239: Multipass

This is the What Car? EV podcast for Thursday, September 11th, 2025, episode 239, Multipass.

We're back.

We are.

We took a week off, and I don't know, if you watch this on YouTube.com slash at the

What Car, you will see, I like look over to the side, I set something going when we start

reporting, and taking a week off, I've already like forgotten how to push the button to my

left.

It's a simple thing, it's like it's a mouse move and a button, and I already, I already

messed it up.

Oh, well, so, all right, I won't start on my story yet, let's, I'll just say who

I am.

I'm Phil Royle.

I'm one of the podcast co-hosts here, I don't really know, been doing it for a while.

I got a microphone, it makes me a professional, so listen to me, I don't know, I've lost track

of everything.

Take a week off, and it's all gone downhill.

At Sanchez, I also have headsets and a microphone, so therefore a professional podcaster, I guess.

Anyway, for four, four plus years, yeah, a while, and did other stuff with cars before

that for a while.

And here we are.

Still doing stuff with cars.

I explained to somebody, I was on a trip last week, and I explained to somebody part

of my background, and it dates back to like Fast and the Furious times and being the height

of all of that in the import world and doing all the car shows.

And this person I was talking to is like a, I don't know what generation, millennial,

I guess, I don't know.

And he looks on that era as like, oh, I wish I were, I wish I were involved in

motorsports to that, and not motorsport, I'm involved in motorsports, I wish I

were involved in the car import scene and everything, the car scene back then.

And I was like, dude, I was there.

Like, I lived the whole thing.

I was talking about Mark Four Supras and everything.

Yeah, no, just the height of all the cool cars from the 90s and early 2000s,

the import scene, the parties, the kind of that being brought up through

Fast and the Furious, the height of Sport Compact Car in Super Street.

And when I told him like that, I had stuff in Super Street.

And he was like, oh, my God, like I explained project car, all the stuff.

And he was just like blown away.

I'm that cool.

You are that cool.

So anyway, I was in.

The middle of the country.

I was in Nebraska.

And I saw the White Hop at the center of EVs.

Right. I saw more Rivian, EV, Amazon vans, they are whatever they're called.

Then I have living in Southern California.

Really? That's surprising.

Yeah, they were like buzzing all over the place on the freeway, everything.

I don't know if there was like if it's a hub, like I know nothing.

I've done no research, of course.

It's a theme of me in this podcast.

What's I I don't know if you notice around there.

What were the fuel prices around there?

I'm assuming much cheaper than three dollars, I think.

Yeah. High, high twos, though.

I think some might have gotten into the threes.

So I was going to if it was a high fuel price area,

I could see why I did when I electrified.

But if it's like cheap gas, then.

What blew me away was I think I saw a price

gallon of gas at like three twenty nine, something like that.

And I only pay a dollar.

It seems high for Nebraska does, doesn't it?

It's like California's gas prices have always been extortionate.

And right now I'm paying about four thirty a gallon for

yeah, four twenty nine just around the corner from me.

It was only a dollar less expensive in Nebraska.

California's fuel prices seem to have stayed

fairly steady.

I mean, we go back to Russia invading Ukraine

and we peaked at like seven dollars a gallon.

Yeah. But right now we reset to that.

And the rest of the country seems to be like inching to our fuel prices.

I wouldn't be surprised if we have

the states that don't traditionally like EVs,

if they start coming around based on their fuel prices climbing

in California, we've always been in fuel price hell.

So like we already know the pain

that that exists from filling up our cars.

Five plus bucks a gallon around me is that's like every day.

Yeah, I it shocked me.

But it also shocked me that I was seeing EV

delivery vans and yet I don't see them here.

Bright drops all the time in my neighborhood,

but I don't see any of those.

I I I see a lot of Rivian.

Is it called the EV now or whatever it's called?

Yeah, whatever it is. Yeah, that's what I saw.

They're cute. I like them. Yeah.

So all right.

Next order of business that was not on our list.

But I kind of wanted to talk about it.

Yes. Your favorite guy.

My favorite guy in the world, Elon Musk.

And I'm not going to spend much time on this.

Because everybody who listens to this podcast knows my opinion of him.

And if you don't go back and listen to any episode before now

where Elon Musk is brought up and you will see what I think of him,

which is generally in a nutshell.

He did great for the company.

He did great for EVs.

Then he went nuts and he has gone from a an asset to a liability.

Yeah, in a nutshell.

That's that's my thought.

So the board has voted the the Elon Musk fanboy board,

otherwise known as Tesla board,

has voted to give him a one trillion dollar payday

if he meets certain goals.

And one of them is one that he won't be able to hit,

which is staying out of politics.

But there's other ones that I like.

He's got a I was just they'll be a link in the show notes.

Is certain things he's got to hit like a market cap of twenty five trillion

for the company and robots everywhere need to be our overlord and stuff like that.

Yeah, my question to you, though, is if they're going to pay him

like fifty four billion seemed like a lot and that got the kibosh

got put on that through the Delaware courts.

And I don't think that ever really got resolved.

Maybe it did, but he didn't get the money.

Then they voted on another package that was like twenty five billion dollars.

And then he got that when they when they moved to Texas from Delaware,

blah, blah, blah, blah, all right.

So is this the best use of money for the company

to pay one person a trillion dollars?

Or would it be better to hand him?

I don't want him to work for free,

but would it be better to hand him a billion dollars or 10 and take the rest

of the money and invest it in what the company

should be doing in the future?

And also all of these master plans, which he's apparently writing a new one, I think.

Part four.

But why not invest the money in what your master plan is?

The greener world, the better place that we were promised.

Why pay one individual?

More money than he could literally ever spend.

Versus invest in what the company claims it believes in.

Yeah, I'm not going to try to argue in favor of this.

If other than to say you've probably heard the term a ride, a rise,

a rising tide lifts all all boats or all ships.

So going by that logic and, you know,

anyway, for what it's worth, if, if indeed, Tesla and Musk can meet all of these goals,

there'll be plenty to go around.

So even. Well, I mean, to the people on to the workers on the line.

Well, I mean, well, no, let me let me put it this way.

If I bet they won't get a trillion dollar raise.

No, but but they they will probably get some sort of stock option

and performance bonus, presumably, maybe.

I mean, I don't know that for a fact, but I'm given.

I'm given. I'm given disbelieving looks here.

If you.com slash at the walk, you'll see them.

But if if that were to be the case and they were to meet that,

they would they would, you know, profit too.

So now I've heard various accounts about working at Tesla.

I guess, depending on who you are and what level you are,

it's either a great or a horrible place to work.

But, you know, be that as it may.

To me, some of these goals, at least from my current standpoint,

seems so lofty and so pie in the sky.

I'm almost of the belief they're never going to happen.

So I think this is more hypothetical than real.

I mean, could they? Yes. Will they?

I'm coloring me skeptical.

So, you know, I know this grabs headlines

and everyone's like, you know, all outraged about it.

I I think it's a long shot that that he gets this

just just because I think the goals are so lofty.

So targets include company hitting market value of eight point six trillion in 10 years, which.

I mean, who knows? Maybe, I mean.

Yeah, I don't think that's impossible.

I don't think I mean, look, if you look at Nvidia

and I know it's a completely different company in terms of what they do.

But from where they were 10 years ago to today,

I mean, who would have? Who would have thought?

I mean, some people did.

But, you know, they they flirted with bankruptcy a couple of times, too.

I mean, much, much like Tesla. Yeah. Who knows?

No, I.

I just think the money could be better allocated elsewhere instead of an individual.

But what we got some we got some items we're in talk about, about a Tesla.

I'm not completely altruistic, but some positive developments with some things

they're doing. But anyway, do you want to jump to that?

Or do you want was that a tease?

You got to listen. You got to listen.

That's it. All right. You got to stay tuned.

So instead of talking about Tesla, let's swap over to BMW.

OK. And they have unveiled, apparently, the X3.

Now, I missed all of this because I was in the middle of America.

Well, what's happened in Munich, evidently, which is apparently not Nebraska?

So I didn't.

I was unaware of this, but I did click on the picture.

There'll be a link in the show notes for everything we talk about.

And the X3.

Thoughts on the styling, first of all.

All right, I'll say something controversial.

The kidney grill on the new three series, I say, new, quote unquote,

it's the beaver teeth.

Yeah, the beaver teeth.

I like those.

I think those are aggressive and different.

They're different enough, but they still retain.

You still know what you're looking at.

They're aggressive on like the M3 and M4.

Like they look really good when it's lowered and like really good

on the base ones, maybe not so much.

But I think those are pretty cool.

This one has a kidney grill.

I can't get behind this one.

It's even like inverted.

It looks like to give it like it's like a concave.

I don't know.

Maybe that's just the appearance and the features.

The car itself looks fine.

The nose.

Not a fan. I'm taking it.

No, the rear kind of.

The rear reminds me of a VinFast for some reason that I don't know why.

I think that's just like.

Everything come like it.

Remember like the mid 2000s, everything just kind of started

looking the same.

They had certain I don't know about the rear vehicles,

but at the front of vehicles in the early 2000s,

everything suddenly went and looked identical in the sedan world.

And that was because there was like

pedestrian impact laws that came in and at least Europe, maybe in New America.

And it suddenly dictated that you can't kneecap people

and you needed them to like bounce off the car.

And so the cars had to look in one specific way.

And that was why everything like 2005 or eight or whatever it was suddenly went

through and they had this funny curved front and they all look the same.

I don't know if that's what's happening in the rear.

There's some like maybe some aerodynamics that somebody discovered

and to hit all of the the requirements that you need for efficiency

or mile per gallon on gas vehicles, whatever.

Like I don't I don't know.

But this definitely the back looks like a crossover.

Yeah, there's nothing really spectacular.

I don't I don't feel strongly about the grill.

I kind of like I kind of like that somewhat of a return to normal

see from the ever expanding twin kidneys that look like kidney disease.

You like that he got smaller.

I like it. I like that they're smaller.

To me, it looks less distinctively BMW looking at this.

I'm kind of like I mean knowing what I'm looking at.

I'm like, oh, you know, I know I know what it is.

But, you know, I'm wondering if if like non car people would look at this

and to your point, mistake it for Vin fast or Alexis or, you know, whatever.

Yeah, I don't think non car people are going to mistake anything for a Vin fast

because I don't think non car people know what a Vin fast is.

But they might not recognize this.

But but they might think of in fast as something else.

Because yeah, it's what's the term I'm you I've used before.

It's.

Inoffensive, but there's another word I use with it like.

Generically inoffensive, I don't know.

Yes, it's it's or.

Yeah. And no, no, and inoffensively handsome.

Yes, that's the term I've used.

So I consider the Vin fast inoffensively handsome and that it's it's nice looking.

It's smooth, kind of generic.

You know, people won't say, oh, that's an ugly car.

But neither will they say, wow, that's a gorgeous car.

Yeah, I got to rush out and get one.

Yeah, that's nice, I guess.

Yeah, as it passes by and they don't even like the first Vin fast

they ever saw on the street at a traffic light and one drives by.

And I'm like first first car in line.

And I'm like, whoa, grabbing up my phone and my wife's like, what?

Like didn't even that a car that she has never seen before just drove by.

And it did not get her attention at all.

And it's not like it's not really a car person, but

she worked in the automotive industry for many years.

So like she's not oblivious to general awareness.

Yeah, yeah, there's some level of enthusiasm there and knowledge

and didn't even didn't even register.

So other than the styling, which, you know, that's it's out there.

If you want to take a look at it, links in the show notes.

I guess the big thing, at least to some people, is the value proposition with this.

So even though I wouldn't call it cheap per se, but BMWs

I wouldn't say for the last 20 years, you could say are cheap, if ever.

So this is they're going to debut it in the 50 X drive trim, which is

step up from base for the US market.

They say it's going to start around 60,000, which

I don't know.

I think for the specs I'm seeing looks OK.

Well, that's 60,000 for the base, isn't it?

Which you just said they're not going to release initially.

No, no, no, no, no, 50 60,000 for the 50 X drive,

which is step above the base model.

All right. The base they haven't announced the which they're calling

the 40 is not out yet.

So you don't know the price for that.

But for that amount,

four hundred sixty three horse, four seventy six pound feet,

zero to sixty two, which seems like an all ball figure to Americans.

But that rounds to zero to 100 kilometers an hour

under four point nine.

But again, nothing special in the world of EVs.

That's like I'd say like 80 percent of the new EVs out there

one hundred thirty top speed, one hundred nine kilowatt hour usable capacity,

five hundred mile WLTP range, which, you know,

who knows what's that that's going to translate to an EPA.

Even if that was three fifty, it'd be good.

I'd say three fifty to approaching four hundred.

Yeah, would be my guess.

Four hundred kilowatt DC fast charging.

They claim you can add two hundred thirty

plus miles of range in around ten minutes.

Fantastic.

Pretty fast charging.

Yeah.

And like I said, the lower trim model will be coming after

we don't have pricing on that.

So anyway, where do you think you can charge at four hundred kilowatts?

I don't think anywhere.

Like, I mean, that number sounds fantastic.

But I'm like, I there I'm missing something.

No, I the.

I think there are some that the fastest public chargers I've seen are three fifty.

Yeah, that's kind of the de facto electrify America.

Yeah, that's that's been the standard for the last few years.

As far as I'm aware, yeah, three fifty.

You're not getting any more than that.

Yeah. So this is kind of a hypothetical capability.

So they might as well say charges four hundred and sixty two miles.

Eight hundred kilowatts.

Like maybe in Europe, they already have four hundred plus.

Yeah. You know, kilowatt, but effectively in the US,

it's basically three fifties.

The, you know, real world cap.

But anyway, I like all these numbers.

Yeah, all these numbers make me overlook because I've not looked at any of this

or the price or anything.

Makes me overlook the nose.

I like this. It makes me happy.

It's it's a sign that we're going in the right direction.

Yeah. It's not an $80,000 entry level crossover.

Yeah. And also the display, I mean, not, you know,

I know how you feel about, you know, touch screens taking over everything.

It's a trapezoidal display.

I don't know how I feel about that.

I just I don't know.

I don't think it's going to age well.

Now, I think it's going to look like a point of its time, whatever.

And the screen is kind of how we look back at the 90s

and it looks so kind of campy now.

Yeah. And then it's got like another display beyond that,

like over on the dash kind of like Honda's did display display.

Yeah, I'd have to actually drive one.

I don't know. Steering wheel looks neat.

It looks like a robot's about to transform out of it.

And yeah, well, it's interesting.

Are the spokes are up and down or north and south, which is unusual.

And it looks it has little pods attached to the wheel.

But I guess those are fixed.

Anyway, so interesting stylistic choices.

So another German premium automaker, Mercedes GLC EV.

So, you know how, you know, the EQS line

were kind of the jellybean shaped and they had, you know,

kind of this kind of rounded kind of.

Handsomly, what did you just say?

Inoffensively handsome.

Yes, knows that weren't especially distinctive or bold.

They just kind of jellybean shaped.

So Mercedes said they're moving past that.

They're like, they're like, we're not doing that anymore.

So this one, now, I don't know if you'd still call this a grill

because it looks like a solid LED panel.

But it is definitely big and kind of in your face.

This is the grill that they announced the other week, wasn't it?

I think so. A couple of weeks ago.

And I was like, I kind of like it.

And here I see it on a car and I don't know if I do like it.

Oh, it's it's definitely a statement.

It's yeah, you know.

Yeah, I guess I guess Mercedes buyers like big bold grills.

So it seems to narrow.

It almost is like they needed to make it wider on the car.

It seems very tall and I don't know.

I need to see this one in person.

Yeah. So also also pretty quick charging.

We just discussed that with the BMW.

They're claiming 10 to 80 percent charge in under 24 minutes.

This one at 330 kilowatts 30 so a little below the BMW.

An actual number that people might be able to hit.

So the interesting thing to me, because I cover this in my day job,

is the interior display.

It's 39 inches wide.

But the interesting thing about it is

and I haven't gotten confirmation

that a colleague of mine is actually on the floor in Munich.

And so he might have a little little deeper dive on this.

It appears it's a continuous display.

So Mercedes did this before with like the EQS.

There have been other vehicles that had basically full width dash display.

But the thing was is it was usually two or three displays

with a common surface.

So it wasn't truly a single display.

And it appears this is this is a continuous unbroken display.

That's I don't see where the break would be on this on the others.

It was like pretty obvious.

Yeah, there's a black line or whatever.

Yeah, even though it when it was off, it looked like one display.

But when it was on, you could see, you know, what they were different.

Like they call them zones or whatever.

This does have different zones and it has it has like zonal lighting.

So like, I guess the dash zone and the infotainment zone

and the passenger zone, but it appears to be a continuous display.

So that's, I guess, the the kind of off thing about this.

Um, performance specs, somewhat similar.

Now, I guess this one, they're already announcing the specs for the rear wheel drive.

So that's going to be 369 horse, 371 pound feet,

all wheel drive, 43 horse, 596 pound feet.

Is this the same size as the X3 that we just talked about?

I think the GLC, the same size.

I think they're roughly the same size class.

So the other the other interesting thing, if we're talking about Mercedes styling trends

is I can't remember if it was the last step, sort of the one before that,

we discussed the MG GTXX, the concept.

Yeah, the record setter.

Yep. And it had the kind of round, round tail lights like

and this one does too.

So I'm wondering if that's like Mercedes' new signature look.

Could be. Yeah.

I don't know. It's it's kind of interesting.

I mean, I I know I grew up kind of, I guess,

during what would be considered the Bruno Sacco era of Mercedes styling

and that and all those cars had like the ribbed tail lights.

I don't know if you know what I'm talking about.

Yeah. So it was a very distinct kind of Mercedes signature look.

They've since, you know, I think they quit doing that.

I want to say starting like mid 90s, they kind of moved away from that.

But the gold move on these tail lights is the fact that so there's a little circle.

And then if you look in the circle, they put they put the Mitsubishi symbol.

So I don't I don't really understand that.

But this I think it's supposed to be Mercedes.

But oh, is that what it is?

Because it sure looks like Mitsubishi to me.

Anyway, so cool on that.

No prices on this, if I had to guess, maybe a little more than the BMW.

But cool. Yeah.

If you like electric crossovers, there you go.

Yeah, I mean, that's going to be the world, isn't it?

The Model Y has proven that that's the the thing you need to chase right now.

Yeah, that's that's the moneymaker, I guess.

Yeah. This the next one is definitely not a crossover.

But so we've we've talked about this like when we were growing up,

I think almost every teenage boy had a poster of the Countach on their wall.

Oh, yeah. Yep.

I would say the Devin, the second runner up would probably be the Ferrari Tessa Rosa.

Probably. Yeah. Yeah.

I believe I had one.

It was, in fact, I did.

I had the Countach, the the one that everybody had under the Golden Gate Bridge.

I had that one.

Then I had a Ferrari 308 poster.

Then I had a Tessa Rosa one and then I had a Vector.

Oh, yeah.

There you go.

Uh-huh. So this one, if you remember the Tessa Rosa from the 80s,

this looks absolutely nothing like it.

So and when I first saw it, I was like, huh, OK.

No. Yeah.

What are I mean?

It looks kind of like a generic supercar.

I mean, maybe that's maybe I'm being too mean about it.

But I I don't know.

So Lamborghini

redid their whatever their most recent Lamborghini is into the Countach.

And they did the Countach 50th anniversary.

Versions, I think it was a variation of the Aventador, I think.

And that I looked at was like, wow, it looks like a little bit of a kick car there

and like a like a loose interpretation of a Countach.

But it's all right, you know.

And actually, the more I the more you see them,

the more you actually like this reinvention of that body style as a Countach.

Like I think it really works well.

And it's got some of the classic

cues from that car.

And like you said, with this Tessa Rosa rebirth,

which is a why we talk about it, do we already say it?

It's a hybrid. Yeah.

This has zero to do with the Tessa Rosa.

Yeah. Why not throw some fins on the door?

How hard is that?

I presumably because it

probably would give it a worse coefficient of drag.

Don't call it the test the Rosa.

Call me crazy.

Well, I mean, that's what made this car.

Yeah, I mean, to me, the signature thing with the Tessa Rosa was the side vents.

Yeah, the little grills on the side, like it.

Tessa Rosa has to have that.

Yeah, there was another one.

I don't remember the name of the Ferrari,

but there was another one that had like half size ones of those

that was not a test or it was something else.

I don't know. Somebody old. Yeah.

Make a comment on YouTube and tell me how wrong I am.

So but I mean, from an objective standpoint,

it's hard to argue with the specs.

This has got nearly triple the power of the original.

It's not a flat twelve anymore, shocker, right?

So it's a twin turbo four liter V8 with three electric motors.

For boost zero to 100 kilometers an hour, 2.3 seconds, top speed 205.

I mean, cool.

But, you know, in the in the current age of EVs,

I mean, it's how jaded I've gotten.

I look at those specs.

I'm like, oh, OK.

So that was going to be years ago was like, oh, my God, this is insane.

You know, does it matter?

We don't do we know the price tag of this a lot? Yes.

How much is 500,000 euros?

About 460 to 500.

And their current exchange rates about five hundred eighty six thousand dollars.

So the house in most of the country.

Yeah.

Does it matter that a Tesla large sedan can now accelerate this thing?

Does that matter because it doesn't matter to me?

So, I mean, it's still fast point three, you know,

I feel we could do a whole other episode on this about how for better

or for worse, EVs have kind of a democratized performance.

Yeah, I.

I know they basically I mean, to your point.

You know, about 90 gram for a new one, Model S that can basically match this.

Yeah. In a straight line, you know, quarter mile, all that.

You can buy a used plaid for like 40.

You know, so it's like.

But I kind of think the buyers of these and, you know, again, it's a small

and I would argue probably shrinking market.

It's more about the experience.

So, you know, even Ferrari and Lamborghini do have to be

somewhat compliant with a mission, CO2, so forth.

But they because their lower volume, their overall contribution to, you know,

pollution, I guess, is relatively less, they can kind of push the envelope a little more.

But, you know, they're still still kind of this visceral appeal for

engine noise, exhaust notes, you know, that whole thing.

So I think for like the ultra performance.

And that still holds an appeal to some people beyond simply zero to 60

quarter mile times, top speeds, you know, Nurburgring times.

There was a pushback when everything was going EV, like these supercars.

And there was a bit of a pushback.

And then like some of the, I don't remember who it was, one of the

supercar producers was saying that people.

Oh, I think it was Maté, wasn't it?

Maté Remats, maybe, was saying.

Yeah, the Bugatti, yeah.

Yeah, that clientele doesn't necessarily want an EV.

So here, this is a hybrid.

It could go 16 miles, apparently, on electric power, which fine.

It gets you out of your driveway, so you don't have to listen to the

thing crank up an idle if you're taken off to go to a cars and coffee at

six in the morning.

So I guess that's good.

When Jeeves warms it up for you, I can pull away from the house a little bit.

But do you think so if people, if that's true, people didn't,

the buyers of these ultra exotics don't want electric

or the majority of them don't.

I'm sure it's unbelievable.

Do you think they care that this is a hybrid?

Or do they, as long as it makes a rumble, then they're cool with that,

even if it's got three electric motors and a battery pack and could drive 60 miles

like that's cool, that's fine, whatever.

But it's still going to still going to roar when you get on the gas.

I think they just kind of want that kind of

kind of vestigial kind of nod to internal combustion.

I mean, I think going forward, regardless of vehicle class,

they're going to pretty much everything is going to be electrified

in one form or another going forward.

I think I would say within a decade.

So some of those will still have engines.

Some of them will be fully electric.

But I think, you know, like I said, in this class of vehicles,

they just want something that goes room.

Should Ferrari be taking these vehicles,

do plug-in versions and have them

go, I don't know, 50 miles on electric and be able to do, OK,

it can do zero to 16, 2.3 seconds with gas assist

or zero to 60 and 1.9 seconds electric only.

Should they should they be doing that as warming up their audience

for the idea of an all electric Ferrari or Lamborghini or Maserati?

I'm guessing they may be looked at that,

but the trade off at this particular point in time,

my guess would be weight is the reason this only has

a 6.5 kilowatt hour battery pack as opposed to a 30, for instance.

As they said, OK, that would add, let's say another three, four hundred pounds.

So yes, you could compensate that with more powerful electric motors.

But maybe they tried that and, you know, the handling and the balance suffered.

And there's always that very kind of subjective,

you know, Jenny Sequod, like portioness or Ferrari-ness.

And maybe they tested a prototype, bigger battery, more powerful electric motors.

But they were just like this, it doesn't feel the same.

So maybe that's why they opted for a smaller pack, you know.

Now, I wonder if that's coming where they're a fully electric Ferrari.

I know that is coming for sure.

Based on what I've read and seen, it's probably going to be a crossover

or SUV kind of like the which makes sense. Yeah, makes a lot of sense.

So I my feeling about Ferrari specifically

is I don't see them doing a fully electric sports car

and basically until they're forced to,

like, let's say Germany, France, you know, whoever says,

you know, hard stop, no more combustion vehicles, period.

They have to be EV.

They will probably make one for that market or globally.

But until then,

I think that they'll probably still keep making combustion engines

as long as they can.

I just think they need to now is a prime opportunity to prime that pump

and get. So you think they should

incrementally kind of do more and more electrification to the point

where they kind of condition their audience to kind of kind of warm

them up to it, get them to like it and kind of like electrics.

You can have like drag strip mode and you could have track mode.

And drag strip mode is like that.

That one is all electric zero to sixty in two seconds

or one point eight or whatever number they can do.

And then track mode is got the gas engine.

And then it's like, oh, you want raw acceleration.

It takes electric to get there.

You want that it it takes it.

That that's what's required.

But if you want to go and do lap after lap after lap, here you go.

So maybe they don't need a 30 kilowatt battery, whatever.

Maybe they don't need a 30 kilowatt hour battery.

Maybe they could get away with 15 to do a couple

acceleration runs from traffic lights, traffic light.

I don't know. It just eventually.

We're going to go all electric.

That's coming, whether that's in the next 10 years or 30 years.

I don't know, but we're going there.

So it's like, start getting there and teach your audience

that that power and performance potential is only there with electric.

Yeah, you know, some people are already convinced.

I mean, I am. I mean, you know, from an objective standpoint.

But I think with the premium brands, it's more about experience

and it's more about the subjective experience rather than objective numbers.

Because, you know, you've probably heard this and I've said it before.

Like I've heard people say, would you microwave a steak?

You know, it's like a microwave bacon.

You know, it's like so, you know, anyway,

we've I think we've beaten that horse.

Now, if you want, I think there's not really a topic here.

But if you if you want a little treasure or whatever that makes you smile,

Happy Gilmore, too, there is an electric vehicle in there

and it is a high end electric vehicle.

Well, I'll have to keep an eye out for that.

Yeah. All right.

So I'm putting a little bow on this kind of countering the opener here.

Little good news on Tesla.

Back to Tesla.

If they're so deserving.

Uh huh.

Whether they are or not.

So but I'd say kudos for them for this, because I think ultimately

this will be good for EVs in general.

So they are now doing white label superchargers.

So basically.

Holiday Inn 7-Eleven.

I mean, Bob's Bob's Burgers.

But whoever they can put their logo on superchargers

and have them at their business.

So and they could do presumably ones to see Tesla is pretty famous

for if they're doing a supercharger, it's you don't get one.

You know, in fact, I think you had a bunch.

I don't know if I put this in the show notes here.

I think there is a minimum purchase.

I want to say for either way.

Like I'm not vastly knowledgeable of the Tesla supercharger

infrastructure and across America, but it seems like I rarely see four.

It's usually like a dozen or two dozen or 40.

They go in big.

They go big or they go home.

Yeah.

And this enables even if you got to get four.

Yeah.

It's a start, I guess, of getting chargers everywhere.

Yeah.

So the way this works is, I guess, the vendor who wants them,

they pay for the installation and equipment.

But Tesla provides hardware, software and service support.

So basically superchargers, but they don't say Tesla on them.

So.

Interesting.

Cool.

I kind of am curious on this because I don't know much of the back deal

that there was, but there's a racetrack near me and they were expanding,

building a new racetrack and they contacted Tesla and they said,

hey, Tesla, you want to put a supercharger on our property?

And so there was went back and forth and they gave them a spot of land

in the facility.

So there had to be a separate area that even though it's in the paddock

that anybody driving by could go and access these things.

So there was all these various requirements.

But the track didn't have to pay for these and Tesla came in.

They did the install.

They did everything.

I don't know exactly what the track was required to do for pulling electricity

over there, but as far as I'm aware, Tesla takes care of that.

So they the track went to Tesla.

Tesla went, yeah, you know what?

You're right.

There could be a spot right there.

And the fact that we don't have to buy the land.

Great, we'll put in a supercharger.

And that's what happened.

I'm curious if they're changing their entire business model for things like that,

where now, if somebody, if the track, if that race track went to Tesla now

and said, hey, do you want to put supercharges in because we do track days

and a lot of Tesla's here, yada, yada, if Tesla would come back and say,

we got a great deal on supercharges for you and it will have your branding on it.

And then you've got to buy everything and then pay for a service plan.

I wonder if they're changing if they're flopping the way they do business.

I don't think this replaces their current.

They're still massively building out Tesla branded superchargers everywhere.

I think this is as far as I know, this is supplemental to that.

Yeah, but the way they've been doing it traditionally is like a big thing.

Or you could go to them and you could say, as the track, as the racetrack did,

I've got this plot of land and I will be more than happy to give you a spot on it.

And Tesla agreed.

Now, I wonder if they won't agree.

If they'll just say, no, no, we're already building this large thing over here

and this large thing over here.

If you want to have the smaller one, we agree there's a business case for it

and we will help you with financing to one thing.

One thing I didn't.

I don't know, I didn't see it.

Maybe if I dig a little deeper, is the revenue model on this?

So maybe with this, with the branded superchargers,

the site owners get a bigger cut of that possibly.

And maybe that's why, you know, they kind of flipped it.

Whereas, you know, before they just kind of came in for free.

And I mean, I don't know.

But, you know, more chargers, better charges, more reliable chargers, I'm all for it.

So it's got to be a reason for Tesla to want to do this out of the

not out of the goodness of their heart.

There's got to be financial reason for it.

And it it sure looks like, you know, I hate to be cynical about this,

but I think, you know, not to agree with you because I hate to do that.

But, you know, Elon's brand lately

and kind of the negative brand that Tesla has in the eyes of some people.

I think maybe some businesses would say we would like to offer this as an amenity,

but we don't want it branded Tesla.

Yikes, that had not occurred to me.

The people have requested the Tesla branding to be stripped.

Well, that that that was maybe an obstacle for some business.

No, so it's like you can come in, but I don't want the Tesla name.

I want the abilities, but I don't want Tesla written on it because I don't want

to potentially bring vandals or that.

Yeah, wow. And, you know, I think that's one of those things

that nobody wants to see out loud, but it's kind of. Yeah.

Anyway, no, we know it's true because we see on Teslas all the time,

people that have like, I bought this before Elon went nuts.

Yeah, like all of these things like people are trying to separate themselves.

And this is why you shouldn't have a politically active leader.

This is why Ford and GM and them are playing both sides of the fence at all times.

So one more thing to wrap this up real quick.

So this is in the Netherlands.

So they have this thing called multi pass that they're rolling out in the Netherlands.

So allowing you to use your Tesla key, which you basically your smartphone app

to, I guess, initiate and pay for charging at third party chargers.

So I'm trying to think of the big networks over there.

I think Fastnet.

I know ChargePoint has a little bit of a presence in Europe,

but there there are other Ion is in the US.

I'm trying to think of the Ionity is the other big one here.

Yeah. So presumably you could go to an Ionity or a Fastnet station,

use your Tesla app and then basically

this is a step toward universal plug and charge, which is kind of the

you know, the promised land and we're getting toward that.

But this is I think it's a good interim step toward that.

So you know what else this is?

The end of the episode.

No, yes, yes, but I was going to go somewhere with this multi pass first.

Yes, join me on this.

Maybe I'm too much of a nerd.

What was it?

Ludicrous was ludicrous before plaid.

The musician or the car?

No, the car mode, ludicrous mode.

And then. Yeah, yeah.

And then plaid both space balls references.

Yes. Then they come up with a row.

I'm sure I'm missing some.

That's just this just I saw this.

I didn't know anything about it.

This is what's popped into my head.

This is the journey.

This is welcome to a journey into my brain.

So Tesla goes and they are space balls.

All right.

Then we're going to come up with a robot.

What do we call the robot?

Optimus, because we all watch transformers.

Optimus prime. Great. All right.

Not for that decepticon or then.

Then now they launch Tesla launches multi pass.

The fifth element reference.

It's straight from the fifth element.

Oh, I missed that.

So.

Do they have no original ideas for marketing?

It does, Tesla, just rip off other.

Other guess until they get cease and desist letters

from the studio is blowing my mind

that they have this marketing team

and all they have to do is watch movies

from the 80s and 90s and your TV shows

and you're good to go.

This is incredible to me.

Totally miss that.

I want to be on their team

because there you just pick up, like.

You're like, yeah, let's go with that.

Like this is this is what's her name

for the fifth element, Mila Jovovich.

Was that her name that she would always say multi pass.

Like that was her thing.

Like.

All right.

I'm just saying Tesla marketing show up,

at least show up and put in a day's work

before you original the movies and TVs.

I like all the references.

But at some point,

you've got to actually go into it on his day's work.

Not just steal somebody else's creativity.

Anyway, now we'll end the episode.

But it's I think it's fitting we're ending this

on the topic of charging because.

We have something coming up.

Oh, we do.

We do, hopefully.

Hopefully.

Anyway, so stay tuned for that.

Yeah. And so if that happens, then we'll be back next week.

And if that doesn't happen,

we'll probably be back next week anyway.

Because you can't get rid of us for two weeks

and are multi multi pass.

Subscribe to us, YouTube.com slash at the walk car.

We're on all of the podcast players.

We're on many of the social medias.

You can guess which main social media we are not on

because I'm the one who controls that.

Desley, you'd love to advertise with us.

Come on.

The walk car dot com slash advertising.

We could do the watt car superchargers.

How about that?

Yeah, we could install them in front of our podcast.

There you go.

I don't know.

There's other things.

You go to the walker dot com slash nothing

and you'll find content that's there

and other things that we have on our website.

I don't know.

I'm out of stuff to say.

Until next week.

Yeah, multi pass.

239: Multipass

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