-star reviews,

including a couple of shout outs to Gavin.

Yeah, great.

Well done, Gavin.

He's clearly worked out how to be his car salesman.

Ask for a pay rise, mate.

You know what's a funny thing?

I genuinely think that leaving public reviews,

I mean, bagging them on a podcast is a big deal.

Also shouting out,

but I think leaving those public reviews

makes a big difference

because the boss is definitely going to hear about that.

They're definitely going to see that.

So, mate, we're glad to hear from you, mate, to be honest,

because it was concerning to me the number of calls

and outreach we were getting from people about BYD dealerships.

And a couple of people have pointed out,

it feels like it might be the other side of the country.

We've had a lot in Perth and SA,

whereas Sydney and Brisbane seemingly not too bad.

So there may be something there about the management

of those dealerships we don't know,

but that's good to know.

But I'm glad you've had a good experience.

I'd love to know what colour did you get, Brad,

and how long before, when you said,

yep, let's do the deal,

how soon before you were sitting in the car?

Went for the white.

We could have chose,

and the white was the longest white,

and they had to check,

it had to come from some storage yard,

but it would have only been the 15th,

so from the day before then, the year,

so maybe 16 days.

That's pretty good.

Wow.

Happy days.

Well, congratulations on your new car, mate.

Here you go.

Thank you.

No, that's all I was saying.

We did take the Shark 6 for a test drive since,

but there'll probably be maybe on the cards later.

He's got the bug.

He could double down.

I wish a fringe benefits taxi.

Yeah, because that doesn't work on the hybrids, does it?

No, you've got to be fully electricated.

No, not anymore.

Yeah.

All right, mate.

Great to hear from you, buddy.

Thanks, buddy.

Thank you.

Cheers, mate.

Good to hear from you.

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

If you want to get in touch,

just like Brad did,

if you bought yourself a new car.

Another happy customer.

Yeah, another happy customer.

Good.

Look, we were just hearing feedback from people.

We weren't calling in for this.

People would share their experiences.

I mean, it was a problem.

Well, what's the saying?

The word of mouth.

Bad news travels a lot faster than good news.

Yeah, for sure.

And also, I think that people are often looking for the outlet

to share that story.

So if you hear a bad experience,

you're like, I had that bad experience, too.

But in the same way,

and look, we have to be very clear.

This is a podcast, right?

So it's not live.

So if you're listening to this game,

but I didn't have that experience,

you can't change the needle immediately.

It takes weeks,

because we record on a,

full of slides we record on a,

Wednesday comes out on a Monday.

Sometimes we record many weeks in advance.

So it could take a month to turn the needle

on just this show, Stephen.

Exactly, right.

Long shelf life.

But it did,

but it did feel like a little bit of a pile of time.

I'm glad to hear in recent weeks,

some better experiences.

So keep that up, folks.

Getting in touch,

you can send us a WhatsApp,

like Brad did, 0-4-7-6-5-7-6-5-7.

Two blokes talking electric cars.

So despite Stephen's enthusiasm,

I am totally chill.

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

Let's keep going with calls.

Stephen, Chris is on the line.

G'day, Chris.

Hi, how are you?

Yeah, really good, mate.

You, like our last caller,

owner, C-Line 7.

It's the C-Line 7 show.

Yes, that's right.

What drew you to that car

originally when you were shopping?

Well, originally,

it was probably,

I was looking for a car early,

well,

2025.

So it really was the only choice

of really two types of cars

at that time.

It was the Tesla and the BYD.

So the Tesla Model Y,

are you talking about?

Yeah, the Model Y and then the BYD.

And so what made you choose BYD

over Tesla apart from price,

or what was the,

what drew you to BYD over Tesla?

I think it was the,

basically the easy

transformation from a

ICE to an EV.

So you had all the buttons and,

So you felt like you were driving a normal car, right?

Yeah, exactly, yeah.

Okay, so that you didn't like the spaceship

feel of the Tesla.

You wanted more,

more tactile experience.

Yeah, exactly.

And the Tesla didn't have

things like your heads up display

and things like that.

Yeah, it's a good point.

That's a great point, you know,

that's not the first time we've heard that.

That's a deal breaker for some people.

They're not having heads up display

and that little cluster

in front of the driver.

Just simple things.

Just something missing.

Yeah, expect from something

you're spending so much money on too.

Yeah, true, true.

Well, that's right.

And you know, just, you know,

keeping your eyes off the road

just to see what speed you're going at.

Like you don't want these bells

and bells going off at you.

Every time you have your eyes off the road.

We're about to you located, Chris.

Sydney.

So, talk to me about the experience

of buying the BYD

because obviously we've had some...

We've had some...

...theary.

But as per our last call,

we've had some differing...

Some great experience.

...some great experiences too.

So what was your experience?

How was yours?

Well, you bought it,

so must have been all right.

Well, I actually released it.

So, basically,

it took a while to get the car,

only because I think the funny story is,

you know, finding our cars,

people getting cars earlier than I was

and ordering at the same time

and stuff like that.

So, I eventually got the car in June last year

and turned up and turned up the dealer, you know.

And of course, no, you know,

no fanfare, you know.

No ribbon.

No great reveal or anything

and pity because the wife and the kids

were there and all would have been nice.

No, well, you wanted to put on a show for you, mate.

Put on a show.

Yeah, I didn't do anything like that at all.

So, did all that.

But that's okay.

I can laugh about it now,

but I'll laugh again in a minute.

So, I drove it home.

Next day, I get a phone call going,

hey, you know, I've got some weather shields for you.

And I'll go, I didn't order any weather shields.

So, we got some.

I said, okay, turned up the dealership.

Turned up, they gave it to me.

And it said, shark on it.

What?

Really?

So, the weather should have said shark

and you're driving a sea lion.

I don't think the shark weather shield

is going to fit the sea lion.

Yeah.

That's what I said.

So, I had a funny feeling

that what they missed, they actually missed ordered.

I marked up the order and ordered me a shark

instead of a sea lion seven.

No one's going to admit to it.

No one's going to admit to it at all.

But I did have a joke with him and said, hey,

if you're willing to give me a shark for free,

I'm willing to take it.

What you should have said was, I'll pay for the weather shield.

You throw in the show or the car for nothing.

That's right.

Right.

Yeah.

So, other than that, you know,

generally experienced being pretty good.

Being up, going to the Gold Coast just recently

and driven up there and stuff like that.

And the only gripe I had with driving up there

was the ICC.

So, it was the intelligent cruise control.

When you're changing lanes, come back into another lane.

It was like it bounced.

Sort of like it was calibrating into the lane.

Right.

Lane keep assistance on a lot of cars.

You've got to spend a lot of money to get a good car

with lane assistance.

I've got to be honest with you.

Yeah.

So, that was the only gripe I had, you know,

driven up there, pretty good.

Charging was fine.

I'd used all the Tesla superchargers, which was great.

Simple way to go, yeah.

So, no issues there.

It was all good.

It was all smooth.

All good.

And funny enough, I feel like I'd paid the $10 membership

for the month just to get the cheaper rate.

Just stop you there,

because I talked about my Tesla experience last week.

And we've had a few messages saying,

mate, you're paying a top dollar for the charge rate.

If you just spend $10 a month,

you get the lower charge rate,

and you don't need to be in on it for 12 months.

You can just buy it for this month.

So essentially you can spend,

if you're going to use a lot of power,

you can spend 10 bucks.

Spend 10 bucks to save a lot more than that.

To save a little bit more than that on the way through.

So, it sounds like a smart way to go.

Yeah.

So, well, I worked it out like it was 20 cents per kilowatt charge.

Right.

That's all bad.

And yeah, and one of the superchargers at New Italy

was like 39 cents per kilowatt.

Yeah.

That's pretty good.

What's your charging experience at home then?

What have you done to equip yourselves

as an electric vehicle household?

Yeah, so I've got a 7XE2 charger, 7 kilowatt.

Just charge either off solar or dead night rate.

That's good, sir.

Or night rate, but I'll charge whenever I want.

And so do you generally do a lot of driving?

Is your day-to-day drive,

do you do a decent amount of k's or what do you do?

Oh, look, I probably do about not a lot,

but I can probably charge probably once a week,

maybe once a fortnight if I really want to push it.

That's good.

But it's just convenient.

It's a nice, roomy car.

It's handling good.

So I've got a follow-up text from you

when I see you may come on the show.

What's happened, mate?

Someone caused a bit of a bingo, mate.

What happened?

Yeah, so someone actually hit me from behind.

It was actually a tipper truck.

So it caused a bit of damage.

But yeah, so I think something that people need to say,

get to know is that if you have a bingo,

where to get the repaired in Sydney with BYD,

you only have three options.

Is that right?

Just three?

Does that depend on your insurer?

So is that insurer-based?

No, that's through the website, the group website.

And funnily enough, because I couldn't drive it

because the BMS shut down the battery and stuff like that.

So it turned out that only two could do it

because one refused to actually service the car

or even quote on the car

because the battery shut down.

So I tried to do one, couldn't do one.

So I had to go to another one, which is about 30k away.

So which is...

Who are you insured with, can I ask?

It's through the Nodada lease, which is Vero.

Right, because I mean, every insurance is different,

obviously, but every time I've had insurance,

it's like the insurance company, they just tell you where to go.

Like just turn up here, that's where you go.

Whereas you've obviously had to kind of shop around a bit yourself.

Well, normally like you'd have choice of repairs,

but in the case of an EV,

there'd be a bit more limited for some.

So that experience has not been amazing for you.

Where's it at now?

How long are you without a car?

Well, I had the bingo what last week,

so it's at Castle Hall at the moment.

So I'm looking at least four to six weeks.

Okay, right.

And you were not at fault, of course.

So you'd be getting a replacement car for the interim?

Yeah, well, I'll be getting a higher car,

but it's only, you know, for, you know,

I think three and a half K, which is,

I think I worked it out.

It was only going to be a month or a month and a bit.

So which is, which is a bit of a hassle.

And the car is like, it's not a rider for nothing.

They're going to repair it.

We don't know yet.

So still got to wait for that quote and go through that.

Yeah.

So, but yeah, it was just that, you know,

and we're mucking around to find a qualified,

approved repairer who would do that, do that body work.

So can I ask as well, Chris, is it, did you have a dash cam?

We know we are, you didn't end dash cams,

but if you, you obviously, you didn't need to prove

that you weren't at fault.

The guy, the rear end, you got rear ended.

So obviously they fought.

Yeah.

No, I didn't.

And I was in the process of getting,

getting quotes and stuff like that.

Well, I was doing and didn't end up getting it.

So in time.

So, but.

Oh, well, it's an,

it's a learning experience, mate.

And it's a pain because you've got like a nice,

reasonably new car.

It does bring up.

Like we talk, we talk on this show,

people share their experiences of buying the car

and, you know, how they're driving it and charging it.

And one thing people never really consider is

what happens if I need to get this repaired?

It's, it's something that you're probably the last thing

you're thinking about.

And often you've found out the hard way that it's,

it's not as, as easy as it could possibly be to repair it.

So something that really needs to be considered

if you are buying whatever brand of EV.

Which, by the way, and that's,

we've talked to an NRA a couple of times about

the, the work they're doing.

That's some of the things they're doing is making sure

that they're training up.

So upskilling.

Cause I would argue, Chris, of the three that could service

or fix the car, the one that couldn't is probably

essentially a panel beat up, you know?

And so they're like a battery management.

We're out, you know?

We can fix the panels, but everything else in it.

So, so it's that, that place is where they need to upskill

to be more EV ready.

Cause that's going to happen more often.

That's what it are.

They do it.

Yeah.

That's, that's right.

And that's the thing I had with AMI insurance coming.

They said, oh yeah, I found a place.

They can do the panels, but they can't do the,

can't do anything with the battery.

I had the same experience, mate, years ago when I had

my Tesla for like four months and some,

some Blake opened a door on the side while I was driving by,

smashed the side of my car and it was a process to,

and this is, I'm talking, this is eight years ago,

trying to find a qualified repairer.

And the car had to be sent back to Tesla for calibration.

And it was a real, just a, I think it was like six weeks,

I was without the car and they said to me,

that was actually a fast repair.

Yeah, right.

Six weeks.

There's something to learn every day here.

Every day's a school day, Stephen says.

But overall, you're a happy man.

You love your car and you'll be,

you'll be excited to get back in the seat when,

when you, when you get it fixed, mate, I'm sure.

We will do.

Great to hear from you.

Thank you.

Thanks for reaching out.

No worries at all.

Good to hear from you.

Yeah.

That's not a fun, fun time.

Not at all.

But it does raise that question.

Like, you know, if you, you, you, you know, obviously,

you're one of the things you get, you register your car

and you ensure your car, right?

So you want to know if, if I need repairs,

if something goes wrong, what are my options?

That's a good thing to know going in just so that,

yeah, you're prepared mentally, but also,

like if one company says to you, oh no,

well we've only got three repairs in Australia

that can fix this model car.

You've been thinking well.

But also it's a, look, I'm amazed as a sponsor.

I don't know exactly how they operate,

but I know the couple of times that I've had to use insurance,

it's been very much, look, sure, here, take the car there

and we'll sort it all out.

That's the way I like it, right?

Just thanks very much.

Take it off my hand.

I get choice of repair.

Dude, if you want, no, I don't want that.

I just want you to take the car and fix it.

I don't want to have to take it anyway.

Well, I'm different, but like I see,

because I drive a Mercedes, right?

So I want to, I want a Mercedes qualified repairer.

Yeah.

And I did have members.

Someone ran rear end of me in my car in my EV

and they handled it.

I was able to take it to the place I wanted to take it

and it was sorted.

All right.

Two blokes talking electric cars and crash repairs.

Whatever, we don't care.

It doesn't matter.

If it's an EV involved,

we're happy to talk about it

and we can receive your text messages or WhatsApp.

Thanks to Vodafone on 047-657-657.

This gets me fired up.

Oh, no.

It's at this end of the show where you get really just the energy

because, you know, he's clocking off soon.

047-657-657 is the energy that I bring to the show.

Steven brings the fist pumping energy.

No, no, we're all pumped.

We are pumped.

We'd love to hear from you.

And Mal's on the line.

G'day, Mal.

G'day.

How's it going?

Yeah, really good.

What can we do for you, mate?

Where are you at in your EV journey?

I've been looking at EVs for the last couple of years.

I sort of almost bought a BYD out of three.

Out of three?

Almost.

Yeah, sort of went for a test drive

and thought it was OK.

Then we sort of thought,

we'll just have a look around

to see what's coming up in the future,

which this year is sort of the year that I'm thinking about buying.

Yeah, right.

So the out of three still on the cards?

Ah, no.

Oh, gone.

Yep, gone.

Yeah, we're looking for something like SUV.

I did have a look at the Skoda.

Skoda?

Yeah.

Yep.

So you're looking at something like SUV.

You're looking at something.

You obviously sound like you're doing a bit of driving.

So is that what,

is that sort of,

would that be the right classification for you?

Yep.

Well, if you do be driving Skodas,

I mean, the Skoda's got over 500K's range.

So that's a big win.

It's also, mate, let's be honest,

Skodas are a beautiful car.

But like the Skoda,

for people that don't know,

Skoda is actually how to pronounce them being an art,

because I used to work at SBS

and the lady from the check program

actually taught me how to pronounce Skoda.

So Skoda.

So it's like a shit.

Shit.

It's called a Skoda.

Right out.

And you'll see it in the ads.

They do say it properly in the ads.

Right out.

And it's a little un-lutty thing over the name.

Anyway, Skoda,

we'll just say it out,

it's meant to be,

it's part of the Audi,

Volkswagen, Audi, Skoda,

Sayit, Coupre.

Right.

It's all part of the one group.

One big happy family, right?

In Australia,

it's the Volkswagen Group Australia.

So all the dealerships and everything

all run by the same people.

Mate, they're a beautiful looking car.

The underpinnings, therefore, are great.

Like, is that a family that you're in?

Like, do you like Volkswagen's

and that kind of ride and handling?

Because it's the same deal, right?

Yep.

Sure is.

Yeah, the last two cars I've had,

had a CC and a top-line Passat now.

Oh, nice, nice.

Wagon.

So have you driven the Skoda yet?

Have you taken it for a test drive

or are you just thinking about it still?

No, I went out and had a look at it

and sat on it, some six foot four

and sort of have to make sure that I fit it in.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

You're a big unit, oh, yeah, that's good.

And how do you go?

Is it all right?

Yeah, it's good.

Nice and comfortable.

Okay.

My wife liked it as well,

so she told him that when we get a bit closer.

What brings you close?

What's the timeline?

What's when are you going to pull the trigger?

Probably think about mid-year.

Okay.

And is there anything holding you back?

Is there any concerns that you have

that you're thinking, oh, are we ready for this?

I actually had a look at the Vog Quag

and ID4 last night online.

Yeah.

The GTX one.

Yeah.

And that's,

but I sort of haven't seen it in real life yet, so.

Right.

But that sort of comes in

around about the same price and.

Okay.

I mean, they're basically the same platform, aren't they?

Pretty much the same car.

Okay.

So that's, they're your two options, really.

Absolutely.

I mean, you basically would be,

if you went down ID4 versus Enyak path,

you're basically comparing two of the same cars

with different bodies.

Yeah.

That's good.

That makes it easier.

Like I'm thinking that even the infotainment

and instrument cluster would all be the same.

In the same way that the Volkswagen ID,

God, I think it was the ID3 is exactly the same

as the Cooper born.

Right.

They're the same car.

They're just,

they're literally the same car,

A pillar to C pillar,

and then it's just a different set of headlights

and different set of tail lights.

Like it's,

they're the same car, same factory, same everything.

Yeah.

And so the underpinnings of both those cars

would be very similar.

Well, I mean,

there's nothing really to choose between either of them,

other than may take them for a drive.

You probably won't feel the difference.

You're probably just going to go purely on looks mate,

which is exactly what your wife did when she picked you.

She wanted a tall, dark and handsome wife.

Mate, she got that.

So yeah.

That's good.

So what?

The golf clubs fit in the back.

Yeah.

You know what?

A very important,

that's like the bloody things to the dealership.

That's my test for any car.

We drive a car every week, mate.

So that's my test for the boot space

is my golf clubs fit in there.

Where do you play, mate?

And what's your handicap?

At the moment, 16 and play all around Canberra.

Good for you, mate.

Good for you.

Member at your wharney.

Nice.

We'll play with the police golf.

We'll play all over the place.

I'm with you, mate.

You've got to check.

They're the important things, mate.

You've got to make sure the golf clubs fit.

Is there anything that worries you about going EV?

Because obviously this will be your first EV.

Not really.

I've sort of been listening a lot.

I think there's apps where you can actually map

if you're going on a longer type trip.

Oh yeah.

And what are you going to do?

Are you going to get a charger for the home?

Are you going to get a granny charger?

What have you given it that much thoughts yet?

I was actually thinking about

whether the home charger,

getting one of those would be a good option.

I think the answer to that is

if you can afford it,

then a home wall plumbed charger,

one phase or three phase,

whatever you can essentially afford

is absolutely a thing to have

because it's the peace of mind.

So we, our wall charger at home

is rigged to be 100% solar.

So if you plug it in at eight o'clock at night,

it just won't do anything, right?

Because there's no sun.

But with a push of a button in an app,

I can go, I need full charge now.

It'll just go grid.

But most importantly, the choice between having,

like we've got the granny charger in both cars,

they have it there ready.

If we needed it to be,

if we're at someone's house or something,

we could plug in.

But going one step up

and installing a fast charger means that...

Oh, we've lost him.

We've lost him.

Hang on, I'll call him straight back.

I'm sure he didn't hang up on us.

Is that too big for me?

Sorry about that.

Oh, mate, did you hang up on me

because I was boring you to death?

I was just saying,

going one up means that you get home

and you're at 37% charge, right?

And you think that's enough.

And then you and the wife go,

you know what, tomorrow we should drive to...

in your case.

And you go, oh, I've got to get up early.

I've got to go and charge or whatever.

Mate, just plug it in.

And in eight hours, it's absolutely going to be fully charged.

Whereas if you're on a granny charger,

it's probably a 24-hour thing.

So the peace of mind, if you can afford it,

is absolutely worth it.

Yeah, because I saw that the Volkswagen

would go to one for about $700 and something.

Yeah, a lot of...

Plus install.

A lot of cars that you get a deal with.

Yeah, plus install.

They throw the charger in here,

but you've got to get an electrician to put it in for you.

But you've got solar at home

or thinking of getting it or what's the...

Sure have.

Then I think an important thing to think about,

even though the dealership has one that's available,

do some research on that model.

Because I think the ability for me,

the ability to tell my charger,

I only want solar,

has been a game changer for us at home.

Because A, it's taught me and my wife

that we're only getting charged when the sun's out.

It makes us think,

oh, it's a sunny day, go and charge the car.

And it also takes our reliance on the grid away.

It saves money.

Like you want to take advantage of your solar.

So a $700 one that the dealer supplies

might not do that.

It may, but just do some research on what its capabilities are.

Because if it's got an app

and it's got...

you can link to your solar system,

then there's, again,

there's just that little heightened advantage

to the system.

Is all we would argue, I think.

Absolutely.

That's awesome.

I shall do some research.

Well, mate, I can't wait to hear your experience when you...

Mate, it sounds like you're going to be down to two,

because you're going to be in the Volkswagen grip.

You love them.

So there's no others, really.

I think he did ask us what others,

but I think the two choices...

They've got two great choices.

Pretty solid, yeah.

Look, again, I think that given the scale of the company,

what they're doing,

you should go and drive an EV5 from Pia.

That's a great car.

You know, SUV-wise, the J-COO that we've had,

it's again, it's a little standout at a price point.

So he said he already looked at the 803.

I'd even give the C-Line 7 a look, too.

The C-Line 7.

But go back to B1D.

See the C-Line 7,

which is much better car than the 803.

108 - The Jaecoo J5 EV review and callers with BYD Sealion 7's

About this episode

Kia EV6

Jaecoo J5

fully electric

Chery

plug-in hybrid

compact SUV

Atto Byd Ato3

BYD Atto 3

Jaecoo J5 EV

BYD Sealion 7

Tesla Model

Dodge Charger

ICE

EV

intelligent cruise control

lane keep assistance

lane assistance

battery management

EV ready

Mercedes

Skoda

Volkswagen CC

Volkswagen Passat

Volkswagen Id4

Plymouth GTX

Volkswagen Id

Mini Cooper SE

Volkswagen Id3

home charger

granny charger

Kia EV5

Kia EV5

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