126 - He chose an MGS5, the Electric Car Journey
Two Blokes Talking Electric Cars - The EV Podcast · Jun 28, 2026
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Car
Galaxy Geely Ex5
The Galaxy EX5 is a compact electric SUV made by the Chinese company Geely. It is designed to be an affordable, high-tech family car that runs entirely on electricity.
Car
Ford Territory (Australia)
A very popular family SUV that Ford used to build in Australia. Many families are now looking to replace their aging diesel or petrol Territories with modern electric SUVs.
Car
Hyundai Kona
The Kona is a small SUV made by the South Korean company Hyundai. It is designed for city driving and is available in gas, hybrid, or electric versions.
Part
head-up display
A feature that shines your current speed and navigation directions directly onto the glass windshield in front of you, so you don't have to take your eyes off the road to look at the dashboard.
Term
granny charger
A slang term for the slow charging cable that comes with most electric cars, which you can plug into a normal everyday wall socket. It takes a long time to charge the car, but is handy in an emergency.
Car
Geely EX2
A tiny, very cheap electric SUV made by Geely. It is designed for city driving and is expected to be one of the most affordable electric cars on the market.
Brand
Volvo
A famous Swedish car brand known for making some of the safest cars in the world. It is now owned by the Chinese company Geely, which helps both brands share technology.
Car
MG S5 EV
A compact electric SUV from MG, a brand famous for making affordable electric cars. It's a popular choice for people wanting a small-to-medium family SUV without a high price tag.
Car
BYD Atto 2
A highly popular electric SUV made by BYD, one of the world's largest EV makers. It's known for its unique interior design and a very safe battery pack.
Concept
bi-directional charging
A technology that lets you use your electric car's massive battery to power your house during a blackout, or sell electricity back to the power grid when prices are high.
Car
Tesla Model S
The Model S is a large, luxury electric sedan made by Tesla. It is known for being very fast and having a large touchscreen that controls almost all of the car's functions.
Car
Tesla Model Y
A very popular electric SUV made by Tesla. It looks like a taller version of the Model 3 sedan and is loved for its spacious cabin, great driving range, and easy charging.
Concept
Juniper
The secret code name for Tesla's updated version of the Model Y SUV, which features a redesigned look, improved suspension, and new interior features.
Brand
Zeekr
A luxury electric car brand owned by Geely (the same company that owns Volvo), known for high-tech, premium electric cars.
Concept
plug-in hybrid
A car that has both a petrol engine and an electric motor with a battery you can plug in. It lets you drive on pure electricity for short daily trips, but still has a petrol engine for long journeys.
Car
GWM Tank 500
A massive, luxurious hybrid SUV made by Chinese company GWM. It's designed for serious off-roading and towing, similar to a Toyota Land Cruiser, but costs significantly less.
Car
Toyota Land Cruiser
The Land Cruiser is a very large, heavy-duty SUV made by Toyota. It is built to drive over rough dirt roads, mud, and rocks while keeping passengers comfortable.
Car
Kia EV9
The EV9 is a large, boxy electric SUV made by Kia. It has three rows of seats to carry up to seven people and runs entirely on battery power.
Car
Toyota Prado
The Prado is a mid-sized, tough SUV made by Toyota. It is designed to be highly capable of driving off-road while still being comfortable enough for daily family use.
Brand
Denza
A high-end luxury electric car brand owned by BYD, offering more premium and expensive vehicles than standard BYD models.
LIVE
This is Two Blokes talking electric cars with Trevor Long and Stephen Fennig thanks to NRMA
Insurance and Unidan. And we do it all thanks to the great people at NRMA helping Australians
protect what matters most for 100 years and more to come and one of Australia's largest insurers
of electric vehicles and Unidan smart dash cams. If you've got a car you should have a dash cam.
It's really quite simple because it gives you that peace of mind and knowing exactly what
happened around you is recorded. Even while you're parked too. Parking. Absolutely. Parking.
A lot of things happen when you're car's parked. A lot of things happen while you're car's parked.
So you've got that evidence and hey if something silly happens put it on the internet. It's fun.
We've got a lot to get through today, a lot of calls to get through and we'd love to hear from
you. 0477657657. If you'd love to talk about where you're at in your electric car journey,
just get in touch, save our number as the two blokes in your phone and you can send us a WhatsApp
or a text message. Thanks to Vodafone. It's as simple as that and you can get in touch and
then we'll get in touch with you and get you on the show. It doesn't matter whether you've
owned an electric car for 15 years or five minutes or you just start to think about it.
You just start to think about an electric car and you've got questions. No judgment here. It's a no
judgment zone. I do. I'm a little judgy of Tesla owners but that's just, I'm not just being honest.
No, I'm not really. It's a joke. It's a running joke. Okay. So I've actually,
there's been some text messages from people about my Tesla H and you've got to understand,
it's a running joke. The toad, the frog. It lets you say Elon Musk is still doing very well.
The blokes are trillionaire. Not doing too bad. Nothing dodgy about that IPO at all.
Take your calls and we'll do that all through this show. Danny's on the line. Good day, Danny.
How are you going? Yeah, really good, mate. You've picked up a Geely EX5, mate.
What a month or so ago now. How's that gone for you?
It is and it's been a great purchase from my point of view. We went through a lot of
upping and aring and we're updating from a Ford Territory diesel car. Very common car. Like,
there's a lot of, that was a very, very popular car and there's a lot of people starting to really
age out of the Ford Territory. So I think it's a really good observation of where this car,
like the Geely and others, might be perfect for that replacement. Was it an obvious one
for size or what dragged you to the Geely? Okay, so we looked at a number of cars,
like everyone else that does the journey. Hatch was a good idea and we looked at the
Hyundai. What's that one? It's the hatch. Or Kona? No, no, no, no. Not the Kona either. The
or the Insta? That's too small, wouldn't be that. That's too small.
The most recent one, the LL-Elex here or whatever it's called?
Yeah, that's the one. Good little car. That's not what it's called, but it's something like that.
A really good little car for sure. But I did not like not having the dashboard in front of me. That
having said that now that I own one that's got the overhead display, the behind the steering
wheel display and a larger screen, I don't look at the screen behind the steering wheel.
You've realized you don't need the instrument cluster when you've got a good head-up display
on the windscreen. Absolutely, yeah. And mate, I'll be honest with you. I thought on the Alexia
and you didn't get to drive it because we were in a rotation, but it had this really weird head-up
display that wasn't in the middle of the windscreen. It was actually down the bottom in the kind of
black bar area and I loved it. It was kind of recessed in there. It looked really good, but
you're right. You think you want it. You think you want that screen behind the steering wheel,
but if you've got a head-up display, it's all you need as long as it's showing you the basic
details. So you've kind of gotten used to that now. Yeah, so when we talk about size of the car,
I do have one granddaughter. I have the youngest child in our family's 15 as well,
so we've still got her living with us. So it's big enough. Really, our needs had changed.
We didn't need a seven-seater anymore. Yeah. So you had this as obviously your first EV.
So what was it that said, right, our next car is going to be an EV. What was it that in your mind
the thought we need to make the switch? Look, I think that the price as a fuel certainly had
hurt us for a long period of time. My diesel car had cost me probably seven and a bit grand
in the last 12 months trying to keep it on the road and trying to see how we go. And I just went,
you know what, let's get solar on the roof, let's get a battery, let's buy a car,
let's start this journey because we're going to get left behind.
Wow. So you've made some quite some adjustments in your life then, eh? So how has it been now
fit into your lifestyle? Although the territory, I'd imagine you would take on long trips and
be doing a lot of stuff pretty active with it. How is it now with an EV?
Well, we've already done about eight grand in the new car, 8000 kays that is. And
that's been with a granny charger and porter charging because I won't go into the in-depth
stuff to go with solar and batteries. Let's just say I've got one on the roof and it is still not
hooked up to the Ausnet network. So it's not of any benefit to me at the moment.
And it doesn't matter how much kicking and screaming I've done, it's still
so you said you're using the granny charger. Do you intend on getting a wall charger down the
track when everything's all set up? Oh, you have? I've got a wall charger to go on once they've
sort of got my solar. So you've got to get through the solar and battery dramas and certification
before you then upgrade to that. But the granny's been okay for you though?
Look, we've survived it with those kays we've pulled into. Like I travel from Warrigal Regional
Victoria to Nariwaran every day for work. So round trip, 120 kays. And sometimes I use it for work.
I'm a palliative care community nurse. So I go out in the community and sometimes if it works
out I head back towards Warrigal. Other times I'm driving a nice Kona at work. And I like the Kona.
I almost bought a Kona EV as well. But we ended up settling on this one.
What was it that made you go the Geely's the one then if you did look at a couple?
Okay, so our first experience with Geely was terrible. We went to Berwick and
service was terrible. And that was probably at that point. No, this isn't going to be a car.
Went to the Motor Show in Melbourne. We went to have a look at the different cars and we got
looking at the EX2, which is of course the new little one that's coming out later this year,
which looks like it's going to be a pretty good thing given that it's sold half a million of
those in China last year. It'll be a $30,000 car, but it's a much smaller car than the EX5 that
you got. Yeah, and that's what happened. We went, oh, but the EX5 is such a good looking car.
And we spoke to the reps there at Geely and told them their experience and they said, look,
have you been able to test drive one? And we said, no, it was too much drama at Berwick. They were
too busy, which, okay, we understand busy, but not enough people. Busy in sales is not an excuse.
No, if they want to sell a car, you've got to get people's details and you've got to be
apologetic. I couldn't even get in and look inside the car. So it was like,
and yet you still came back to it. It says a lot, I think, about the quality of the car then.
It also says a lot about the treatment that you felt you got at the Motor Show,
because for them to essentially convince you to come back. Well, we got speaking to a guy there,
named Daniel, who runs another YouTube channel. And he gave us a fair bit of time to talk about
the Geelys. And so the rep ended up sending us across to Fertree Gully on our way home from
the Motor Show. And they had a beautiful charcoal gray with wide interior car that had just been
pushed into the showroom. We test drove one, came back to the showroom and we walked out with
that car. The charcoal gray with the wide interior. We had no waiting time, so it was ready to go.
We went through their finance, which was a pretty good deal. I think we got 3.88 or something,
which was going to be better than trying to go through corporate doing the leasing.
We did the sums. It was nearly 15% with the company that our workplace deals with.
Now that you've had it for a little while, just finally, before we let you go,
is there anything that you've learnt about the car that you didn't expect?
I probably thought I'd get more kilometres out of it, but it hasn't been bad when you're putting it
on the charger every day. It's not an issue. We took it to Melbourne last week and we were there
for the weekend and the car was brilliant under those conditions of being in a city and
stopped starting. However, Melbourne wasn't great for finding a charger for the car.
It was terrible. We didn't need it. I think I had 200 clicks in there and I would have got
back to Warragul, no worries. I just thought, while we're in the city, let's try this as an
experience. I found one in Richmond, so not too far out the CBD that was a Tesla fast charger,
but few and far between when you go into the city.
We went to Melbourne Market, but they have 7 kilowatt chargers in an underground car park
and that's really probably not even worth a sneeze. I could do that at home.
True city centres aren't really a prolific place for chargers. Even in Sydney, it's really the
outskirts. You've got to get to where some of the suburban shopping centres and things might have
those. But that's a learning experience. Danny, you'll pick all that up. You'll start to use the
better route planner or plug share and those different apps to see these chargers and understand
that stuff. Yeah, I've got all of them. I'm very happy with the car and anyone that's come to look
at the car that's a friend or family or work person has just gone, oh, wow, that's a lot of
car for the money. It feels solid. We've driven Mercs and that sort of thing over time. Look,
all the doors and componentry and everything just feel solid. You feel like you've got a solid car
around you, which I guess is Julie's ownership with Volvo. They're not a real start-up, mate.
They're making a lot of cars under a lot of brands. That's a hell of a company. That's
Volkswagen scale equivalence. That's a company that owns a lot of other companies and their
heritage in motoring is not lengthy, but it's strong and that's what you're buying into there.
I think you've done a good job and it sounds like a car that you're loving.
Yeah, no, enjoying it totally. Good stuff, mate. Lovely to hear from you and you keep us
in the loop as you learn more things. We'd love to share that with everyone else as well,
mate. Great to talk to you, Danny. Thanks very much. See you guys. Have a great day.
Awesome stuff. Good on you. And that's all we'd love to hear your journey in the electric car
world. How's it shaping up for you? How are you going with it? And we'd love to share those with
us just by sending us the text 0477657657.
Great, happy company. We'd love to have you on the show. You know how to be part of the show.
Just save in your phone. Two blocks, 0477657657. Send us the text. We'll get you on the show.
Wellie's on the line. Good day, Wellie. Hey, good day, guys.
Mate, you've bought an EV. Tell us about your new car.
Okay, so pick her up, what, two weeks ago now? So, yeah, still exciting.
What do you got? Fresh. Yeah, yeah, just got her tinted this morning.
Tinted? Nice. And so don't forget the dash cam, mate, dash cam.
I already have that. Uniden dash cam. Well played, well played. Consider it our main insurance.
I hope you've already got insurance around the car for two weeks. Wellie, what did you get,
mate? What did you get and tell us about it? I got MGS5, SN62.
Very nice. What made you choose that one, mate? How many other cars do you think you considered?
So, we shortlisted two cars, Etto 2 and MGS5 EV. And the reason being, we wanted a smallest,
medium smallest SUV with controls inside and with normal door handle, not flush. And it came down
to Etto 2 and MGS5 EV. So, we went to see the Etto 2 at the dealership and my wife was not a fan
because it's small compared to the MG. So, in the end, we decided to go with the MG.
Mate, the S5 is a good looking car too. I think MG styling has really come into its own. It's
easy to make that choice. Well, before I went and purchased the car, I spent probably like a year
just being involved in the MGS5 Facebook group. So, I kind of know what I'm coming into and from what
I've seen, I'm okay with it. Yeah, I'm happy with the purchase. Excellent. And so, how,
Willie, what tell us about your driving and do you drive a lot? Is the transition to EV going
to be easy for you? What's the situation? Well, it's mostly used by my wife because we only have
one car and see you drive the car during the week for work. But we have took her on a day trip to
Country Victoria on the first weekend that we get her. And yeah, I'm the one who
drove it. And yeah, I loved it. I love how effortless it is to just go up and down the hill. So,
yeah, that was great. And how have you found the first couple of weeks of learning about the car,
charging and things like that? Oh, it's very easy. I use granny chargers. So, just plug her in at
night and driving wise, there's not much of a difference. Just probably need to learn the
control like how to use cruise control and all that. But other than that, it's fine. And it's,
yeah, it's, it's great. So, when you, when you took your big drive, would you had to use public
chargers? I'd imagine. Have you had an experience with public chargers yet? Yes, we use public
chargers at the, at Wooden. And that was also easy. I got, already got the app set up and already
have RFID tag set up. So, yeah, just tap and go. So, pretty easy. Very, very good. You've got it all
together. You are ready to go. So organized, mate. And was there, was there just, the wife,
was there any hesitation from her about going EV or were you both leading this together?
So, that's a bit interesting. So, initially, I'm the one who, who interested to go into EV,
but I didn't tell her because we weren't looking into replacing our car. And this was like two years
ago or so. But now and then we just like mentioned about getting a new car, a bigger car, because
our previous car was like a small hatchback. And sometime around last year, I mentioned to her that
if we're getting a new car, I would want it to be a full EV. And then I remember
she's standing in the kitchen and suddenly she turns around and told me that, oh, if we have
EV, we don't ever have to go to petrol station anymore. I mean, since she's the one who drives
during the weeks, she's the one who has to put the petrol in and she hates that. So, yes.
Welly, I want to ask, I picked up on something you said earlier. One of the things, one of the
things you looked for on the car was proper handles, not the flush handles.
Is that a safety thing for you? Why, why were you thinking that?
Oh, I guess I just like the ease of it. Like normal door handle, like you already know what to do,
but with a flush handle, it's kind of like, oh, how do I open this? Yeah. I mean, the number of
times you see people struggle with that as they're getting an Uber or that's a Tesla or something
like that. And frankly, like the, let's be honest, they're doing it all for aero efficiency. Can anyone
really tell me that you're saving hundreds of kilometers? No, it's got to be one or two kilometers
like in added range from having those little door handles. Honestly, like again, I've been driving
the Cooper for the last couple of weeks. Walk up, handle, done, easy, don't have to wait. I don't
know. My handles pop out, but same on the on the Kia, they pop out. Correct me if I'm
wrong, Trev, but is there is there a ruling in China that they're not allowed to ban those flush
handles? I think because there's been some issues with like emergency services and accidents, they
couldn't open the door because it might have stayed locked or something. So honestly, I think we're
going to see a little bit of a reversal in the way that that is happening. And just simply ease
of use. I mean, what it's this car with these handles sticking out looks bloody amazing. Well,
it's great. Why would you bother? But it's a job fascinating. You're right. It's a fascinating little
requirement of the car from your welly. Really interesting observation. What color did you get,
mate? Yes. We got the white one. Why? Just a standard one. Couldn't stump up the extra 700 bucks,
mate. No, we like the white one. Yeah, I mean, they do. The colors on the on this one are slightly
different to that. You remember the MG four used to have a really bright orange and really bright
blue. Yes, I've got to say, and I've had it on the screen here for a while, the red, the metallic
red on the on the S five. It's a gorgeous looking thing. Well, enjoy the car. Welly,
mate. Congratulations on the purchase. And let us know what you experienced through the journey
over the months ahead. Sure. Thanks guys. Good on you, mate. Thanks for getting in touch. There you
go. Well, he's with his brand new happy, happy about it too. He's wife's on board. That's that's
important. Get to get the misses on board. Happy wife. Happy life. That's how it works. We love
to hear from you anytime. Get in touch on two like starting electric cars.
Great, heavy company. We'd love to hear from you. Oh, four, double 76576
57 Shoot us a text and we'd love to hear from you wherever you're at in your journey.
Pete's on the line. Good day, Pete. Good day, Blake. Say go and make really, really good. Tell
us about your driveway. Well, I've got a 15 kilowatt solar system on the roof. A 40 kilowatt
sick energy energy battery. So Steven, what do you think is missing here? An EV. Correct. And what
else? So you've got the panels, the battery, and you want an EV wall charger? And probably not.
I think I'll get a 25 kilowatt bi-directional. I was going to say if I had the sick energy,
I'd be putting the extra panel on the top with a 25 kilowatt bi-directional. Is that the plan?
Yeah, that's the plan. So Trevor, tell me. Who's being interviewed here? What's going on?
What's going on here? Anyway, sorry, go on. What's your question?
Trevor, what do you think about buying a second hand Tesla?
I think it's a great idea. I genuinely do. I mean, be very clear. For someone asking me that,
it's like when we get tech advice, right? There's some phones that I wouldn't continue to use,
but if someone says to me, I'm looking at this one, and I would simply say to them,
why are you looking at that one? What are you expecting to get from it? And I think you've
probably done the research on what a Tesla provides. And it's funny because I keep reflecting on that
call from a couple of weeks ago with the second hand Model S. And even last week, I still drive
past Model S's and think that is probably one of the best-looking electric cars on the road.
Of all the brands, you'd probably say Tesla second hand. You can probably go in with a bit
more confidence. Yeah, that's probably true. You reckon? So could have been around for quite a
while. So then, Pete, what are you looking at? Well, I listened to your show. So I had looked at
Tesla Model S because I thought I could probably slip a seven-foot surfboard in the back of that.
But it's quite a fast-track style, so it's pretty low in the back. Yes, it is.
Yeah, I went everywhere. I looked at a lot of cheap, shiny stuff. I lived about 120K southwest
of Geelong in Victoria. So for all the Australian listeners here, this is the southernmost village
in Australia on the mainland. And I can charge my electric car, which I did buy at Model Y
2023, in the middle of winter on solar. Wow. We've got a lot of panels. In the southernmost
part of Australia, they'd be the mainland. Wouldn't there be less sun? Or is it enough?
It's enough. Just enough panels, that's for sure. We've got enough, Ben.
That's awesome. How do you like it in there? So is this the model that was the previous look,
or the new one? No, that's the previous 23. So you've got a toad, not a frog. Toad,
Well, you've got all the names. For me, it's just a car I can stick into the solar panel and drive
around and rock it on the sun. Because I think all of this came along. I've been looking for a
wishfully, but with, well, I got a job where I was working a bit manually and I was able to listen
to you show while I was doing that, which is very good. And then the Australian Wool's things
sort of sparked up, which really brought my attention to the stupidity of dragging oil
across the world to use once. You know what? It's a funny thing we haven't really discussed,
because we don't really get into it. But it is hilarious, really, isn't it, to think that
you could be filling up a car with a bunch of, with heavy liters of fuel that had to be shipped
across the world and then refined to be put in your car when what you're doing right now
is plugging your car inside your house and the sun comes out. Honestly, Pete, it reminds me of
that conversation. And I've mentioned it before. There's a, there's a marketing dude in England
who said this. So I'm not, I'm not the founder of this idea, but the idea that if, if electric cars
had had taken off, you know, a hundred years ago, and that we were now trying to tell people to
switch to combustion engines, you know, you're trying to tell people to fill your car with
flammable liquid that burns dirty into the environment. And by the way, that fuel needs
to be shipped to you from the other side of the world. It's insanity to think that you would do
that. So it's wild, especially when that fuel's coming out of a 65, at least a 65 million year
old dinosaur. Like, that's so crazy. So we're done with that. And I think that, you know,
the, the feel of this car being so quiet, it's got a sick subwoofer. I'll tell you what, the
pre Juniper Teslas come with good subwoofers. Yeah, the Tesla sound system's always been good.
You said pre Juniper, so has it changed? Juniper real drive does not have a subwoofer.
There is my news for the program. Look out for that. And it's not easy to get one fit.
So you can enjoy your doof doof music while you're driving round, mate. Is that what you say?
You better believe it, buddy. What's it like down there in that southernmost part of Australia,
the mainland? What's it like for charging through to Geelong and around to Melbourne?
So there's Tesla Chargers north of Geelong and in Colac and across to Warnable.
I'm talking to a chap in town here who might be open to having Tesla use his land to put a
supercharger in. Wow. But there is an EV charger, which is really unreliable and it's 70 cents a
kilowatt. There's another one in Lawn, which I think is a Firefox that's 50 cents a kilowatt.
And then in South Geelong, I think there's another EV charger there. And there'll be stuff in
Toolkey as well. But look, there certainly can get around. There's no problem. And well,
this car, what's it doing? It'll do about 400 and probably more like 375 round here.
So you can do it pretty much off the house. So what sort of driving are you doing? I heard
you mentioned earlier, you want to fit a surfboard in. So it's trips to the beach.
You've got family too, I'm assuming. So what's your driving habits like?
We pretty much get around town on pushbikes and walking. And then we have to do trips to Geelong
for medical appointments or what have you. And then there's surf trips along the coast.
So it's pretty much a recreational vehicle and it can be charged during the daytime,
which is magnificent. Very quiet, effortless to drive, very, very compelling compared to the
cars I've driven. I think any new car that I got was going to be a massive step up on the cars that
I've had. And just in terms of the choice you made, I think you mentioned in your text to us that
you did look at some of the newer brands. What was the reason you went Tesla over?
What pick one other? What was the defining factor?
So yeah, I thought I was pretty keen to get these, the Zika or the Geelys or
there's a bunch of them, but I even talked to the MG dealer. But I didn't want to go up to Geelong
every couple of days and go and scout around and do all that because I knew that the Tesla product,
and I never drew it. But if you do a spider's web of all of the aspects of an EV, whether it's the
computer system, the efficiency, the handling, the reliability, the serviceability, or the
ability to get parts and have expertise available, it goes on and on. The Tesla feels the spider's
web. There's no little dip anywhere around that. It's a totally solid product. Whereas the
Cheek Chinese might be nice to get a new car, it doesn't do anything for me, but they always come
with a compromise. Overall, this whole thing becomes always, you can't get the perfect car.
You're going to have to sit at the 80% and you pick the 20% of things you're not going to be able
to get. Well, we've discussed in the past about how you do need to look further than just the
purchase of the car and the maintenance and servicing, and it sounds like you've done that.
We're finding that being aware of that at purchase, I think that could even affect your
decision whether how easy is this to service? How easy to get parts if I have an accident?
What's the full picture? Your spider's web as you described it is a great way of looking at it.
What I'm curious about from what you just said though, okay, if 80% is where you land,
what was your 20% compromise? Well, I didn't want to serve the steepest part of that depreciation
curve. So I really would have liked to get a new Juniper dual motor long range, but there's
75 odd thousand. So this car is 45 on the road. I just divide that by 10 years and think, well,
it's going to be worth something in 10 years, but if I can manage four and a half thousand
dollars a year in not paying for fuel, service costs and all that, which I think is reasonable,
then it's doable. And if it's doable, leave a dinosaur juicer alone.
That's a good way to look at it actually. Yeah, I think we've all got to put it in
that pocket somewhere in the transition to get off those fuels. And whilst I'm not saving
me years by any measure, it's a step. And yeah, but you know what, and it's funny how often that
comes up, isn't it? Especially when you're in a debate style environment, whether it's on the
internet or in a family barbecue, someone's going to be like, yeah, I'm trying, you've been green,
mate. I'm not doing it for being green. I'm doing it because by being green, I'm saving myself
money. The simple cost savings are hard to argue with. That's your higher priority. The overall
environmental benefit is one for the future that I'm glad to be playing a role in. I'm doing the
best I can for myself and my family. And it sounds like you're doing the same, mate.
Yeah, well said, Trevor. And it's good. You got a great show. I really enjoy listening to you both.
And Steven, I'm really proud to tell you about my solar system because you always ask the question
about what's going on with the solar system. Absolutely, yeah. I've had solar. I feel like
what I've had solar for nearly 10 years now, I feel like what Pete did was he studied recent
research. Absolutely. And he went, you know what, they're going to ask me this, this, and this,
so I'm going to throw them back out. Very good. I know you don't like a long drawn out
ramble about the search. So, spare all of that. Well, you know what, we do hear from a lot of
people who do a lot of test drives. I think, what's the name? Penelope. Penelope still got the
record of 16, 16 test drives. So, yeah, Pete, enjoy the toad, mate. Enjoy the toad.
Yeah, we're talking from the toad today, so you're inside the mouth. What colour do you get?
What colour is it? Oh, white, mate. We're all white. Yeah. Are you on the hands free?
Is this on your hands free in the tester, is it?
Yeah, we've got to go straight from the, from the, wow, it's pretty clear. That's a really solid
quality. Another, another concession. Jeff's got to concede another quality feature. Absolutely.
Hand on heart. That's a, that's a big part of the spot. That's top quality there.
Good quality. That's broadcast quality, mate. Yeah, I should have got a red one for the phone box,
but I'll go with a white phone box. Oh, good, good, good. Congrats, mate. Enjoy the car.
Thanks, mate. Yeah, thanks so much, Jeff. Well done. Really good to hear from you, mate.
Thanks very much. Cheers. There you go. See, loving the toad and the toad has great Bluetooth.
That's what we've learnt. Yeah, good microphones and speakers in there by the sounds of the toad.
You know, it's a silly thing, but we, we, you know, inside baseball, when we ring you
to get you on the show, we listen, we talk for a couple of seconds, we hang on a minute,
can you pick up the phone? Talk directly with the phone. But we didn't even, we didn't even
did an even flinch ask to the change. The quality was there at the get go. I'm still,
I'm still a bit overwhelmed by the number of questions. I was like, no, you can't prepare,
that was good. And you know, you can tell he listens, mate. It's great. We appreciate it.
Lovely to hear from our audience. We love doing this show as much as all that we've been doing
podcasts for 15 plus years. This is an enjoyable part of our week because we get to speak to real
people about their real experiences and their real questions problems
with the transition. And that I enjoy that because I get to talk to other people apart
from Trevor all the time. That's just really good.
All right. Get in touch folks.
Oh, four, double 7657657 Choose team Steve or team. It's up to you.
Two blokes showing electric cars. We'd love to hear from you. At any point
when you're driving along, you could probably just ask your voice assistant to call us. I'm not
going to use names, but call the two blokes. Yeah, call the two blokes. Save us in your phone first.
Oh, four, double 7657657 And then just...
And that's the message. Personal number. So if you get through to him, he'll be very happy.
Don't call it. It won't go anywhere. Okay. It doesn't work.
Oh, so just texting only. You can't leave a voice message. No, you can't.
But you can leave it in your car. You can leave a text message. You can send a message.
Yeah, send a message via WhatsApp. You've been driving a very interesting car, Stephen, because
it's not a fully electric. It's a plug-in hybrid. Plug-in hybrid, yeah.
But it's from GWN. Yeah. I love the fact. It's appropriately named the tank. The tank 500.
Yeah. Now, this is a hybrid, as you said. Big car, seven-seater.
It's plug-in hybrid or just hybrid? Plug-in hybrid, yeah. It's got a little cap on both sides.
It's one of those... I think it's an ideal for that driver who still wants to head out on those
trips, but also for just running around town, I think it's got about 75, 80 kilometer range
around town, you're able to just get by on the battery. So it's... I think it's an ideal combination
for someone who's not quite fully in the electric camp, maybe drives a lot more than the range,
because like the petrol range is like 700 or something kilometers. So it's a full,
decent seven-seater. Oh, yeah. It's a two-liter plug-in hybrid. Yeah. So it's...
It's like when we say tank, it is legit. Toyota Land Cruiser 300 series-sized car.
It's one of the biggest cars I've ever driven, apart from the EV9. Yeah. It's up in... Not quite
as big as the EV9. Really? Yeah. I think the EV9 is bigger than this. I don't know. Yeah,
you can see it. I think this probably sits a lot taller. Yeah. Oh, maybe, yeah. But it's high up
off the road. But then if you've got a step even that comes out, the step comes... When you unlock
the car, the... What do you call that? The sideboard? The shell foot? It pops out the side
of the car. Yeah. And it's great. I picked up my mum in it the other day, and she... She stepped in
there. She stopped on the step, pulled herself up on the handle and got up there. Nice. Doris
did a good job. Doris was like, what the hell is this? Yeah, what is this? And just getting
up in and out of it is pretty good too. But you know what? One little warning. Don't forget stuff
in the car and go back to get it, because I remember... I forgot my mobile in there, my phone.
And I've gone back to the car, opened the car, reached in to get my mobile, and the shelf just
came out. The step came out where it popped straight in the shins. It's a shin buster. The shin
buster. Be careful of that rail. It just sort of pops out automatically. It's a simple observation.
Yeah, like you wouldn't... That happened more than once. It's about an $80,000 car, right? Yeah,
starts about $75,000. Which is unbelievable value for a car this big. You compare that to a Toyota
Prado. I mean, it's pretty awesome. But it's a fascinating space, right? And last week,
Sean from NRMA mentioned that there are 100 cars on the market. And he said, but there's still some
vehicle categories that are not covered. And that would be Utes. There's a couple we've spoken
about. But this big four-wheel drive market is huge, right? Think about the number of Toyota
Prados and those kind of things on the road. And look, I own a big seven-seat SUV, but it's far
more expensive than a Toyota Prado. So that balance is not there yet. This and the denser,
BYD's kind of secondary branded denser. The B8, I think it is, which is their big bulky thing.
It's more expensive than this one. I think it's probably a little bit more luxurious too.
This is very nice inside too. I've got to say, luxury-wise, interior, very classy. So the sort
of leather look inside and beautiful paneling on the dash and beautiful big screen. It's like 15-inch
screen on the front as well. And it's got the cluster in front of the driver as well as the
heads-up display. So you've got the trifecta of the coverage there. And room for miles as well.
I'm taking this up to see my daughter. I'm taking my mum and my mother-in-law. So it's the
great Grandma Express. And they're going to be in luxury. All this nice room they're going to have
to enjoy the ride. Who gets the front seat? Probably my mum. Yeah, she's got her knees a
little bit sore. She needs a bit more space here. So the mother-in-law gets second row.
But in second row, even there's still plenty of room, mate. I said to her,
look, there's still plenty of room here. We can move the front seat back and you can sit behind
that seat. And it's like you're in limo. It's fine. She'll be loving it. Yeah, but a few little
things. A couple of little annoying things about it. It's very, interestingly, and I don't know
whether I hit a switch or something, but when I'm driving with a passenger, a lot of warnings
saying, oh, they're merging ahead and you're overseeing the speed limit. And it pauses.
Only when there's a passenger. But get this, I drove here today alone and didn't mention
anything. It just gave me the beeps, no voice. So it's a snitch. I don't know. It's basically a
snitch when your wife's in the car. It's like, oh, yeah, he's speeding. But yeah, by myself,
I found today, at least, it wasn't talking to me. You're just beeping. Unbelievable.
Yeah. So I don't know whether that's on purpose. So if it feels someone else's in the car, it's sort
of, okay, if you're on your own, good luck to you. I'm not going to be as a vocal, but you've
got a passenger. You've got to be a bit extra careful. That's amazing. Well, I don't know whether
that's actually a feature or whether I've hit some button or something when I got in the car,
but that's what I found. When I drove out here to you today in the GWM Tank 500,
it was just beeping when I went over the limit. Not that I go over the limit often, but it was
beeping. And you know what? It's a footnote to say, but everyone drives over the limit by a
couple of kilometers because your car is actually under the limit. Like if you're going 50, it's
actually going 47 or 48. So I'm going to go 51, 52. I'm going to go the speed limit. You're looking
at your speed on ways, aren't you? Yes, always. First thing I do in a car is I go 60 and work
out how far off it is and then work out what my number is. But yeah, like in terms of the comfort
of the car, it's obviously very big, very easy to fit in it. The central panel there, you've got
actually a gear stick with a button. So there's no old school gear changer. I think that would
resonate with a lot of people. The cup holders are a little bit tight, sort of a bit further back.
So to reach that, have your T-rex arms. Yeah, yeah, that's right. You've got to be doing these
ones. Yeah, that's it. It's very close to you there, but very good. Overall, it's a quality
ride. For the drive, drive's great. For some 80,000. Yeah, it's pretty remarkable. But normally,
like my car, like I'm sitting on the road, my Mercedes and other cars we drive, but this car,
I felt like I'm in a truck. I'm above everybody. There you go. Tank 500 from GWM.
You can find them online. And yeah, there you go. That's Steven's glowing endorsement of the beast
other than the Shin Buster. The Shin Buster. Yeah, the I've got a couple little
marks. It's the Shin Buster 500. I'll be telling GWM about who's going to cover my medical expense.
Try your eyes, Princess. All right. Well, we'd love to hear from you. If you own a GWM tank,
let's talk about it. Yeah. Or at Denza. I'd love to hear from people that bought the Denza because
that's a fascinating market. Very small numbers right now, but I see that brand really evolving.
So we'd love to hear from you. 0477657657. Steven, let's just do it all again next week.
I will make a note of that. All right. You'll be here. I'll put it in my diary.
I won't say if you're not here, you'll need to know because that's someone else's line. But
anyway, see you then, mate. Bye-bye.
About this episode
Transitioning from a diesel Ford Territory to a Geely EX5 is the focus of this listener-driven chat. Caller Danny shares his real-world experience switching to an EV, navigating the challenges of home solar installation delays, and relying on a basic "granny charger" for his daily 120-kilometer commute. The hosts debate the necessity of traditional instrument clusters when head-up displays are available, while Danny details his mixed dealership experiences and the realities of finding reliable public charging in Melbourne's city center.
Original notes
Danny calls in with the story of his brand new Geely EX5 - happy as larry!
After looking at a few, Welly and his wife chose the MGS5 as their first EV, while Pete loves the 2023 Tesla Y he got second hand.
And Stephen has been driving the GWM TANK 500 - a beast of a PHEV!
We'd love to hear from you about your EV journey - text us on 0477 657 657
Two Blokes Talking Electric Cars - The EV Podcast
Trevor Long and Stephen Fenech
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42:53