The Tesla Model S is an electric sedan, meaning it’s powered by a battery instead of petrol. It’s one of Tesla’s main models and is known for advanced EV features. The podcast mentions it while talking about how many Teslas of different models are sold.
The Toyota RAV4 is a popular non-EV model that topped the sales chart in this segment. The hosts mention it to compare where EVs are landing versus regular cars.
BYD is a car maker that the hosts say is doing extremely well in EV sales. They mention BYD has several models in the top-10 and that its sales are growing fast.
Year-on-year growth means “how much higher (or lower) sales are compared to the same time last year.” The hosts use it to show EV sales are rising fast.
Geely is the company behind some of the cars being sold. The hosts say Geely’s sales are rising a lot year over year, and that not all of its cars are fully electric.
Government rebates are discounts or money-back incentives for buying an EV. If they change or become uncertain, it can affect how many people decide to buy now.
The Mazda CX-5 is a popular compact SUV. They bought a 2020 one as a replacement car, but after fuel prices stayed high they started thinking an EV might have been the better choice.
Salary packaging is a way your workplace can set up part of your pay so you may pay less tax on it. That can make buying an EV easier to afford because the overall cost can come out lower.
FBT is a tax your employer may pay when you get a benefit that isn’t just salary—like certain car arrangements. If EVs are treated more favorably, it can lower what you end up paying.
The Kia EV5 is a battery-electric crossover aimed at mainstream buyers, so it’s often evaluated on packaging, usability, and price-to-range/value. In this segment, the hosts focus on the EV5’s interior layout (especially the center console/seat arrangement) and whether the tech justifies the asking price.
The BMW X5 is a larger, comfortable SUV made for everyday driving and family use. It’s designed to feel “upmarket,” with a focus on comfort and driving feel. In the podcast, it sounds like it’s being mentioned as part of a discussion about SUVs.
When you slow down in an EV, the car can use the electric motor to help slow you down and also recharge the battery. It’s like braking that also recovers energy instead of just wasting it.
“Over the air” updates are like updating your phone, but for the car—sent wirelessly. It means the car can get software changes without you going to a workshop.
The Dodge Charger is a car model known for a sporty, performance-focused design. The podcast mention sounds like it’s about charging at home using a wall charger or a slower “trickle” charger. That’s about how you power the car when it’s parked.
A wall charger is a dedicated charging box installed at your house. It’s meant to make charging easier and usually faster than plugging in with basic gear.
Single-phase means your house uses a simpler electricity setup. It can affect how fast your EV can charge at home, depending on the charger and the car.
Term
roadside assistive
They’re talking about roadside help—service that comes out if your car won’t run or you can’t drive it safely. For EVs, that might mean towing or getting the car home.
Concept
freeway driving vs stop-and-go driving efficiency
They’re comparing how EVs do on fast, steady roads versus traffic. EVs often get better efficiency in stop-and-go driving because they can reuse some energy when slowing down.
Even electric cars usually have a small 12-volt battery. It runs things like alarms and sensors, so if it’s weak or gets drained, the car can act up even if the big battery is okay.
A software update is like a patch for the car’s computer. In this story, they say an update was supposed to prevent 12-volt battery problems, but real-world issues still happened.
The Kia EV6 is an electric car that uses a big battery to drive the wheels. It also has a smaller 12-volt battery that powers the car’s electronics. The podcast is talking about a fix related to that 12-volt system.
The Kia EV9 is an electric SUV with room for passengers and cargo. It also has a small 12-volt battery that runs the car’s electronics. The podcast is talking about a fix related to that 12-volt system.
A rear seat sensor is a small device that detects something about the rear seats. Here, it caused an alarm, and the hosts connect that kind of fault to the car’s 12-volt battery being drained.
When the car is parked, it should go into a low-power mode. The hosts are saying that if it keeps “checking” for you (like key/unlock logic), it can drain the small 12-volt battery.
Term
98 kilowatt battery
Your EV has a big battery that powers the motor. But it usually doesn’t act like a jump-start source for the small 12-volt battery that runs the electronics.
A jump starter is a small battery you can use to get the car’s 12-volt system working again. It’s especially useful for EVs because the small battery can go flat even if the main electric battery isn’t the problem.
C-tek is a brand the host recommends for 12-volt jump-starting/charging gear. The idea is to keep the EV’s small 12-volt battery from going flat when the car sits.
Parking mode is when a dash cam stays on or watches for events while the car is parked. If it’s powered from the car’s 12-volt battery, it can drain that battery if the car isn’t driven for a while.
The Chevrolet Volt is a car that can run on electricity, but it can also use petrol when needed. Like many cars, it has a small 12-volt battery that powers the electronics. The podcast is emphasizing that this 12-volt battery is separate from the big battery.
The high-voltage battery pack is the main energy storage system in an EV that powers the electric drivetrain. The discussion contrasts it with the separate 12-volt battery, emphasizing that the car’s low-voltage electronics and the driving range come from different sources.
A dash cam is a camera mounted in the car. When the car is parked, it may still use some power, so some models shut off automatically to avoid draining the car’s 12-volt battery.
Range calculation is the number your EV shows for how far you can drive. It’s an estimate, and it can change based on how you’ve been driving and conditions like weather and speed.
Range anxiety is the fear that your EV won’t have enough charge to get where you’re going. Many people feel it at first, then get more confident as they learn how far they can actually drive.
Concept
charging at night
Charging at night just means plugging in while you’re sleeping. Some people prefer different times of day for comfort or practical reasons, so planning your charging schedule can help.
A kilowatt-hour (kWh) is how much electricity you use. When they talk about charging for “X cents per kWh,” that’s the cost per unit of energy going into the EV.
Solar feed-in is when your solar panels send extra power back to the electricity grid. They’re comparing what you earn from that versus using the power directly for charging.
An overnight rate means your electricity company charges less for power during certain night hours. EV owners try to charge their cars during those cheaper hours to save money.
The infotainment system is the car’s main screen and controls. For EVs, it can let you set when the car charges so it lines up with cheaper electricity times.
“Granny charging” is charging your EV from a normal wall socket. It’s usually slower than using a dedicated home EV charger, so it can take longer to charge up.
Some electricity plans advertise “free” power for EV charging. But the price at other times can be higher, so it may not be cheaper overall for your household.
Cost per kilometer means “how much it costs to drive one kilometer.” It’s a fair way to compare an EV’s electricity cost with a petrol car’s fuel cost.
A lithium phosphate battery is a type of EV battery chemistry (often called LFP). It’s generally considered stable and long-lasting compared with some other battery types.
Term
nickel catamine battery
This sounds like they’re talking about a nickel-based battery type. Different battery types charge and age differently, so it matters for how you manage charging.
Charging to 80% means you don’t fill the battery all the way every time. For daily driving, keeping it around 80% is often recommended to help the battery last longer.
Battery health is how good your EV battery is over time—how much range it can still provide. How you charge it (especially how often you charge to very high levels) can influence battery aging.
Slow charging means charging your EV with a lower-power charger. It usually puts less stress on the battery, so it’s generally easier on the battery over time.
Fast charging charges the battery quicker using higher power. It can be harder on the battery than slow charging, so it’s usually best for trips rather than every day.
The BYD Atto 3 is an all-electric SUV. The caller says she chose it after test driving it and feeling like it gave her a lot of car for the price, especially for everyday local trips.
A hybrid is a car that uses both a gas engine and an electric system. The caller wanted one, but the prices she was seeing were too high, so she ended up choosing an EV.
The 2023 Mitsubishi Outlander is the gas SUV Emma had before her EV. She’s using it as a reference point to explain how the EV feels like a big step up for the money.
Term
EV charging podcast
An EV charging podcast is a show about how to charge an electric car. It usually helps you figure out where to charge and how the apps and chargers work.
A test drive is when a dealership lets you drive the car yourself before buying. With electric cars, it can also help you get a feel for how far it goes and how the charging stuff works in practice.
EV charging apps help you find charging stations. They’re useful because they show where you can plug in so you can plan your trip around real chargers.
Trip planning for an electric car helps you map out your route and where you’ll need to charge. It can also account for things like hills that change how much battery you use.
Elevation means hills and changes in height. Going uphill usually uses more battery, and going downhill can help you save some battery depending on the car.
An EV needs a cable to connect to a charger. Some chargers (especially public ones) may require a different cable than the one that came with your car.
Trickle charging means charging your EV slowly, usually over many hours. It’s great for overnight charging when you don’t need the car back right away.
Off-street parking just means you park somewhere like a driveway instead of on the road. It matters for EVs because it affects whether you can charge at home easily.
A charging network is the system of public EV chargers around an area. If chargers are unreliable or unavailable in multiple places, it can make owning an EV more stressful.
A novated lease is a work-related car lease where your employer helps pay for the car through your salary. Because it’s handled through work, the tax rules can be different, which can make an EV lease cheaper.
Fringe Benefits Tax (FBT) is a tax applied to certain non-salary benefits provided by an employer to an employee. For EVs, the transcript discusses an FBT exemption/discount, meaning the tax impact of having the car through work can be reduced.
Luxury car tax is an additional tax that applies when a vehicle’s value exceeds certain thresholds. The transcript notes that even if EV incentives help with leasing costs, high-value vehicles may still attract this tax.
Term
max charge
Max charge means telling your EV to charge the battery up to its highest level. The host is describing a phone alert related to charging settings.
LIVE
This is Two Blokes talking electric cars with Steven Fenwick and Trevor Long thanks to NRMA
Insurance and UNIDEN. Great to have you company NRMA Insurance helping Australians protect what
matters most and they have been doing for a hundred years and many more to come and they're
also one of Australia's largest insurers of electric vehicles so whatever car you've got
please do us a favour ring NRMA Insurance or go online get a quote for your next insurance renewal
all we ask is that you get a quote that they'll be competitive wherever they can and
whatever car you're driving get yourself a dash cam and UNIDEN provides some stunning models
the DashView 60R is the one with the Sony Starver sensor beautiful barrel model with
rear camera yeah it's unbelievable quality all controlled through an app watch the footage on
the app and and get great footage front and rear of whatever happens around you for your new
your EV or whatever car you're happy to be driving well speaking of cars you've been driving
we spoke four weeks ago about the March car sales data which was around 15% of cars sold
were electric vehicles yep oh ladies and gentlemen thanks to the fuel crisis
the the market share for electric vehicles in in April and I'll just read some stats that
Paul the PR manager for BYD shared on LinkedIn because I thought they were an interesting
combination because we spoke about this before but there's two sets of data about car sales
yep first is V-Fax which everyone but Tesla and Polestar are in and so those numbers are often
there's a percentage point off and then you add the Polestar and B-Watt and Tesla numbers so these
include all of them 16.97% of all cars sold in April were electric vehicles wow in year to date
in 2026 13.3% of all cars sold were electric when you combine plug-in hybrid and electric
in April it was 27.5 wow and year to date it's 20 which means that one in four Australians took
delivery of a new energy vehicle last month and one in five Australians have taken delivery of a
new energy vehicle so far this year but the headline is really one in six vehicles sold
was electric last month last month that is incredible and you know and as we mentioned
four weeks ago this has always been building but what's topped it up I guess is the fuel crisis
and I think it's a lot the crisis it's the fuel uncertainty well yeah and there was no
doubt a crisis early on but even though the prices have well I drove past petrol stations the
numbers seem to have come down yeah but I think I think about people in my family and people we
speak to and this has created knowledge among people that not only do prices
fluctuate during the week but they can go like this because of something that some bloke on the
other side of the world does and so that that lack of control that you have over petrol prices
is a concern for people and I think we said a month ago this would drive drive sales up I said
that I think they would go up in April and they have I said I don't know that they'll go up again
in May because I think there might be some supply issues all right from the from the EV I mean the
car you know do you think here's got that many cars in the in the market they've got to put them
on a ship and bring them here yeah so I think June we'll see we have heard you or you're mentioning
that your uh yeah people have gotten their cars in a couple of weeks but I wonder whether or not
that's because they're in the country and they're being sold out so it'll be interesting to see
what happens in May and I think June will be good again because everyone tries to push sales into
June but the other headline apart from the 1 in 6 and the 16 percent Toyota was number one car
car sales car company in Australia with 15,000 car sold BYD the number two car brand in Australia
with 7,700 sales beating Kia remember last month it was like 60 or 70 cars away from Kia this month
they're more than a thousand cars ahead of Kia wow where does Tesla fit in they're not even in the
top 10 so right no so as usual you 3447 Tesla they sold 400 model 3s and 800 model y so
so there's other brands that are really sort of making some inroads here and yeah I think that
you'd think that the the people that work in these in these companies would think well you know what
we know there's going to be well we know they knew there's demand there already but they would have
figured out what's happening in Iran and all these other places well we need to lift our game
yeah there's going to be a lot of people looking to get into the market we want to have stock ready
yeah so I'd say that the they would have called over to their production line say listen we need
more stock let's go yep and someone's and that will that will happen now I think over the coming
months those ships will start coming here with cars on board in the top 10 vehicles by the way
the RAV4 was the number one car beat the Ford Ranger which was huge but that's a new model so
they they would have had a huge back order or pre-orders but in the top 10 for the first
time is the BYDC line 7 so an electric vehicle in the top 10 which just happened before with
Tesla's and things but 1780 BYDC line 7s were sold which is the number one selling the number two
Zika the 7x the 7x yeah wow 973 of those now so popular I just got back from China and I was there
with Geely and Zika and their bosses were like that's a good number but we can do way more
we can we can do better than that wow we can do way better than that um Tesla Model Y was the third
best selling car the EV5 was the fourth best and then add oh three add oh two add oh one in five
six and seven wow the BYD Dolphin in nine so BYD had five vehicles in the top 10 amazing that is
amazing yeah wow they're really uh they're moving aren't they they're going places um just in terms
of other ones that don't appear in the in the top of the charts uh and and what like on rural
kind of percentages yep just on Zika they had 58 sales last April they had a thousand and six this
April wow a year on year that's they're looking like a genius crazy year on year growth Geely
went from 324 last year to 2,000 this year so 519 percent they have some hybrids and other
cars so they're not all electric BYD is up 140 percent year on year yeah well you know what word's
getting out there it is from you know because you know what it's it's uh it's word of mouth that
you know people who drive their cars and how how much they love them they tell their friends and
family okay well maybe and then all the other factors of course you know people listening to
this podcast and the whole political situation it's it's all leading uh onwards and upwards
absolutely uh we'll there's also uncertainty around um financing and government rebates we'll
talk about that at the end of the show because there's been some news on the government rebates
but before we do that we'll take your calls if you've got a question about electric cars
you want to buy an electric car um please look at our episodes on youtube um that'll help you
understand what to do before you buy a car and then when you buy a car the things you need to know
about owning electric cars have a look at those kind of episodes they'll be there for forever
for you to understand but get in touch we'd love to hear from you oh four double 765
7657 that's it steven frantic here for the dance moves um oh four double 76
57657 if you want to be on the show we'd love to hear from you you can texast
or send us a whatsapp thanks to vodafone and uh we'll uh get to you there's a lot of people
that we haven't gotten to yet we are have a backlog yes we're trying to get through but we're
clearing the backlog doing our dander steven so we'll uh we'll keep going as we can chris though
is on the line g'day chris g'day how's it going really good mate where are you at your your petrol
car or an evi owner uh we are not an evi owner yet but we've got a we've signed a lease on on one
soon um where we started our journey was that we had a a kia carnival which is a diesel so we
were really hurting with the recent fuel prices and then we had a second car um which was supposed
to be our runabout and my wife's work car it was an old beat up nissan ultima um and it was looking
a bit long in the tooth and we were my wife's been hassling me for a little while to upgrade so we
finally bit the bullet we upgraded to a mastas cx 5 2020 akira with all the bells and whistles we
got a great drive away price boarded outright and then two weeks later she sort of said to me
you know what i think i messed up and uh i i think we should have looked closer at evs because
the fuel price is hurting us and um maybe this is not the right runabout second car that we should
you know so are you keeping the carnival and you're looking for a second car
or you're now thinking we'll keep the Mazda as one car and we're looking for something to
get get rid of both the the original cars we've got we've got three kids and a very active lifestyle
so the kia carnival is a must um it performed great over long distances it only cost us about
400 dollars in fuel recently to go to sydney and back we did it in two tanks where are you
from um melbourne okay and we drove up to sydney over the east along weekend so that was good um
but the the Mazda i think um yeah it's ripe to be replaced with the ev already a couple of things
stood out to me in that conversation one your wife admitted she was wrong
yeah number two she knows yeah that's a rarity uh number two she's the one who suggested the ev
normally it's the guy the husband the the partners convincing the uh the treasurer that they want to
go ev so your wife is well you know she's a smart woman uh will she married you for a start but
also she's wants the ev so yeah so how did you why where did you take the next step what did you
have in mind for your ev well yeah i guess because we both have access to salary packaging and we were
looking at it a little bit more closer with the fbt and gst discount at the moment and we sort of
thought well if we sell the Mazda we could easily get into it um an ev and sort of delay some of
those costs and spread them out over the next four to five years so we actually started by booking
a test drive with akia ev 5 um and that that was actually fantastic drive a little bit weird
with the center console not being a console sort of an unusable with a weird bench seat that can't
be sat in yeah go on yes yeah exactly um and we sort of thought yeah really well refined tech but
maybe not quite um the price point for what you get compared to some of the other cars um just
didn't seem to make sense to us and i think our budget we really want to stay sort of as close
or near to that purchase price of the Mazda otherwise it doesn't make sense which is how much
to sell that yeah yeah so we we yeah well we we only paid 31 000 drive away for that Mazda but
i think for an ev we were sort of saying 40 to 45 and we would be okay with the fbt and gst
discounts and all that sort of all working out as equal yeah um yeah so the key ev 5 then we went
to the geely um the extended the x5 um yeah funny cx 5 to ex 5 maybe um yeah that the geely uh the
first time we drove it we were all a little bit overwhelmed by all the tech and everything and
the bright the white interior the you know the loftiness of it um we kind of got a bit we were
a bit overwhelmed um we also tried the byd c line seven um we sort of didn't we didn't like the um
vision out the back and i think all my daughter who's particularly sensitive to motion sickness
didn't enjoy that either right um and so we the the sales experience at byd also wasn't that great
which i think many people have sort of spoken about and the test the opportunity to test drive
was extremely limited so it didn't feel like right we could really consider it did you book
that online that that's what they specify you got a book online uh to do for the test drive did you
do all that was it a bit of a yep yeah yeah we booked online showed up at the specific time and
it was sort of like we had to beg someone for attention and to help us sort out our test drive
and um and then once we got the test drive there as soon as we sort of got the keys i said you need
to be back in 10 minutes um no highway driving um and yeah and then once we went through return
they just took the keys off us handed it to the next person there was no like what you think how
you go and really so we was sort of like that's disappointing mate and you know it's not the
first time we've heard it but we've also heard positive stories but it's it's certainly a really
important thing for the industry generally to understand you you said you've got a a a lease
in place now so where have you ended yeah so we actually test drive a couple more the jku j5
and the gaca on but we actually went back to the Geely for two more test drives and um that's where
we've landed um yeah we found the yeah it was actually once we understood how to use the
regenerative braking and things um and and uh climatize our style of driving um it was actually
fantastic i take this was the first time you've driven an ev mate with these test drives was it
all yeah quite a quite a different driving style from a you know a diesel kia carnival as your daily
to uh an ev really different yeah that's smart to have done multiple test drives though to to
understand that it's actually a thing you're going to learn and you're going to get used to
in that sense which is fine you've done a good job there you mentioned one car that i was going to
suggest you said you do test drive the jku j5 you said you got your budgets around 40k and that's
perfectly j5 sits perfectly in that and and actually gets uh we've mentioned on the show before a lot
of bang for your buck why didn't that get the vote mate uh the jku that was an interesting one i think
we felt yes fantastic value for money no doubt um in fact we would be making money if we if we bought
that car i think we just felt the interior was a little bit small for the three kids although the
storage space in the boot was fantastic yeah and we sort of thought that the tech um was great but
then over the air no updates and there were a few things they were saying they may tweak
but they may not and they they can't provide clarity on whether that will come or not confidence
yeah that makes that makes a lot of sense geely uh sounds like ticked more boxes most of your boxes
for you and that's what you've settled on right exactly exactly right and now quickly before we
let you go how long till you pick it up and uh have you got charging sorted at home or you're
just going to trickle for the for the first bit uh we're supposed to pick it up this month
but we haven't confirmed a date with them um we got we are going to go with the trickle
charger but they actually threw in a wall charger as part of the promotion as well even though we
didn't get finance with geely so yeah okay i'm just going to get a sparky to then install it
what do you got three phase at home you should be fine hey yeah yeah we're on single phase but
our native the sparky so yeah we'll be on to him very quick nice mate you've done very well that'll
be a great car for you we look forward to hearing from you in a couple of months once you've had it
for a bit and you've done some driving you can give us some feedback it's a little review um but you
know i don't think you'll look back mate it's it's a great little car you've still got the carnival
for the bigger trips and for the more more space for the kids as they grow up as well um it'll
do very well for you mate what a great buying experience mate thanks for sharing it with us
yeah thanks for having me no worries at all mate good on you there um that's that's exactly the
kind of experience that the people are going through right now and as we talked about earlier
the sales numbers i mean i don't know when he's going to get a a date for the pickup because
they sold a couple of thousand of them they sold a bucket load last last month what stood out for
me he knew what he wanted they knew what they yeah they got kids they needed to do this they
do what to do that and and also that helped them narrow it going back and being willing to go back
and that would be a put off for the byd experience too because even though yes you had a bad experience
the first time imagine going back to to drive it again and they're like no 10 more minutes
you know they drove that gilly at least three times that's that sold them on the car so yeah
shows how important it is folks um and if you had a buying experience you want to share with us
0 4 double 7 6 5 we'd love to hear from you
so we like sawing electric cars thanks to nrma insurance and unit and smart dash cams
support those brands if you're in the market for insurance give them a call at least get a quote
um to find out where you're at when you're in renewal or in purchasing mode and
whether you've got a brand new car an old car get yourself a dash cam um it gives you a great
piece of mind taking your calls 0 4 double 7 6 5 it's a text we will get you on the line
Ronan's there g'day Ronan yeah g'day boys how we traveling mate really good what can we do for you
yeah you know i'll just um you know i'll send a message to you and just regarding because i've
just bought a new jacu yeah the j5 yeah excellent we were just talking about that with another caller
yep oh yeah no and absolutely love it it's uh excellent it's fantastic but um last week my wife
bricked it she um she went right down to zero and had to pull over on the side of the freeway
oh that's not and no and she um she said uh she just couldn't drive any further because it had
you know like 20 odd 20 odd kilometers left and she only had eight kilometers to get home
on the freeway she's yeah yeah so just just rewind for a second there
because you make a good point steven yeah she had 20 kilometers on the on the gauge and eight
kilometers to go before she left on that journey and that journey was on the freeway what was she
80 kilometers and um she had plenty of plenty of charge in that and it was at night too so she
wasn't too keen on using the charger on her own in bendigo so yeah so she thought she had enough
and anyway she bricked it and and the the jacu roadside assistive absolutely fantastic great
even out there they were just great to hear that's good yeah they came out they picked her up
brought the car home because we've spoken yeah we've spoken a few times about the freeway
difference between freeway driving yeah absolutely the range could be a bit trickier on the freeway
because it's opposite of a petrol car and actually yeah absolutely petrol cars love the freeway
whereas EVs love the stop and start but yeah and I don't want to be kind of rude or arrogant but
she learned that from this that essentially the range you're seeing on a freeway is something
you need to be a bit cautious about trusting oh my word she's learned from absolutely but but
is she worried about like if that happened to my wife yeah mate she would tell me to get a petrol
car like she would say get a get another car on the driveway like she would just go this is not
having to me again like has it how's she feeling about it now yeah I can't even I'm not I can't
even get to drive it anymore she drives it all the time she loves it she's taken it off again today
and left me with the diesel Land Rover so yeah oh that's good that hasn't discouraged
yeah that's great that's great yes wow yeah and just um and one of the questions I had was um
you know they've got a 12 volt battery in them yeah how do they charge you know it's a fascinating
question because especially in the Kia world there's been a lot of issues with uh with the
12 volt batteries across the EV6 EV9 and others and it was it was fixed in the software update
broadly but I will admit that we've had the roadside to our house twice and once in a random car park
first time was very early in the ownership experience because of the software issue
second time yeah we were like this is weird because it was meant to have been fixed and
what's happened here but it was actually a faulty battery so the 12 volt was faulty wow you've had
no like yeah and the third time it's like wait what's going on here this doesn't make any sense but
there's an alarm on the car for a rear seat sensor problem and it's like we don't really care because
the rear seat doesn't get used much but the guy at the roadside basically said look the battery's fine
the software is fine his suspicion was that it was being drained by that fault so in in really
simple terms things like your car being parked and the lights being on in a petrol car drains your
battery so you know in an electric car one of the concerns that needs to be really properly
fixed with software in all cars is is your car waiting for you so if it's unlocked is your car
kind of working thinking is this person near me now waiting for a fingerprint to unlock a little
things like that that actually is using the 12 volt battery because the big battery that drives
your car is not used for any of the software in the car any of the screens and infotainment
like that and and and what I learned right into answer your question is the 12 the little 12 watt
battery can't be jump-started by the big you know 98 kilowatt battery you've got to drive just like
in a petrol car it's got to be on the road and so while ever you are in motion the 12 volt is
being topped up in the same way that it is when you're driving a petrol car which is insane to me
there should be a button you could push to go you know what just take a bit of a divert
I've ended up buying and look sorry I'll be very very clear I haven't bought I'm reviewing
with thanks to c-tech a couple of those little 12 volt jump starters yeah because you know what
it can happen and look it goes to that point earlier if it happened to my wife on the freeway
to be drama well Amanda is not annoyed by the roadside problem we had a couple of times because
I've explained it to her but I don't want me to be overseas and her to have to have that problem
and can't take the kids wherever I want I want a solution in my murk I've had a couple of warnings
to say you know critical condition level because I haven't driven the car for a week or two I get
him in the Cooper and Jackson texts me goes this is a message and what we think Ronan is it's the
dash cam because the dash cam is in parking mode and it is using the 12 volt and the car is being
smart enough to go hey there's a problem there's parking mode you're right so that's again why you
should get one of the c-tex as well and have it plugged into your car when it's parked for long
periods so so basically Ronan it is just like a normal car it's got to be driven for that 12
volt to be used yeah well and then because what happened when we got on home we couldn't open the
yes I was going to say the petrol flap but the yeah the charging flap the charging port yeah
but we couldn't open it because of the battery because the battery uses the bloody wow what
hell is that already ironic wow there's two batteries in the car one of them's flat oh no
so we ended up calling um road sort of since the next day and just said look can you send
someone out they sent someone out did they say you again yeah exactly right they go to the guy
said what's going on with his car and and he actually put one of those little um you know
like jump start a thing on it on the battery yeah and straight away everything turned on
and I was able to actually plug the charger in and and get it up you know you can use a trickle
charger so you know what you get it working it's a very good point you brought up this is a very
interesting topic for all owners because they've got to realize that the 12 volt is separate to the
big battery 12 volt battery yeah that's right main battery don't ignore those warnings like I
essentially am ignoring the warnings in the coupe because it does get driven enough that it's not
an issue with the dash cam yeah draining it in in any period of time also the dash cams are set
to stop draining when they detect the the 12 volt being at a certain point so it's actually a
an unnecessary warning regardless but if you are someone that you know has your car parked for a
long time or whatever and you worry about these things it's not a bad little backup to have
which frankly applies to petrol cars too yeah so yeah that's the 11 thing we have in common
with yeah you know what ronan the most important thing to me is you've got a great car you you love
it and your wife has not been put off and you've very understanding wash by by an issue that she
had with range calculation mate so great to hear from you and great to hear that things are going
well with the jku mate yeah no absolutely and I was one of these people that was always had
range anxiety before I bought one so that's why I didn't get one and now I'm you know I've had it
for about four weeks yep I'm now getting used to you know knowing the limits of the battery and
limits of what we can where we can drive and that's obviously shave off 25 30 percent just for safety
on the freeway and and you'll end up with more than you need and you know it's it's obviously
disappointing societally that your wife didn't feel comfortable charging at night but that's
unfortunate but you know yeah you know also maybe think about what time of day to charge
different different things to be in preparation for that so good learning absolutely absolutely
good on you mate great to hear from you buddy thank you thank you very much for the call see you
later thank you cheers buddy thank you good to hear from you mate and uh yeah I mean it's a simple
thing it's uh very much there's always little things to learn and how good is it like a lot my
wife would be like your wife said I don't want to drive this car every year that is really nice
shout out to mrs ronan i'm impressed well done yeah we'd love to hear from you oh four double
7657657 that's one of your best if you're not watching on youtube
you're missing out on stevens out on the moves pure entertainment uh we'd love to hear from you
jeffrey's on the line good day jeffrey uh how's it going yeah really good mate what can we do for
you are you uh you've got an ev or you're interested in an ev uh we've just recently purchased a 7x long
range oh at least 33 work second best selling electric car last month yep wow yes and
my question is with regards to charging because at home i've got the solar 13 kilowatts on the
roof yep i've got a 42 kilowatt battery wow a fox e s battery and i've heard mixed reports with
regards to because obviously most days the car is at home so we're on glober that there's the zero
to hero plan i think it's called so during the day from 11 a.m to 2 p.m we can get free free
electricity off the grid so what we do we force charge the battery yep get the battery up to 100
percent yep the home battery is uh is it worth my while at night obviously when the car gets back
and then at night time instead of discharging the battery to make a bit more in terms of the
feeding type which is only 15 cents we set a schedule and then we discharged off the battery into the
it's a great question because really and and i don't think we can give you a
single answer but i because i think it needs essentially a spreadsheet you know you kind of
need to go all right because another question i have with globird um do they have an overnight
rate like a nighttime rate as well that's super cheap or is it a same rate all day except for
that free period no so so with glober it's a so at night time that they don't have an ev rate per
say so it's about 34 cents to charge even at like one a year midnight to 6 a.m really because you
know we've heard of other plans i've actually got ovo which is free 11 or 2 but midnight to 6 a.m i
think it's like eight cents a kilowatt and so that's exactly what i was going to say um jeffrey is
because because you're going to pay that higher amount so 30 or 34 cents a kilowatt is a high
number like i don't pay that and i'm not on any of these plans right so it's they're paying a higher
amount to get that little bonus in the middle of the day which is great because it's charging up your
battery but your your challenge is so with the 40 odd kilowatts of power you really need to work
at how much of that do you need for the house at night because what you don't want is to be
drawing on the grid more than you need to yeah so you want to draw it down the battery high
whenever you want honestly i would lean towards shopping around for a plan that does have an
overnight rate don't worry about it might not be called an ev plan it's just overnight rates because
those that eight cents or ten cents or he made even his 15 cents it's still cheaper than the 34
absolutely you can schedule your car to charge during those times so in the in the infotainment
system and under under charging there'll be an option to go well use charge between these hours
or be ready by this time and that's a much smarter way to charge jeffrey do you don't have a wall
charge do you so you're just granny charging or you got a wall charger uh we're just granny
charging at the moment but the the over plan you're talking about it doesn't exist anymore
so i looked into that one as well gone so the over plan now is you get either free electricity
or you get the cheap nighttime ev rate which is like the six or eight cents one or the other
really yeah yeah you yeah you don't get both anymore so they've stopped that plan but maybe a
lot of customers i would argue that still sounds better to me than what you're getting now because
in in three hours for free electricity you you can only bring so much in right yeah but if you
went okay i've got my solar system i'm going to rely on the solar system because the car's not home
i'm going to rely on the solar system to feed the battery during the day obviously sunny days
it's going to be the best result and then i'm going to use the overnight lower rate to charge the car
trickle um and on your only your only challenge is going to be on um on on days where there isn't
sun do you need to go in an app or what do you need to do to tell the battery to take that
overnight charge as well so like if you look at we watch the news every night and i watch the weather
and amanda always looks at what's happening with the kids and their plans because of the weather
like i think it's still fascinating that we still hook out so even though you can go to the
bom website we still go what's happening on the news at six o'clock to find out what's
happening with the weather and you go well the next two days are going to be cloudy let's set it so
the battery charges overnight as well as the car because you can you can put the washing machine
the dryer the car and the home battery on at that low rate overnight which is probably smarter in
some ways than getting free electricity during the day uh it's it's an individual thing though
really is yeah but yes because um yeah the good thing about the global plan obviously on a day
with its cloudy or it's rainy i can force charge the battery from 11 to 2 and then i know that at
night time i will have energy in the battery to use in the house and but the challenge is also
now with an EV now because obviously with the granny charger it doesn't charge a very fast
rate but that's all right yeah but it's a matter of electricity we use now have you have you calculated
how much electricity you're able to put into the battery in those four hours
in uh because it's it's because i can maximum discharge into battery at about eight kilowatts
and normally by the afternoon even if by two o'clock it's not full i've still got a bit of
solar because i'm in Queensland it's about 44 o'clock in the afternoon so the majority of
the times it does get close to a hundred percent so what i would uh say to you in
terms of doing these calculations because again i don't want to suggest that we have the answer for
you here mate i think what i would be doing is the nerd is going average out how many kilowatts
you're putting into the battery every day free and then work out what that would cost on the
on the low plan overnight with another provider and just see whether that is working out because
in the end like glowbird might be perfect for you let's be clear it may it may be absolutely
perfect but the thing about these electricity providers right now is they're getting us in
with enticement like free electricity or ev plan and it's the it's the higher costs like when
steven switched over i looked at mine at home and i'll do the same but i worked out that the the
higher you know night time rate of you know 30 something um cents per kilowatt was way more than
i was currently paying and so that's when my usage is it was it was not going to be worth it for me
so you've got to be able to balance the enticement of the plan against your physical usage so i do
a bit of numbers on how much you're drawing into the battery and and a little extra shop around
because mate they're all still keen to get your business so but in the end in in in simple terms
i think that you're you're definitely worth topping up the car if you want to go back to your
original question i think it's totally fine to top up the car with you know maybe 10 or 15 or
20 kilowatts of that battery for free but if your home doesn't need that much at night yes you sound
like you were how big is your but you've got a big home battery well how big 40 is it for 42 kilowatt
that's the home battery pretty during the day we've got like a pool pump we're running and
obviously in summer at night we've got like four split system air cons we're running so yeah so yeah
so it does i've realized now with the EV yeah it's yeah you use a lot more power obviously
well and the last thing i'd say jeffrey is mate do the do the numbers on how much it's costing you
to plug that car in for six hours at 34 cents a kilowatt it's still way cheaper than petrol
so just remember that even though it's expensive it's yes it's relative yeah it's all yeah what
i the calculation i encourage you to do and again it's a spreadsheet no thing is a is a cost per
kilometer so work out what the range of your car is that you're getting work at how many kilowatts
are in there work out a cost of full battery on on your home electricity off the grid and then
divided into the kill into the kilometers you'll work out that it might be 12 cents a kilometer
and then do the calculations on your former petrol car and you'll work out you are paying
two to three times that per kilometer and that'll make you feel better about plugging into the grid
yes because it's all right to get into getting the electricity from the battery
which is free then obviously buying from the grid by still way cheaper than if i was to go and have
it fill up the car with petrol or in a public charger more than 34 cents a kilowatt it'd be way
more than that all right good luck sorry we couldn't give you a direct answer but hopefully
for thought though that's very how you thought it through 11 other quick question if you
don't want to answer it is is to do with the charging i've got i don't have a lithium phosphate
battery i've got um with a core nickel catamine battery and then those ones you're not meant to
charge up to 100% is there a percentage that you're meant to have it charged up to or is there no
it's normally driving 80 90 percent yeah it's normally 80 80 percent if you if you just set it
80 percent and live between 20 and 80 in all your life and then on your road trips go to 100 and go
down to wherever you want like mate 80 is a good number all the research all the studies are showing
that the batteries are surviving very well got great battery health um if they're treated especially
in slow charging circumstances so if you were doing fast charging all the time we would probably say
be very cautious about what what you do you might want to go to 70 and and more often than 80 but
mate i don't think you got a problem at all slow charging you're good and with the 80 percent if
you get 80 percent because obviously on some days we don't drive a much is it not worth charging
then on some nights then and just letting it drop back down a bit lower to you well just depend on
what you're doing that week if you know you're only just gonna be running around locally then
you should be fine charge it up the only reason we often say plug it in every night is for the
habit because we're often talking to new owners just to top up you know but even my wife who's
you know very new to this broadly is very much just in the group of going when it gets to 40 i'm
gonna start charging you like but she's not charging every day so you'll be fine mate you'll
be totally fine yeah yeah okay yep okay thanks thanks a lot friend good to hear from you jeffrey
thank you mate good man cheers uh it's jeffrey in queensland oh what about the just a little salt
in the wounds there did you hear that i'm in queensland so lots of sun yeah he basically said great
place to have salt what do you mean overcast hey yeah good on him good on you man cheers sounds
quite the system yeah well done all right we'd love to hear from you uh more calls after this
i thought we're just making faces i didn't know what you were doing there no i never know what
you're doing very unpredictable you are i'm unpredictable uh two blokes talking electric
cars thanks to nrm insurance in uniden dashcams we'd love to hear from you send us a text or a
whatsapp just go on your phone and save it as steven fennec uh travel longs personal long oh four
double 7657657 save it save the number call it two blokes and uh you've
got a hotline to the two blokes don't ring it because it's not a phone number it's only an sms
number okay just for clarity because yeah it actually won't ring anywhere i actually don't
know what happens if you ring it probably nothing anyway on the line another caller emma g'day emma
hey how you going really really good where are you at in your ev journey i think you've uh
you've made the decision on a byd is it yeah uh byd addo three that i've had for like two weeks
amazing you've probably just got it wow yes so you're fresh fresh to the world of evs now
can we ask emma how long did it take you to decide that was your the car for you did you
tell us about your test drives and what spurred you to go in this direction
um well i'd wanted a hybrid for quite a while but obviously they were all in like the 50 or
thousand dollar range so it was always out of my budget and the byd has just appealed to me
because they were obviously within a price range that was a little bit more achievable um
was looking at more of a hybrid and then i went to the showroom and test drove the addo three
and was quite happy with like the range that it had for just like the local driving that i
did and i don't know i just thought you got a lot of car for your money really it was really
lovely to drive what did you have before it like how let me ask you a more simple question
how old was your car that you had it was just a 2023 Mitsubishi Outlander okay so pretty pretty
modern still good yeah we often talk about the fact that i think that most people have a car
that's five to seven years old and when you get in any new car electric or otherwise you're like oh
wow this is pretty cool so you're saying that jumping in one of these made you very aware of
how much more advanced this this market was yeah well just for the same amount of money
that i paid for my Outlander three years ago i'm getting like you know like leather type seats
really fancy interior what essentially looks like a mini tv in the front of my car it's got a dash
cam at the front um yeah i was just like i was like this is amazing and i don't have to pay to petrol
did you test drive any other EVs or was it bd had your heart from the start
yeah well again i've just seen a lot of them around and they have been around for a little bit so
even though i'd heard about a lot of these other brands through like your podcast and this other
one that i was listening to um i'm just like i'm a single parent um so i just i didn't need the stress
of like unknown yeah can i ask you a question about podcasts because it's fascinating to me
yeah how do you listen to another EV podcast what name them who are they and then what are they
are they good are they we better just tell us what we want to hear no no um are you listening
on the way to work are you tuning in like how do you engage in podcasts very curious quickly
so via spotify i just i did a search and you guys came up because i wanted something
australian as well so you guys were perfect oh i know that's a great there's our quote for the
day that's great can you tell my wife anyway no you're so helpful i've learned so much between
you and this EV charging podcast which is also an australian one i've just um learned so much
excellent excellent all right so um you you you steven asked about the BYD so you were pretty
sold straight away there were you yeah well just the experience center that they called it that i
went to was lovely they set me off on a test drive immediately um unlike a few other people
i wasn't given any restrictions they just said yep here you go go for a drive the guy even offered
to take at togra central coast at togra the guy even offered to take my car seat out of my all car
and put it in the test drive so that my son could come oh what's his name not your son's name
also very very lovely but what's the salesman's name do you remember um his name was nick good
on you nick from togra byd nick at BYD he was he was just charming did you i mean was that something
you needed at the time or was that just something he observed no yeah it was just i had my little boy
with me so it was just something that he observed and i mean he could tell i was fairly new so he
was showing me like the um the the app where you can look at where all the charges are and the other
one where you can plan your trips where it shows you your elevation and putting your car you have
nick's killing it up there that's great yeah so it was really lovely so you've had the car for a
few weeks did you say and so how how have you settled into it are you uh what's the charging
situation are you do you drive a lot how is this going to fit into your life so i i'm going to get
a charger at home but i did have some drama to begin with because on day three i got my car down to
seven percent and the the lights coming on saying like please charge and like oh my god yeah day three
and i'm going to be calling someone to come oh no we have had already we spoke to a caller earlier
who went flat on the freeway so it does happen so what happened on that day if you get to a
charger do you get home or what happened well i did get to a charger but there was four at the
shopping center and two were broken and then only two were working but they were being used and i'm
like oh my god what am i going to do name names what brand yeah which charger was a tesla oh wow
that's who we're that's that's that's unusual yeah so i was looking on the app and then this is
something that would have been nice to have been told i didn't realize i looked so many charges
you needed to bring your own cable yes all right can i just go back to the tesla one where was that
at the home coke was those supercharges are teslas only you know it was green hills um stockland
right yeah very good i guess i work up in maitland but you know it's a really interesting point and i
don't know whether you've had time to watch or listen to our episode from two weeks ago uh so
you've just bought a new ev um but it's something we cover in there is the idea that you know what
i know that car came with a cable you should go and buy the other cable which is the public
charger cable and it should be in the front call the boot at all times because you never know when
like we've got a shopping center up the road at penned hills and you're like i would never
really need to charge when i'm there but sometimes it's busy and that's the that's the open parking
spot so i whacked the cable in it's the slowest charging possible but you know i'd get a free
i get a parking spot guaranteed so yeah that's another little investment is that is that charging
yeah well i did go and buy one like a few days later because that was really scary but
you want to save my life in the end go is it our man nick at b1 do you know it
was the nrma fast charger in maitland there you go nrma well played righto you know what so have
you learned so i'm gathering from this that the central coast is is is your home and work and
there is i mean there's a pretty good network around there there's i mean there's amp charge
amp all charges at a couple of service stations there are some nrma ones roadside so it's not
a bad network have you started familiarizing yourself with where they are or are you not
charging at home at all how are you using that so i have done a bit of like the trickle charging
at home um with the the slower cable but yeah i've just had some bad experiences like because
i went to mingara and they have charges there but two of them again were broken and the other one
it kept saying coming like up with this e v s c error and it just wouldn't connect to my car so again
i couldn't charge my car there either so yeah there's a there's a great out i don't know whether
you already have this app but there's an app called plug share which yeah that's the one that
okay so it tells you that yeah if there's any issues with certain certain charges it's yeah
but emma why are you not using the trickle charger more because you can just do that every night at
home that's without being rude what isn't that the simplest way to go do you not have off-street
parking well it's my parents house that i'm staying at and they park their car they're
free juice they're not going to charge you electricity the problem is so like power point
and where my car is okay hang on i have to get them to like move their car dad listen say dad
move this camira and i'll move the commodore to get there i don't have three in there dad park on
the body on the road emma's got a park in the driveway near the car near the park power point
yeah yeah wow so they're very precious in their car um in simple terms though you're loving it is
what i'm hearing yeah it's just i don't know it just feels like an expensive car it's just move
to drive it handles nicely it's really comfortable like honestly i feel like i've got a $60,000 car
and it was like $43,000 like i'm just i know i'm so impressed is it your son you're a little boy
what does your little boy think of it you must love it he loves it and he keeps dinging the
things on the door like the little little guitar strings the on the add-o
three is he like playing on the big screen as well yeah yeah so i mean i opened the door and for
about like a minute before we get in he's got to play with the strings so it's a little bit annoying
but i was gonna say i hope he grows out of that one but anyway hey emma lovely to hear from you
great story and and glad to glad you glad you moved straight to ev because in the end i think
you would have loved any hybrid there's a bunch of great hybrids out there byd have
some beautiful hybrids as well which you could have could have probably looked at as well but i
think the long term is is hugely beneficial for you and great insight on on the charging network
and the fact that it's not just one or two there's there's multiple sites where this can be a problem
and that's a really big problem for the industry i think there's so you know if you weren't so happy
and friendly that'd be something that could really annoy you right now like you know some people would
be begrudging evs because they've they've had that experience trev would have been annoyed i definitely
would have yeah i'm trying to remain optimistic for the environment yeah and good to hear that byd
looked after you too uh and sort of nick at targ right let's go nick well play yeah i know some
people have had problems but just wonderful well done excellent lovely to hear from you emma thank you
good on you let me get back to work cheers thanks for getting in touch um yeah i mean she feels like
she's driving a more expensive car isn't that a great great feedback it feels more expensive than
it actually is great endorsement that is a really good recommendation of the addo three my my uncle
who i ran into a couple weeks ago at that family wedding um decided they were going to buy an ev
because of petrol prices literally boom and i wrote him a list and he ended up going above the list
because i wrote out a 1802 he went and got the addo three because he wanted to tow just a small
trailer sure um but and so here's a quick one um i said when are you going to get it he goes in two
weeks wow so i'm like i thought i thought it'd be months because of the client stuff so they must
have stock there it's pouring in yeah i reckon yeah shout out to nick nick at tuggera byd well done
mate you're lifting the brand yes and she also said that our podcast was perfect she said no no
what she said was yeah we were perfect hey i mean i know the grab was about our
podcast that's right we'll take it don't worry we'll take it we'll take anything all right two
listening before we wrap up the show i mentioned the start of the show there like a lot we've had
over the last couple years over the last 120 episodes so many callers talk about how they
bought their car on a novated lease with the fbt exemptions and all these government subsidies
and remember all the state subsidies are slowly disappearing as well i got a state subsidy so
did you i think on one of your car on them as merc no because it wasn't why not because it was too
expensive yeah there you go i got a subsidy on my cupra but the state ones have all kind of
that the full electric car discount essentially is what they call it which is the fbt exemption
is going to stay in place until april 2027 so that's another whole you know two years
no one year 2026 now isn't it so another whole year of electric car discounts essentially
but then it'll shift a little bit so as of april next year the full exemption will still apply
to cars up to um up to 75 000 and if you're spending over that and still below the 91 000
you'll get 25 fbt but as of april 2029 it'll all go down to 25 percent so basically you know you've
got now a couple of years to buy a sub 75 000 car and take advantage of that fbt which is still
pretty good i think that's the right incentive the the industry seems positively supporting this
i think it gives clarity for people um and you know they talk about the the ethers of the ev
council talk about a target of 5000000 evs on the roads by 2035 we're going to need these
kind of things absolutely well uh as we said at the start of the show there's uh i think there's
nothing incentive for people to get out and buy buy a ev right now that we know how popular they
are but this is a nice little sweet yeah it's good if you can get uh that's another reason
may you might get an ev maybe cheaper than a petrol car another reason to jump in but still
they still have the luxury car tax though if you're over a certain amount yes well if you're
doing very well you can afford both the car and the tax so get over yourself um the electric vehicle
council gilla del vecchio uh made the point that you know because i think it's a good point to
continue reinforce which we do you know on average ev households save $3 000 a year in fuel and maintenance
cost boom i mean i got the kia service this week it was a hundred bucks what that's because i
really because a man did it i'm like excuse me can she get to you can she take my car i went babe
what did that what happened 100 bucks because i got a notification on my phone a max charge
$100 i mean that must be like a deposit i thought it'd be 500 or something seriously my watch just
happened what what why was it so cheap i don't know i'm not going to ask a question that's amazing
can she can you when my Mercedes is due for service can she take mine in there too because mine's
way more than a hundred bucks you should batter eyelids and see if she can get your disc and
i'll mention my wife to take it in there's the go all right we'd love to hear from
you especially if you're if that's going to tip you over the edge that ability to you know over the
next year look at getting yourself an electric car because of those fbt exemptions lock it in folks
it's sticking around thanks to the government decision on that one so we'd love to hear from you
on any topic about electric cars uh whether you're in the market or you've got just bought one get in
touch 0407 657 657 steven talk to you next week mate ciao see you then
it's a gun show
About this episode
EV sales are surging in Australia, with the hosts pointing to figures like “16.97% of all cars sold in April were electric vehicles” and the broader takeaway that “one in six vehicles sold was electric last month.” They then zoom into rankings (Toyota, BYD, Kia, and Tesla’s absence from the top 10) and incentives, before fielding real first-EV stories—leases, test drives, charging setups, and even roadside 12V and range surprises.
Another EV sales boom in April, with one in six cars sold being EVs. How does that stack up on the year, and which brands are booming.
We talk 12v Charging and how it works, hear how one car didn't make it home on a regional road.
Emma is new to the EV world but loving her BYD with a shoutout to a dealer, and Chris is ready to take delivery of his Geely after a decent search for his next car.
Be part of the show, text or WhatsApp to 0477 657 657 thanks to Vodafone.
