Electric cars are cars that run on electricity instead of gasoline. They use batteries to power an electric motor, which makes them cleaner for the environment.
The Mercedes-Benz GLB is a stylish SUV that can fit a lot of people and has a nice, comfortable interior. It's designed to be practical for families while still looking fancy. Recently, it's been updated to include electric technology, showing that Mercedes is moving towards more electric options.
The Mercedes-Benz EQS is a fancy electric car that offers a lot of comfort and high-tech features. It has a big screen inside that controls many things, making it feel very modern. People discuss it because it's one of the top luxury electric cars available today.
Scout Motors is a company that makes electric vehicles, especially designed for off-road driving. They are part of the Volkswagen family and are working on new electric car technologies.
EVs are cars that run on electricity instead of gas. They are better for the environment because they don't produce exhaust fumes like regular cars do.
An EREV is a special kind of electric car that can go further than just using its battery. It has a small gas engine that helps charge the battery when it runs low, so you can drive longer distances without worrying about finding a charging station.
Rear wheel drive means that the back wheels of the car get the power from the engine. This can make the car handle better, especially when driving fast or on curves.
A kilowatt hour (kWh) is a way to measure energy. For electric cars, it tells you how much energy the battery can store and how far the car can go before needing to be charged.
A Gigafactory is a huge factory where Tesla makes batteries and parts for electric cars. It helps them produce a lot of these parts quickly and cheaply.
Vehicle to load (V2L) means that an electric car can provide power to other devices. It's like using your car as a battery to charge things or run appliances.
The Tesla Cybertruck is a unique electric truck that looks very different from regular trucks because of its sharp, futuristic design. It's made to be tough and can do things like power other devices, which is pretty cool for outdoor activities. People talk about it because it's a new way to think about trucks and electric cars.
A 220-volt system is a type of electrical system that uses a higher voltage than the standard 120 volts found in many homes. It's often used for bigger appliances that need more power.
Type A and Type I sockets are different types of plugs and outlets that you find in various countries. They are used to connect electrical devices to power sources.
The Volkswagen ID.4 is an electric SUV that can carry a lot of people and stuff while being good for the environment. It's designed to be easy to drive and has a lot of modern technology inside. It's important because it's one of the first electric SUVs from Volkswagen, showing they are serious about making electric cars.
A supercharger is a special charging station for electric cars that lets you charge the battery much faster than regular chargers. This helps you get back on the road quickly.
DC fast charging is a way to charge electric cars much faster than regular charging. It uses special equipment to send power directly to the car’s battery.
Dieselgate is a scandal where Volkswagen was caught cheating on emissions tests for their diesel cars. It caused a lot of problems for the company and affected many car owners.
Rivian is a new car company from the United States that makes electric trucks and SUVs. They are known for their cool designs and technology.
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And the Tesla Model Y Plus.
Also today I'll tell you later how GM wants to wean themselves away from Chinese parts.
Alright let's start with news of Ford CEO Jim Farley saying that when they took apart
rival EVs it forced Ford to rethink about engineering and their entire organization
on the Office Hours Business Edition podcast.
He said that Ford engineers disassembled Tesla's Model 3 and Chinese EVs and found
major differences versus how Ford thought they knew how to make electric cars.
They compared the Mustang Mac E, at that point the second best-selling EV in the US,
to the Model 3 and found the Mac E's wiring loom alone was 1.6 kilometres longer,
adding 70 pounds of copper and every pound in an EV consumes battery capacity and the extra
wiring was $200 more per battery to carry the added mass as well.
Those findings helped prompt Ford's reorganization back in 2022,
creating the Model E unit focused on entirely new ways of thinking about how to build electric cars.
Mercedes-Benz are next in the news.
They're going to rename the EQB.
The EQB will now be known as the GLB with EQ technology.
And I imagine over time the whole EQ thing will just get swept under the cup.
It'll be called the GLB.
The new model will debut on the 8th of December.
It'll enter markets in early 2026, expected in the US as a 2027 model year.
Mercedes-Benz publishing technical information and images ahead of the reveal.
This puts the GLB between compact and mid-sized.
We think the cockpit is shown.
Exterior bodywork though is all concealed under heavy camouflage.
Mercedes did release cabin images showing the GLB on the MMA modular architecture.
Looks a lot like the CLA and that's no bad thing.
Very dense electronics focused layout with three dashboard screens.
The MBUX super screen, which is not the hyperscreen on the EQS and EQE.
The center console is a floating design with physical switches beneath the central display
and door panels similar to the CLA, which again, no bad thing.
CLA, very beautiful car.
While interior and cargo volume are increased because it's a seven seater, the GLB.
Final validation, hot weather, cold weather validation is underway now in not actually
any kind of real world hot weather testing, which is probably part of the program as well.
But this is all being done in their climatic tunnel.
So they're reproducing conditions from minus 40 degrees Celsius to plus 40 degrees Celsius.
In freezing tests, the electric GLB is able to warm its interior twice as quickly as previously
and consumed half the energy in a 20 minute drive at minus seven degrees Celsius,
with focus going on efficiency for the next generation Mercedes-Benz electric cars.
Engineers are also measuring windshield defrost performance for cold climates
at ambient temperatures between minus 15 and minus 20 degrees Celsius.
The GLB with EQ technology is targeted to reach complete visibility, full visibility,
within just incredibly really 15 minutes at freezing temperatures.
And then you're off and away, preheat your vehicle on the app,
and you won't even know that it's been done.
One of the best things about owning an EV if you've got app access now.
Scout Motors' next Volkswagen's electric off-road vehicle brand.
Although they're going through the courts to try and tell the dealers they're not
Volkswagen because they want to sell direct, they're going to base their global headquarters
in Charlotte's Plaza Midwood.
They say they'll create 1,200 jobs over five years.
The Charlotte offices will serve as Scout's national operations hub,
everything from IT to marketing.
And they say a minimum average wage of $170,000.
That's amazing.
Plaza Midwood HQ will support Scout's $2 billion assembly plant under construction
in Blythewood, South Carolina.
They want to target 200,000 EVs at full capacity.
And we heard the news recently that they will start with the EREV.
And the Pure Bev versions of the Scouts coming later down the line.
Don't call it cancelled, suddenly they'll even say postpone,
but merely coming first with the EREVs.
And you would think that at the minute, with the climate in the US,
and generally what those vehicles may be used for as well,
probably no bad decision actually.
Now let's talk about Tesla rolling out a new Model Y in China.
Not really a new Model Y, but it's a new variant.
Five seat rear wheel drive long range,
which I always say would be my configuration of any EV.
I don't need all wheel drive, I have it at the moment,
but I don't need an all wheel drive car.
But if the rear wheel drive gives you significantly more range,
the other thing I always say, if you can get the range,
you should get it because you'll never be unhappy that you've got it.
Well, this is 821 kilometers.
That's on China's CLTC cycle.
Sure, that's 510 miles and that's not real world.
It's optimistic, but either the way,
this is the longest range Tesla for the Model Y ever.
The figure comes from the 78.4 kilowatt hour battery
with these new LG cells.
That I think is the same pack used in the Model 3 variant
that's rated about the same.
830 kilometers CLTC, not 821,
but you think it goes further as a Model 3, a lot further.
But look, there's not a massive battery, 78.4.
Tesla just work wonders with efficiency though, don't they?
And so the new Model Y starts at 288,000 RMB,
that's about $40,000 US for the rear wheel drive
extreme range one called Model Y Plus.
The launch arrives amid weakening Tesla sales in China.
October deliveries were the lowest since November 2022.
And it's not because China's got issues with Tesla,
which some of the Western markets have
because of the CEO behavior and things like that.
This is purely competition.
This is just people in China want domestic brands,
they're proud of their domestic brands as well.
And because they're compelling,
and if you look at something like the Xiaomi YU7,
which is not the SU7, that's the car that's been out 18 months,
but it's a tech brand launching a car business
with their SUV, the Model Y, competitive, the YU7,
that did significantly more than Tesla's
and Model Y last month as well,
and has a big order backlog as well.
It's pretty excitement around its vehicles too,
and they're very high tech.
And of course, it's a Chinese brand,
and which goes a long way at the minute.
Like I say, they're not falling out of love with Tesla.
There's just not as many reasons to buy at Tesla.
So I'm definitely looking there to give people more reasons
to buy those vehicles there from Tesla in China.
Meanwhile, obviously Tesla Shanghai doing a lot of exports to Europe,
even though we have a Gigafactory here in Europe,
and that European Gigafactory is then exporting to Canada.
And so, you know, to me, to you, pass them around the world.
Now, Tesla in China has also launched a new vehicle to load adapter.
This is really interesting.
They introduced a compact V2L adapter for the Model YL,
that's the long wheelbase version,
and the new Model Y performance, that's forthcoming,
offering an alternative form factor
from the existing PowerShare mobile adapter.
The Model YL and Model Y performance
will be the first Tesla models besides Cybertruck
to include vehicle to load officially from Tesla.
Now, you can get third-party adapters,
choose how happy you are with risk on that,
but if it's Tesla selling you a vehicle to load adapter,
that's all legit, right?
So it's 2.2 kilowatts.
And so it's a 220-volt system in on the Chinese cars.
It's 10 amps, so there's a single outlet
that combines Type A and Type I sockets used in China.
Tesla demonstrated it powering an outdoor kitchen
with a 600-watt rice cooker, a 600-watt electric kettle,
and a 1 kilowatt hot pot.
So that adds up to 2.2 kilowatts enabling camping
and powering essential appliances during outages.
Physically, the Chinese adapter is slimmer
than Tesla's outlet adapter that connects to the mobile connector,
which requires managing a long cord
and the mobile connector kind of brick as it were.
Functionally, Tesla's North American outlet adapter
is rated at 10 amps at 120 volt.
The Chinese use it 220 volts,
and so that reflects obviously the mains voltage over there
versus typical in North America of 110.
This thing, very small, very sleek looking, by the way.
And if you have a Model Y L or the new Model Y Performance,
you think this would come to the rest of them as well.
Obviously, the actual charge inlet flap,
as it were, under the flap, is pretty packed.
It's cramped on the China cars because you've got GBT plug,
which is big anyway.
But this plugs it obviously into the socket,
and it looks really nice, and you get some off-board power.
Tesla a little bit behind the curve on that,
so delighted to say they're finally going with that,
and very, very useful.
I mentioned when I took my holiday a couple of weeks ago,
because it was half term here,
and the kids are off and I want to spend time with them
because they're going to be growing up before I know it.
But I took my son, who's now seven, camping,
and we went to campsites with electric hookups,
but it was an eye-opening experience
because I've never needed off-board power.
I can't think the last time we had a power cart,
and I don't go to job sites and need remote power,
and so I've known intellectually, if that makes sense.
I've known the vehicle to load is very useful,
and lots of people are finding real world use cases for it.
But actually, having thought,
well, we could have booked some campsites
a little bit off the beaten track,
and if I had an EV with vehicle to load,
that did two, three kilowatts or more,
then that's game-changing, right?
And we don't do a lot of camping,
and it's the first time I've taken him away under canvas,
just him and I.
We had an amazing time, father and son time,
and it was awesome, and if I had a vehicle to load EV,
that would enable us to go places,
and he got a bit cold on one of the nights.
I had to get up at three o'clock in the morning
and boil up some water,
and I shoved a hot water bottle down his sleeping bag,
and he was back off to sleep again because he was shivering.
But that would allow a little air heater
that I could have just turned on.
Obviously dangerous,
don't fall asleep with those things turned on,
but, you know, a little heater
or some induction hob cooking,
some kettle to boil some water, and things like that,
and yeah, I actually felt it not just in my head,
but my heart.
I was like, oh, wow, maybe I need to change the pole star
for something that's got vehicle to load,
and I'd never needed it before.
Interesting, isn't it?
Now, you have these experiences,
and then it means something more
than just talking about it on a podcast.
I'll take a break, we'll come back,
and lots more to discuss.
Stick around.
All right, welcome back to the podcast.
Let's talk about Volkswagen's ID4 and IDBuzz
getting supercharger access.
This should be next Tuesday, November 18th.
Owners of ID4s and buzzes in the US
will be able to use Tesla V3s and V4 superchargers,
and that's been a long time coming
because it was meant to be March.
That got pushed back to June,
and here we are almost the end of the year.
Tesla uses, obviously, J3400s,
as it's now known, formerly Naxx or NACS.
All the VW on the road have CCS-1,
so a $200 adapter needed to charge at those superchargers.
Original owners of ID4s and IDBuzz
get a $100 rebate on the adapter.
The 2026 model year buyers get the adapter at no cost.
E-Golf owners, I haven't forgotten you.
Forgotten you and not included,
so VW have forgotten you,
but probably too difficult to do.
The move increases DC fast charging options
for ID4 and IDBuzz owners and drivers.
Electrify America, of course,
was formed because of Dieselgate.
So with that money,
it was established under a consent decree
after Dieselgate to build a nationwide
DC fast charging network.
Electrify America is Volkswagen.
That's where the money went.
Its first station was opened in 2018.
It was largely a mess for a long time.
It's largely been fixed now.
I'm not saying people don't have problems,
but it's vastly better than it used to be
and is getting better all of the time.
They're adding Naxx connectors as well
to their retrofitting them
and to their new installations as well.
But how funny that Electrify America,
which is Volkswagen,
that their network never became good enough
for their vehicles to not need Tesla superchargers.
So I guess that's what I'm trying to say.
Adding supercharger compactability.
Signals, obviously the Volkswagen owners
have more places to charge,
but also admitting, well,
we couldn't build our own network
that was good enough to not need the competition.
VW and Rivian Technology,
I talked about yesterday from their joint venture,
new news coming in today that they could develop it
to be used in internal combustion engine vehicles.
There was a report a month or so ago
from Manager Magazine in Germany
which said this is a cause of real conflict
between Rivian and Volkswagen.
Because Rivian engineers, it's a pure EV play.
They've got no interest, have they,
in rewriting all of that software
to work with little putt-putt machines
and making explosions in cylinders
and farting out the back of it some fumes.
But hey, money talks,
and maybe the Volkswagen part of that partnership
were like, hey, that's nice for you.
Thanks for your opinion.
Now rewrite your software for our dirty combustion cars.
So that's looking like that could be done,
the co-CEO of the joint venture,
but coming from the VW bit,
Carsten Helbing saying it's an extremely capable architecture
and we could allow for future use to also have it for ICE,
but as we already outlined,
our clear focus is on Bev implementation.
That's a Reuters report.
So there's obviously something behind that.
A source of conflict has been reported as well there.
Now Volkswagen, sorry, Yamaha introducing their Aero X.
This is a two-wheeled scooter.
The EC06 pairs Yamaha engineering
with a design by River using the River powertrain.
Four kilowatt hour battery, a 6.7 kilowatt motor,
a 90 kilometers per hour top speed,
and 100 kilometer range on this little scooter.
The model it will launch with the Aero XE next year
for my Indian listeners.
If I have any listeners in India,
I'm not check the stats lately.
I'm sure I must have one or two.
And finally, General Motors is weaning itself off Chinese parts,
telling several suppliers that you have to identify
substitutions for any parts or raw materials
that were previously coming through or from China by 2027.
The move intensified after US-China trade disputes
over the past year,
aimed at strengthening supply chain security
for vehicles made in North America.
GM's directive covers suppliers in countries
subject to US trade restrictions like Russia and Venezuela.
China, of course, though, is the elephant in the room.
The director weaned themselves off Chinese parts.
That's only a couple of years to do that,
which in the car industry is pretty much breakneck speed.
Now, the action form is part of a wider industry response
to the current direction of the US White House
and its China countermeasures and making,
which kind of makes sense.
I don't think people really care about the badge on the car,
whether they're buying, I don't know,
like a Nissan or a Tesla or a Ford.
But I think they care if it's made in America,
buy American workers with American parts.
So that could be a way that Americans end up buying Chinese vehicles,
which is a long way off at the moment,
or it's further away than it could have been.
But if it's all helping to drive a domestic economy,
then what's the problem with the badge on the front of the car,
or who ultimately owns that business?
As long as the bits and the people that make it
are a bit more homegrown.
So GM, trying to get ahead of the curve on that one.
And that's your podcast for today.
Thanks for listening.
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Have a good and sit-at-morrow.
And remember, there's no such thing as a self-charging hybrid.
About this episode
Ford's CEO Jim Farley discusses how disassembling rival EVs like Tesla's Model 3 prompted a major rethink in Ford's engineering approach. Meanwhile, Mercedes-Benz announces the renaming of the EQB to GLB with EQ technology, set to debut in December. Tesla introduces a new Model Y variant in China, boasting impressive range figures amid stiff competition. The episode also covers Volkswagen's ID4 and IDBuzz gaining access to Tesla superchargers, GM's efforts to reduce reliance on Chinese parts, and new developments in the EV landscape, including a compact vehicle-to-load adapter from Tesla.
