Episode 85: Elon’s electrons, the Polestar that couldn't stop and the Corsa cometh

Hello, and welcome to your weekly buy to the donut bacon cheeseburger,

brought to you by the team at electrifying.com.

This week, we'll be talking about Tesla's plan for UK energy,

the poll star that went on and on and on and on.

And the concept that sort of tells us how the new Vauxhall course is going to look.

We'll also be answering your electric car questions

and dipping into the post bag to find out your views on last week's episode.

Welcome to the Kilowatt Half Hour. I'm Tom.

And I am Vicki.

And before we go any further, I think we deserve a special mention for David Johnson,

who messaged us from the US and he wrote, hey, guys, love the show.

And it's nice to sit here about things that don't have to do with our president.

Fair enough.

It's state fair time here in the US and crazy food is a hallmark of these events.

So how about welcome to your weekly bite of the donut bacon cheeseburger,

which is where your, I have to say, highly calorific introduction

that you came from.

So he's even sent a picture, which now I've actually heard of doughnut burgers.

I can't remember where from, but I think they are a thing in the UK somewhere as well.

It sounds a bit much to me.

But yeah, you can have a cronut burger.

You know, the cronut is a crassle.

They look great.

I'm all for that.

But I think I think the kind of, you know, the bacon cheeseburger

doughnut things a bit.

I mean, it makes it.

Yeah, it's a bit much.

But yeah, fair enough, fair enough.

I do hope that you are enjoying the state fair time over there anyway, David.

So yeah, thank you.

I think my son would quite like that.

But when I'm king, I'm going to ban

dessert things in savoury.

So like pineapple on pizza out, raisins and curries out.

Anything sweet.

No, no, no, it shouldn't be allowed.

So yeah, see, I think in my in my not so benign dictatorship,

all I'm going to do is ensure that any anybody who doesn't walk

on a travelator at the airport, who hasn't got a reasonable disability

or excuse for not walking on the travelator is given serious capital

capital punishment, I think probably equally if they don't put their

trays back in security at the airport.

I'm mostly concerned about airport etiquette, whereas clearly you're worried

about sweet and savoury.

So yeah, that's my thing.

I think that's all perfectly reasonable.

I think between us, we'd actually be we'd have a really excellent country

between us.

Fine, we've got all our priorities sorted.

So what have you been up to other than in your dictatorship?

Other than getting really angry at people in the airport.

I've been actually, I haven't been on holiday yet, and I've been mostly

UK bound and I have been.

Yeah, I've been sort of just mostly steering the old electrifying desk,

just doing lots of stuff back under the website.

I have, however, had an updated Genesis GT electrified, which has been

really, really nice, really nice.

So you can check out electrifying.com because I will get the updated

review of that live.

It's like Genesis version of the S class, and it's very, very lovely.

I have to say, I'm very much enjoying the Bang and Olufsen audio.

I'll be honest, that's one of the highlights for me.

It's absolutely stunning, stunning sound system.

So you can look back through the old episodes when we were discussing

which are the best songs to test the stereos.

Yes, I need to do that.

Actually, I do need to.

I used to quite like a bit of this will probably divide opinions.

I quite like a bit of Kate Bush and Wuthering Heights for that.

Oh, yeah, that's a good one.

It's a good it's a good song that for testing a sound system.

Yeah, I think I think everyone finally agreed that money for nothing

is the really good. Yeah, that's a good one.

Yeah, definitely. Yeah, you need the base, don't you?

That's the thing that's good.

Right. What are we on to?

We're on to news stories.

What have you been up to, Tom?

I haven't actually asked you.

It's very rude of me.

I went away for a week just to the UK.

I went to Suffolk and I discovered a lesser spotted free electric charge point.

No, really?

They still exist.

I know. Well, I drove there and this was in the Grandland

and that has got a 300 mile, a genuine 300 mile range in this sort of weather.

And it's only 80 miles away.

But while I was there, I thought, well, I'll just top up.

So I've got enough to go around and and so plugged in and it's like, OK,

go on to the app, went on to the app and it said charging.

And I thought, I haven't entered any payment details.

Maybe it won't let me unplug until I've entered them.

And then went and had some lunch and did some shopping and all that sort of thing.

Came back to the car and unplugged it and thought, oh, free charge.

So I was like, wow, I wonder if that was a mistake or something.

So went back a couple of days later and some more lunch.

No, it went got to 100 percent charge on the public car for 22 kilowatt

charger and then drove in here and thought, well, that journey cost me almost nothing.

That's amazing. Yeah.

Yeah, they are still out there, aren't they?

But they're few and far between now.

So I think you got lucky there.

But that's really good.

That's also the other really weird thing.

And I've never had this before driving along country lane.

And I hear this horrible drumming.

I'm like, it's another puncher.

I can't believe it.

You know, you don't have a puncher for 10 years or something, two within a month.

And I'm like, oh, it's a pulled over, had a look.

Nothing.

It's a bit weird.

So carried on.

Yeah, it's sort of getting a bit worse, getting it worse.

Right. Well, I'll try and get to some sort of civilisation on a main road

because this was a country lane.

And see if it if I can pull in there.

So I got onto a main road, accelerated away, stopped.

Nothing of the rest of the journey.

So parked up when did some things came back.

Tires fine, drove home, fine, got to the same bit of road.

And I think the road had recently been, you know, surface dressed

where they just throw the the the chippings.

And it's gone like, you know, on desert roads, you get those corrugations

where something causes them to go like, it was that.

It was, but also what we saw on the way back was other people stopped

looking at their tyres, thinking they had a bunch of never had it before

in, you know, well, 40 years of driving or something.

So it's no way.

That's amazing. I mean, I know I did it actually funnily enough.

Well, it was it was a little while ago now, but I think I was in an electric

XC 40 and I was on the M 25.

And you know, the section of concrete, which is always really noisy

on the M 25, but the noise was so it was so intense.

I was like, there has to be something wrong with the tyre.

This can't possibly be right.

And I remember pulling over into the next services

and at Cobham or whatever it was, I think, and just checking

because I was like, something's got to be wrong.

But it was, yeah, because I remember just that section on the M 25.

Every time you get a drive over, I know how noisy this is.

The car's fine, but it just makes such an awful noise.

But yeah, fair enough, that must be just a really kind of unusual road surface

that you hit there, but at least you didn't have another puncture.

That's the good thing, right?

So that is the good thing.

Yeah, I know I do sort of miss space savers in EVs.

I do I do, you know, there's so few and far between EVs

that actually have a space saver tyre or indeed a full spare tyre.

It's you can have a mode of five.

Would you have just for the spare wheel?

No, I wouldn't. No, I'm sorry.

But I am impressed at the spare wheel.

I was trying to think as I was saying that, I was like, don't know,

the plug in hybrid Land Rover's, they still have spare tyres,

don't they? I think they've managed to package that.

I think that's one of the one of the features that they've managed to to keep.

So that's something. But yeah, I do I do miss a spare tyre, I have to say.

Anyway, what else is going on, apart from not having

not having flat tyres, thankfully?

What's going on in the news then, Tom?

Well, Elon's going to fight octopus.

Of course, my headline of the week is that film.

I don't. It does sound like some weird fetish film,

doesn't it? It does.

Now, there's been an application to Ofgem, which is the company.

Well, the organisation, which looks after all the energy companies in the UK,

the overseers of it, to apply for a licence to become an electricity

supplier from Tesla.

So in about eight months, we can expect them to have some sort of energy company.

Now, there are no other details about it, but you can kind of imagine how it is.

They have an operation in Texas, where if you're a Tesla car owner,

you have a power wall, you can get very cheap electricity overnight.

And then you can feed it back into the grid in the sort of VTG style.

So we can kind of imagine they're going to do the same thing here,

because they will have been a bit bruised, weren't they, by that whole

BMI and Octopus deal where Octopus was 199 a month or something?

Or is it 299? 299, isn't it?

They'll give you a a dolphin and a charger and free electricity, basically.

So but you have to have it plugged in all the times they can do the vehicle

to grid stuff and balance the grid.

So they're gone. Oh, I don't like the look of that.

I mean, I think this is kind of good news, isn't it?

Because it's going to just fall special competition among the industry.

So I would have said that it's it's a good thing personally.

I was quite interested to see in the news story

that there's estimated 10,000 Powerwalls in the UK,

which I thought was quite good news.

That was a bit more than I would have I would have guessed that, actually.

So that's cool.

But yeah, I'd like a Powerwall.

I think it's good news, but it'll be interesting to see how quickly it

happens and how that pans out and all that kind of thing.

So, yeah.

Yes, what else is happening in the news?

So we have got our poll star poll star have done a they've done

a range test on the poll star three and they have managed to do

five hundred and eighty one miles to a single charge.

Now, I think that's pretty impressive.

But the problem is that I think that these sort of stories,

if you actually look at the details, clearly, it's impressive.

So I'm very, you know, I'm all four poll star doing this kind of thing.

But the overall average was five point one three miles per kilowatt hour,

which for a car that has what is it?

One hundred and eleven kilowatt hour, the poll star three.

It's a big car, powerful car.

So that's not terrible, but it's also, you know, it's not going to impress

anybody that's got high end Ioniq, is it?

You know, the old it's it's it still feels to me like good,

but not exceptional efficiency, even for a big car.

So I was a little bit kind of, yes, it's an impressive range,

but I want to see headlines about efficiency rather than just sheer.

I managed to do this range by doing, you know, averaging 25 miles

an hour from an enormous battery.

So, yeah, sorry, poll star.

I mean, I get it.

It's a nice headline, very well done.

And equally next time, can we can we can we hear

about the miles per kilowatt hour rather than just the range, please?

Pretty please.

So did you ever did you ever do one of those economy runs in the old days?

I have done an economy run before, yeah, in both a diesel car

and I've done it in EVs and this kind of thing.

So it's it's really hard to drive a car super efficiently like that.

This was, yeah.

So this guy was a sort of professional, here we go,

professional efficiency drivers, Sam Clarke, Kevin Booker and Richard Parker.

So fair play to those guys.

They took turns at the wheel in three hour stints over a 23 hour run

in the poll star.

So it is exhausting driving a car like that, actually.

So, yeah, fair enough that there used to be a kind of annual competition

for petrol cars and diesel to see who could do the biggest thing.

I can't remember the name of it now, but it was basically the window

would be the car that got the best figure over its official fuel consumption

figure and it was rather ruined when somebody we both know who worked

as a PR turned up with a Corvette, which of course nobody cared

about the economy figures.

They hadn't like fiddled, but like most manufacturers do.

They were just like, yes, it's 17 MPG and then drove it around

in sixth at 20 miles an hour, being very, very careful

and got this like 100 percent improvement and beat all these people

in one point for diesel and after that economy run kind of died of death.

Because no one was interested anymore.

It wasn't really in the spirit, they thought.

Yeah, I know it was.

We had a sort of years and years ago now, a chap who some of our listeners

may know of and you certainly do time journalist called Mike Duff on when

I was on auto car, we came up with the idea of doing I think it was

a gallon of fuel and we had a variety of vehicles and including we had

a Prius and we had various others and we had it was basically a race to

see who could go furthest around Bruntingthorpe track on a gallon of

fuel in all of these different cars.

So you had everybody, some people were just trying to obviously sitting

behind other vehicles and there was all different kind of, I think it

was Matt Pryor that won in the end.

I can't remember what he was driving.

Anyway, you'll have to forgive me for the lack of detail on that

because I literally came to mind as you were chatting about it.

But I remember it being good fun.

Those sort of economy things are they are interesting.

But yeah, doing it in a Corvette was a stroke of genius for sure.

Well, the other thing in the news talking of fast cars is the Vauxhall

concept, which we have teaser pictures of on the on the website.

If it's before the 20th of August, if it's after the 20th of August,

you'll be able to see the full thing and the video.

So we can't say much about it because this will go up before the 20th

of August, except that it looks nice in those teaser pictures.

And we have seen it, haven't we?

Yes, we have.

And it is worth it's worth waiting around, I would say.

So yeah, wait, wait and see.

So when we I think it's sort of later in August, isn't it?

That you're going to see the full details of it.

And it's it's I don't know.

I don't think this is breaking any embargoes, but I would say

that it's I'd say I'm more interested in this than in the 208

GTI, and maybe we should just leave.

Yes, yes.

So they do something to look forward to.

It's got horse power and it goes. Exactly.

Yeah. Yeah.

And it insults a future car, which is the I'm going to stop now

because I know I'm going to say something I'm not allowed to say.

There'll be a SWAT team from Vauxhall coming through.

Yeah, precisely.

They're listening, they're listening to everything I'm saying.

OK, talking of fast hatchbacks.

I have some bargains for you.

Excellent.

This is good news. Would you rather.

So it's the first appearance in the leasing prices of the Alpine A290.

Three hundred and five pounds a month, which is about 50 quid,

50 quid more than a basic, well, a normal Renault five,

a kind of mid range Renault five.

So would you?

Yes.

Oh, would you would you save

thirty two quid a month and have a born Cooper born V1?

Hmm.

That is tough, isn't it?

Because the born it is a it's a lot better in the rear passenger seats.

And I mean, you know, oh, I mean, I'm honest, I have.

I have. Yeah, I've driven the A290 and I've driven the born

and they're both fantastic cars, really good.

I mean, if I'm, yeah, if I'm being honest about, like, you know,

boring life practicalities, I would go for the born

because I can get more stuff in it.

So it would probably just suit me a bit better.

But if I sort of, you know, don't worry about that.

Forget about the fact that I've got, you know, a kid and dogs

and all of that nonsense.

I'd have the Alpine. Yeah, why not?

Why not? Yeah, let's go for the Alpine.

I mean, it's such a cool thing.

It's just looks brilliant.

And I really like the born.

But I mean, the Alpine is a whole other level of sort of,

you know, I've, you know, succeeded in life, really,

if you've got that on your driveway, I think.

So yeah, it's cool. It's a great thing.

What would you have?

I really like the born.

I haven't driven the Alpine yet, but I just like the born.

So I think I'll probably have that and take the change

and buy a curry every month.

But I did see I did see the Alpine.

There was one that was coming towards me the other day.

And those lights are really funky.

So the front lights, those kind of crosses where they're

like ready car style up high.

I really like that.

No, I have, yeah, I really like the A290.

I think I think you'd enjoy it.

They're quite different prospects really,

the born and the Alpine.

But yeah, isn't it just, well, isn't it just so good

that we've got this kind of these options coming through now

at such good prices as well?

It's really good, really good.

But yeah, make mine an Alpine.

Go on and I'll just forget about the family.

They can stay at home. It's fine.

And I think today our new used car section

has gone up on the website.

So there's lots of research that I can do

with our new preferred partner stuff,

which has battery checks that are standard on them.

So I'm gonna be going in there and having a good look

because there are some bargains.

And I'm hopefully gonna be doing a used car bargain

in this spot every week as well

with some special deals for people.

So that'll be fun.

There's some great options out there, isn't there?

I do think.

When you're sort of shopping for a used EV

somewhere like on electrifying.com

where if you know that you can get the battery test done

and you know what the actual usable capacity

of that exact battery is when you're buying it,

it's a whole other level of peace of mind, isn't it?

We've been going on about that for a long time.

So yeah, I think it's fine.

And they're quite high.

Have you looked at any of them?

You look at them and you think,

well, it's gonna be like 90% or something.

It's like, no, it's quite high.

And even the ones for big miles and things are really high.

So it's nice to know that the batteries are lasting.

We had the, well, it's all Tesla stuff, isn't it?

We've had two couple of high mileage Teslas recently.

We had the Model S and the Model 3 in the last year.

And both of them were on sort of 90-ish percent battery.

The Model 3 was on 90% with 180,000 miles on the clock

and the Model S, I think it was a bit less than that,

but that had 260, I think.

But it's amazing.

I saw a thing come up the other day.

Somebody had a Model 3 with 300,000 miles on it

and it was only five years old, I think,

this Model 3, because it had been an airport taxi.

It was amazing.

It's really impressive stuff.

But yeah, I mean, for anybody,

thinking about an EV, it's the same as me.

Whenever I've looked at getting used EVs,

the first thing you want to know

is what the battery capacity is, isn't it?

So having it sort of good transparency like that

makes a big difference.

So yeah, go and check it out.

Shall we do some questions from the listeners?

Yes.

Go on then, let's do that.

You're going to start?

Shall I do the first one?

Yeah, so John, just John, that's all we know.

It says, hi, team.

Thanks very much for your videos and podcasts.

The very first electrifying YouTube video I saw

was in 2020 with Ginny reviewing the used BMW i3.

Fast forward five years

and now we're looking for an i3.

We've always loved the fresh looks and design.

So now we have the opportunity

to own one as a future classic.

Good, good, cool, good, cool.

We spotted a 71 reg in a sweet spec

with most of the options we'd prefer.

The odd thing is that in 3.75 years,

it's only traveled just under 2,300 miles in West London.

Potentially that suggests it might have only been charged up

as little as 12 times in its life.

We've requested the diagnostic report

for the drive battery from the BMW dealer.

I think we better ask for the 12-volt

ancillary battery too.

What do you think we should expect to find or look for?

Another bizarre detail is this car was specced

with 22 kilowatt charging ability.

Well, what batteries don't like

is being completely charged and left

or completely discharged and left.

So in those 2,300 miles,

if it's been left at kind of between 20 and 80%,

I think it will be fine.

There should be no problem.

Yeah, great.

If it hasn't been for whatever reason,

if somebody's plugged it in

and then gone to live in Dubai

for six months of the year or something,

then it could be an issue.

But I think you can look at on i3s,

you can go into the menu

and get a battery diagnostic anyway.

We've got a used BMW i3 buying guide on YouTube,

I think, quite a long one,

which was written by Mike, who's a BMW i3 owner,

so he should know.

And it tells you how to check the battery there,

but getting the diagnostic from the dealer

is a good idea too.

The 12-volt battery, yeah, that is a potential issue,

but they're not expensive in the big scheme of things.

The other thing I would check on an i3 is the tires,

because I know from Mike that there's only one company

you make them, which I think is Bridgestone,

and they are Spenny,

because they're a weird size.

Yeah, they're really odd,

because they're really sort of narrow,

but with quite a chunky sidewall, aren't they?

So yeah, I would agree with all of that.

I think that's pretty spot on.

I would also still be pushing

for the proper diagnostic report,

because although the i3 does have a readout

on the system, it's not as precise

as actually having a proper diagnostic report.

And yeah, similar to what you said,

I wouldn't really worry too much about the 12-volts,

even if you do need a new battery,

it's not the end of the world,

but yeah, it's a great car, the i3.

So if you get a low mileage one like that

that has been properly maintained,

then it could be a really good one.

So yeah, just have to wait for the proper report.

What else have we got?

So we've got at John Humphrey's 9887, he says,

I'm pleased to hear there's an Octavia estate plan

for the future.

However, I'm looking for something a little sooner

that will easily swallow a newfoundland dog,

which is a giant breed of dog.

Any suggestions or recommendations

on something that's already on the market?

So we're looking for electric cars with big boots.

Obviously, Ginny's favorite, the Skoda Enyak,

is gonna be up there, isn't it?

But I am gonna go back to,

again, this is not gonna surprise anybody,

I'm sorry everybody,

I am gonna talk about the ID7 again

because I think an ID7 Tora would be a better option

than an Enyak because it's got a lower load lip

and it's got an even bigger boot.

So I would definitely check out the ID7 Tora

if you can stretch to it.

And there are some great used examples,

including of course, OnElectricFind.com,

so you should check that out

because I still really rate the ID7

as a great option for dog owners, particularly the Tora.

What else, the Grandland,

do you mention the Grandland early?

That's not a bad option, is it really?

Especially great lease prices.

It's quite high to jump up into I suppose.

Yeah, newfoundlands aren't great for that,

aren't great for jumping, they're not agile dogs,

I don't think.

But you can get the steps or the ramps, can't you?

So yeah, or a crane, yeah.

Or a crane, yeah.

Yeah, Renault Scenic?

I actually wouldn't recommend it really

because it's got a big boot capacity by literage,

but the problem is it's all in the depth.

So your newfoundland would have to sort of steeple chase

over the boot lip and into the sort of well of space.

So you can get a boot floor for the Scenic

from as a dealer fit, which is great.

So that's a variable boot floor,

but then obviously you've got much less boot space.

So I don't think the Scenic would be the best option.

But...

A bit like a Pima, can you imagine a newfoundland

going into a Pima?

It's disappearing into that enormous tunnel.

Yeah, it's not the similar thing.

Yeah, precisely, you've got that sort of thing.

Or I'm sure I'm forgetting something really obvious here.

So you could look at,

so the Peugeot 5008 has got an enormous boot.

So that's, if you don't mind the Stellantis stuff,

I think the 5,000 notes pretty good actually.

You could check that out again.

Some reasonable used examples around already

or lease prices are quite decent.

And it's a seven-seater, but you can fold all the seats flat.

So you've got that kind of flexibility too.

Again, probably not the lowest load lip.

Yeah, I think, you know,

I'm just trying to think of what would be

sort of a more, maybe a sort of cheaper.

You could look at...

Well, that's the Stellantis van stuff,

van van stuff if you're not too...

That would be great if you don't need the range.

Yeah, so there's a lot of options out there,

but I think that sort of covers the obvious ones.

You could look at Model Y, I have to say,

because they are really good for boot space and stuff.

Maybe not so much for the depth of the boot,

but they've got a nice big boot floor.

So if that would suit you.

Or your newfoundland indeed.

But excellent choice of dog.

I love a newfoundland.

Right, Tom, what's next?

Judith Kitchenman4419 said,

I'd like your opinions on the effect of brakes

on driving full-time in e-pedal mode.

I recently had a 40 tire valve and had it fixed.

I received dire warnings about my rusting brake discs

due to lack of use of the brakes,

due to it using the e-pedal all the time.

I've had to turn it off

so I can use my brakes for a few weeks.

What is everyone's experience or opinion of this?

Thanks.

Now, Mike from our team said

he's had to replace the discs on his i3

because they rusted out

and I had to do it on our leaf as well.

So for people who don't know,

regen braking just uses the motor to slow the car down.

And therefore you're getting all the energy back.

But the downside of that is

that your brake discs don't get used.

And a bit like if you've,

I get it when I've just washed the car

or when it's been sitting for a while

after a really heavy rain

and you get that kind of

as you, the pads first touch the discs for the first time.

So I used to just once in a while

after I'd expensively replaced all the brakes on the leaf,

just used to do a look around me

just a bit of a heavy brake to bring them in.

I know Aldi, there was an engineer telling me

that the regen on the Q6 is so strong

that the brakes are hardly ever used

except in real dire emergencies.

So they have, I mean, this sounds ridiculous,

but they have a sensor that knows

when the surface of the discs is starting to corrode

and just gives them a little,

a little wipe once a week.

That's really mad, isn't it?

I mean, we will get to the stage, no doubt,

where conventional brakes are just gone.

They're no longer needed.

I know there are concept cars already of that

where there's nothing.

But, you know, people get funny about

on cars like the Bourne,

there were all these people on YouTube saying,

oh, it's only got drums at the back.

That's ridiculous.

That's not safe.

Of course it's safe.

And they don't corrode.

That's the other advantage of drums

is they don't corrode, which we'll just do.

So yeah, I would just advise,

if you have an electric car,

just once in a while,

just brake heavily,

making sure no one's gonna drive into the back of you.

Or you're not gonna upset everyone.

Just, yeah, just give it a little nudge.

Yeah, it's this sort of thing, isn't it?

That I spoke to somebody recently

was talking about that again,

their Tesla and they were saying that,

because there's no specific service schedule

for a Tesla.

In fact, they sort of encouraged

that you don't really need to service it at all.

And it's that sort of thing, isn't it?

Because obviously Tesla similarly

will just be using its regen braking

all the time as with most EVs.

So you wonder whether that sort of thing

is the kind of thing that's gonna go unnoticed

if you don't have a regular service schedule

that sort of check up.

You'd hope that an MOT, I suppose,

which obviously any car is still,

that would get picked up there, I guess.

But anyway, it crossed my mind

that that might be an aspect of it.

But yeah, interesting.

And yeah, definitely something to look out for, I think.

Right, should we do from the comments?

We have got, I'll start with At Peer Walker.

He says, I find adaptive cruise,

I assume it's a, he may not be,

I find adaptive cruise control quite alarming

when driving on a motorway.

And the lane to the right stops or slows down

because of congestion, et cetera.

But my car sees nothing ahead

and plows on undertaking vehicles

to my right at high speed, very worrying.

Otherwise it's wonderful.

Similar on similar, okay.

I've got, we've also got at John Key Hearts.

I've tried adaptive cruise control,

but I'm not a fan.

I like to feel in control.

This is all very much what I was saying recently as well

in terms of being very much a luddite

about not really wanting to,

not really even liking adaptive cruise control.

Never mind this sort of full, you know,

the sort of full, well, I say full semi, what is it called?

Yes.

Autonomous driving.

Yes, thank you.

Yeah, all of that stuff.

So the sort of more where you got like the BMW Y5

with the lane change stuff and this kind of thing.

And yeah.

So all about the adaptive cruise control here.

So it's what have we got at DC various vids 8082.

I've never used adaptive cruise and wouldn't trust it.

If I want someone else's logic to do my thinking,

I get a taxi or catch the bus as to lane,

as to lane keep and lane follow assists.

I hate both with a passion.

Well, there you go.

It's interesting, isn't it?

I sort of feel similar.

I do use adaptive cruise control occasionally in,

in the, you know, especially average speed cameras,

that kind of thing.

But I don't love it.

I do, like I've said before, I just find myself,

I don't know how you feel Tom, I find myself,

I find I'm more tense using adaptive cruise control

or any of the semi-autonomous functions

because I'm waiting for the car to make a mistake

rather than if I just drive the car myself

and I know what's happening.

So, yeah.

Well, I quite like it, but it has to be good.

So there are very good systems

and there are systems which are pretty bad.

And my test of it is that my wife hates it

and hates the idea of it.

Not only would she not use it,

she doesn't want me using it while I'm driving

and she's in the car.

So I quietly slip it off.

And if she notices and says, turn that off,

then I know it's not very good

because it's like doing heavy braking or something

or, you know, a car pulls out into the gap in front of you

and it hasn't noticed for a fraction of a second

and carries on barreling towards it.

But if she doesn't notice,

then I think it's a pretty good system.

So that's my, that's my test.

Yes, exactly.

Well, there you go.

I mean, with the idea, you know,

this legislation now, isn't there?

That they're sort of doing pilots

on more fully autonomous stuff within the next year or so.

It's the government sort of rolling out this pilot thing.

So it'd be interesting to see how that goes.

But yeah, until I can trust adaptive cruise control

and traffic sign recognition,

I had an electric Fiat recently

and it was absolutely convinced

that it was 120 mile an hour speed limit on the motorway

quite some time as well.

So until I sort of see that being more reliable,

it's not just Fiat, it's all every car, every car.

So I had a Volvo EX30 do a sort of almost emergency stop

for absolutely no reason.

Just, you know, it does that thing

where it suddenly misreads the road

and there's a car on the opposite side of the road

and it just slams the brakes on just momentarily.

It's absolutely terrifying

and very exciting for the car following you as well.

So that's always good.

Anyway, and yeah.

Trailers, trailers,

because we were talking about trailers last week

because Nicola had her first experience

of towing a trailer.

And Tradewind 25 says reversing a trailer

sign is used to tow gliders regularly.

Can you imagine towing a glider?

They're about the mix of the M1, aren't they?

Oh God.

The rule I was taught was simply this,

place one hand on the bottom of the steering wheel.

If you want the rear of the trailer to go right,

move your hand to the right and vice versa.

Never turn the wheel too far and drive slowly.

And Tony Watts, I2H says reversing,

put your hand at the bottom of the steering wheel.

If you want to go left, move your hand to left,

nine o'clock and right to move right,

three o'clock.

Now, I'd heard this too

and thought it was that simple,

but the physics don't seem to apply whenever I try.

Or the trouble is that you get the trailer

to go in the right direction,

but then the car ends up in a ditch

or in the parked car next to it,

or, oh God, I'm gonna have to practice.

Yeah, I think so.

I think I found a really, really big car parked on,

really massive with nothing to hit

and then practice away.

You can't, well, I mean, actually,

on the subject of the semi-autonomous stuff,

there are some pretty reasonable trailer reversing systems

these days, I don't know,

which I think are actually quite good.

The last time I used one was years ago,

so I don't know what they're like now.

It was a little bit sketchy then,

but I remember that was a Volkswagen system, I think.

And I remember it being pretty impressive actually,

but yeah, it'd be interesting to try those.

That sort of situation,

I could see it being quite good.

Right, okay.

What do we got on the subject of digital mirrors?

Yeah, so at David Vacy 4368,

I don't know if that's how it's pronounced, sorry,

on the subject of glasses,

why is no one come up with prescription-based screens

so that you can set your digital dashboards

to your prescriptions for those of us

that need different focal lengths

for driving and seeing the dials.

Interesting.

Now, initially, I thought this was like that April Fool,

which I think BMW did years and years ago

of prescription windscreen,

so you didn't have to wear your glasses anymore.

But then I read it again.

I'm like, no, no, you're serious.

That you would just focus the dashboard

to be your correct, I think it's quite a clever idea.

So you have the settings for your seat and your radio

and your aircon and everything else

if you could actually set it to do that.

I mean, I don't know,

probably some optometrists out there

or someone who could tell us if that would work or not,

but it does seem like a clever idea, doesn't it?

It does, because I mean, I'm very long-sighted.

I wear glasses and so it's,

so I mean, I can not have my glasses on

and I can see a long way, absolutely fine,

but seeing things close up, like the touchscreen

and this kind of thing could be tricky.

But then I suppose if you've got eyesight,

sort of shortcomings like that,

probably you're gonna be wearing

a contacts or glasses anyway, aren't you?

So maybe then having a focal difference, I don't know.

I think it's about,

so you wouldn't need to have bifocal lenses

because you're looking down the dashboard and that.

Yeah, see, I don't need bifocal lenses.

You know, the heads-up display

is at the same focal length as you're looking at that.

So that's why you don't have to refocus on it

because if you're looking forward

and then you look down at the dashboard,

your eyes have to refocus on the dashboard.

So a head-up display, you don't have to do that.

So that's why it's better.

It's not just that you're not looking down as far,

it's that you're not constantly doing that.

So if you could do the same for the dashboard.

That would make sense, wouldn't it?

Let's patent it now.

Yeah, I'm gonna change your name.

David Vasey, 4368.

I was gonna say, yeah,

I think David Vasey, 4368 might need to patent that.

Good answer.

And yes, any optometrists out there that can comment

and tell us whether that is or isn't possible

or indeed is or isn't a good idea,

you probably know better than us.

So yeah.

So there was some discussion about our news

that the VW Group electric cars

are gonna be range extenders.

And Steven Wensley says,

I'd hoped hybrids would die out

after people experienced the electric mode.

The return of the range extenders

suggests people be pushed into hybrid phase two.

What's the point of a range extender in Britain?

Beverage range is more than enough

to cover the vast majority of this country.

I have never come across a good range extender.

I mean, Mike owns one.

And I don't think he'd buy another one now, would he?

Because it costs twice as much to do everything.

It's twice as much to service

because it's got two engines.

I think he did use it in the early days

when he couldn't charge in places.

He would occasionally have to fire up the petrol motor,

but otherwise it's just lugging around

a petrol engine and the battery.

I did try that Mazda MX-30, which was utter nonsense.

Because it had the fuel consumption of a Range Rover

when it was running in petrol mode.

And the electric efficiency of an old EQC or something.

I mean, it was the worst of all worlds.

And just a scientific curiosity, and that was it.

So maybe they'll be brilliant.

I'm just not seeing it yet.

I don't know.

I'm sort of in agreement with what everybody else has said.

I just feel like electric cars have already proven

that they can really cover the needs of the everyday car.

Can't they?

I'm going to be driving an electric Hyundai

across France in a week or two.

I've got absolutely no qualms about doing that.

I just don't know why, you know, I don't know.

It just it just feels like, as you say,

you've got the worst of both worlds in that instance.

For I mean, I didn't mind the i3 range extender.

I thought the i3 range extender is pretty cool.

But I do know.

Well, yeah, I know from Mark's experience

in various others that sometimes they can be problematic.

So, yeah, I don't know.

We'll find out, won't we?

I suppose I just don't really know.

It seems like an extreme length to go to to effectively

just kind of cancel out range anxiety

that ultimately probably is just a case of educating people

rather than needing to stick a petrol engine in the back of a car.

Anyway, that's such as such as they're trying

not to get weary of the whole thing, really.

But there you go.

Yeah, it's all good.

Right. What else have we got?

You know, talking of charging and the subject of indoor charging

because we were talking about how what's not made car?

That's the what's the the Dutch company?

Charging fast, fast, yes, they're planning

a an indoor charging hub in Aberdeen.

And Patty, the geek says, I've seen some indoor charging spots

popping up in the US, partnered with other car services

such as car washing and detailing.

You drive into the brushes car wash

park at the end where they have the vacuums

and you can plug in while you're vacuuming your vehicle

and then drive away when you're done.

You don't get a ton of energy,

but there's a good 15 minute top up

while you take care of your car.

All this inside the giant warehouse

so you're covered at the same time.

Now, that would be great for me,

but not for a lot of members of the team

who don't know what a car wash is.

Well, naming no names.

I think it's quite a good idea.

All I want to know is whether there are solar panels on the roof.

I'm so I'm so frustrated with there being these,

you know, of us not putting solar panels

on top of car parks and charging stations.

And it seems like such a no brainer to me.

So, yeah, I'm all for it,

but please put some solar panels on the roof.

And then and then I'm there.

Yeah, it has solar panels on the roof.

Well, the the the one they're planning in Aberdeen does.

I was going to say, I might not be at that one

because it's quite a long way for me to go

to for a 15 minute car wash, but it's a sunny in Aberdeen.

Yeah, there you go.

Right, what else we got on the subject of leasing.

OK, so at Brian Evans 8127.

Hi, guys, about finance,

I did a fairly quick comparison between lease deals

and paying cash on the Tesla Model 3.

The lease deals turned out cheaper

for the first six or seven years overall.

It's well worth doing the calculations.

That is a good point, actually.

Yeah, so is that kind of thing

you do have to really get the get the calculator out

and kind of go into find to find a detail, don't you?

We've also got message from at Neil R. Williams 218.

When dealers have pushed PCP arrangements,

they've often said you can pay it off quite quickly.

So taking the finance with a decent discount

and then paying it off as soon as possible could be cheaper.

That's interesting.

See, I would have thought that PCP you're in a fixed contract

and have to pay a certain amount per month.

But there is obviously a clause

you can pay it off earlier.

Yeah, that was when I bought my leaf,

which was obviously many years ago,

there was a finance deal and they did say,

well, you can pay it off

if you want to just to get that bonus

because I think it was a £1,000 cash pack.

You can pay it off straight afterwards.

But I'm like, well, it's 0% but I would have paid off.

They're like, oh yeah, good point.

But I was entirely allowed,

I think after the first payment to just say,

well, there's all your money

and I'll just take the cash back you've given

which would have been annoying for them, I'm sure.

Yes.

Well, there you go.

So I mean, that's a really interesting fact, isn't it?

I didn't know about that.

I haven't crossed my mind that you could do that with PCP.

But I mean, the leasing thing as well, you look at it,

some of the deals that were on,

I think at the moment on a Dacia Spring

and the Leap Motor C10,

which have been quite frankly,

ridiculous some of the lease deals on those,

you know, 150 per month and things.

You just think there's no way

you could negotiate enough discount

and a low enough finance rate

to get that amount of car,

you know, a 30, whatever it is,

£1,000 car for that amount of money.

It's not possible.

So the leasing company has obviously done that deal

and therefore can get it.

So yeah, I think you need to do the sums,

but often leasing is so much cheaper.

Yeah, I know there are some amazing lease deals out there.

I don't know, a friend of mine

got a Vauxhall Grandland for £150 a month on a lease deal,

which I thought was pretty remarkable.

I think it was a pre-reg it turned out,

but yeah, I thought that was pretty impressive really.

So you can't get some amazing deals out there.

Isn't that all good news?

It is. Well, we should probably wrap it up now.

I think that's more than half now.

We've done the obligatory more than a kilowatt hour.

More than a half hour.

More than, yeah, exactly.

Is everybody back from Holland?

Oh, you're all away next week, aren't you?

I'm away for a couple of weeks, yeah.

So I'm out in France.

Yes, exactly.

So it should be good fun.

I'm looking forward to that, yeah.

Been on Duolingo to learn the language

and all that, have you?

All of that, I'm fluent now.

It's all good.

Just shout loudly and wave your arms.

It'll be fine.

Sorry, France.

I apologise to anybody who speaks French.

It's a beautiful language,

and I am a terrible, terrible person.

Who ain't the charger of Rapide?

Let's see if we can play.

Oh my goodness, me.

On that note, I really think

we should probably let people go

just before this gets any worse.

If you have any other handy French phrases,

please let us know in the comments.

Do let me know, yeah, exactly.

Marvelous.

All right.

There you go.

All right, see you next time.

Okay, see you next time.

Bye.

Volvo XC40

Dodge Charger

Hyundai Ioniq

Chevrolet Corvette

Toyota Prius

Volkswagen Gti

Alpine A290

Tesla Model 3

Tesla Model S

BMW i3

BMW i3s

Skoda Octavia

Volkswagen Id7

Peugeot 5008

Tesla Model Y

Born Bourne

Mazda Mx30

Land Rover Range Rover

Dacia Spring

Chevrolet C10

Aston Martin Rapide

About this episode

Original notes