Freelander Goes Electric?! AI's Power Problem & Megawatt Charging!

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Hello and welcome to another exciting episode of the Everything Electric podcast.

Now, we did have a rather special guest book for this week, but through the complexities

of booking people and timings, we weren't able to do it.

But that person is going to appear on the podcast soon.

But in the meantime, I don't think we've got second best.

I think we've got first best because we have the fabulous Imogen Pogol ready and waiting with

huge mountains of data and information from around the world that she spent months researching.

Oh my God, if only, if only that were true.

We kind of came into this and I think it, well, we've been, we've been chatting for about 25 minutes

and I said, which we shouldn't have been doing. No, that's wrong.

Because then we kept saying things that we thought were very funny and should have been

on the podcast. Yes, but some of them were probably, you know, legally delicate.

But the thing is, because I just, when I was looking at storage yesterday,

the first one I saw and that just, I didn't even look for it.

It came into my, you know, when you get those, I don't even know where it came from,

you know, an email update was for an electric Land Rover.

I think we should inform the viewers and listeners that you have very, you know,

you have direct experience of the company that makes Land Rovers JLR.

You work there. When I first met you, you were at JLR.

Yeah, that's right. I, that's where I did a graduate scheme as an engineer.

So I've probably said this a thousand times.

So for anyone who's heard the story before, buckle up, you're about to hear it again.

But yeah, I was an aerodynamics engineer and then I worked for a long time,

both in aerodynamics and also in design, which I loved because yes, these are technical products

and somehow, somehow tens of thousands of hours of engineering and tens of thousands of people

manage to produce a car, but also there's so many different personalities.

And I loved the kind of like drama of negotiation of technical stuff.

So it's really fun. And my last job though was working in PR, but very much on the like

future technology side. So mainly autonomous connected electric and shared stuff.

So at the point that I left, we had really, as an organization just announced that by 2020,

there would be an electrified version of every single model, which we now know has not happened.

But if you Google TechFest 2017, that was the big kind of like statement.

That's when they launched that and announced all that.

And you know, obviously, and Jaguar and Android were not unique in this,

like many, many, many other car companies have done the same.

They've kind of walked back from that commitment.

And so it's got to the point now where we're like, come on, like we really want to see the

electric Jag, we really want to see the electric Range Rover.

We've been following those so closely. So then to see this free lander come out of nowhere.

It is a joint venture, isn't it, between GAC and JLR, which is fast.

I mean, it's just extraordinary. The whole thing now I'm feverishly looking for my notes.

So I think GAC is, we've teased another story that might come up.

It's with Cherry, Cherry and Jaguar.

That's right, yes.

Which is that who's doing, sorry, it's Cherry and Jaguar, yeah.

Yeah, because people who've been following the car industry for many years will know that circa

2015, the way that a lot of European OEMs had to do business in China was by joining a joint,

by forming a joint venture with the Chinese company.

Yes, that's not new, is it at all?

No, so I think 2015-ish, plus or minus a year, was the year that Jaguar Land Rover and Cherry,

they formed CJLR, which was Cherry, Jaguar.

Oh, right. Yes, which is, and that's who's done this.

Yeah, yeah.

But I mean, it's very, I mean, if they, from what I can see, it's like a product rather than a concept.

Yeah.

I think.

It also just has not, there's been an ounce of like, no doubt.

I mean, you know, of all of us, you know, if you think between you, me and Jag and Dan,

you know, with our ears to the wall with the glass, you know, of new announcements,

you'd think we might have heard of some, or some rumour.

Oh, Elliot, you know, somebody would have known about this.

It feels like it's come out of the woodwork somehow.

And then when we were chatting off-mic and when we weren't recording, we did have to have the caveat

of, hang on a second, it is April Fool's Day on the day of recording.

Well, yeah.

And then this was published on the 31st of March.

This has to be actually correct.

Unless it was published in Australia on April Fool's Day.

Oh, gosh.

I don't think, I think it's a legit story.

I mean, it's from, it's from Electric, you know, and I don't think they do April's Fool's,

and there's a lot of information about this vehicle and what it's running on.

And, you know, I don't think-

Yeah, and I've got AutoCard open, so we've got at least two sources.

Right, so we've got, we've got two different sources for it.

Yeah.

But I mean, you know, we were also chatting that really for, for the Land Rover side of the business,

every time they see a Jakku or a Remoda or another car that looks sort of like a scaled-down

version of the Evoque, but in electric form and for approximately a third of the price,

they must just be like, ah, for God's sake.

So you always want to-

Because I don't know-

Also-

Yeah, I'm just wondering how well the, how well the iPace did for Jaguar.

I mean, clearly they sold a hell of a lot to Waymo,

because those are going around London now, the Waymo's.

I've seen about five of them and they've become very common sight.

Well, what's interesting about iPace is that the people who, who I've met who still own them,

and again, I appreciate that this is anecdote rather than hardcore data,

but they loved them.

They absolutely loved those cars.

And I feel like there's this sentiment that it, it was too early really,

and it wouldn't have been too early if they'd continued to bring out

iterations of it or additional electric vehicle models.

And it was sort of this flash in the pan, and then we haven't had anything subsequently.

But it was a great car and people really, really loved them.

Brilliant car.

Yeah.

Brilliant car for the technology that existed at the time as well.

Yeah.

And whenever I see them now, and I do, I mean, there's plenty of them around,

you go, oh, that is, I sort of, I've forgotten about it because we've, you know,

particularly for us, we're seeing this, you know, endless kind of torrent of new vehicles being released.

And they go, oh, the iPad, because it's, I do like the look of it.

And it hasn't dated, and I don't think it looks a bit weird.

It looks great.

They, you know, they all look in pretty good nick.

They're not Ford bids.

They're pretty well made.

And I mean, that, you know, my experience of that vehicle, when I went to test drive it in

Portugal, whenever it came out, whatever year it came out, I don't, when it was about,

I'm sort of thinking about 2017, 18, I don't know.

2018 was the year.

Yeah.

Was the year 2018.

And everything it did was like, oh, it's like an electric car, and it goes fast.

It's a Jaguar, you know, and drove it along their roads.

We drove it on a track.

And it, I drove much too slowly, you know, around a racing set with someone going,

go faster, faster.

But then when I drove it, I drove, I drove it up a dusty side of a hill where you were

honestly, as a human being, you would want a stick or a rope.

It was properly, it was like steep.

I could only see the sky and this thing went up there with no effort on road tires,

on loose ground and dust and rocks.

And it did.

Occasionally a wheel would go, but it would immediately stop if it lost grip.

And you just went, it was like that much noise as it went, it's like that.

Because I've driven silly Landrovers with massive tires and winches on the front

that make screaming noise.

And you've got to go into a low ratio gearbox and put it in, you know, all that stuff.

It would have, a Land Rover would have gone up that hill.

But my God, the noise and the heat and the strain would have been staggering.

And this thing just sailed up with that.

It was extraordinary.

So an amazing drivetrain, I think, which is what, you know, certainly Land Rover are

renowned for, really impressive.

Well, this is it.

And I'll just, and I know that, you know, as an organization of everything electric

and Blue Charge Show, we've been a little bit, little bit critical of Jaguar Land Rover's

commitment to electrification.

But I think just reflecting on, on I-PACE for a second where I want to give a little credit

because that car was designed by Ian Callum, who not only is a phenomenal designer,

but the culture that he created in his design team was second to none,

just so committed to working with junior designers to bring them up to kind of like

bolster their skills.

So it's a car that has a phenomenal design culture that sort of sits underneath it.

But also, there is a documentary about the development of the I-PACE,

which I'm in.

I think you can still watch it on Amazon Prime.

It's narrated, or like the voiceover is by Mark Strong, which is, is quite fun.

And I feel very proud.

What great man's name.

Can I just say Mark Strong?

Brilliant man's name.

If you're on a manly man, you ask Mark Strong to do something.

Not Kevin Week.

He doesn't get the gigs.

I wonder if it is his real name.

Mark, if you're listening, then it's him.

Yes, we knew, when I was a kid, we knew the Strongs.

There was a family and they were, they were the Strongs.

I do remember that.

And I now live near a lovely family called the Stranges.

Seriously, Mr. and Mrs. Strange.

They live just up the lane.

They're lovely.

Oh my God.

Anyway.

Such an aside.

But there was a recent French election, local election, and the person who won their name,

their surname is Hitler, but with two Ts.

And he was like, why have you never changed your name?

He was like, well, I'd like to prove that it's not just the name and that people can also be good with that name.

They can be nice Hitlers.

I imagine he really has signed up for a life of hardship.

But yeah, that documentary was phenomenal to be a part of.

And we got the engineering development behind that part.

And one thing that always sticks in my mind, and I think this is what happens in luxury cars,

is that you can afford to do these wonderful things.

But the sound quality in there is almost like you being in a concert hall.

And the reason that they can do that is that they can create an ever so slight delay

in the sound that comes from above your head versus the one that comes into your

ears or like, you know, sort of lower down.

And that gives you an exception that the ceiling is much higher.

And therefore it's more like being in a concert hall.

So actually, even the engineering of the sound system is crafted to give you this like

sense of being in a much fancier, more elaborate space.

Right.

And one of the women who kind of pioneered that, you know, she herself was a musician

and also an engineer.

So yeah, that car holds a real special place in the world, certainly, yeah.

B2B EV Day and commercial vehicles too.

I'm just going to try to do some more stories because we've done, we've done, well,

I'm very excited to see if the, what would be really embarrassing is if tomorrow we find out

automotive world falls for joke about new electric Freelancer April Fool.

That will be embarrassing.

But I think it's possibly, I mean, all the reports I've read of it say it's coming to Europe.

It's not just for China.

Obviously, it's going to be for the Chinese market to start with.

But I didn't realize the Freelander was a big seller in China, the old combustion engine one.

Because I always thought that out of all Landrovers, the Freelander was, I was the least impressed with.

You know, even if you're critical of a big SUV, the, the Range Rover was an amazing vehicle.

The old Defender, which I had was an amazing vehicle.

The Freelander was a bit, I don't know, I was never, I was never interested.

The Princess Beatrice of the Royal Family.

Yeah. She hasn't done anything wrong, but you don't really want to hang out with her.

That's really bad. I actually can't believe my best.

But I think it works.

If she is the print, yeah, that vehicle was the printer.

Well, let's hope this new one is the,

the Mayor of New York.

Yeah, let's leave it. We're going to go off on a very bad tangent.

Well, I was just going to say, just whilst you're finding your second story,

are you in April Fool's prankster? Is that something new in your family?

No, I find that, no, I've never, I don't think I've, I've just tried anything I've ever, oh God,

no, once. Oh dear, only once. And that was so embarrassing and so awful. I rang my,

I was in a rehearsal and I rang my then girlfriend Sonia and put on a slightly cockney accent

and said, is that Sonia's Seraphim? Yeah. We have a young man in custody, Robert Rowland,

did a whole thing. Can you come and bail him out or something like that? And she, and you know,

you could not have done it to a worse person because Sonia was a incredibly intelligent woman.

We're actually, Judy and I are going to go and see her if we're having lunch with her.

Anyway, but she loves a drama. If there's a potential drama around. And so she went out,

she went to a police station. I was in rehearsal room, the other side of London.

That was, that backfired on me badly. That was a bad, the people I was with thought it was funny

while I was doing it. And then, you know, and also because she's French, then her

ear might not be tuned to the same voice, but doing a different accent. You know,

I got away with it. She thought it was the cops. Oh my God. Very, very bad. So yeah, stupid. What

a stupid thing to do. But yes, I always, I always fall for April's jokes. And I don't think other

than that, I don't think I've ever done it. Yeah. The only one that I did very successfully

was I told my whole family that I'd been asked to be on the channel five version of Love Island.

And I've never seen my dad go gray. It's the only way I can describe it.

And I said, I was like, you know, I know this is like uncomfortable for you guys,

but the money's really good. And I've thought what I've got to lose. And my dad just like was

silent for like a solid three minutes. And then just went, I hear they have sex on the television.

And that whereas I'm sorry, dad, it's April's day. Yeah. I'm not done any pranks since.

No. Yeah, I was gave my heart attack, which I don't need to do it again. But then I sort of

think of you, you are more of a prankster than I am because of the things you've done with

deep with your husband, when you were you in a box or something that was delivered or it looked

like it was. But I love the way he reacts to it. We shouldn't go on about it too much. Well,

that is funny. Just very briefly, what is so annoying about him is that he's incredibly cool

and calm all the time. And so I obviously have him on find my friends. The only reason I use

find my friends is to see like how much time I have to hide for when he's going to come home.

So I could see that he was like three minutes away from home. So I like got into this box,

hid it, I like sellotaped it from the inside. And I'm in there sort of chuckling to myself,

seeing like, okay, he's going to be home in 30 seconds. Annoyingly, his mum rang him,

which meant that he was then outside in the car chatting to her for like 12 minutes.

I'm like committed to this box now. So I've got to stay here. And then when he came in,

he just went, I know you're in there. At that point, I've been in there for like 17 minutes.

But like, oh, such a damp squib of a surprise. And I never learned because I do it every single

time. All the time. And he's never surprised. He's never surprised. It's really upsetting.

And we're going to talk about one other, we're going to, we've got to try to do more than one

topic. But no, the one, the thing I wanted to know was, because I'd read some stories about

big grid batteries. And I came across and how big they're getting. So I remember the one that's

outside Oxford that's very near you is, I think, 50 megawatt hours, it's somewhere around that,

you know, which is massive, you know, when you think of how big batteries are got,

but there's, there's now a 30 gigawatt hour battery in America, there's just been installed,

just been, just been clicked on 30 gigawatt hours. I mean, it takes up quite a lot of room

when you get to that scale. But I was so excited. Oh, this would be a great story for tomorrow.

Then I read a bit further. It's for a data center. And that's the thing. And I kind of,

and I'm really sorry to be doing some live Googling, but I want to live Google.

Oops. Let me see is

live Googling is great.

I meant to do this before.

I'm glad you say the words that you're Googling, because I do that.

You know, I tried to do like, oh, this is

plush. So if we, wow. Okay. So just to put it into perspective, and this was,

this was the number that I wanted, was that London, the city of London, a mega city,

uses roughly 100 gigawatt hours a day. So, you know, for seven to eight hours,

you could run off this, this battery for this data center. The whole city, 12 million people.

Yeah. No, it's colossal. But it also tells you the consumption levels of data centers,

which I think is, you know, and I know it's a contentious issue. And I hear people say,

it's not as bad as you say, and they don't use as much water and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

But I mean, we know, I mean, the grok one in wherever that is, that's the, that's kind of the

worst. It's so typical. Why is that the worst? They've got 24, I think it's 24 gas turbines

running 24 hours a day and people live near it. And they can't sleep because of the noise,

you know, it's jet engines. And that's the trouble, you know, it's always difficult sort of equating

situation to situation. We've just said this one data center versus the city of London.

If 30 gigawatt hours of batteries existed in London, they would do so in a very,

very distributed way. Yes, they wouldn't be in one lump. Yeah. So this is so,

this is existing in these very concentrated areas for which very specific communities

are then hugely impacted. Yeah, yeah. Like,

you know, the health impact from, from the noise exposure, from the logistics, everything.

And then debate about how that translates into bills in that area and, and all the rest of it

as well. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I think it's a really difficult line for us because,

you know, what the way people will watch or listen to this is entirely reliant on data

centers, you know, with none. And in fact, none of us are innocent of it. I mean,

if you've ever ordered anything on Amazon, if you've used the internet, you've used data

centers, you know, but I mean, I think the reason it's come into the news is because of the,

you know, you know, galaxy level increase in scale and energy use from AI. I mean,

that is really, and whether, and now, I mean, I love hearing the debate of going, well,

we might not need all that much because now there's news. So, you know, that is evolving so fast

that actually there may not, there may be less use of vast strings of computers in massive buildings

with, you know, all that stuff. I think the thing that bugs me, and it's a, it is a chip on my

shoulder and it shouldn't be there is that for so long, I heard so many people whine on about how

electric vehicles would melt the grid. And then you go, no one, you know, now, well, why aren't

those same people now saying data centers will melt the grid? You know, but so, you know, I think

all of it is relative. You know, it's not as bad as people are saying. And also, it's much worse

than some people are saying, you know, that. Well, this is, and I think, you know, as you say, it's

a difficult conversation to have when I research a lot of things and I really do need AI sometimes

to help me consolidate some of that research. Right. But there are ways, and I'm sure many

people listening to this are using various AI tools at work or in their personal lives,

and there are things that you can do in order to reduce your own personal consumption so you can

feel slightly less proud about your contributions. So for example, grouping requests and being very

clear about what you actually want to ask. So actually taking a step back and thinking about

the problem slightly more strategically, using your actual physical human brain, which is a very

different power source actually, rather than just willy-nilly throwing out chat GPT.

Yeah, sitting request, yeah. And also, using the AI tool, which is funded by someone who most

closely aligns with your own personal morals, I think that's very important. And so always worth

doing that research as well. Tricky. It is a tricky one, but I mean, it's also, I think the

positive side of that story is the concept of a 30 gigawatt hour. And there are also, in further

research, there are the first terawatt hour batteries that will be coming online. They'll

be in China, but they will be counted in terawatts. And that would be enough to run a city of 12

million people for a day or a day and a half. Then you go, but what we need that for, I mean,

I think I always have to kind of go through this for myself is the curtailment of wind power

is such an absolute travesty of insanity and human waste that you want to have all those

wind turbines going flat out 24 hours a day. And any electricity you don't use that moment,

you store in vast batteries all over the cup that are distributed around the country, which means

that you then have, I mean, that's how it's so obvious. And that technology is now becoming

economically plausible. I think that's the underlying story there. Imagine building a 30

gigawatt hour battery storage in 2010. It would be billions, literally billions of dollars. Now,

it's some millions, and it's less each time. And the funny time that we're in, and I'm really

conscious that I'm about to venture into territory that warrants more research and a future discussion,

but an oil crisis where unlike the oil crisis of the 70s, we have viable economically viable and

technologically viable alternative solutions. And so whilst there's no question, things are

going to be absolutely horrific at later in the summer, but we do have the things to make sensible

choices. Yeah. Yeah. No, you're absolutely right. Because, I mean, you won't remember these. Well,

I just remember cycling past a line of cars in Oxford. That was in Oxford in the early 70s. And

it just went on for they went on for it went out of town. I mean, because there was no it wasn't

the petrol got expensive, which it did. There wasn't any, you know, that was the fuel crisis.

And so you were allowed to buy a gallon. People would queue up for a day to get one gallon of

fuel, which of course they I mean, the cars was so hopelessly inefficient, then they got through

a gallon and about 20 miles. So it was a really it was an absolute disaster. I mean, no, no,

because I was a kid and didn't care. And it was funny. You know, it didn't really it didn't affect

me at all. But you know, I think of all the families trying to get to school or get to work

and all that stuff would have been a nightmare then, you know, it was really and there was

absolutely no alternative. There wasn't anyone cruising past smuggling in an electric car. They

didn't exist. Well, my only kind of very similar experience to that or like sort of similar

experience that was there was a petrol shortage in about 2003. Right. On that time, maybe early

don't remember that. Well, it lasted like a week. Right. I was at the tanker driver's strike.

That could have been something like that. Yeah. Yeah. And queues and queues and queues of petrol

stations. Yeah. Yeah. But you know, it was temporary, ultimately. And yes, yes, it was. And it was

very localised to here. This is global, isn't it? Yeah. This episode is brought to you by

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This is a story that you know about because you've been, you've seen it and I haven't.

The Windrose Global E 700 electric truck actually did charging. So I know that in Germany,

because I watched the electric truck and he's amazing and he's charged at one point. So but

there is a charger in the UK and it's in a big commercial vehicle hub somewhere in the East

Midlands, I think. And it charged at one point five megawatts, which is obviously what you need in

trucks. But you saw that truck and it is remarkably similar to the Tesla Semi in its looks. I think

it's fair to say. And so we have done two episodes on this. We did a review of the truck itself,

which you can find on the channel and we'll link to it. And also a podcast episode with the CEO.

And it's interesting because having, you know, we've done this job for a little while

and we've seen companies come and go. And I think it means that we do have a base level of

skepticism, particularly when it comes to younger CEOs with like really, really big ambitions.

And so Wen Han, who is the CEO, he's like 36. And I really went in like, all right, cool,

you've got a truck. And I came away being like, no, this, this is going to be remarkably successful.

I think he brings a real humility to that job. I think he can absolutely see where he can leverage

an existing supply chain and where he also needs to very much be present in Europe and

leverage that expertise as well. So there's, you know, he's got a sensible plan. And when you

ask him about the Tesla semi resemblance, he's like, well, it's a question of aerodynamics. There's

only so many shapes that a truck of that size can be if you are prioritizing efficiency.

But the really big difference between his truck and the Tesla semi is that his has a bed for a

driver. And he's like, if you want to make a truck work in Europe, you've got to have that as

inclusion. Sleep in that. Yeah. Yeah. Well, and it's, I mean, it is, you know, I think so important

when you think, when you know, if you drive on any motorway in the UK, auto barn, auto route,

freeway, you know, anyway, you will see a lot of trucks. There's a huge number of truck movements

that, you know, that happen every day that burn billions of gallons of diesel. And this is a

really, I just think it's a critically important part of the whole transition is that the more

big electric trucks that are the more than a truck stop place is going to put in big charges that's

worth it from their point of view, you know, it makes economic sense. And I think the critical

thing which I hadn't really thought about, but when I've watched the electric trucker, I really

hope we will do some collaborative shows with. He's in Germany, Tobias is very nice,

is that they have to stop, it's the law, you know, and people say, well, I drive, I need to drive to

Scotland, you know, well, you can't, you've got to stop mate, or you'll lose your license.

They have to stop for longer than it takes the trucks to charge. That's the basic thing, you

know, the trucks charge faster than the drivers. Exactly that. And like, you know, if you just think

that these are thunder and great big vehicles, those drivers, it's not vanity that they need their

rest, like that is in the interest of the safety of other road users. And whilst I think we have

a tendency to think of trucking as like this very archaic thing, it's not every time you order

something from the internet, you are supporting trucking. But it is also an industry facing a

huge shortage of drivers. And when Hand's point is like, well, if you can create something that's

actually desirable to be in, like that's really important, you know, I think there's like,

a deficit of like 26% of jobs, it's like an astonishing, you know, they're struggling to

recruit. Yeah, yeah. Oh God, I wish I wasn't so old, because I'd love to drive one of those.

But then you remember when we drove the electric trucks at Milbrook, and I altered the landscape,

I think in a beneficial way by slightly cutting a corner.

It was, you only slightly cut that corner, but the damage was

rather sizable. It was sizable. But I mean, what is incredible with those machines, and that was

nothing to do with the electric, I'm sure it does want to be the same, but it was just unnoticeable

from the cab. I didn't realise I was dragging six wheels through mud. You know, I didn't even feel

it. I mean, I just wasn't aware. It's so, they're so enormous. So the amount of damage you could do

in one of those is terrifying. New electric vehicle sales in the United States, of course,

they've gone down. You know, there's a government that is vehemently opposed to anything like

electric vehicles. But what is interesting is, the second hand car sales have seen this

weird spike in interest, particularly in the last few weeks. I mean, I think

it's worth tying that in with the fact that, you know, we know that many of the

automotive manufacturers we know have said, it's gone insane. We've never had this many

inquiries. We cannot keep up with the demand. We know, you know, since the Epstein Wars started,

you know, just phenomenal interest in, you know, people I think who it would only be people who've

gone, maybe next time we get a car, we should get an electric one or I want to try one or all

that sort of stuff. They've all gone, I don't want to try one. I want one because they've seen

the cost of fuel. But the fact that that's happened, that's really interesting in America,

because there must be quite a few second hand electric vehicles for sale. I mean, you know,

there is a market because I'm just not aware of the American EV market at the moment. I don't know

what's going on. But that was an intriguing story. Yeah. And, you know, we hear when we see it in

the comments, like for example, the Renault Twingo episode went out yesterday. And there are comments

and they're being like, I love this car. It's so cute. Maybe I don't need to wait for it to come to

the US. I should just move to Europe. Yes. So many comments. So on every car we do, oh, if only we

could get that here from Americans, you know. And it's interesting that just a few years ago,

that used to be the Australian market that were making those comments on our videos.

I wish we could get this here. And now, I mean, they're getting things first as a test.

I see things in Australia and I go, I wish we could get that here. And for the price that

they pay for it in Australia, which is considerably less than here. But I mean,

that being the main driver. And I'm like, I should move to Australia. I could go outside

to be there. It would be great. But yeah, I mean, it's interesting because it is totally

unsurprising that the new EV sales have gone down when A, the policies are such that they're not

supported and B, there just isn't as much choice. Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I think the beauty

is that the interesting thing that's happened, you know, from our standpoint in the last year is

that there were three massive offshore wind farms in under construction that the president

did a stop all work. And then it went to court and his orders were like completely illogical.

And so they're now doing them. I mean, also, because I didn't know the details of it till I

looked into it, I thought they were planned. They were half done. I mean, they were installing it.

It was employing thousands of people, you know, to install those and to maintain them. It was

reinvigorating people who were doing fishing who no longer can because there's no fish,

a little bit of a worry. And they've now converted their ships to maintenance ships to run the

offshore wind towers. And now it's all happening. I mean, they were the first one to be open quite

soon. So that's counter to the current thing. But also the amount of solar and batteries that

have been installed in America since the last election has kind of doubled from what it was

before just because it makes economic sense. It's nothing else. Yeah. And you know, Texas has like

the highest density of renewables than like any other. And I kind of think, because I feel like

it's really easy so often to be like, oh, he's stupid or, you know, stupidity. He's not stupid.

It's not stupid. It's like, well, oh, hang on a second, you're now really dependent on

critical materials and rare earth metals that are coming from China, like your nemesis,

that's the driver. But then also, that's kind of like, we can see the strategy of why that

narrative is being spun. But then equally, contending with, I think the wind turbine stuff in

particular was like a totally irrational. Yeah, that isn't sensible. Yeah, there is stupidity

and logic. And it's not beautifully mixed together. Yeah. It's a beautiful mixture with

fairly unrealistic hair, you know, just very, very peculiar. I mean, I don't even want to, you know,

the thing is now it is the there was a thing that I don't really remember because I was too young

at the time, but there was a thing in America called the Nixon silence. And that and it was a few

people in that I knew in America, they said, oh, you go to a dinner party, everybody's like,

and it's all funny and laughing. And then someone mentions Nixon, it just goes quiet for like

three minutes as everybody just sits there. So I would presume in those similar circles,

and I would say this was on the kind of liberal elite coastal people who've crushed the freedom of

America. But you know, that that same group, I would imagine there's now, you know, who silence,

I don't even want to say his name. But what, you know, the thing is, they will go ahead of a

Republican senator this morning, who is not standing for the next election midterms, he's

retired old guy. And he said the thing that those guys are not remembering is he will go,

there will be a time after this guy in the White House, he will go one way or the other,

that guy is going. Remember that, dudes. No, a lot of people ain't gonna forget, you know,

it was a really, and I thought, oh, that's not coming from some, you know, banner holding liberal,

that is coming from a pretty right wing Republican, who is not a fan of the big man. But yeah,

very interesting. It will pass. It will pass. And I am, why am I sharing this fact? I'll share it

anyway. It just happened. This is a game with Europe. I'm like, I'm just saying things that

anyway. So I have a five year diary. And we got given them as presents. And you only have like,

it's like literally two sentences that you can write. And I'm in the third year of it.

And I think they have two reflections. One, the happiest days are where I've been like,

I had a coffee and I went outside for a walk. It is nothing fancy. It is always like, there's

really, really simple moments that I'm like, I'm so grateful that these exist. And the second

reflection is that when there have been difficult periods of time, I guess personally, like, you

know, work is stressful or whatever. Yeah, it is temporary. And you get to the other side and you're

nice reminder that joy exists in the simplest of forms amidst things that seem incredibly

dark and scary. And the incredibly dark and scary doesn't last forever either. I hope.

That's what I tell myself every day. I think it's a good, I think it's a good call just for

sanity. I think it's worth remembering that. I mean, just for your own personal sanity. Because

that would be quite a hard thing to cling to. And what's so awful about, as always,

it's the same with the last insanity with Iraq. There were loads of people in Baghdad who were

really nice, kind, thoughtful, gentle people who didn't want to kill anyone. And the same in Iran.

I think we also were more exposed to Iranians because of all the ones that left when the Shah

was deposed. You know, that's my generation of people. There's a lot of Iranians about my age

who live in the UK and have done since they were kids. So I had lots of Iranian mates. I went to

Iranian weddings. And they're just amazing. And they're like really amazing people. They're not

murderous nutters, you know. And you know, whenever this stuff happens, bloody,

that is a stupid war. I'm going to say that the Epstein war is a stupid war. It doesn't,

it's not going to solve the problem. In two years time, Iran's going to be firing missiles at Israel.

It's, of course it is. They might be made a cardboard, but they'll get through somehow, you

know. It's so pointed, doesn't solve the bloody problem. I could absolutely agree there's a problem.

It's an awful regime, but it's stupid wars. I mean, it's the last thing we should be talking about

everything electorate, but it is an oil war. It always is an oil war.

A fudging oil war, that's what I'll say. But you know, and I'll just, I'll just tell this as well.

And then we'll share some happy things at the end, but I was in Japan on holiday and we went to the

Hiroshima, we went to the Peace Museum in Hiroshima. If anyone has any plans to go to Japan,

you cannot go and not go to that museum. It's incredibly important that you do so.

And it is one of those stark reminders where you're like, these things that are happening in the

world, they're divorced from the communities and people who live in those countries who just want

to get by and just want to get by peacefully. And they are often the biggest victims of

insanity that comes from powerful people who don't think about people.

But yeah, it's really, it's incredible museum. You leave feeling

weak, but yeah, well worth going to. But we should end on a happier note.

You have a shoot tomorrow. I have a shoot tomorrow. I think I got the better deal.

Yeah, you usually do. Well, I'm seeing, well, I'm seeing a car that I'm intrigued to see because

I know it really well, which is always a help for me. So it's a BYD Ato3 relaunched, re-zushed up.

And I've driven them Ato3 a lot in Australia. And I mean, it's great little car. I love it.

Well, it's not that little, but it isn't a big chunky SUV. It's a small, petite SUV.

But a brilliant, brilliant car. I love it. It's so easy. It's one of those so easy to drive.

You don't have to have a degree in understanding computer graphics, you know, and the sat nav

worked. I used it all over the place. Now it's good. Anyway, so I forgot what you're seeing,

or can you not mention it? I can mention it. It's the Volvo ES90.

That's right. And I think just safe to say, you know, all of these electric cars are good. And

obviously they're good depending on what your budget is. But from our sense, the fancier the brand,

the better the lunch is. Oh, yes. Although, yes, no, you're right. I mean, in some ways,

when there's like a very basic lunch, I think that's good. Put all the money into the actual

vehicle, make it that work. You know, don't you have to suck up to boring, automated journalists.

But on the other hand, when it's nice, I'm not going to say no. You're going to get a better

lunch. Well, I think we should do a lunch comparison. We really should. Maybe that's the

kind of behind the scenes content people actually want. But on Monday, I went to Frankfurt to see

their Onyx 3. I don't think I'm allowed to say anything other than that until it comes out in

a couple of weeks. But you've seen it. We were there with AutoTrader, but we were there as everything

electric cars and AutoTrader were the other journalists there. And the day had been a bit

chaotic. The time that we had to shoot was like minuscule. But then I just turned around to Auto

Trader at one point, I was like, do you know what the best thing about coming to Frankfurt for car

shoots? And they're like, no. I was like, really salty, buttery pretzels. I love her. We had like

40 minutes to do this shoot. There's this whole big table of salty buttery pretzels. I scoop up

two. We're going our way back to the airport. It was great. So no complaints.

Oh, well, I'm going to Frankfurt. I'm going to Frankfurt soon next week to see Boltzwagen's

huge new array of electric vehicles, which looks, a couple of those I'm actually genuinely going

to end on a, we will end, I promise. But I remember being asked early on my early days of

trying to understand how to review electric vehicles and what the whole thing was about.

Someone asked me about brand loyalty. And I was all, I was actually, I said, I don't do that.

You know, I hate having other people's writing on my clothes and you know, Calvin Klein. I don't

want to wear that. I don't know his name on my t-shirt. Anyway. And so I said, I don't do brand

brand loyalty. And they said, what was your last Petrocarna? Oh, it was a Boltzwagen Golf R32.

I was so shocked. And what was the one before that? A Boltzwagen Golf VR6? What was the one before

that? A Boltzwagen Golf GTO? What was the one before that? Another GTO? What was the one before

that at Golf? And I'd had something like eight Golfs. I mean, over like 25 years, not in a few

months. And I realized, oh my God, that is brand loyalty. And then what were the other cars I had

were Landrovers. So I've never owned any petrol burning vehicles that weren't either Landrovers

or VW Golfs. So I've got obscene levels of brand loyalty. But that said, yeah, I'm very loyal.

But so I'm very excited to see, I really, really, really want Boltzwagen to really thrive in the

electric market, you know, and they've done well. There's something like the ID Buzz. I mean,

phenomenal success. And I've not heard anyone go, yeah, I had the buzz. It wasn't up to scratch. So

I got rid of it. They go, oh my God, I've got the buzz. You know, they just go bananas about it.

And I've also seen like normal people, like plumbers and, you know, electricians with ID

Buzzes. And I'm going, oh my God, that's like, that's like a normal company. It's not like...

See, I've got to tell you this, because last year it was my in-laws 60th birthday. And we went away

for the weekend. And a couple of months prior to that, my mother-in-law said to me, oh, I've had

the strangest dream. So I do continue. So you have had the strangest dream that for our 60th

birthday weekend, we went there in a VW ID Buzz. And I was like, was that a dream or is that a

request? Anyway, it was very much a request, I think. But we went down this weekend away,

had obviously four grown adults, three dogs, all of our gobbins for the weekend. It's a great car.

My sister and brother-in-law have one. They absolutely adore it. It's like,

they're known in their area for it. It's, yeah, they're great cars.

So I want, I mean, because the ID3, I loved it when I first drove. I drove the really early

prototype and it was amazing. And I was so excited. And it's, you know, you see a lot of them about,

it's okay, but it did have some annoying glitchy stuff, which, you know, Dan is,

Jack is very good at being angry about haptic buttons. But yeah, I'm just excited to see.

And also that there are sort of G effectively GTI versions of their cars coming out because I did,

I did have some classic, I was a classic. I was a GTI tosser. There's no avoiding it. I can't,

I can't get away with it. So Andy, the videographer who is joining you on that,

that trip, we're having a discussion about that shoot on Monday. And there's like an

overwhelming amount of stuff that VW are going to have on display.

There's a lot of stuff. I don't know. And we've got for like four minutes with each one. It's

ridiculous. Yeah, I don't know how we're going to do it. So I think it's going to be delightfully

chaotic. And I hope we have fun as well. Yeah. Yeah. Anyway, I don't think I, this is,

I've enjoyed recording this podcast a lot. And I'm now very worried that it's the

first waffly lot of old nonsense. Well, people will tell us if that's what they think.

I'd also just like it to be known that we went into the same, okay, less aim for half an hour.

Oh God, what have we done? 51 minutes. Didn't even notice. Because on my end,

the time is quite small because it's quite big on yours, isn't it? But when we record things,

unasked the software we use. Well, you know, time flies when you're having fun. And this

has been delightful. So it has. I'm not upset about it. And I hope no one else is either.

Yeah. So I'll say, oh, our live event at Harrogate, which is coming up in the beginning of May,

is looking very, I had a long talk with Joe, who's the woman who organizes a lot of it,

for people who don't know. They're really pleased because so many car, there's going to be so many

car companies that we are more than I think we've ever had in the UK. So it's looking very good.

And there's what there is an exciting, I'm not going to mention it because it's not been confirmed,

but there's an exciting addition to the live events that is not exactly in keeping with our

general ethos, but it is all electric. I'll just say that it's quite wild. There's a wild thing

that is coming to Harrogate. So if you're in the, in the Harrogate environs, if you're even,

if you're a hundred miles from Harrogate, it's really worth coming on that weekend, which is

one of the dates. It is the 7th and 8th of May that weekend. 8th of May. Yes. 9th and 10th.

Just two days, 8th and 9th. It's a Friday and Saturday. 8th and 9th of May. It's going to be

good. And there's a B2B day, which doesn't stop. You've got to be careful how you say that, I think.

There's a business to business day because if you say B2B day, that's a different thing.

But a B2B day on the Friday. But that doesn't mean the general public are allowed there,

but there's some, there's a lot of business-y talks going on, which the general public might

not be that interested in. Because I think the key thing, and we have all benefited from this,

and in our organization is that, of course, an affordable or more affordable way to access an

EV is via salary sacrifice. So if any businesses, employers, employees would like that, then that's

a good day to come to, for sure. And there's some, definitely on the Friday, there's some real clever

people who really know how that works, that are available to discuss that with, and there'd be

panels. You and I will probably be hosting panels about salary sacrifice. Well, I'm not there.

Oh, you're not there, are you? I thought I was saying that was going on.

I feel very bad. I'm having a little operation a couple of weeks beforehand,

so the chance that I probably would be fine by then. But there's some other lovely people that

are coming. Yeah, much better. Upgrades, really. But then you'll be in, you'll be at Cheltenham.

Yeah. You come to Cheltenham. I will. So, I never ever thought I'd do,

yeah, I never thought I'd do a big EV event in Cheltenham, which is the town where I was made,

which my mother always thought was disgusting. I didn't, I wasn't born there.

Brought by the, brought by the stalk there. Yes, that's where the stalk flew over. Yeah,

nine months before I was born. Anyway, shut up, Robert. Let it go and do something useful. Say

goodbye to lovely people. Lovely people who've been watching. Please do subscribe. Please do

tell your friends about this. There isn't always waffle like this. There's some very clever people

that appear on this. Not that Imogen isn't very clever, and I'm medium clever. And as always,

if you have been, thank you for watching.

Freelander Goes Electric?! AI's Power Problem & Megawatt Charging!

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Land Rover Freelander

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Dodge Charger

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Renault Twingo

Atto Byd Ato3

ES90

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R32 Golf R32

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Volkswagen Id Buzz

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