The presents are open and you're over the in-laws.
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and play SpinQuest.com with live dealer blackjack,
crafts, and a ton of slots.
And here's a great deal for the holiday,
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As the holidays approach,
it's time to return to the classics.
Flaky pie crusts, perfectly browned butter,
and cookies with just the right texture.
And one ingredient you cannot compromise on
is Kerry Gold butter.
Kerry Gold butter is crafted with milk from grass-fed cows
that graze on lush green pastures
across family farms in Ireland.
The result?
A rich, creamy butter with a high butterfat content
that elevates every recipe.
Whether you're making signature shortbread
or browning butter for a nutty depth in your pecan pie,
Kerry Gold makes all the difference.
The flavor is unmatched,
and the texture it brings to baked goods is simply divine.
So this holiday season, if you're baking for loved ones
or just for yourself, reach for Kerry Gold.
It's the butter of choice,
and your pies, your cookies, and your cakes.
Well, thank you.
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Welcome back to the podcast.
Hyundai is lowering the N price.
California backs off incentives and Tesla's
RoboTaxi crashes.
On AV News China today, we're talking about BYD in Spain,
the NIO ES8 Demand Surges and Zika 001
with its 12C charge rate.
Join me later for a bonus show called
BMW's baffling bet on hydrogen.
It'll be live tonight for patrons
and all Patreon exclusives go into the free feed
after seven days.
If you want the content first, though,
you're welcome to support the work that I do.
And this is how I earn a living these days
via the Patreon platform.
And if not, wait a week.
It'll drop into the free feed for you to listen to.
Let's kick off now.
Hyundai just made high performance EV driving
even more accessible to more buyers
with a pricing move on the Hyundai Arnick 5N.
The Korean automaker launched the essential trim
that cuts 1500 US dollars from the entry price
but keeps every core performance component
that really defines the N brand experience.
The essential trim maintains the Arnick 5N's powertrain.
So dual high output electric motors,
the advanced battery system,
and the specialized N performance features
that deliver the driving dynamics enthusiasts expect.
They really reworked that vehicle
from an engineering perspective
to give it the proper chops of track day car
and enthusiast car.
Hyundai did remove what they say
as non-essential luxury items
while preserving the necessary convenience
and safety tech and the ADAS systems.
The trim addition positions the Arnick 5N essential
at about 55,000 US dollars equivalent.
They're launching it in Korea to begin with,
creating a more accessible entry point for drivers
wanting the authentic N performance experience.
Fleet managers and performance-oriented buyers
now have a more cost-effective way
into electric vehicle technology
that's really high performance
without sacrificing the engineering bits
but giving up a few luxuries.
I wonder if doing that also saves a bit of weight
on the vehicle.
I couldn't find comparable weights for this essential trim
but interesting that they're doing that now.
Maybe we'll get that outside of Korea soon.
California's next, the governor there,
Gavin Newsom confirmed the state will not replace
the $7,500 federal EB tax credit
ending in seven days time citing cost limits
despite the calling the rollback vandalism
at a federal level.
Automakers like Rivian, Hyundai and Volkswagen
have been pushing for a state rebate of $5,000
but instead California will direct funding
to charging infrastructure
like the $55 million fast charge California project
that covers full installation costs
for public fast chargers.
Okay, I'll just chip in my editorial opinion here.
That's kind of a good deal
because I'm not saying everyone in California
is earning a lot of money and clearly they're not
but should we be giving money off cars
or if we wanna create an ecosystem
if there's public money,
what about charging infrastructure that needs to be built
if there is public money to be spent?
I think that's a really sensible way of spending it.
Yeah, look, I want cheaper cars for you and I
but some of that money gets soaked up sometimes
by people who could have afforded the full price.
Some people argue that some of that money
gets soaked up a little bit by the car makers themselves
and so, well, this decision matters
because California accounts for 27% of all US EV sales.
It's the most important single market for manufacturers.
Companies had hoped state incentives
would soften the loss of the federal support.
Newsom used the announcement to press his clash
with automakers, he accused General Motors
of abandoning California by opposing its 2035 ban
on new pure combustion cars after initially supporting it.
GM argues that stricter emissions rules
and expensive EV options limit consumer affordability
while California regulators estimate the ban
would cut greenhouse gas emissions by 35%.
Road transport is the single biggest contributor
to emissions, though rejecting rebates
for now Newsom signaled future incentives
could emerge through California's carbon trading revenues
which generate hundreds of millions yearly
for clean air programs.
Now, Tesla's Austin RoboTaxi pilot is facing scrutiny.
Just 10 days after launch, three crashes had occurred
and involving its dozen or so modified model wise.
By then, by early July, the fleet had logged 7,000 miles
but that's not a lot when you think about it.
That raises concerns about the system's readiness.
The incidents varied in cause.
In the first, a Tesla was rear-ended
whilst stop pointing to external fault.
The second proved more serious when one of the Tesla
RoboTaxi struck a stationary object causing injury
and then had to be towed.
The third saw another Tesla RoboTaxi hit from behind
while it was moving, though details on who at fault
is unclear.
A major point of contention though,
focuses on Tesla's use of safety staff.
The company insists that no safety drivers were present
but admitted safety monitors sit inside the car
with emergency stop controls and access to the steering.
While not positioned in the driver's seat itself,
these monitors effectively serve the same role.
Industry analysts suggest that this framing may downplay
the level of human oversight involved,
giving the technology an appearance of greater autonomy
than it really has.
Also Tesla using every law that they're allowed to
or regulation they're allowed to,
to redact as much possible information about this.
Now that's worth saying, by the way,
that their competitors, the likes of the Waymos of the world
actually publish any incident information
more than they have to
in terms of raising the public's understanding,
raising everyone's understanding of autonomous vehicles.
Tesla's competitors go over and above
in sharing what they actually have to,
so that we will have a greater understanding
of what happened in an incident,
how it can be prevented.
Again, Tesla using, I think, you know,
I can't blame them if they'll play by the rules
but redacting everything they possibly can
about these crashes so that we know little information
but a bumpy start, I guess you could say.
Now, some good news for buyers wanting to buy a Tesla.
Obviously, we have a week to go
to the $7,500 federal EV tax credit goes
but buyers have more time than they thought
the IRS clarified the contract signed by next week
or what matter, not the vehicle delivery.
Anyone who pays cash or finances
needs a signed biding agreement
and a nominal deposit before the deadline of next week.
Delivery can follow months later
with the full $7,500 federal tax credit
still applying when your taxes are filed.
I don't think you can probably take delivery in a year's time
because your taxes will have been filed
but I'm not sure what the deadline is.
I did have a look, couldn't find any obvious answer.
There is some consensus around the end of the year
being a date.
This gives shoppers though much greater flexibility
to pick the model color and features that you really want
rather than having to grab either what's in Tesla inventory
or on dealer lots.
Tesla updated its guidance this week online
changing the wording from delivery by September 30th
to ordering by September 30th
and its sales teams are now reaching out
to explain that factory orders that arrive in 2026
would qualify as long as the paperwork is done this month.
The same rule applies to the use tax credit
as well as $4,000.
Now, this is really interesting.
The online hacker who I've told you about many times
on the podcast, Green The Only,
finding evidence of supercharging queuing,
a virtual queuing system in Tesla's new over the air update
hidden behind what's called a flag.
The code and graphical assets in the build
suggest that the feature could well be rolled out soon.
The discovered functionality would let Tesla owners
remotely join, leave and rejoin wait lists
if a supercharger is busy allowing drivers to hold a spot
without actually having to physically wait in line.
You go back to the early days
and when supercharges would fill up
sometimes there'd be a list of cars and who is next.
And then when you, if you were looking after the list
when you charged and left you pass it
onto the next Tesla driver,
obviously when the community was much smaller these days
queuing can be a real problem.
Well, you know, life is full of all sorts of people
and then some people don't take their turn always
and it can cause friction, not just Tesla supercharges
but they tend to be the busier ones around holiday periods
and things like that.
In June, Tesla's global director of charging
said the company had started pressure testing
its virtual queuing system.
Images from the update show UI icons
changing from a generic reload symbol
to a lightning car combination
indicating tighter interaction
with Tesla's charging interface.
Tesla's been developing virtual supercharger lineups
for quite a period of time
with much of the framework present
in this new production build of the over the air update.
That could be coming soon.
I would certainly be very welcome
before holiday season, wouldn't it?
All right, let's talk about Porsche.
Loads of headlines this week about Porsche
and boy have I seen some misreporting.
Porsche's adjusting its EV timeline,
delaying full EV rollouts
and extending the life of some combustion
and hybrid models across the lineup.
The shift centers on the upcoming three row K1 SUV
which will also launch with engines
rather than being all electric.
The 718 Boxster and the Cayman
will also remain combustion powered
in their performance trims
with electric versions postponed.
Porsche's next generation EV platform
has been moved back from its 2030 target.
While the McCann is the only model
slated for a direct replacement,
that's now due as a plug-in hybrid in two years time.
Several pressures are shaping this move.
Rising US import tariffs of course
have to play a part in cost barriers, don't they?
China's luxury car market's slowing a little bit.
The global EV adoption is happening
at different places around the world.
It's not uniform.
As a result, Porsche expects to spend
$3.65 billion this year on restructuring their roadmap
which will incur more expenses.
For enthusiasts, the update means
Porsche's combustion engines will be available for longer.
While the company shifts to a more measured EV rollout
instead of chasing aggressive timelines,
Porsche says it will align its EV transition
with the market.
This is entirely sensible
and the way that I saw it reported today was
and the last two days really breathless.
Breathless reporting saying Porsche is abandoning EVs.
They're absolutely not.
The Taycan is a fabulous vehicle.
The McCann is a fabulous vehicle.
The upcoming Cayenne will blow your socks off
because I know people that have driven it
and it blew their socks off
but we can't talk about that yet
because we're not allowed to.
And so Porsche is very much all in on electric vehicles
but if the battery technology is a few years away
on a two seater sports car
or at least a small fast car
that has all of the Porsche values,
the Ferrari values, the Lamborghini McLaren values,
why would we rush these performance cars into an EV world?
Because there's plenty of performance cars in the world.
We're going to talk about one, plenty in a minute.
And so, yeah, I'm not fully convinced
about all the headlines I saw which is, you know,
Porsche is backing away from electric vehicles.
Porsche is changing their timeline
but what's wrong with that?
Why would they stick stubbornly to something
that needs adjustment over time?
I don't understand it personally
but maybe I'm missing something.
I normally am to be honest with you
but so much reporting today saying, you know,
one version of events and when you look at the actual facts,
they're just adjusting the timeline
and some EVs will come later,
some cars will stick with combustion or hybrid power.
Why not offer everything to everybody
whilst they want to buy it?
The EVs are better, I just don't lose any sleep over it.
It's like people that say, why aren't you going online
and arguing with people on Twitter or any of the others
and all that because I haven't got the energy for it anymore
because EVs are coming, they're better, they're here,
everyone will be driving one in a period of time.
That timeframe is elastic and it will get stretched
and it will contract according to the market
but anyone that wants to stay on driving
a diesel car in 20 years time,
I say they're really welcome to it
and I wish them all the best but it's not for me.
I'm guessing it's not for you.
We'll take a break, we'll come back,
we'll talk Lucid Gravity Inventory,
a Gladiator plug-in hybrid and a very, very fast BYD.
Stick around back in a moment.
As the holidays approach, it's time to return to the classics.
Flaky pie crusts, perfectly browned butter
and cookies with just the right texture
and one ingredient you cannot compromise on
is Keri Gold Butter.
Keri Gold Butter is crafted with milk from grass-fed cows
that graze on lush green pastures
across family farms in Ireland.
The result, a rich, creamy butter
with a high butterfat content that elevates every recipe.
Whether you're making signature shortbread
or browning butter for a nutty depth in your pecan pie,
Keri Gold makes all the difference.
The flavor is unmatched
and the texture it brings to baked goods is simply divine.
So this holiday season, if you're baking for loved ones
or just for yourself, reach for Keri Gold.
It's the butter of choice and your pies,
your cookies and your cakes.
Well, thank you.
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As the holidays approach, it's time to return to the classics.
Flaky pie crusts, perfectly browned butter
and cookies with just the right texture.
And one ingredient you cannot compromise on
is Keri Gold butter.
Keri Gold butter is crafted with milk from grass-fed cows
that graze on lush green pastures
across family farms in Ireland.
The result?
A rich, creamy butter with a high butterfat content
that elevates every recipe.
Whether you're making signature shortbread
or browning butter for a nutty depth in your pecan pie,
Keri Gold makes all the difference.
The flavor is unmatched
and the texture it brings to baked goods is simply divine.
So this holiday season, if you're baking for loved ones
or just for yourself, reach for Keri Gold.
It's the butter of choice and your pies, your cookies
and your cakes will thank you.
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Welcome back to the podcast.
Okay, let's talk a little bit about
Lucid Gravity's inventory.
Two days ago, three days ago Lucid added gravities
to their website and in less than 24 hours time,
they were all gone.
So Lucid's global communications chief, Nick Talk,
said the listing is not a demand related development.
While we've been building gravity vehicles
to order and satisfy existing customer demand,
we produced a number of configurations
based on component availability,
ensuring we didn't lose production slots
when parts were constrained
and they put them into the inventory
and then they all sold out.
Again, by looking online,
you would think that the world has ended
because Lucid put some cars into inventory,
which obviously means, according to some people,
nobody wants to buy a Lucid.
Well, then there you go.
24 hours later, they were all gone.
They weren't many of them.
And yeah, like if you can get the parts for a build
that hasn't been reserved
because it's a specific configuration,
why waste a build slot?
Very strange.
Jeep has canceled plans for a plug-in hybrid version
of the Gladiator midsize pickup.
As customers' preferences for Bev trucks evolve,
Stellantis is reassessing its product strategy
and will no longer include a plug-in hybrid Gladiator
in the Jeep lineup, said the company.
They've notified suppliers of the cancellation,
but will continue investing in the Gladiator.
The pickup will remain in production through 2028.
The Gladiator 4xE plug-in hybrid
was gonna come this year joining the Wrangler
and Grand Cherokee that have offered plug-in hybrids
for many years, planning and production timelines
for the new variant were delayed multiple times
where the Gladiator and Wrangler are built,
the UAW, the Workers Union,
saying prompting doubts about whether the hybrid
would ever arrive to support work at the plant.
Now, Kia's EV4 is in production.
They've started assembling the EV4 hatchback version
at their factory in Europe,
marking the first EV produced over here,
the Autoland plant in Zulina.
Is Kia's sole EV production facility in Europe?
They use advanced robotics, employ 3,500 people.
An automated production line allows the site
to build internal combustion engines
or all electric cars at the same time.
Vehicle handling was tuned at the European Technical Center
in Germany to give the EV4 a European feel on the roads.
They say pre-launch validation cars
involved 70,000-mile public road simulations
and some Nurburgring stress testing.
At the end of that, the battery health
had gone from 100% to 95%.
I'll take that degradation all the time.
Now, Hyundai Motor America is recalling your Arnec 6.
So if you have one, the Arnec 6,
which shares the platform with the Arnec 5,
has a problem with its charge port door panels.
They can detach.
The defect stems from insufficient engagement
between the charging flap and the retaining hooks
on the outer panel.
If this affects you, they fix the issue now,
by the way, with new cars, but anything potentially
about 31,000 cars sold in the US from 2023 through 2025,
your dealer will sort it out.
Volvo ran its first public crash test
using three electric vehicles in one crash.
They used the EX-90.
They could have used two and given me one.
Now, the test went beyond the regulatory requirements
and recreated scenarios that no current safety rating
currently enforces them to test.
In the sequence, the first car approached
the second EX-90 at 31 miles an hour,
but break to a complete stop.
It avoided contact.
The EX-90's city safety system brought the vehicle
to a stop.
A third car, traveling at 34 miles an hour,
then struck the second car on the side,
hitting the center of the passenger compartment
where occupants sit.
The car engaged its safety cage.
It says that help transfer the loads while managing
to deform and absorb the energy from the crash.
Of course, the side airbags and inflatable curtains
were activated, says the senior technical director
at Volvo cars, Thomas Broberg.
Data from the vehicles and crash test dummies
indicated there would have been no serious injuries
by recreating what is a real life situation
but isn't required by the actual tests themselves.
Volvo, I mean, it goes without saying how big
into safety Volvo are.
They're talking a lot about how they can learn
from all of the sensors that record crashes
in a modern Volvo EV like the EX-90
and then maybe using AI or modeling to work out
what could we have done differently
to make that even safer.
It's a fine line to tread, isn't it?
Because you don't admit liability.
Like could we have done something different
that would have saved, I don't know, an injury
or even a life when you think about it.
But I also like their attitude, which is when there is a crash,
we do get all of the data back at Volvo
and we're spending time working out right.
When we build our new vehicles,
what could we have done differently?
And it's a really smart way of approaching safety
whilst not admitting that we did anything wrong
as it were in that situation, right?
Rivian's Adventure Network now lets non-Rivian EVs
charge at 100 locations.
That's about 80% of the network.
Rivian Roma lists 128 deployed Rivian Adventure Network
RAN sites with a total of 811 DC fast charges.
The 100th site open to all EVs is in Arizona,
expected to open the other 28 stations.
Most on the West Coast by the end of this year,
Rivian's been replacing the existing dispensers
with replacement units that support non-Rivian EVs
and high voltage systems to deliver 300 kilowatts of power.
But that's nothing compared to what this next chart
and this car can do.
We'll finish off with BYD's performance premium brand,
the Yang Wang U9 Extreme.
It's a Chinese all-electric hypercar from the Yang Wang brand.
They reached 308.4 miles an hour
on the Pappenberg test track in Germany.
So this is just a huge track.
They come around the banking at the, you know,
before the long straight, at a pretty big lick anyway,
then they use that long straight to completely floor it.
Now, weeks ago, BYD drove the 3000 horsepower
or 2,220 kilowatts U9 track edition
to set a record, an EV record of 293 miles an hour.
That's 472.
They returned to the track test track
with a new version of the U9 called the U9 Xtreme.
So this uses a 1,200 volts ultra high voltage platform.
They use LFP batteries.
Yeah, we used to be put in buses.
It was like the ugly sister of battery technology.
You know, LFP packs in the world's fastest car.
And that's right, because this beats a Bugatti Chiron
special edition to now become
the world's fastest production car.
And they will produce this, by the way.
They're gonna make 30 of them.
The Xtreme U9's just incredible.
It's a source of real Chinese pride as well,
because I was gonna try and make a bonus podcast soon
about the Chinese cars that are coming here
and how they're taking on the high end of the market.
And obviously one of the things is,
you can't get away from it, is the name.
So the name Yang Wang doesn't necessarily translate
immediately for Western buyers,
but it's a source of huge Chinese pride.
If there is a direct translation,
it's closest to meaning looking up or admiring in English,
expressing ideas of admiration, aspiration,
and the spirit of exploring.
And again, for a Chinese speaker
or anyone very proud to symbolize the innovation
of their country and setting new records,
obviously it's a huge thing.
They'd be really upset that somebody would find,
obviously there is like a schoolboy slang part
of the Yang Wang name that we won't get into.
The other one is Denza they have.
How does that translate?
I've not got anywhere with it really,
because you start to get into cultural differences
and respecting people's cultures.
And I don't know, it just gets a little bit icky away
from electric vehicles.
I've not found a good way of describing it yet
and finding the right words, but either way,
who cares what the car is called?
This is now the world's fastest production car,
308.4 miles an hour, 496.2 kilometers an hour.
It's close to 500, isn't it?
It's close to 500 kilometers an hour.
I wonder why they couldn't do the 500.
What a ridiculous thing for me to say,
like as if he didn't, like in a movie
when someone just puts their foot down
a little bit more in a car chase
and the car bursts forward.
Like that's how I imagine it is.
Go on, go a bit faster and do 500 kilometers an hour.
Crazy. At this speed, you are just approaching
the physics of rubber and keeping four small contact patches
and the car going in a straight line.
So at this point, we're not up really
against the mechanical side.
It's the engineering of tires and things.
But fascinating, right?
That's our podcast for today,
thanks to our premium partners,
Porsche of the Village in Cincinnati,
Audi of Cincinnati East
and Volvo cars of Cincinnati East,
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Have a good and sit-amara
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As the holidays approach,
it's time to return to the classics.
Flaky pie crusts, perfectly browned butter
and cookies with just the right texture.
And one ingredient you cannot compromise on
is carry gold butter.
Carry gold butter is crafted with milk
from grass-fed cows that graze on lush green pastures
across family farms in Ireland.
The result?
A rich, creamy butter with a high butterfat content
that elevates every recipe.
Whether you're making signature shortbread
or browning butter for a nutty depth in your pecan pie,
carry gold makes all the difference.
The flavor is unmatched
and the texture it brings to baked goods
is simply divine.
So this holiday season,
if you're baking for loved ones or just for yourself,
reach for carry gold.
It's the butter of choice
and your pies, your cookies and your cakes.
Well, thank you.
SpinQuest social casino.
The presents are open and you're over the in-laws.
It's a perfect time to grab your phone
and play SpinQuest.com with live dealer Blackjack,
craps and a ton of slots.
And here's a great deal for the holiday,
a $30 coin pack for $10.
And if you're hearing this ad,
you can play right now on SpinQuest.com.
SpinQuest is a free to play social casino.
Voidware prohibited.
Visit SpinQuest.com for more details.
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SpinQuest is a free to play social casino.
Voidware prohibited.
Visit SpinQuest.com for more details.
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About this episode
Hyundai has made the Arnick 5N more accessible by introducing an essential trim that reduces the price by $1,500 while retaining key performance features. Meanwhile, California has decided against replacing the federal EV tax credit, redirecting funds to charging infrastructure instead. Tesla's RoboTaxi pilot faces scrutiny after multiple crashes shortly after launch, raising questions about safety oversight. Additionally, Porsche is adjusting its EV rollout timeline, delaying some models while continuing to produce combustion vehicles. The episode also covers updates from Lucid, Rivian, and BYD's record-setting hypercar.