I'm Alex, he's Jim, and this is the Charging Status EV podcast. How are you doing, Jim?
I'm all right, how are you?
Not too bad, mate, not too bad.
Good. It's been a while, hasn't it?
Yeah.
We definitely haven't just recorded another podcast and I've just changed my shirt.
No, that's not something we'd do.
No, no, it'd be awful, wouldn't it?
Yeah. What have you been driving this week?
This week's gone very quickly, but I've got the standard Ioniq 5 in for review at the moment.
So not the N version, nothing special, just the standard version.
Yeah, seems pretty good.
Drove it to a good few hours of the day down to Kent for a car launch.
I did notice, actually, however, that the motorway efficiency on that car does seem a tad,
not quite as impressive as I remember it being on the GV6.
Oh, really?
Yeah.
You've changed the battery pack, haven't they?
I wonder if it's different chemistry or different manufacturer or...
It's weird. So I was getting about three and a half.
I know that's not like low, but it just seemed a bit strange to me.
It was constant speed, but then I driven it around town today this morning and it was getting over four.
So I think it's just depends on what you're doing, I think, on the motorway.
And funnily enough, I mean, I had the GV70, I did the trip in the GV70 and that's the same battery pack,
isn't it?
Yeah, it is, yeah.
And I think on that long run, I got 3.9 or 4.
Oh, right, OK.
And around town, I was getting about 4.2.
Oh, sweet.
But I was in eco mode most of the time.
Yep.
And it just had the icon on 1 because in the Hyundai Group vehicles,
you can have like one, two or three, can't you, of auto, which I quite like.
Yeah.
And one's enough, I find.
But yeah, you'd think very similar cars, really.
Yeah, yeah.
Underneath all the fluffery.
There must be that heavy right foot of yours.
Yeah, I don't know what it was.
I just used the cruise control in those cars,
like all the smart steering, smart motorway stuff.
I don't know, it must have been something strange, but it was fine the next day.
So I don't think I'll read too much into it.
It seemed really good.
Did you get over your steering wheel driving position issue?
Or is it just because, you know, you're the size of a small child?
Yeah, when I saw you the other day, I was saying to you,
oh, there's some reason in that car the steering wheel doesn't seem to go low enough.
And then you feel like you're sat because it is an SUV.
But if you sat a bit too high, really, I find it seemed fine in the end.
It just sometimes it takes you a little while to get my most comfortable position.
But it seemed OK in the end.
To be fair, your booster seat is quite thick as well.
And since you've gone to the group two to three one.
So that might have some effect on it.
Yeah. Thanks for that.
But no, it definitely seems pretty good.
I don't know, like eight hours, I think, so far this week in it,
most of which was in one day.
But it seems seems fairly, fairly fine, really.
Pretty standard Hyundai group sort of car.
So there'll be a review for that out in a few weeks time.
But I've got a bit of a backlog at the moment for reviews.
So yeah, pretty good.
I love the I know five.
I really like the like the feeling of space in there.
It's huge. Yeah.
Like when you you're sitting next to your passenger
and you feel like you could almost get another person in between.
Yeah, it's mad.
I love the design as well.
I just think that it's such a cool design.
It's it's nice and retro, but still modern and quirky.
And I I actually think they've aged quite nicely as well.
I do for the ones that are like all one color, though, rather than
I think the original ones, the lowest spec ones had different color
arches and stuff.
Or they have like silver arches or
yeah, I think I think so.
I prefer it when they're just one color.
I think they look a lot better.
But I know it's a bit of a Marmite design, though.
Some people hate them, don't they?
Yeah, I think five.
They think they're ugly as sin.
I prefer the look of it to the EV6, personally.
Yeah.
Yeah, there's always it's nice because you might think,
oh, why why this group making three
EVs exactly the same sort of underneath?
But no one's going to like the same thing.
So they're always different, different tastes.
They all drive quite differently as well.
I think the GV60 and the Ioniq five
probably feel the most similar to one another.
But the the EV6, I think feels very different to drive.
Hmm. Yeah, I can see that.
Yeah, it feels more like a cruiser.
I don't know, like a grand tourer where the Ioniq five feels more like
a big hatchback.
Yeah, kind of. Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah. Interesting.
Yeah. So I was the not that interesting, obviously,
but it's something I said once.
Yeah. How's the GV70 been, though?
You spent quite a few hours buying the wheel.
Yeah, I love the GV70.
I mean, I've I've never disliked a Genesis and I've always said
with Genesis, like the only thing that ever let them down was that diesel engine
because it was unrefined and a bit agricultural and a bit taxi spec
in what is a supremely refined car.
But yeah, I love the GV70.
I had the previous version of it and obviously it's had that mild facelift
as most of the group's cars have.
And it just feels fantastic.
Just a lovely thing that technology is great, really nice materials.
They've used everywhere.
The the price of it is a bit punchy, but realistically,
most people are going to least one you or I'm guessing it will be
quite a good use by I think so.
I think the residuals on Genesis are going to be poor.
Simply because it hasn't still taken off as a brand really, has it?
No, which is unfortunate, because as we've said on this podcast before,
they're just amazing. Yeah.
So yeah. Yeah.
And when you compare them to
like when you think the first Genesis cars that appeared
and compared those to like some of their German rivals at the time,
the premium German rivals, they seem to offer a bit more of everything
than the Germans were really scaling back and cutting costs.
And it's like the Koreans came and said, well, here you go, have some of this.
And it did really well.
I always felt they they were unfairly
harshly reviewed in some of the magazines.
And I'm sure it's just because of the badge they had on was unfamiliar.
Yeah.
But people I've read several things and so this is nowhere near as good as
an X3 or a three series or whatever the car was comparing it to.
And I just felt it was unfair.
Yeah. No, I really I really rate them.
And as you said, I think all the core models,
they've they've discontinued a few of the petrol ones like the G 70s
being discontinued and all the petrol only ones have gone for now.
And then they've got the new GV 60 out soon.
You've just driven the new GV 70s.
There's a new G 80 electric out as well, which is even longer than the old one.
Yeah. So they've refreshed a few things.
So, yeah, exciting times.
They've got the the G 90 over in the US as well.
I don't know if we're going to get that, but Delta, to be honest.
I mean, that's about the same length as my house, I think it's massive.
Yeah. Yeah, they got GV 90 as well coming as well.
So it might be
key V nine kind of size, I reckon.
Yeah, I was thinking seven. Yeah, 70.
Yeah. Hmm.
So we'll see what happens with that.
But yeah, yeah, I think I think I've got that exact car
that you had in a few weeks time, which I'm looking forward to,
because it's always a good good time in a Genesis.
So not had one for a while here.
So it's always that moment with a Genesis where you go to open the boot
and you can't and then you realise or remember
that actually it's in the the buttons in the windscreen wiper,
the real screen wiper.
Yeah, like a Porsche. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
But it's always that where is it?
Where is it waving your foot underneath it and stuff?
But yeah, what have you got next week?
Well, nothing next week, but I've got the Haval Julian Pro
a week on Monday, which I'll never forget.
Batch's comment about the Julian.
That made me laugh.
I did even when even when editing this podcast,
he just said, yeah, the Julian.
That's like that. Yeah, I mean, I did.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Yeah, I looked at it for the first time back in January
at GWM HQ in the UK.
I thought it's pretty good.
It's a funky looking car, but it's it's a hybrid,
not a plug in hybrid.
It's a sort of a standard hybrid like the cash car, I think.
So I have to see what that's like,
but it's very competitively priced.
I think it's under 24 grand in the UK.
So I have to see what that I have to see what it's like.
But yeah, I've got nothing next week, though.
So a bit of a quiet one here.
But what about you?
I've got two next week.
You've got two.
Well, I've got the JQ7,
which is I think it's the super hybrid system one.
Nice. Which I've already driven in the
a motor nine and OK.
And in the Cherry Tigo eight, I think.
And that's a really, really nice system.
Now, obviously, the first car it came out in in the UK
was in the JQ7, and it's the only one I think
I haven't driven yet.
So I'm looking forward to that.
Unfortunately, you only get it for three days.
JQ do like three day press loans,
which is not massively helpful.
So I don't think my video will be.
The best or most detailed thing in the world.
But when have they ever been really?
And basically, it comes on Monday, goes on Wednesday.
And on Tuesday, I'm going to launch of the Kia Sportage.
Oh, sweet. That's like, really,
that would be the day I probably would have filmed.
Oh, crap. Yeah.
So I'm going to ask for a
like a late pick up on the Wednesday
and try and film the Wednesday morning.
But if it's pouring down the rain,
it'll end up being some voiceover over some handheld
stuff on my phone, probably.
And then, yeah, just a camera inside
and I'll have to do as much of it as possible
while driving around.
So yeah, a little bit iffy.
And then on the Wednesday, that goes back
and I've got the new, it's not an EV.
Another not an EV.
We considering this an EV podcast,
we talk about a lot of non EVs, don't we?
I know.
So I've got the new Susie D-Max.
Oh, pick up.
Which is very not an EV.
It's a dirty diesel.
Yeah, they have they have got an EV version, though.
I think we don't know if we spoke about it,
which is like 60 something grand, I think.
Yes, a lot in that.
Yeah.
The SMMT event the other day, they had the
the KGM Mousseau EV.
There are literally two in the country
and they were both there.
But I didn't get to drive that, unfortunately.
OK.
But yeah, I would have been interested to have a go in that.
Yeah, I did see a picture of it.
It's got the front end of an action.
There are tories, but it's got the like a
it's called a Mousseau, isn't it?
Yeah.
Interesting.
Yeah, this seems to have picked up
in terms of the market for EV pickups.
Yeah.
The median over here.
Yeah, because I think I think coming in,
I think the BYD shark, that's not an EV, but it's a.
Yeah.
If the hybrid is a scale, I think it's more
at the top end scale of more hybrid than anything else.
Then, yeah, that does seem quite good.
It's like a plug in hybrid, big battery sort of thing.
So hopefully that will come here soon,
because it seems to have got quite a good reputation
in Australia for being quite rugged and stuff.
So that's quite good.
I hope with these new EV pickups
that they do use the latest technology
and not put older stuff in like they have with Vans
and I've got feeling they will put the older stuff in.
But the pickup is potentially a massive market
because there are obviously lots of people
that genuinely need them for their work.
And at the moment, that's being underserved
because because the changes to company car tax
and stuff on pickups, a lot of people now are thinking,
well, I can't have one anymore.
It's sort of impossible and I have to go to a van.
But if you're someone that works on like farms
and driving across plowed fields and stuff,
you probably need a pickup for the ground clearance
and the four wheel drive.
And yeah, like no one's really done that
in the EV space well.
I mean, is that that awful thing
from Maxis? Yeah.
But I mean, it's got hasn't even got four wheel drive. No.
So yeah, it's interesting to see what happens,
but I'd love someone to come out with one
that does 300 miles of range and can tow.
I mean, it's unfortunate
because the only ones that do seem to be any compelling
have any compelling features or specs.
It seems to be in America.
So you've got the Chevy Silverado, I think it's called.
Yeah, 50. Yeah.
Cybertruck and stuff.
So I don't know.
The pickup market is so massive in America, isn't it?
That they know like they have to serve it.
I mean, every every other cars have pick up over there
in in some states more than others.
But even in California, I mean,
where you think everyone's going to be driving around in minis
and and Priuses and Teslas.
Now, I mean, there are plenty of Teslas and Prius,
but I would say it's still like
35, 40 percent of cars are pickups.
Hmm. Yeah, it does seem that way with the commercial vehicles.
I was just thinking when you said that
that the only van that's on sale
seems to have any modern EV specs as the buzz.
Everything else just seems to be a bit old.
I mean, I reviewed the Sprinter a few months ago,
and that that seems very, very compelling
because you can get a massive battery in it.
But every other van just seems to be a bit meh.
And I don't know.
It's strange, isn't it?
I don't know. I was talking to,
I don't know if it was when we had him on the podcast
or a different conversation, but I was talking to Jerome about it.
Jerome Andre, if you haven't seen that podcast.
And he thinks it's because of
like the R&D costs to come up with all that stuff
in the first place and then having to retool.
And instead, they're just using it in the commercials.
Right.
Because of and because otherwise
they're going to be so expensive
if they have to kind of redevelop.
But I don't know.
I feel like surely they could take
Ford, for example, could take everything
from a Mustang Mach-E and whack into a transit.
Yeah, it must be possible because what's unfortunate as well is that
for a few people that, I don't know,
they might have a van supplied to them for their work
and it happens to be an EV because that's what their fleet's doing.
And they get given a Vauxhall Vovaro
and that's their first example of an EV.
And they think, yeah, totally.
This isn't very good.
Like, yeah, charges that 50 kilowatt or something.
And yeah, the battery's a bit pants and
and then that's their that's their impression of what an EV is like.
So it doesn't seem, I don't know,
doesn't seem pretty good really, but no,
I'm sure it'll get better over time.
The buzz, the buzz, I see a lot of I.D.
Buzz cargoes around.
Yeah, just just the the base spec ones
are the black bumpers and stuff.
Yeah, one of my good friends has got one of those.
Yeah, they got crazy lease deal on it.
It's like 250 pound a month or something.
Wow.
And he's got quite a few vans and a pickup and stuff.
So you've got landscaping business
and he's got that buzz now.
And he just absolutely loves it.
Because he's used to driving around in vans
where you've got no acceleration.
Yep.
They're noisy as anything, you know,
you come out of them with a shake sometimes
and he's now got this thing that's like,
yep.
And yeah, loving life as Vans goes,
well, it's sort of it's cars go that they're obviously sitting
on the car platform that they've got.
So it's very refined and it's very fun to drive as well.
But the driving position is great.
You can see a lot and the windscreen is huge.
And now they're they're very good.
I'm hoping.
I'm hoping whatever next version they do
is still going to have that same feel.
Yeah, but can have a bit more,
as I said, like tactility to it in terms of buttons and stuff.
I'd be a winner.
I think I'd see.
I like that little Mercedes Saitan.
I had the E Saitan.
But that's let down by the battery and,
you know, like the charging speed
and all that kind of stuff.
But again, something like that.
It's a really good,
Yeah.
useful platform.
And if that actually in the real world
had 250 mile range
and could charge,
or even if you kept that standard battery,
if it could charge at 200 kilowatt,
maybe you don't need a bigger battery.
Yeah.
Yeah.
But when it's slow to charge and,
I don't know,
it's not a great advert to people for their first EV.
Now for a lot of people, it will be.
Yeah.
I mean, it should be like,
what's going to have done with the buzz?
They just use the same platform as the cars
and then put a van on top of it.
Surely, like every other company could do that.
Yeah, I don't see why.
I mean, obviously the key is about to appear.
Well, yeah, that looks amazing.
That's also a good example of how to do it.
Yeah.
But I guess this.
If you just took one of those platforms
that every company now seems to have a platform
that they share across
however many different models
and a lot of them are modular anyway, aren't they?
So you literally just extend the ladder a bit
and stick a different body on it.
Yeah, then you won't have to use the old platform
for the old batteries anyway, for the vans, so.
Even that,
even something like the Model Y,
like Tesla could literally just put a box
on top of that skateboard, essentially.
And that's big enough to accommodate
like not a bad size van, I would say.
Yeah, I'd say the footprint of the Model Y
is probably the same as the Buzz, so.
Yeah, it is, yeah.
Well, in fact, the Model Y is a tiny bit bigger
than the Buzz, unbelievably.
The Buzz just looks bigger,
but obviously it's got no front to it.
The actual footprint of the car,
yeah, the Buzz is a tiny bit smaller
in every dimension than the Model Y.
Yeah, that'd be a winner,
which is a Tesla van, and then.
And you know that they'd knock it out
for 30 grand or something.
Yeah.
You know.
Yeah, that'd be very good to be fair.
But yeah, I'm sure things will get themselves sorted,
like as you said, the Kia vans coming up soon
and that looks amazing, so.
Yeah.
Yeah, very keen to drive that whenever it comes up.
How do we get on to vans?
Oh, my diesel pickup though, if you're coming.
Yeah, that's how we got into vans.
I was just thinking, where are we going with that?
We've just waffled 20 minutes about vans.
In terms of videos and stuff,
next week I've got my ID3 review coming out,
and then I filmed a, well, it's not that detailed,
but I filmed a road trip video from my house to Munich.
Oh, cool.
So I don't know, it's like 10 minutes long,
just going over what I did on route
and that dodgy peak to that, yeah.
So I thought you weren't very happy with it.
I'm still disappointed in you about that.
Alex bought a pizza from a vending machine.
I mean, I've spoken about some of his culinary habits
in the past, but a pizza from a vending machine.
And I sent him quite a few fairly insulting text messages
about it, and then he sent back.
It wasn't that good.
It was a bit average.
Yeah, it was a bit average.
Who'd have thought a pizza from a vending machine
was a bit average?
It was worth trying.
So, yeah, all funny games.
See, you listen to this guy's opinions on cars.
Like, you'll watch his car reviews.
This is a man that buys pizza from a vending machine.
He's in a country where there's probably like,
they're probably lousy where pizza is.
Everywhere you look, there's a pizza rear.
No, but I get it from a vending machine.
There are these amazing little one-off
artisan bakeries everywhere, and yeah,
lovely French cuisine.
Well, I know, we'll just rock up to this machine over here
and get a pizza out of it.
It's in a car park.
It must be good.
It was next to one of the Tesla chargers, so it's fine.
Yeah, it must be amazing.
Yeah.
Sure.
It was fine.
But yeah.
What have you got coming up in terms of videos?
Well, it's...
My next two months are completely and utterly bonkers.
Right.
Actually, we haven't mentioned,
but we're going to go to twice a month for this, aren't we?
We are, yeah.
Well, it did seem like a lot of...
We did one a month for ages, didn't we?
And as an experiment, I said,
let's try one a week,
because we thought it might get a bit more traction on one a week.
And actually, pretty much the same number of people
listen and watch as they did before, which is about 14.
So thank you very much to all 14 of you.
We really, really do appreciate it.
And there are some lovely people out there,
like Graham Cobb, who's always promoting it for us
and stuff like that.
And lots of people that do listen, I think,
enjoy it, but there just aren't enough of you, really.
And my schedule is ridiculous at the best of times.
Alex does all his content and has a full-time job.
And we've just found in it a bit too difficult
to cram them all in.
And I mean, I've got a six-week period coming up
where I'm out of the country for three weeks of it,
which is amazing, like, three brilliant experiences for me.
And I'll be making loads of content around all these,
but it just makes it difficult.
So we can go to two a month, don't we?
Yep.
Which we think will be a bit more sensible.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So yeah, what I've got coming up is
I'm actually going to China for a week,
which I cannot believe.
It's my first international press trip.
And it's to China.
Nice.
So I'm blown away by it.
The whole thing is an incredible experience,
but I'm actually coming back early because, you know,
my business is just me,
and I just can't have that much time away from it,
unfortunately, which I'm gutted about.
But it is what it is.
And also I've got a couple of young kids
and I'm already going to be away for like three weeks
out of six and I don't feel particularly good about that
and leaving stuff on my wife and all the rest of it.
And God, I feel like I'm in therapy here.
But yeah, I'm going to China with Cherry.
So that's Cherry, JQ, Amoda.
They're all basically the same company.
And it's kind of an internal convention for Cherry,
which can have 11,000 people at it.
And I'm going to go around their factory,
which I think is all like automated and crazy.
And I'm going to get to hopefully get like a world
exclusive or it might not be actually exclusive,
but it might be one of two or three people in the UK
that gets to cover it for a new car.
And yeah, who knows what else,
but there'll be quite a bit of content around that.
And I saw the other day that YouTuber
bringing out this collaboration thing now.
Have you seen this?
Collaboration.
Yeah, so for example, if we did a video together,
it could be on both our channels.
Oh, I think I did see this, yeah.
Only one of you gets to the views in the watch time
and the money, but it can sit on both channels.
Well, that's awesome.
So I'm thinking there might be some content
that I can put on my travel channel,
but share on my main channel
and then take the watch time and the views
on my travel channel,
which is still not monetized or anything.
That's a good idea, yeah.
And some of it will be more travel than it is car, I guess.
So it probably makes more sense for it to sit over there
and some of it will make more sense to sit on my channel.
That's a great idea.
But yeah, I don't know if we've got it,
if everyone's got it yet,
or if it's one of those things they're rolling out
to the US first or to certain successful people first.
But yeah, that's quite interesting.
So I've got that and then I'm back from there for a week
and then I'm going over to Las Vegas for the SEMA show,
which is like the biggest show in the world
for the aftermarket basically and custom cars.
And there's a massive
sort of EV modification scene in the US
and EV conversion scene.
So people taking muscle cars now
and putting full, like doing Tesla conversions
and sort of ground up EV conversions.
And Jerome, who mentioned earlier
that we found on the podcast is really, really active
in that scene, isn't he?
And so I'll probably see Jerome over there.
And yeah, it could be all sorts of content from that.
I've never been to it before.
It's five million square feet.
And I know the time, the distance from one of the halls
at the convention center to one of the others
is I think it's a half an hour walk,
but there's also a taxi or bus service going between them
because it's so big.
People literally take a taxi to another hall.
That's mad.
So I'm really looking forward to that.
And then I'm back home for a week after that
and then it's to LA for the LA Auto Show,
which I've done for the last two years
and I'm doing that one again.
And that's really cool
because it's still like a proper car show.
It's not huge, but it's still
a proper old fashioned car show.
But the thing I love is obviously
there's all the American stuff that we don't see here.
And some of the stands,
if I went to the Ford stand in the UK,
I'd be a bit bored.
Ford makes some decent cars,
but I go to the Ford stand in the US
and I have to pack my brow with a napkin
because I'm just so absolutely excited by so much of it.
Bronco and stuff, yeah.
Yeah, and like the F-150,
lightening the electric one is so cool.
You've got that huge, you open up the bonnet
and there's just this huge cavernous space
of basically boot space in a pickup.
So that's one of the things
that I would find annoying about a pickup
is all your load space is open.
I know you can get load covers and stuff,
but still it's all gonna rattle around and fly everywhere.
It's huge boot in the front of it and loads of room
and obviously it's pretty quick
and it's got a lot going for it.
The Bronco I think is an amazing piece of design.
I'm hoping there might be an electrified Bronco.
Well, they have done one in China.
Yeah.
And it's got BYD stuff underneath it.
Yeah, so I'm hoping that they might premiere it there
or something.
Maybe, yeah.
And then of course there's all the silly petrol stuff
that I love, the Mustangs and things.
Yes.
And yeah, it's just really interesting
to see some of the different brands.
There's another brand over there that we don't get here
is either Chinese or Korean.
I can't remember what they're called.
Vin something.
Oh, Vinfast.
It's Vietnamese.
Oh, Vinfast, yeah, Vietnamese.
Yeah, but I mean, they've been there
for a couple of years now.
Yeah.
And just poking around in that kind of stuff.
We just don't see here.
Yeah.
Definitely interesting.
I really like that.
And then I'll probably make some other content
around that trip as well.
And I'm taking a mate of mine over
whose dad's pretty unwell at the moment.
And it'll be his first trip to the US and stuff.
So I'll be tour guide for quite a lot of it.
Nice.
Doing the sites of LA and et cetera.
So yeah, really looking forward to that.
Yeah.
Sounds good.
So I don't really know.
To answer the question you asked me about 10 minutes ago,
I don't really know what a lot of the content's going to be,
but there will be lots of it, I'm sure.
Nice.
Yeah, sounds good.
Sounds like a busy few, well, a few weeks,
about a month nearly, isn't it?
So I'm going to do a video on in and out burger
on my travel channel, though.
Amazing.
I think I'm going to do some food videos.
That's a great idea.
Yeah.
And raising canes as well.
Are you aware of raising canes?
Right, this is the best fried chicken place I've ever been to.
Raising canes.
Think slim chickens.
Yeah.
Because it's very, very similar, but the food's amazing.
Well, I feel like slim chickens is all right,
but raising canes is incredible.
They're opening one in London soon.
Ooh.
Yeah.
And that's somewhere you need to go.
That sounds good.
Yeah.
I think I have heard of this.
I'm not sure, but yeah.
The guy that set it up's like multi-billionaire or something
now, I think they haven't franchised it,
so they've kept it all in-house, so the quality stays.
That's a good idea.
Yeah.
Which in and out did as well, I think.
Yeah.
Are you aware of in and out?
Yes, I have heard of this, yeah.
Yeah.
I think that's not here either, I don't think.
But yeah.
No, that's not even in.
It's only in a few of the states in the US.
Right.
Yeah.
That's incredible as well.
Yeah, company operated units in London rather than franchising.
Yeah.
With plans for drive-throughs as well.
Wow.
There you go.
That's all you want on your EV podcast,
American Fried Chicken Tips.
Yep.
All good.
What about you?
What else have you got coming up?
Well, we'll probably have a bit of a gap here
in terms of the podcast, I think,
for the sounds of things, but I've
got a fully charged show in a few weeks' time.
I'll be at that.
Nice.
You going on a Sunday?
Yes.
Yeah.
Cool.
So I'll see you there.
Maybe we'll do one there.
That sounds a good idea.
Yeah.
I'm going to have my son with me though,
so actually maybe we won't, but...
Maybe you could do one there.
Yeah, I could do by myself, yeah.
I guess there'll be lots of, like,
EV faces around.
I mean, Jerome's going to be there.
Yeah.
I think Will's going.
OK.
Tesla jokes all, yeah.
Maybe Graham will be there.
Yeah.
You will.
You could probably get me in it for, like,
three seconds or a couple of minutes or something,
and then my son will probably,
yeah, demand my attention.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And then, again,
we'll probably end up recording a podcast before this,
but I'm going up to,
I don't know if you heard of a tractor company called Fent.
Yeah.
Yeah, so they've got some electric tractors out,
so I'm going to go up to their HQ
and drive one of their EV tractors.
I'm not kind of at this stage,
I'm not really sure what the video's going to be
or what even format it's going to be,
and I just wanted to drive a big EV tractor, so...
Where's their HQ?
It's Coventry.
Oh, OK.
So...
Yeah.
So there'll be a video out on the channel at some point, so...
How did that happen?
How did you find out about that?
We've mentioned Graham quite a few times.
He tweeted about this a while back,
that they've got some tractors that they're working on,
they're electric, because I was like,
oh, that sounds good.
So I just emailed them and asked.
Right, so...
Yeah.
But that's quite cool,
and no one's really covered this kind of thing,
so it's always something I want to try and do,
is cover stuff that people don't seem to cover, so...
Yeah, yeah.
It's a good idea, so...
Yeah, so it goes...
That's quite interesting, isn't it?
Because, like, obviously, tractor,
it's all about torque and pulling power,
and that's something that EVs
actually struggle with towing capacity, isn't it?
And tractors are sat for ages by themselves,
just not doing much for a lot of the time, so...
And Fent seems to have their own charging solution
that they'll give you, so farms tend to have
quite substantial power,
good connections anyway,
so they'll then install a DC charger
for your tractor at your farm, so...
See, that could, like the Charge Cube,
could work well with that as well,
that our chums at Felton definitely do have,
which is your shipping container full of batteries, essentially,
and you deploy chargers off it.
That could work very well.
A charge point, sorry.
I know a lot of people get very excited
if you call them a charger,
because, like, well, the charger's actually part of the vehicle,
and you're talking about a charge point, I mean...
I don't know if I got adenoid or that.
But, yeah.
Yeah, big battery, 100 kilowatt hours, so I'll see how I...
Again, I don't know what I'm going to film,
but I'll film something.
Oh, look forward to that.
Yeah, I grow up in Norfolk, so, you know,
tractors are as important to us as milk and bread,
and water, and...
I'll just take a thumbnail of a little me next to the tractor, so...
What? So take a picture of you next to the tractor?
Yeah.
Lovely stuff.
I just want to be a big boy.
Yeah.
I think that's enough of this nonsense, isn't it?
I think that's a good place to end, yeah.
We're likely to find you on the internet if they want to find you out.
They probably don't want to after listening to all this.
Probably not, actually, no.
But my YouTube channel is definitely not guru.
My website is notaguru.co.uk.
On X, I'm not a guru.
Three, on Instagram, I'm not a guru.
Jim and...
Travel channel.
On TikTok, I'm definitely not guru.
On YouTube, my travel channel is Jet Set Jimbo.
There you go.
All one word.
Nice.
Well, what about you, Alex?
Theinterface.uk for my news and coverage
and different things on the internet.
The Interface cars on YouTube for my...
At the moment, weekly car reviews.
I think that will have a bit of a slowdown over Christmas,
but at the moment, it's weekly.
It's all good fun.
See ya.
Pretty much it.
And you can find this podcast in video on YouTube,
Childing Status podcast,
and we're in audio on Apple podcast and Spotify as well.
And you can follow us and subscribe completely for free.
It's, yeah, very free.
So why wouldn't you?
Lovely stuff.
Yeah.
Yeah, thanks for joining me, Jim.
And we'll see you again next time.
Bye-bye.
Let's go.
About this episode
Alex and Jim catch up on their recent EV and automotive experiences, discussing reviews of the Hyundai Ioniq 5, Genesis GV70, and upcoming vehicles like the Haval Julian Pro and Kia Sportage. They dive into the challenges and potential of electric pickups and vans, highlighting market gaps and technological hurdles. The conversation also touches on upcoming international press trips to China and the US, including SEMA and the LA Auto Show, promising unique EV and aftermarket content. Along the way, they share lighthearted moments, like Alex trying pizza from a vending machine, and plans for podcast frequency changes.
The pair discuss Jim's upcoming trips to the USA and China, Alex's time with the Hyundai Ioniq 5 and the why electric vans aren't the best first EV experience and what could be done about it.