The Kia EV9 is a new big electric car that doesn’t use gas and can carry lots of people and stuff. It’s made to be easy to use and good for families who want to drive electric.
The Mercedes-Benz EQE is a fancy electric car that doesn’t use gas and is very comfortable inside. It’s made for people who want a smooth and quiet ride with lots of nice features.
The Hyundai Genesis is a nice, fancy car made by Hyundai that feels more expensive than it costs. It helped Hyundai start making luxury cars that many people like.
The Genesis G80 is a nice and comfortable car that feels fancy and has lots of modern features. The electric version runs on batteries instead of gas, which is better for the environment.
The BMW M3 is a fast and sporty car that is based on a regular BMW sedan but made to be much more powerful and fun to drive. People like it because it’s good for both daily driving and going fast on race tracks.
A luxury car brand is a company that makes very fancy and comfortable cars with lots of special features. For example, Lexus is the fancy car brand of Toyota, and Genesis is the fancy car brand of Hyundai.
The i-Pedal lets you slow down your electric car just by lifting your foot off the accelerator, which helps recharge the battery and makes driving easier.
The Toyota Land Cruiser is a big, strong car that can drive on rough roads and last a very long time. People use it when they need a car that won’t break down in tough places.
The Daewoo Statesman is a big, comfortable car that was sold in Australia and made to be fancy and roomy. It was popular with people who wanted a big car with nice features.
The Dodge Charger is a big, fast car that looks tough and has a strong engine. It has four doors, so it’s good if you want a sporty car that can also carry people comfortably.
The MG HS EV is a small electric SUV made by MG. It runs on electricity instead of gas and has special parts like a charging port to plug in and recharge the battery.
Range means how far a car can go before it needs to be charged or refueled. Electric cars need to be charged, so having a longer range means you can drive farther without stopping.
EV space means the world of electric cars, which run on batteries and electricity instead of gas. It's about how people make and use these kinds of cars.
Solar energy means using sunlight to make electricity with special panels on roofs or fields. This electricity can be used to power things like cars or homes.
Charging an electric car means plugging it in to fill up its battery with electricity, kind of like charging your phone. You can do this at home or special places.
The Mitsubishi Outlander is a family car that can run partly on electricity to save fuel. It’s good if you want a car that can carry people and things but also helps you use less gas.
The Toyota Supra is a sporty car that’s made to be fast and fun to drive. It’s famous because many people like to make it even faster and it has a cool history in racing.
Dual-motor means the electric car has two motors, one in front and one in back, which helps it go faster and handle better.
LIVE
This is Two Blokes talking electric cars with Trevor Long and Steven Finnick thanks to NRMA
Insurance and UNIDEN. And we appreciate their support NRMA Insurance helping Australians
protect what matters most for a hundred years and many more to come and one of Australia's
largest insurers of electric vehicles and UNIDEN smart dash cam is get yourself a dash cam front
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Steven. Great to have you company mate. Hi mate, how you doing? Very well 0477657657 thanks to
Vodafone. Instead it's a text we'd love to have you on the show wherever you're at in your EV journey
as we call it. It feels like a weight loss show. Where are you at in your journey? Hey where are
you at in your EV journey? People do describe it that way you know. Absolutely. A lot of people
have the whole like it's a whole ecosystem you know our home like we're going solar we're going
battery we're going EV like the whole journey. They're prepared. It's just they can't and you've
heard these people on this show they are five years into their research and still a year away
from potentially buying right? Yeah well you know what I think there's a lot of questions that people
have though about their EVs and we're the blokes of the barbecue. We're the guys you can talk to
listen to our other callers. You'll find the answers if you don't you can talk to us directly.
I'm going to use that line. That is amazing. We're the blokes of the barbecue. That's us.
I'm happy to turn the sausages while we talk. Yeah that's it. We can get stuff done here.
All the questions we've answered them all. So I own a Kia EV9 and a Cooper-born Steven owns a
Mercedes-Benz EQE and Steven this week you replaced that in the driveway. Yes. There's something
I would argue as I handed the keys to you I would argue very similar in many ways to the EQE
and just a different target audience I think the Genesis G80 electric. Now there is a large sedan
the Genesis G80 this is the the electrified version of that. Genesis being Hyundai's luxury
car brand so like Lexus is Toyota two Toyota spot on Genesis is to Hyundai this thing I do think
it's an impressive looking sedan. This had looks from the neighbors. I was getting the questions
from the neighbors. Yeah it's a nice it's a big car it's not a small car a decent size car
and really beautifully designed. You can you can tell that this is a this is a luxury vehicle
and yeah I was getting looks from the neighbors. I think I think my neighbor bumped into Joe at
the shops he goes oh what what at the front you got the Genesis how good is that they were
really impressed with it. Yeah the the G80 and and look from the minute you sit inside the car
you're thinking wow this it's got the beautiful screen that sort of goes for sort of half the
length half the width of the car and you've got the this beautiful leather seats and the whole
every appointment even the dial for for the for the gear selection is just a beautiful yeah
it's not a crystal but it has that style to it you know and that was that that took a little
bit of getting used to it first because I'm so used to having up the gear shift up here
and then oh hang on a minute I've got to I've got to do the dial like the MG I think MG has that
yeah yeah so that was that wasn't too bad but it was a beautiful drive I love the fact that you
could it gave you really easy access to adjust your regeneration it's a regent and I always
have it on the strongest possible region I like that that's sort of one of the I think
they call it in this car the i-pedal that's the Kia Hyundai call it i-pedal yeah i-pedal
and you've got to remember just quickly the any any Kia Hyundai Genesis EV it's all one family
right it's all the learnings that you get from being a car company and you know problems let
alone you know features that they carry across and you see those in this car and I do think the
using what used to be the shifter pedals for a regen is the best way to to attach regen to a car
Mercedes does that too you got the you got the little paddles at the back yeah but it do look
like I'm come from driving the my EQE 350 and sitting inside the the Genesis was right it felt
just as luxurious and just as comfortable and excellent drives so smooth and and and really
had a good feel as well like a really really nice feel for the road yeah and quite a bit of range
too like this has got what up to 500 and is this 570 or 580 it says up on their website they they
quote up to 570 yeah that's a lot of that's decent yeah well that's obviously that's that adds to the
price of the car it's got well speaking of which yeah if you build in price on the Genesis website
this thing is 167,679 dollars and 99 cents drive away yeah so it's in the Mercedes ballpark
definitely in the same ballpark which is like I gotta say I I both struggle with that but I respect
that at the same time this is the best they make this is the quality the best quality they do a lot
of subtle features in it too like I can remember I picked up my wife and her friends from dinner one
night and they got in the back of the car the two like my wife Joe got sat at the front and the two
other women in the car were in the back and they go oh someone shut my door for me you know it's
got the automatic good door closing how does it what are they how do when you say automatic door
closed like when you engage park yeah no when so I'm parked but they get in the car and they
were just all they had to do is just sort of oh so someone pushed the touch the door just pull it
in slightly there's a button too and then and then it just acts for a button to open it but the
button also closes it yeah yeah as well so yeah see what I would say because it's it's weird to
compare a Mercedes EQE to a Genesis G80 but it's important at the same time because they're you
know similar price points right but I think at 170 let's call this 170,000 well let's call 160
because you're probably going to negotiate right yeah let's call 160 I think if you were to actually
compare every single feature and say how many of these are standard on the Genesis versus extra pay
options on the Mercedes potentially that might be where you balance out. I think the Genesis has
or a lot of them is included that's what I love. There's a lot of inclusions yeah the Mercedes
you do have to tick a few boxes to perhaps include those extras but this felt complete this felt like
it was a very very uh it's a beautiful drive yeah oh it's just fantastic stunningly smooth drive
like a like you're driving a limousine it is it is a really nice drive decent range and um yeah
it's for the money you're getting I think look if you're a if you're a die-hard European brand owner
you know BMW Mercedes Audi this would be obviously in the ballpark but whether it it I think it's
probably attractive enough to maybe to lure people away from them European brands it does
offer that great luxury and good range I think you're right but I think their actual
market is just to upsell the huge market that is here in Hyundai in Australia yeah you know
Hyundai's done great things for selling lots of cars so as you see people's situations improve as a
dealer and a salesperson you push them towards something else in the same way that Toyota did
with Lexus yeah like that's that's the plan Toyota Toyota wants to keep you in the family
they don't want you to buy BMW they want you to buy a Lexus if you're going to leave Toyota they
want you to stay in the family absolutely same with Hyundai here in this case because like Genesis
has been around for a while though but I've seen uh many limos uh they're Genesis my my go to uh
high car driver always had a like an HSV Grange or you know beautiful big statesman style cars
and the first car he got after that was a was a Genesis really nice and the color was nice too
the colors of the car really really impressive the one that the one that we're driving is I've
got to say Matira blue oh it was it was beautiful and I've got to say too remember I sent you the
photo the best hidden charging port of any EV I've ever seen yeah so I'm I'm one of first
because I've never had the car for a couple of days first and I got it and I before I brought it
back to you because you're going to take it today I thought I got to charge this thing I don't want
to give it back like I was pretty low I had to charge it and I'm thinking where the hell is the
charger where's the I walked around the car thinking where is it I opened the boot and the
button in the bottom and I had to google it I had to google G80 charging port and then it was
you're looking at the front of the grill on the right edge of the grill there's a little button
and you press that and this little try this little diamond shaped door opens and boom it is right
it's elegantly designed yeah that's really good you know not that a charged port on the side or
anywhere on a car is ugly but you know what a friend of ours pulled up in the driveway the other
day to drop some things off and they got an MG like the old HS EV and you know you know it's an EV
because the the grills are kind of like a little door there's a very clear door on the front right
I mean if I'm paying $170,000 for a car I want a little door on the front exactly right this is
complete the best the best hidden port of all time it's right the front too so
you can go nose first into a charging bike and easily get it I'm now all in favour of front end
charges yeah I think the charging port should be at the front like where is it on the cupra where is
it the back and key is the same in it yeah my my Mercedes is back driver's seat yeah back driver's
which they've got a back into to charging spots correct so in the in the in the case of the of
the G80 like at my place I thought well because I actually was at the top of my driveway thinking
am I going to back this in am I going to before I found out right and then when I found out it was
the front I just drove it in because my charge is just there so if it was at the back I would have
had to back it in so that the the cord yeah well though the the my most recent experience was the
jku which you spoke about last week and that's on the front left quarter front right quarter
pattern okay so again so again front pulling pulling into a Tesla charger or a EV charger
wherever it is and it's just nose in you know I don't know and you know what I noticed uh this
this was a late discovery uh we're driving petrol cars but I remember when you look at the petrol
symbol there's a little arrow where's the arrow on this one well there's there's no there's not one
point forward there's no have you seen that on on any of these where they indicate what side the
charger is I'm going to like they do like they do with the petrol I'm going to pay more attention
yeah I haven't seen that I would love to maybe they don't need to because you don't have the choice
of one side of the pump or the other yeah true true yeah although can be an inconvenience because
again we digress now but like a Tesla supercharger if you're pulling up to it the front it's like
this and the cable comes out here and and goes over there and I'm like is the cable going to
able to reach over here or should I park in the other spot and reach it over that way yeah or back
in or front in but then I would be using essentially two spots one of the actual charger
and like so yeah sometimes the so having the placement in the middle like on the front yeah
means that it should fit anywhere the gear near enough to the middle yeah but it's at the front
so any cable is going to fit there it doesn't have to reach halfway down the car as well
beautiful car wow pricey is already impressed but we're very impressed yeah very nice I could
I could roll in that for a while oh me too me too yeah my Mercedes was getting jealous
I might uh I might book the cars for the second half a year I should book a weekly one for you
and I might just see if I can get six months in the 80 yeah cruising around town right it feels
like one of those cars in in LA it'd be on like you know those doof doof cars you know it's rolling
that low no but yeah look you can tell a nice car when people are impressed when they get in it like
I picked up my son at the airport Aaron's back in Sydney and he goes wow this is nice and even
when I picked up Joe's mates they go oh this is beautiful this car you know when there's comments
you know that it's a nice one also a great golf space for this there's got a huge yeah yeah big
boot although uh luggage fit in yeah uh all the Aaron yeah that were one thing with the with the key
the the the boot I had to had to press and hold it a few times to actually open it right yeah that
was out there my only my only down my only downer about it okay but um yeah it's big big remote on
it all right and there is a key a spot for the key ring love it yeah if you're if you've got a
genesis let us know how you finding it um or if you're in the market we'd love to hear what brought
you to that decision uh 0 4 double 7 6 5 7 6 5 7 I don't know why it became Phil Collins there for
a minute it was like in the air tonight it was really nailed that it's a great move that that
was the Cadbury had the ad that had the gorilla the gorilla just sitting there then it just
smashed it it is a great it was also in the movie um hangover the hangover when Mike Tyson
gets us I like this bit and then he does the drops yeah oh no so you you got like you're like
Mike Tyson and a gorilla I don't think either of those things is complimentary broadly but anyway
anyway uh 0 4 double 7 6 5 7 6 5 7 the number to send a text or a whatsapp to we did get a
whatsapp from Bevan honestly Bevan it was a voice message uh that could have been a text how are
you buddy there you go guys I was watching uh I'm you know I'm gonna give credit to Jimmy Carr I
think it was because I get a lot of comedy clips uh no it might have been um Rowan Atkinson it was
Rowan Atkinson right yeah and there was this thing he talked about I'm literally taking the
Mickey out of Bevan here but anyway um he was talking about how sending a voice message is
the easiest thing for the sender yeah but it's the hardest thing for the receiver yeah and and
it's it's you know you gotta think about the receiver as well as the sender but no I did
listen to it mate but the point was mate you had great insights I wanted to share them on the show
with this here mate so yes you're a you're a plug-in hybrid owner a month or so ago I was talking
about the the Mercedes I was driving which I'm assuming inspired you to talk to me about Feb so
you're a fan yeah yeah I've got I've got the Cooper a full mentor Feb at the moment I've had since
2022 wow and I brought that at the time I was looking for a new car and in 2022 especially early on
if you're looking for a new electric car which I was looking at electric uh just because they're
miles I do I do a ton of driving um and I was like I got electric I'm sick of paying for petrol
but it was either at that time you'd brought a red Tesla or a white Tesla
okay and yeah I drove it and I just didn't I just didn't like it that much I it just wasn't
it just I I was 100 sure I was buying it but I say to everyone that I talked to
always test drive the car before you put your money down so I did I stuck to my own word and
then I drove it and I went home and got a month later my wife said are you not you're not buying
the Tesla and I was like nah and I just didn't you know at the time they were 76,000 and I'm like
I'm spending 70 plus thousand on a car I should I should enjoy it yeah I mean you know what also
I hear you there a million percent and I said this couple of weeks ago we've heard this either
getting back in like yeah and it's a lot of money right we buy these cars lease or otherwise
you're paying for it it's my car like I want to have a passion for that car and it brings me
love getting in that even though Stephen and I are very lucky and we get to drive different
cars every week when I do jump in the car whether it's the Cooper or the Kia although I love the
Cooper more like I just I feel so much joy getting in that car and there's something something about
brand something about the fit and finish something about the maybe the seating position it's little
things isn't it Bevan yeah yeah and I um yeah I'm like that and I drove the Cooper I got a phone
call from the Cooper dealership and they asked me to take the car to a car show one day and and
it was an EV group that was doing a meet up and they said do you mind taking the car along and
I'm like yeah I'll take a long and halfway home I rang up the manager and I said do you
mind if I take the four minutes or home for the weekend and he goes yeah mate what why and I was
like I'm about to make a bad financial decision here's my problem mate I'm like and I just loved
that I took it home and I said I thought I'm supposed to buy an electric you know and then
um I said come into my wife she'll tell me stop being silly we're not buying that car you need
something more sensible and she drove it and came back and was like yeah it's awesome and I was like
well we're done right stamp yeah that's it yeah so just so just getting back briefly to the Tesla
you just didn't connect with it is that right the problem was you didn't connect no I I like yeah I
wasn't a big fan of the the starkness and um yeah I just didn't just didn't love it and I sort of
thought I just wasn't thinking about it and I've driven because of my job I get to drive all sorts
of cars like several times a week I'm driving different cars and some of the cars you get in
and it just blows you away or you get surprised by something you didn't think was going to be exciting
and I hopped in and yeah just the whole experience I was like yeah it's a car it's just it just yeah
and I and I didn't have the money at the time the performance models were
there was when they were about a hundred grand and I wasn't I wasn't in their markets
but so with the with the the your current the Cooper so uh the fact it was a hybrid uh so the
is that going to you is that going to suit your driving so you got how is it what a 45k is it
a 50k? Yeah yeah so we played a game a few weeks ago it was like 45k yeah so does that suit you
and but you still got to pay for petrol and have that in the background too don't you?
Yeah so I was I I work in shopping centers during the car displays all around WA and so if you see
cars in Perth that's that'll be me or my team showing them off so during the day I'm parked at
shopping centers so it means pretty much wherever I'm driving 40 45k gets me across the city I can
park up during the day charge up again and then drive home so I've got a roughly 90k or more
or 90k's each day driving around and that's most of my driving most of the time so my
my petrol belt went from over six grand a year to well under a thousand dollars a year oh wow
can I do yeah that's a that's a big deal a lot of people don't quantify a lot of people don't
actually keep a track of how much they spend on petrol and therefore yeah massive savings that come
from uh whatever affordable charging you can get get your hands on but you but you went
FEV not full EV is there a thought of maybe going full EV now? Yeah yeah so my next my
my big issue is I do the shows and stuff that I do several times a year I've got to drive out
into the country where there's limited charging like the field days for Darren there's 40 odd
thousand people if I pull up to a charger I've driven past them there'll be four or five people
at the charger when I'm trying to drive home right and I so I need I just need the range and
after doing a 12 hour day in the sun the last thing you want to do is sit at a charger for an
hour and a half waiting for everyone in a line and so I need that longer range so I'm coming up
I've done about nearly 80,000 k's in just on three years in my car so I'm looking at the moment
I've seen that ZK I like wagons I'm a big wagon fan and I see ZK and Dpal have got their wagons
both coming later this year and the performance numbers on those things are disgusting so I'm
quiet and the range on both of them appears to be sort of 600 plus comfortably so
yeah I think those are top of my list at the moment so I just hear what you mentioned before
is the the charging situation in Perth is it needed it sounds like it needs to improve
some regional Western Australia regional Australia regional Western Australia yeah yeah
the down down Margaret Riverways is excellent there's this stuff all over the place in there
tourism areas right yeah yeah exactly yeah yeah but when you go into the week now
especially it's more the fact that when I'm going somewhere thousands of other people
are going because I'm going for an event so there's thousands of people going in the same
direction and it's amazing going out to the Darren Field days every year you think those guys are
going to be anti-EVs there's more and more EVs in the car park every year that's a lot because
a lot of them sort of understand the car sits at home so a lot of those on the farm and they
know they can do 400ks and in a Tesla or something so there's more and more of them showing up out
there it's it's not as anti-EV as people would assume in the rural parts actually yeah that's
that's a really good observation because mate going to a field day I don't know if many people are
listening uh country people but a field day is a wild experience we're talking about tractors and
and harvesters and all those kind of things it's it's hardcore so you're saying there's a bit of
an acceptance out there of the EV space yeah I was actually out there one year for Land Rover when
they first announced that they were going to bring an EV and I was going out there doing work for them
and expecting to just get just flak all day long from people saying what what are they doing like
and I started dreading it and I got out there and the farmers were like yeah mate we've got solar
and they can't put it back into the grid so they're like any solar we don't use is lost energy and
you know if the the wife's car that she might they might come back into the city they quite often
will drive in and they'll have an apartment in the city where they'll stay for one or two days
and then go back out to the farm so they've got more than enough time to charge and it's free energy
they just if they don't use it at home during the day it's wasted so there's that first field
days for Land Rover I was surprised how many of them are like yeah I mean depending on price and
everything they were like this seems like a good idea to me I was shocked at how ready they were to
sort of accept it now Bevin you said you work you drive a lot of different cars you work with
different car companies yeah so you could offer some advice can't you on sort of dealerships and
how to approach them we have heard the various stories over the months you know how people are
treated not great in Perth it feels like we did get a few negative stories from the west
yeah yeah uh hearing while the the complaints that you've had some of your recent um interviews
just half of the course unfortunately but it sucks and I say to people if you get that bad
vibe from a dealership leave like you shouldn't you shouldn't have to fight somebody to give them
50 60 70 thousands of dollars yep you shouldn't be fighting them to give your money to them and
like the test drive thing though I say to people please try and book ahead you can't always like
sometimes you just spur the moment you go bugger let's stop in we're driving past now but if you
can make an appointment and say to the person you know if you're pretty close you narrow it down to
two or three cars it's better to call the dealership in person rather than go online and use the
national websites they that stuff it's terrible communication from head office for most of the
brands down to the dealership level so the amount of times I've heard of people say well I booked it
on the website but they didn't even know I was coming and that information just doesn't seem to
get through so if you can call the dealership itself and you'll probably talk to the person
that will be doing the test drive with you and and that'll let them know how far down the road
you are there the overnight test drive thing that guy you had a couple weeks ago and they just said
no that I my wife worked at a Toyota dealership for a long time and they offered overnight test
drives they had signage for it and any car if they had it available and you wanted to take it home
they would let you take it home and very few people actually took it up so it annoys me so much
when the car dealers are sitting there saying oh no everyone will want to take it home because
people they don't people don't want to accidentally have a bingo and it's going to cost them $5,000
in repairs which is your insurance so people are aware of that the car dealers I would say let them
know that you've narrowed it down to one or two cars it's very close you just want to try it in your
garage you want to try driving it at night see if everything works well for you and if you're down
to the last one or two and they're still saying no do you just call another dealership good advice
and the next the next one you call tell them what happened at the previous one because they
generally will do backflips if they found out you had a bad experience somewhere else yeah quite often
they will they will jump on it and say all I have to do is give this a guy better experience and I
can sell him a car and so basically come off as less than a tire better than a tire kicker so if
they if you walk in and they should tell them you're getting close you know that's what I'm saying
yeah if you tell them you're one or two down you've narrowed it down you're not a tire kicker and
that's where they're going to want to treat you well it's good advice Bevan mate from the inside
shall we say yes that's great yeah and mate I think I think you've got a you've got a fun choice
ahead when those those new models come in so the D pal and the and the Zika it's a it's a little way
off but it'll be good to have some EV wagons out there mate yeah it will be it'll be good it'll be
finally finally some stuff for the wagon guys out there which I think there's still a few of us there
oh man it's a wagon guys it's a market just not enough just not enough to sustain really
unfortunately but yeah yeah good on you mate thanks thanks for getting a touch mate thanks buddy
no worries guys cheers cheers gonna hear from you um yeah I mean the wagon it's a funny thing because
like BMW has brought back wagons um in some of their sports cars yeah Jeremy Sedley made
about yes yes station wagon he's got a huge following to Jeremy it's just not a market
the third row is down most of the time like 90% of the time the third row is down and it's just
baseball kid or you know shopping whatever's in there it's it's got that space um that's why wagons
are not popular because SUVs took over simple as that really yeah anyway we'd love to hear from you
oh four double seven six five seven six five seven seven it's a text or a whatsapp
save it in your phone as Stephen Fennick's personal number oh four double seven six five seven six five seven
right to have your company um and we'd love to hear from you Dave's on the line good day Dave
hello how are you guys really good mate what's uh you're you're a fev man you're
your plug-in hybrid owner tell us about that mate yeah I am um I've got a 2023 plug-in hybrid
Mitsubishi Outlander um yeah I had it for just over two years now I got it when it first came out
yep um it's got a 80 84k range so they claim that's decent that's decent that's pretty good
for a company that's in the upper upper levels of a battery yeah plug-in hybrid yeah yeah no
that's not too bad when I first bought it I did it I used to do a 75k you know to work
and back every day and I thought yeah that's great yeah and um so I've got the charger put in at home
and um yeah it worked great and I'd get home I'd have about 10k he's left on it um after 12 months
I was getting home and it would be on you know close to zero um and then probably oh probably
uh the two-year mark you know the engine would kick in at the end of the street and it would kick
in the kilometer from home uh and two kilometers from home um but it still works good you know
still that's a great part of the battery the range decreasing yeah yeah yeah yeah anyway I tried
explaining it to Mitsubishi and um you know they I ended up at the 75 I've done 90 000 k's in it by
the way um I tried explaining it to them um at 75 000 they did a battery test health test yep
they came back and they told me it's at 91 percent okay which is still pretty respectable but it seems
to me you're at about 85 percent of the original claimed range if my numbers are correct that's
that's what I thought because here I'm doing a you know it's running out
five k's from home um and and that's that's what I worked out at home at home did you say you got
a wall charger you had a or are you just doing the use of the ground charger you got a proper wall
charger no no wall charger yeah seven kilowatts yeah proper wall charger uh no it won't take a seven
kilowatt um I didn't find that out until after I got my charger put in by the way so what I've done
it's capped at three and a half kilowatts that's the quickest it will go so it's up like yeah wow okay
yes um and I didn't find that out until later I ringed back up the dealer actually and I said
did you know this is capped at three and a half and he goes oh is this
the dealer did that he was well he he didn't know a lot when I bought the car and I think I told him
more than he knew but anyway um they were pretty popular back then the the outland uh
really got a good rap as a plug-in hybrid um over all the cars I waited I did a pre-order waited
14 months for delivery um patiently waited um and yeah fast forward to last year we we built a new
house so from the start we got a battery system put in um we got 19.8 kilowatts on the roof
coming down into a 48 kilowatt battery happy days I did not get rid yeah yeah so it's it's um
a sig energy system so it seems to me really good it's a stack system I don't have the the
charger in the stack but um the stack can only go six modules high by the way so if you want to get
the one in the stack which is it does the um you know the load as well the vehicle to load
as well as charges um but you have to take a battery out so 30 something kilowatt hour 40 I
could have a 40 kilowatt hour battery um and have that charger which I can't use the full use of it
anyway because it'll only charge at three and a half kilowatts in here yeah it's a fascinating
thing and I don't know whether you dug into this but I've been looking into it lately a
mate of mine's also just got a system put in the last few days but you know and these rebates
and everything are fantastic and I encourage it but you've really got to ask the right questions
when you're putting in a battery so for example you can put in a battery in a let's just say
dodgy brother's company just get your battery done you're off but if you don't ask them for
blackout protection your battery doesn't run when the grid's down if you don't ask if you don't
specifically ask for your charger to run back into or out of the battery then it might run
specifically off the grid even they go your battery you really need to find an installer
that under that is willing to sit and understand your full needs and not just bite the bullet on
our battery because it might not be the falls the system that you want it might not do what you're
expecting yeah well I joined up there's a big energy baseball group joined up with that watch
that I mean I can control you know exactly what I put into the car I can go all grid I can go battery
solar excess with my work I leave home at 12 o'clock so I need to charge the car ready to go
because it'll only take three days middle of the day you mean midday yep yep because it'll only
it'll only charge at three and a half kilowatts I need to have that on charge by 430 so I get
home from work at 3 a.m I plug it in it draws from the battery and then the solar takes over
what do you do Dave I'm a truck driver okay right okay we do a 12 hour day you know now I've
moved we're an hour from work so I've got that hour drive so I now do 150km so yeah my battery
doesn't do that so what's the what's are you thinking next car full EV or what probably yeah
it probably will be so how long you got to go on this lease did you lease this car I'm assuming
no no I just bought it I bought it off of you alone yeah yeah I believe you take a five year
you can't pay it off in five years you shouldn't have it and then have it own it for own it for
a couple years before you move on yeah that's what you're going to do you think sooner rather
later you're going to get an EV are you going to hang on to this for a little bit longer no no hang
off it's a great car to drive I enjoy driving it so yeah it's not a real problem I've been playing
around the different modes in the car on the way to work. So it's got a tarmac mode, which
runs in, it runs it, yeah, it's like a power mode. And it's for the highway. So in tarmac mode,
it will run the engine basically just above idle or an idle. And it will, we will run off the
batteries and use that. So the batteries go down slowly, not as fast as if you were fully.
The Mercedes that I had had this, I think it was called B mode. So EV was full EV and then B was
like, you know, just try and maintain the battery level so that it felt like what you're talking
about there. So it's kind of using a bit of both. And I found it fascinating because on the drive
back to drop off the car, which is, you know, now it's drive from here, I had, I filled the tank
and I filled the battery. And when I got there to drop it off, to be honest, both of them look
full steel. So it was so incremental that it was used on both that it didn't even show up. And I
thought that was a really fascinating, and that's, I think what you got to do with a plug-in hybrid
is you really got to play with those modes to find out which one is the most financially efficient
for you, isn't it? Because it is about saving money on petrol, isn't it?
Yeah. Well, on that mode, I can go to work and I'll sit on about four litres per hundred,
which is pretty good. And then coming home with the batteries a lot less. So I basically live an
hour out at Brisbane. So once I get into Marooka, where you get to the, I just switch back to Fully V
and then go the rest of the way, which is about, I don't know, probably 14, 10 to 14 k's.
Do that in electric. And then I come back in electric to that point. And it's at that point
that it usually runs out depletes. So then I'll do the rest of the trip home with petrol.
Well, lovely to hear from you, mate. Great experience.
You're a broadcast man.
No, I'm not in this. I'm not following the 40. No, he's a Queenslander.
You're a Queenslander, mate.
Let's go Queensland.
I'm a Queenslander.
Yeah.
Bit like this, like for five minutes a year, you're Queenslander, Trevor.
Yeah. Good idea.
It's February. It's February and I'm a Queenslander. I don't know how this is a three day a year thing.
But anyway, Dave, lovely to talk to you, mate. Great to hear from you and enjoy your
plug and hard bread and your great battery system.
Great chat, mate.
Yeah, no worries. All right. Thanks for your call.
Cheers, boys and girls. Thanks very much. Yeah, good to hear from you.
I mean, the battery system is the kicker there. And honestly, it's so fascinating to me that you
don't just get a battery. You've really got to be very careful. I had someone say to me,
I got a battery and then there was a blackout and the house was blacked out.
Yeah, the home battery.
You've got to ask for blackout. Like it's a connection that's required in the system.
Yeah, it's like a failsafe sort of thing.
Yeah, so you can knock it where you're expecting if you don't do your research,
unfortunately. We'd love to hear from you on anything EV, anything electric, 0477657657.
Great to have you company talking electric cars and maybe even motor bikes.
Our next caller, Peter, is a bike man. G'day, Pete.
Morning, guys. How are you?
Really good. Tell us about your world. You're a two-wheel man, not a four-wheeler?
Yes. Yeah, I didn't actually get a car until it got organized for my wife. So we've always sort of
been, she's got the car. I've got the bike. So although she rides as well, she's been zipping
around Sydney on a scooter for many years too. Very nice. So Peter, your wife's got electric
cars, are we saying? And you've got the electric bike. Is that how it's working?
Well, no. At this stage, we are watching the electric bike market with great interest,
but in the same way that there's been challenges with models and legislation,
there's similar issues on the bike side. Because one of the big things, of course, is you can't
run a motorcycle under FBT. So some of the incentives that help balance out the costs
on the car side don't really pick up on the motorcycle. So all the people that we've had come
on going, oh, I bought it because of Navad, at least, fringe benefits tax. There's no benefit
if you buy a motorbike in that sense. Yeah. No, it's got to stand up purely on the virtues
and the values of the vehicle. Which is tough because the fuel savings wouldn't be enormous,
would they? Because the fuel costs of running a bike are quite low.
Well, absolutely. And the challenge that, at least in the Australian market,
is that we see a lot of people, a lot of companies coming out here with flashy, futuristic,
amazing vehicles, but they cost $40,000 to $50,000. And even though they've got,
you know, Tesla dual-motor type performance out of the electric, they're only able to do,
say, 100 kilometers down the freeway or 160 around town when you're using all that power.
Because I don't know if your blokes have noticed, but aerodynamics have a big impact on your battery
when the speed picks up and motorcycles have terrible aerodynamics, unless it's a full race
bike sort of thing. So the real market seems to me to be more in the commuter sort of scooter.
Well, I was just going to say, it was about a month ago, we were talking about the fonts.
The fonts are really, yeah. And that essentially looked to me like a modern Vespa in full electric
mode, which I'm assuming, I don't know if you've been to Europe, but I'm assuming they have a bucket
load of these things in Europe because Vespas or scooters are everywhere. So you think that if
you're considering a scooter, maybe you should be thinking electric scooter, there could be some
benefit there. Absolutely. And that's, that's the part of the market that we're seeing starting to
move more. And you can see, particularly in Asia, you can buy several brands of scooter,
including Honda, where you rip around and when your battery is getting low, you pull into a
servo and there's a vending machine. You pull the battery out, pop it in the machine,
tap your card on the machine, pull out a full battery. It's like swapping the gas bottle
at the servo. Wow. Well, did you know, I remember years ago, that was one of the early
thoughts for Tesla to, you just swap out your battery in the car and do that, but obviously
didn't work out. But a motorcycle makes more sense. It's smaller. Have you seen the video? I mean,
this is complete sidebar, but have you seen the video in China of one company that established
this system that would eject the battery from the car? I think it was designed in emergency,
so if there was a potential fire, it could eject the thing. Like it's dangerous,
it comes out the side of the car, it could knock someone over, but like the Chinese
companies are absolutely looking at that. And so you're saying it's a real thing in the scooter
world to just go, right, here's a battery. Swapping go style. Yeah. Wow. Absolutely. You've
got to be, they're piloting it more in certain countries in Asia, but the battery packs, they're
using way about 10 kilos. Right. So you can switch them over, you can pop it out, carry it up to your
desk and plug it into work to recharge it. Yep. And in some ways, the battery is the most expensive
part of the vehicle. So, you know, you park the scooter on the street, take the battery inside
and you've protected your investment. Now, Peter, we've known each other for quite a while. We used
to work together at News Limited many years ago, many, many years. And I know you've been a motorbike
guy all that time. How is the market in terms of electric motorbikes now, not scooters? How is that,
have they reached a point where a dyed in the wool motorcycle lover like yourself is ready to go
electric? No, they haven't. And the challenge is that to get the kind of performance, particularly
highway performance that you're looking for, given the poor aerodynamics of a motorcycle,
you really don't have a big enough battery to get you more than, you know, 140 to 160 kilometers
down the highway doing, doing highway speeds. And of course, battery is a challenge on a motorcycle
because it's a very heavy part of the vehicle. And you've got to place it really carefully,
because you've got to lean, you're breaking the bike pitches forwards, backwards under acceleration.
So there are a lot of packaging issues with how big a battery you can go to. So
the biggest ones I'm aware of are around 17 kilowatts in a zero, which is a motorcycle
available here. And these things are fantastic technology showcases and they perform amazingly
well. But they just don't have the range. And yes, as recharging improves. And we've had people ride
like the Harley Livewire, which was the first really popular one. And it was in, it was in
one of the Marvel movies with Black Widow on the back. Very impressive piece of technology. People
have ridden them across Australia. But it's very much like the early days of electric cars where
you, you know, you're stopping every hour to fill up when you're doing highway speeds on a bike.
So it's there's there's distance to go. But I think the place in the market is
more in a utilitarian sort of vehicle. It's like a suburban get about get about. Yeah,
not going to be a road tripper. Yeah, right. And he's still riding your motorbike. You challenge
your petrol motorbike. You're still on the on the two wheels, mate. You get out there and you're
riding a lot. We've got the scooter for buzzing around town and the ice bike for bigger distance
What are you riding, mate? I've got two days. I've got a Harley Cruiser Sport Glide. Nice.
But I've had, you know, I've had all of the brands over the years, but it's been fun
trying out a Harley as well. Because I always remember you walking in the office too. Like you
worked in the IT sort of support areas there. And I remember you walking in with your helmet under
your arm and your leather jacket on. I knew you were a bike guy, mate, from back in the back in
the day. Yeah, well, look, I am very impressed by what the electric bikes are doing other than
range. Like with that Harley logo out, when you stop at the traffic light, it taps you in the
butt every now and then to remind you that the power's on. So you don't do anything silly with
the throttle. Because you're not getting the throbbing of the of the cylinders beneath you.
You don't know that it's raining. So let's look at similar problem in cars to be honest. Sometimes
you get some cars you get out of. Like it's a weird thing. But when I park at Channel 9,
sometimes I've parked downstairs and then you walk away. And because I leave the key in the car,
because it's a kind of managed car park. It stays on. It stays on. And I have to go down to the
boys and say, I'm going to have to give the key because the thing stays on. It's a weird thing
about cars these days. You don't know whether they're on or off, mate. But lovely to hear your
experience and thoughts on bikes generally. And maybe we'll keep our eye on the electric scooter
market a little bit more closely than the range and touring market. But you keep your eyes open.
If you hear about any other bikes that catch your eye, electric bikes, you'll probably find out
about that before we do. Keep an eye out and keep in touch, buddy. Sure will. Great to hear from
you, mate. Take care. Cheers, mate. Thanks, guys. Good on you. There you go. Pete knows his motor
bikes, mate. That's interesting because we've talked to a couple of people from motorbike
companies and they're very, very aggressively excited about it. Of course they are, but the actual,
when literally when the rubber hits the road, right, the battery size is just not there,
is it? And he brought up a really good point about a motorbike something that you really move around.
So having the balance of the weight and where you're going to put the battery and how that's
going to work. Huge consideration. And also the cost consideration, which is not as obvious with a
bike because the savings, like you, you put a drop of fuel on those things and they go forever.
Oh, exactly. Right. Normally. So long road trips. Fascinating. Well,
all right. Well, we'd love to hear from you. EVs of any type size, shape or wheel configuration
here on two Blackstone Electric cars. All right, Stephen, many more calls and we'll get to more
again next week. Lots to talk about when in the world of EVs. I love finding those little things,
just the little things because and we, we are almost months overdue on our homework to create a
episode for those in the market and an episode for those who've just bought. So
we've got a trip coming up. Maybe we should do a plane exercise where we sit on the plane and we
can use that travel time as an exercise. I'm not going to be sitting near you, right? No,
I don't mean together. I just mean, okay, we can come up with a trip on the trip. Yeah,
I understand. It'll be a shared document. We don't have to talk about it. Yeah,
using the flight Wi-Fi. Exactly. Yeah, no worries, right? Because I,
as long as I don't have to sit next to you. I do.
He doesn't know that's exactly my instructions to the people at United.
Please don't make me sit next to him. Mine too. Funny enough. Yeah. All right. All right,
mate. Well, we will do that. That is the plan. Yeah. Two Blackstone Electric cars. We'd love
to hear from you. Oh, four, double, seven, six, five, seven, six, five, seven. See you next week, mate.
Ciao then.
About this episode
Trevor and Steven dive into the luxury and design of the Genesis G80 EV, comparing it to the Mercedes EQE in terms of features, comfort, and price. They highlight the G80's elegant styling, smooth drive, and impressive range, noting its thoughtful details like the hidden front charging port and automatic door closing. The discussion also touches on the broader EV ownership journey, including consumer hesitations and ecosystem integration with solar and batteries. The hosts share personal experiences and practical insights, making it a rich conversation about upscale electric sedans and the evolving EV market.
Stephen and Trevor have been behind the wheel of the luxury Genesis G80 EV - a smooth drive and a smooth ride, with luxury trimmings you'd have to expect at this price.
Plus we hear from a couple of PHEV owners, and we talk Electric Motorbikes.
Is the shift to EV as likely in the two wheeled space?
