Kilowatt Half Hour Ep 94: The petrol ban, and our cars of the year!

Hello, and welcome to your weekly rapid charge of all the latest electric car news from the

team at electrifying.com.

This week we'll be talking about the electrifying cars of the year 2026, all our favourite cars,

and we will also discuss the changes that the EU has made to the petrol van and how

that might affect you.

Of course, we will have Barnards Bargains for all the best EV lease deals out there.

We will also be answering your electric car questions and dipping into the postbag to

find out your views on all of the latest news and welcome to the kilowatt half hour.

I'm Vicky.

I'm Tom.

And I'm Batch.

So guys, what have you been up to?

Well, I've got a bit of a rant, I'm afraid.

Oh, God.

Okay.

Always a good start.

Here we go.

Because we had a filming session at the barn where we do a lot of our video filming,

and I have to go around the M25, and it can take, you know, I allow two hours, but it took

me four.

And it was because there was an accident on the M25, which is nothing unusual about that

at all.

But when I eventually got to the end, there was a Tesla Model 3, which had driven quite

lightly, it seems, into the back of a Mercedes.

Now how that happened?

I don't know.

What I do know is that the Tesla had a slightly broken bumper and the bonnet

was slightly crumpled too.

But this required, apparently, four fire engines and three police cars, and they had set up

like sandbags around the Tesla, and we're doing all sorts of other strange things.

And they closed four of the five lanes, forcing us into one lane, presumably because they

thought the battery was about to catch fire.

Now, I cannot believe that a slightly broken bumper and crumpled bonnet on a Tesla is going

to cause anything unusual.

And perhaps, I mean, I don't know the circumstances, but perhaps there's a bit of a bit of an overreaction

about accidents involving electric cars.

I mean, I think firemen have a bit of a reputation for quite liking to do things

like cut roofs off cars whenever they get the chance.

I've heard that from a fireman.

So if there's a nice car, ooh, somebody's got a slightly stiff neck.

Let's cut the roof off, which I would do.

I think if I was a fireman because it would be great fun.

But perhaps there's a little bit going on with electric cars, too.

And I can't believe that every small bump fender bender involving electric cars

going to involve this sort of response.

Otherwise, it's going to be ridiculous.

I mean, it must be already.

But it was causing chaos and it cost me two hours of my life.

So I'm a bit grumpy.

This podcast is brought to you by the Highways Agency.

Thank you for that, Ran.

What a way to start, eh?

Well, I mean, first of all, can I just say that I admire our firefighters

greatly and I think that they can cut roofs off whenever they want,

although possibly some justification is probably a good thing.

I mean, I don't know.

Do you know what?

I would be really interested to do more research into this,

because there must be some established protocol for how you deal

with EVs in accidents.

In fact, I know that there are, you know, protocols for that.

So I don't know.

Do you there must be some sort of assessing of the car at the scene

and then a decision from there on as to how it's being treated

if there's a risk of the battery being damaged or not?

I don't know.

Maybe one of our listeners might be a firefighter himself or herself

or maybe somebody out there might have more details about it.

This is something we should look into, isn't it?

Because I think it is an interesting fact.

There are plenty of EVs out there.

It's very common that they are involved in accidents.

And we know that EVs are really, really good in accidents.

Mercedes, not that long ago, did a huge crash test with one of its EVs,

didn't it? I think it was an EQA, a really high impact crash test

and invited journals along.

And it was remarkable how well it dealt with it.

All of them go under the same crash tests.

They go through all the same sort of impact tests that any car does.

And we know that they deal with it very well.

So yeah, maybe you're right, maybe it is an overreaction.

But I would be interested to know how are we training our emergency responders

to deal with it.

I wonder whether that's something we should be looking into.

Well, in the world of motorsport, I remember being told this

when I got to drive the Jaguar I-Pace trophy car.

Do you remember that when Jaguar had its own one make series for the I-Pace?

And I had to be explained, I had to be sat down with somebody

from a very, very important person from the FIA, telling me,

this is what you do when you crash because, of course, they don't know.

They don't know the whole cell could be, you know, you could be electrocuted,

all this kind of stuff.

So I mean, that's quite popular in the world of motorsport.

But presumably, in Tom's situation, it's just like a blanket rule.

If there is an accident with an EV, they've got to tread very, very carefully.

But yeah, it would be very exciting.

It would be very interesting to know if this is commonplace, really, wouldn't it?

So, yeah, so if anybody knows, please do get in touch.

And it will allow Tom to have another rant, won't it?

So I can't believe it's more dangerous than like having 100 litres of petrol

stretching out of an accident.

I think, well, as we know, thermal runaways, the thing, isn't it?

It's dealing with it if it does happen because we know that that is the problem.

But generally, I think EVs are safer.

But again, let's do some research and find out.

Maybe that's worth an article.

Let us know what you think and we'll go from there.

In the meantime, I have been up to Silverstone, not driving an EV on track,

but driving a lot of EVs around the roads around there for European car of the year.

So I'm a juror on European car of the year.

We have announced our shortlist and we have been driving the cars

to decide what we're going to make the overall car of the year.

So the European Coty shortlist cars are the Kia EV4, the Mercedes CLA,

the Skoda L-Rock, the Fiat Panda, the Citroen EC5 Aircross,

the Renault 4 and the Dacia Bigster.

So I don't know answers on a postcard, please.

What would you make the European car of the year from that lot?

Because it's quite an interesting array of cars there.

I will obviously add the Dacia Bigster.

You can't actually get as an electric car.

You can have it as a hybrid, a self-charging hybrid.

So obviously, you know, I think here it's reasonable to say

that probably wouldn't go down well with you guys.

But I think I think there's some fantastic cars there.

So, yeah, I mean, yeah, it's CLA, fantastic efficiency, L-Rock.

This might lead nicely into our awards stuff as well that we've just announced.

But before we do that, Batch, what have you been up to?

Well, nothing far from as glamorous as you two or, well, glamorous,

but raging juice sitting on the M25 in traffic, raging on the M25.

I had I spent I spent a lovely day this week

with with with our co-host, Nicola.

And we went down to East Sussex to drive the new Kia PV5.

And for good measure, we thought we'd bring along its only proper

rival at the moment, which is the Volkswagen ID buzz.

And I won't tell you what happened or the outcome because we shot a video.

It was a twin test and that video should be coming out in the next couple of days.

But it was extremely interesting test.

And I mean, I'm sure all of our listeners will know

we are big fans of the PV5.

In fact, the entire world is a big fan of the PV5, particularly in the UK.

It is tremendously exciting.

And the thing that made me the most is, you know,

the van market in the UK is very traditional.

And there is one particular van that has always led the way,

despite there being lots of great alternatives for transit,

has always been the market leader.

And yet Kia has turned up.

They've rocked up from from a UK perspective

with no experience of vans whatsoever.

And they've rocked up with this PV5.

And it is chuffing good, actually, really good indeed.

So I won't tell you much more because I urge you to go and watch the video.

But it was a very, very interesting day.

I missed the bachelor. I'm very disappointed.

Yes, what? Very disappointed.

What do you mean? Kia has got no experience of vans.

Well, in the UK, in the UK, they haven't have they?

Haven't they? What have I missed?

Come on. What have I missed?

Oh, no, Tom's going to know about something really obscure here.

I'm an agent. Yeah, go on.

Rebadged Mitsubishi or something.

What was it? What was it?

There was a Kia Pride van in the UK.

It doesn't count, does it?

Kia cannot claim they've never had a van before

because there was a Kia Pride van.

Oh, gosh, that M25 accident really did something to your head, didn't it?

Yeah, there was someone in the comments later

who in the last thing that liked us talking about old cars for keys.

I think this is an excuse to keep a wittering.

I was like, excellent, we can talk.

We can talk about the MOT on my husband's E463 series.

Fantastic. Anyway, let's not.

Let's move on and talk about.

So you talk about the PV5 there, Batch.

What do you think won our electrifying.com van of the year?

What do you think might have won?

How do you want me to act?

Do you want me to act surprised because I know the answer, don't I?

I don't know, Vicky. What is the winner, Vicky?

Oh, my goodness. Could it be the PV5?

The PV5 cargo.

No, it's the Kia Pride, actually.

It was the Kia Pride.

Can you imagine? That'd be fantastic.

That gets my vote for next year, definitely.

Yeah.

Well, we should probably do it in kind of reversal

to leaving the car the year till the end, shouldn't we?

Let's do that.

Yeah, best value for money, EV.

Drum roll, please.

Yeah, Renault 4, because it now gets the full plug in car grant.

Yes, indeed.

It starts at 23250.

Used EV, Polestar 2.

EV brand of the year, Kia.

I think that's well deserved, isn't it?

It's very well deserved.

That's not just the PV5.

It's also, you know, the forthcoming.

You've got the EV5, you've got the EV4 out.

You've got the, you know, we've seen the concept for the EV2 as well.

So there was some serious kind of, you know,

there was some competition there for brand of the year, wasn't there?

We're quite impressed with what Citroen's been doing this year.

We've debated that and Renault with the Twingo and various others.

So it's good to see so many brands really

and are doing some fantastic stuff.

So honourable mentions there, I think, to a few other brands.

But Kia did get the get the win overall quite rightly as well, I think.

So charging network of the year.

Yes, grid serve, grid serve.

So this was all we debated this for a while

because it's a tricky one, isn't it?

Because it always ends up coming down to obviously

the spread of the service of the charges, how reliable we found them

in our experience because we do a lot of miles

and we do quite a lot of public rapid charging.

Grid serve has been really good because, of course,

they provide a lot of the charges in the main motorway services.

But more than that, they have just rolled out

the first 400 volt charges in the UK.

And they're getting, they're going to be the first ones

to have a dedicated HGV charging hub,

which I think is going to be really interesting.

So yeah, they're doing some good things, I think grid serve.

So that is why they got the award.

So it's been really good.

Been a good year, I think, for all these different things.

It was it was a lot of debate coming up with these awards.

The Polestar 2 for used EV.

I just think it's such a popular used car.

It's fantastic. It looks incredible.

It looks like it was launched yesterday.

It's just aged brilliantly.

My bet would be that single mode, the facelifted,

the rear wheel drive single motor long range,

the sort of 2023 facelift one.

That's the one I want.

You get some great value ones of those.

And that was a claim, over 400 miles, the range on that.

So yeah, some really good things.

Renault 4, again, lots of competition

because we debated that and the Citroen EC3 Aircross.

So another honourable mention there to the EC3 Aircross,

which we think is fantastic value as well.

But the Renault 4, when it got that full grant

and it's just such a great car, isn't it?

So that's where we went with that.

So Tom, go on.

Do you want to announce the overall electrifying.com

car of the year 2026 is?

The BMW iX3.

Yeah.

Somebody asked me about that the other day.

She's saying, have you driven it yet?

We've driven it yet.

I'm like, no, I haven't.

And they said, well, hurry up because they want one.

Currently driving a Cooper-Born

and think this might be the next car.

Yeah, that's a good car, the Born.

I like it.

Well, sadly, our esteemed leader, Ginny,

is the only one of us who's driven the iX3.

I have done a lot of deep dives on the tech of the iX3,

but I didn't get to drive it yet.

So we have driven it extensively out in Europe,

but Ginny isn't here to talk about it.

So maybe we'll come back and touch on that on a later podcast,

but suffice to say that, again, a lot of debate.

There was a lot of competition.

We looked at the Skoda RL Rock, Nissan Leaf,

all kinds of other cars.

But I think the iX3,

it's just such a lighthouse for that technology, isn't it?

For the new battery technology, the affordability,

a range of 500 miles, it's a fantastic thing.

So yeah, I think a well-deserved winner.

I think it's a really incredible car,

just that technology.

I think it's going to be a real game changer.

I know that's overused phrase, terribly overused phrase.

But yeah, I can't think of anything else to say about it.

It's such a fantastic thing.

So very excited to get that in the UK and drive it next year.

You can order one now.

It's on sale, and it's in production.

And it's cheaper than the old one, isn't it?

It is, yeah, it's cheaper than the old one.

Amazing thing.

So yeah, and the battery,

and also the sort of sustainability,

what BMW's done in terms of reducing the emissions

on the manufacturer of that car,

as well as the affordability of the batteries.

So it's now gone for cylindrical batteries,

rather than the mattress-style batteries

that it had previously.

Lots and lots of stuff.

So fewer resources in the batteries as well.

It's a really interesting thing.

It's one of those cars in truth,

obviously most people are going to like it

because it's long range and it's very lovely inside

and it's great to drive

and all of those reasons that you want to own a car.

The IX3 does brilliantly.

But when you actually sort of really look down

into what BMW's done to, like I said,

make it more sustainable, to make it more affordable,

I think it's not just about range per pound.

It's actually about making EVs, you know,

actually better in terms of their production,

which I think is a really crucial thing.

So yeah, and the battery technology

is really, really interesting.

So look out for that one

and a very deserving winner.

So it's very exciting stuff.

Okay, well, congratulations BMW

and congratulations to all those other winners.

Let's move on to news, shall we?

And I'm just going to talk about one story

because this story absolutely

dominated the headlines this week.

That was the EU scrapped its 2035

new petrol and diesel car ban.

So to give you a bit of context,

whilst the UK has got a 2030 ban

on the sale of new petrol and diesel cars,

in the European Union, it's 2035.

Now, this has come under a lot of scrutiny recently.

There's been a lot of lobbying by car manufacturers

such as Stellantis, Mercedes-Benz.

And the European Union has decided to bow to this pressure,

crumble under this pressure, I suppose you could say,

and has decided to push the ban backwards

and water down what it already had.

So from 2035 onwards,

only 90% of cars will have to be zero emission,

not 100%, like before, 90%,

with the remaining 10% needing to be,

and I quote, compensated through the use

of low carbon steel made in the Union

or from e-fuels and biofuels.

So personally, I don't think this is such that

the U-turn that everybody is claiming

because from 2035 onwards,

it's still gonna be 90% of cars have to be zero emission.

So if the vast majority of new car sales

are gonna be of electric cars,

that remaining 10% is just there,

just to appease the likes of Porsche and Ferrari

and Mercedes-Benz who build these super powerful cars

with petrol engines.

And whereas for the vast majority of people

who can be buying new cars,

they're gonna be buying electric cars.

So it's not the great kind of buckling

that everybody is saying it is.

What's more interesting is whether the UK

is going to receive a similar kind of pressure.

So the fact that EU have decided to change this

and to buckle under political and industry pressure

will Sakiya Starma come under the same kind of pressure

and scrutiny.

Is 2030 dead in the water?

Quite possibly.

The thing is, the government,

they're going to look out of step

if they don't review the 2030 ban

in light of what's happened in the EU.

But if they do actually follow the EU's direction,

they're gonna come under a lot of criticism

for not being kind of forward thinking

and leading the way.

So whatever the UK does in light of this EU decision,

I think it's gonna play out quite badly.

So who knows what's gonna happen?

I mean, what do you think, Tom?

Well, there are two sides to this.

First of all, are the UK gonna follow suit?

And we have gone our own way in the past

when talking about EU laws.

So there's things like the Chinese cars,

we didn't go the same way as the EU.

So we might stick to our guns and go for that.

The other thing which is that,

I think consumers will look at the petrol and diesel cars

that are around in, well, even two years time

or five years time and say,

I don't want one of those anymore.

I want an electric car because they'll be cheaper to run

and they'll be nicer to drive and they look funkier.

So I was interested that you see the Seat Ibiza

got a facelift, which I don't think they expected to do

and they just stuck a slightly nicer front end on it.

And it's the old car

because that's all they're gonna do.

Is do a little bit of tweaking around the edge.

And you look at that versus like something like a Renault 5

and the Renault 5 is obviously more desirable.

So people are gonna go,

I can have an old rehashed petrol car like that

that nobody's invested much money in

or I can have something really funky and new

that's cheap to run and good to drive.

So even taking all the cost out of it,

if you can charge your car,

I think everybody's gonna naturally go

to electric cars anyway.

And it doesn't matter about the laws.

That's my theory anyway.

As long as they stop taxing us on them.

I agree.

Yeah, I think that is what's gonna happen.

But yeah, as ever, leave us your comments

and let us know what you think about it.

I mean, I suspect that the UK will probably follow the EU

in watering down as has been used

sort of the petrol ban quotas and this kind of thing.

But I suspect we'll end up going down a similar route.

But as we've said, I don't think it's gonna change much.

I think, as you say, consumer trends

are gonna drive people towards EVs anyway.

They're going to be the better cars.

All of that.

Let us know what you think.

It is, it's one of those things, isn't it?

We've got to discuss it.

It's an interesting thing to see how it's all panning out.

I think we'll all be driving electric cars by 2035

regardless, so see how we get on.

Anyway, Tom, if you do want to buy an EV right now,

what are the best ones out there?

What are the bargains?

Barnards bargains?

Yeah, on the lease deals, one popped up and I thought,

oh, that's cheap.

So Volvo EX30 twin motor performance plus.

Now, I don't think that the twin motor

is my favorite EX30.

I think the two-wheel drive is much better,

but it's one of those cars that's ridiculously fast,

again, and I think some of you have some opinions

on that too, which are in the comments later.

But still, it's a top of the range Volvo EX30

with four-wheel drive,

which is handy at this time of year,

287 pounds a month.

Cheap.

Nice.

Yeah, you look at the cars that's comparable to

and that's a lot of car for the money.

Yeah, so we've actually just butt in there.

So we've actually just taken receipt of our Volvo EX30

cross-country long-term for Electrodei.com,

which is the dual motor.

Of course, it's not, but it's a really nice thing.

I do prefer the single motor to drive

because I spent quite a bit of time

in the single motor EX30,

but it is an interesting thing.

But still, it's quite a lot of money.

A lot of car for the money, that, isn't it?

What is it, 3.7 to 62 or something,

mad like that?

Yeah, that's a good one,

but it'd be interesting to see

what the cross-country is like to live with, so yeah.

Is it 400 horsepower?

Is that something like that, isn't it?

Yeah.

A lot.

There's a lot of power.

That's a lot of power.

That's a lot of power for Vauxhall and Polo.

Yeah.

Yes.

It's ridiculous.

A high-up Vauxhall and Polo with 400 horsepower.

That's Vauxhall and Polo.

Mm-hmm, okay.

And talking of fast cars,

if you wanted to buy a used IONIQ 5N,

7,000 miles.

Yes, please.

Gives you £15,000 off the list price.

So it's just under £50,000.

£49,999.

So that's tempting.

I love that car.

I love it so much.

It's so good.

Shall we go to the comments and questions?

And I feel like we should probably go straight to,

do you know what?

I'm going to go straight to

a comment from at Greg Palmer, 9949.

Because, as you say, Tom,

we've had a few mentions about performance, haven't we?

And so Greg says, less horsepower, please.

Anything under six seconds for naught to 60

is just dangerous to everyone.

Real door handles, please.

Also, in Ginny's Rivian R2 brief look,

they gave it hidden door handles

and a permanent roof rack, which is just bonkers.

I sort of agree about some of that.

Certainly the real door handles, to an extent.

But I do quite like fast cars.

So I think for the average electric car,

I would agree that less power would be a good thing.

But I don't think I agree that under six seconds

is a danger to everybody.

I do, yeah.

But hey, for the everyday cars,

I think as we've all said before, haven't we?

It's just unnecessary, really.

The door handles things interesting

because you do get a lot of cars

that have flush door handles

and they either you have to press one end

and then pull it out, which is an extra hassle.

Or they come out electrically,

which seems like a bit of complication.

I'd be fascinated to know the difference

between the efficiency that you get

by having aerodynamic door handles

versus the extra weight

from having electric motors to bring them out.

So you think that, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh.

All that is a must add weight,

doesn't it, in complication?

Well, yeah.

I mean, I remember, I think Vicky

and I were on the same launch, actually.

The A6 e-tron, like, this time last year

when they made a massive deal in the presentation

about the digital door mirrors,

give you like four extra miles of range

or something like that.

But of course, I'd rather go four miles less

and not be in constant fear

that if I knock one of these door mirrors off,

it's gonna cost me 85,000 pounds to fix.

You know, it doesn't really matter.

Those four miles are totally inconsequential

in the grand scheme of things, aren't they?

So...

Talking of those sorts of door handles,

I was picking up my son from the station the other day

and there was somebody else picking up their children

from the station in a Kia EV9.

And the rear door door handle had been, well, it was missing.

So I thought, I wonder what the story is then.

I thought about getting out and asking them

but I thought I'd just get arrested or something.

But I just wanted to know,

had it just like fallen off or had it been knocked off

or what had happened?

Yeah.

Well, there you go.

Tom, what other comments have we got?

We've got something about the first car, haven't we?

Oh yeah, so there's a question from Matthew Stanford, 51,

who says, what do you think about a say at me

for a first car for my son?

We live in London, so do you shorter journeys?

Now, I love the say at me,

and that trick I thought was a really good one.

We had a long-term one for a bit

and I just thought it was great.

The range was enough.

I think it was 140 miles or something,

which was enough for most things.

Proper handbrake, which is a bit odd,

and a proper key, which again is quite rare these days.

Oh, I couldn't agree more.

I think the say at me and the ear up

and that those triplets were fantastic.

They're just so good to drive

and they're just, and as you say,

just what you need, aren't they?

Just a decent phone holder for your infotainment

and just brilliant.

So I'd 100% go for that as a first car

and it'd be a fantastic little thing.

Weirdly spacious inside as well.

The amount of stuff you can squeeze into the me

and the ear up and all that stuff, really good.

So yeah, really good first car, I reckon.

Not a bad shout at all.

Fingalbat has a message saying,

well, he's come up with his top choices of cars

or EVs that people have forgotten.

At number three is the Sanyong Corando E-Motion.

I remember driving that car when it was brand new,

but yeah, absolutely good choice.

At number two is the KGM, sorry, yeah.

The Sanyong Replacement, which is KGM

and their Torres EVX.

And at number one is the classic Crappy by Ford.

Sorry, sorry.

He means Capri there, the Ford Capri.

If anybody from Ford there is listening,

that was Fingalbat who said that, not me.

But yeah, so he's gone for the Sanyong Corando,

the KGM Torres and the Ford Capri.

Three quite interesting choices there.

What do you think?

Well, can I just say something about the Capri

because I'm with everybody else

in that it should never have been called a Capri.

No.

But it's not a bad car.

It's actually fine.

It's big, it drives quite nicely.

You can get some mad deals on it.

It's been in one of the least deals

that we've mentioned a few times.

I don't know what you can get right this second,

but I mean, blindly.

I actually recommended it to somebody the other day

because they said they just wanted a decent,

big family EV with a decent range comfy at a good price,

which is what loads of people want, isn't it?

And I was like, well, have a look

at what you can get a Capri for

because as long as you don't mind everybody

taking the mick out of you for it being called a Capri

when it's clearly not in any shape, form or whatever,

it's fine, it's fine.

But yeah, forgotten, I suppose so

because the world just can't get over the fact

Ford called it a Capri, can they?

So yeah, but you could widen that to the explorer as well.

Can you? I mean, I just think apart from the apart

from the Puma, I mean, you even I even forget

about the Mustang Mackey actually.

And I just I think all of Ford's electric car range

is kind of forgettable, not because they're not very good.

It's just that I don't know.

I've got no idea why, but I forget about them.

We got we got so kind of like worked up talking

about what they were called that we then immediately forgot

that they were actually perfectly fine EVs.

Yes, it's one of those cars that if you just saw

on a leasing page or it's on your company car list

and you go, well, it's two quid a month cheaper

than a Volkswagen ID for, I'll have that.

Yeah, but that's for a car manufacturer.

That's not what you really want.

You want people to go, I must have that car

and I'll pay extra to get it.

And if not, then you're just constantly going on price.

Yeah, right.

So up next, we've got a message from the war Mac or the war MC.

He says, what she says, you both mentioned the amount of screens

the cars have earlier.

Well, I still remember being wowed by the screen

in other car that people forget about the Honda E.

Still loving the kilowatt hour.

Well, thank you for that.

I'm glad that you're enjoying the podcast.

I still love the Honda E.

I haven't forgotten about it at all.

I think it is a fantastic car.

It's such a brilliant piece of design that.

And given that I'm not always a fan of too many touch screens

and screens in general in a car,

I thought the Hondas was one of the better in that regard.

I know that it's got that big wall of screens,

but it was quite well thought out.

So I didn't actually mind it.

I liked that car so much.

I was very sad that it didn't do well, really.

I feel like they should just relaunch it as it was

in about two years' time,

when maybe shorter range EVs are kind of a bit more accepted.

They could just bring it back,

pretend that the first round never happened.

Same with the BMW i3.

Remastered.

Same as.

Remastered Honda E and i3.

That's it.

It's like when they do the remastered greatest hits

of any particular band, they should do it.

They should absolutely do it.

I think with the Hondari...

Sorry, I think with the Hondari,

I think the reason why...

I agree with you, Vicky.

I think the reason why it kind of worked

was the infotainment was so basic, wasn't it?

That it wasn't difficult to use on the move,

whereas nowadays infotainment isn't...

There are a million gazillion different menus and sliders

and different things to press whilst you're driving.

That an onslaught of screens just doesn't work,

whereas the Hondari was a bit different in that respect.

Yeah, agreed.

Yeah, I suppose that if you think about the BMW i3

that you were talking about there,

they upgraded the battery on that car as it went on,

because they worked out how to get more energy

into the same space.

And if they did that with the Hondari,

so they developed it and said,

okay, but it did have a...

What was it like a 37 kilowatt-hour battery?

And now it's got a 60 kilowatt-hour battery.

It would have been...

Everyone would have been all over it.

I mean, the resale value on those is astonishing,

because people just want them for the way they look

and the way they are inside and they're funky

and they think they're a future classic, et cetera, et cetera.

So I think it could have gone on,

but presumably it just cost them too much to make

and they didn't care enough.

In talking of forgotten ones,

that Honda ENY-1 thing,

that's still for sale.

I saw that popping up the other day on a...

You can have one cheap and I'm like,

I completely forgot.

Thought they'd stop that as well.

There's a few around me.

There's a few people that own them and you do,

because they have had some extraordinary deals on them,

haven't they?

Is it supposed to be pronounced the E anyone?

Is that how it's supposed to be pronounced

or is it supposed to be pronounced the ENY-1?

I'm not quite sure.

I don't think anybody knows.

It's not even Honda.

I don't know.

Nobody knows.

It's so forgettable

nobody knows how to pronounce the name.

Also, you might remember last time

we were talking about the MG4X power

and how it had a vibration

that was the talk of all the forums

and we'd noticed as well.

And North Willow 2014 says,

we bought an MG4X power in April this year

and ours does not have the vibration.

We bought it for the four-wheel drive

as we live rural and drive a lot on narrow lanes.

I'd say it's been fantastic car.

We drive it in custom with the soft throttle response

and it's better in the mud and wet

than our 2019 Volvo XC90 that we had before.

A curious thing to buy the MGX power as an off-roader

but I kind of respect that.

But yeah, we'll find if it hasn't got the vibration

maybe they fixed it.

Maybe it's just certain cars by name.

Maybe, yeah.

I mean, it's the kind of thing

that MG might have sort of fixed behind the scenes

and obviously they're not gonna announce

anything about that, are they?

So maybe that's the case.

And can I also mention tyres here

because tyres might have something to do with it.

I don't know if MG might have changed the tyres

they're providing the car with.

On the same note, talking about the MG

because I think this happens more often than we think

is that people buy a performance dual-motor

because they want the four-wheel drive

not because they want more power

which is why I'm sort of generally

I'm often commenting on those EVs where

because it's not that unusual

where manufacturers will do a four-wheel drive

but it's only available with an abundance of power.

I think in the UK and a lot of Europe

there's plenty of people that just want

the additional peace of mind of four-wheel drive

but don't really want the performance.

So I do think that's something that manufacturers

perhaps they're just taking advantage of

people will pay more anyway, that's something.

But also tyres, tyres in these conditions

get good tyres people.

I mean, I'm a big fan of winter tyres myself.

If I had to choose between winter tyres

and two-wheel drive over,

I'd have that over summer tyres and four-wheel drive.

So there you go.

But I'm glad that you're enjoying your MG4.

That's a good value karma.

Right, moving on to John Turley, nine, seven, two, eight.

He says, you may like to know that we recently had

an over-the-air update for our LeapMotor T3

that allows us to turn off the ADAS things

with two pushes on a steering wheel button.

That is good news.

It's funny that isn't it?

These days you review cars and you have to mention

all the driver assistance systems.

It's such a crucial part of the car.

But then it can all change, you know?

Talking about the EX30, that's had a software update

which has changed a lot of stuff.

And yeah, so that's good to know.

I wanted to see 10 has the same update

because I remember that being particularly bad.

Oh, it was awful.

I really hope it's had the update.

I'm sure it has, you know, if it's not yet,

then I'm sure it will

because it would improve the car drastically

because it was a real issue with that car.

So let us know if you have one.

So wrapping it up, at Soapy Frog, love the name,

by the way, he says,

I'm enjoying the misty-eyed reminiscing of old cars

but then I'm a similar age.

So there you go, Tom.

So all our random muttering about old cars

completely irrelevant to an electric car podcast.

There you go.

Somebody's enjoying it.

There you go.

And can I also comment?

I can cross over the two actually

because I was reminiscing about the old car.

Do you remember the think which had TH

and then exclamation mark NK

which was eventually bought by Ford

and it was made out of the same sort of stuff

as, you know, those plastic stacking chairs

that you get in primary schools.

The bodywork was made out of that

which was great for shrugging off locks and things.

But I remember the spec sheet for that

and it had emissions on it.

It was a completely electric car

but it had a little thing of,

this is the CO2 emissions from it

and the docks and I'm like, what's that from?

And it had a petrol heater.

So they weren't new

because it was built for Scandinavia

because they didn't want to waste the battery energy

using a heater.

It had a petrol heater.

So it had to have an emissions thing

for if you were using it in cold weather

it would burn stuff.

And therefore it had a butt.

So it wasn't zero emissions.

There you go.

Old cars and electric cars combined.

Ah, loving it.

I love that.

That's a great fact.

I enjoy that very much.

Well, on that note,

I think we should probably wrap this up.

I would just like to say apologies

that Batch fell off the podcast a few minutes ago

because his internet's got issues.

So if you're watching,

that's why he's disappeared on the video

and you can watch this on YouTube by the way.

So do go and check it out

on the electrifying.com YouTube channel

or if you're listening to it

and we hope you enjoy that too.

Leave us a comment.

And in the meantime, that's us.

So yeah.

See you next time.

Bye.

Kilowatt Half Hour Ep 94: The petrol ban, and our cars of the year!

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