Budget EV charging, new Toyota and BMW news, and a heavy dose of MOT-season reality fill the chat. A reader flags UK energy-price changes that cut EV charging costs (Octopus tariffs) and sparks a rant about bureaucracy. Steve samples the Toyota C-HR Plus EV and debates wheel-size range tradeoffs, while both discuss Goodwood media day and an upcoming interview with Singer’s Rob Dickinson. There’s also talk of MG’s complex hybrid “single-speed” feel, Tesla Model 3 ownership, Renault’s part-count-reduction Twingo, and skepticism about BMW i3 press photos.
In the latest episode of the Autocar podcast, My Week In Cars, your hosts Steve Cropley and Matt Prior talk MOT season, BMW’s all new i3 electric executive saloon, a trip to Goodwood, used Teslas and more, including your correspondence.
We’d love it if you’d review the pod too, and subscribe so you never miss an episode.
"This episode is brought to you by Progressive Insurance. Do you ever find yourself playing the budgeting game, shifting a little money here, a little there, and hoping it all works out?"
Progressive is an insurance company. They’re talking about a tool that helps you estimate insurance costs and find options that fit your budget.
Progressive Insurance is an auto insurer that offers tools to help drivers estimate and compare car insurance options. In this segment, it’s sponsoring the show and promoting its pricing/coverage matching approach.
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This is an insurance website feature where you tell Progressive what you want to pay. Then it shows insurance options that may match that budget.
Progressive’s “Name Your Price” tool lets you enter a target budget for insurance and then shows options that can fit that price point. It’s essentially a budgeting-first way to explore coverage levels and premiums.
"[191.5s] The result, at least for me as an octopus user,
[194.0s] is a 3.5p reduction per kilowatt hour across all tariffs."
A kilowatt-hour (kWh) is how electricity use is measured. EV charging prices are often quoted per kWh, so it’s the key number for estimating what you’ll pay.
A kilowatt-hour (kWh) is a unit of energy used to measure electricity consumption. EV charging costs are commonly calculated per kWh, so changes in pence-per-kWh rates translate directly into changes in charging bills.
"[208.0s] If you can charge at home, these prices should help EVs and plug-in hybrids sell themselves.
[211.9s] And next time, please do stand up and give those bureaucratic numbskulls what for?"
Plug-in hybrids are cars that use both a petrol engine and an electric motor. You can charge them from a plug, so electricity prices and home charging matter for how cheap they are to run.
Plug-in hybrids (PHEVs) combine a conventional engine with an electric motor and a battery that can be charged from the grid. They’re often discussed alongside EVs because charging electricity prices and home charging availability affect their running costs and appeal.
"I arrived in the Ford Capri, which was another EV, obviously, sort of a similar size."
EV means electric vehicle. It’s a car that runs mainly on electricity from a battery, not a gas engine. Here, they’re grouping cars they drove as electric or electrified.
EV stands for electric vehicle—cars powered primarily by an electric motor and a battery, rather than a traditional internal-combustion engine. In this segment, the speaker notes that both the Ford Capri and the Prius-related comparison are part of the broader shift toward electrified vehicles.
"With the 18-inch wheels, you get 377 miles WLTP. With the 20s, you get 347."
WLTP is a standardized test number used to estimate how far a car can go. It’s a helpful comparison, but your real range can be different depending on how you drive.
WLTP (Worldwide Harmonised Light Vehicle Test Procedure) is a standardized test used to estimate vehicle range and fuel/energy consumption. It’s not real-world driving, but it’s useful for comparing versions like different wheel sizes.
"Theon Design, they're based near me.
I've said to them about that before, he says, well, the thing is, is that we tend to buy,
we don't tend to buy immaculate ones."
Theon Design is referenced as a RestoMod-related company based near the speaker. In this context, it’s used to illustrate how these specialists approach sourcing cars and the scale of labor involved in restoration work.
"[956.8s] Also Rob Dickinson, well, this is all going to come out, [959.1s] but he was a designer, a lotus for a while. [961.5s] Yes."
Lotus is a British car company famous for making sporty cars that handle well. The host is saying Rob Dickinson worked there as a designer, so it gives you context for why he knows cars.
Lotus is a British sports-car and motorsport brand known for lightweight engineering and handling-focused cars. In the transcript, it’s mentioned as the place Rob Dickinson designed for, which helps explain his background in performance car design.
"Because I just came down, I chatted to Rob and then I had to scoot to pick up, pick up a car from an MOT. A few pretty ordinary Chinese chariots, to be honest."
In the UK, an MOT is a required safety/emissions check for cars. If your car doesn’t pass, you usually have to fix issues before it can be legally driven.
MOT is the UK’s annual (or periodic) roadworthiness test for vehicles. It checks safety and emissions compliance, and it’s a key part of UK car ownership—especially for older cars that may need repairs before they pass.
"...driving up Harding Hill on the way to, on the way to Goodwood and you get the high revving, like you're in a CVT variable transmission,"
A CVT is a transmission that can change its “gear ratio” smoothly. The car can feel like it’s gliding up through different speeds without hard shifts.
A CVT (continuously variable transmission) uses a belt or chain and variable pulleys to smoothly change the effective gear ratio. The speaker compares the hybrid’s behavior on a hill to CVT-like operation because the engine/motor blending can feel like seamless ratio changes rather than distinct shifts.
"That now P&A 290 range is not good enough.
It's not good enough.
In winter, it's really pop.
Yeah."
Winter performance is a common EV pain point because cold temperatures reduce battery efficiency and increase energy use for heating. That’s why an EV that feels fine in mild weather can struggle to hit the same range in winter.
"Passed with no advice. I think at that point, no advisories. Anyway, so I thought, well, I'll do 1,000 miles in this car and I'll sell it."
In an MOT, “advisories” are issues the tester notices that aren’t serious enough to fail the test. They’re effectively warnings that the problem may worsen and should be monitored or repaired soon. Advisories don’t stop the car from passing, but they can become failure items later.
Concept
hybrid vs battery car
"I was just wondering what, what Mr Matthew Saunders and Co had said about the, the existing car just so that I could compare my impressions of the battery car with the, with the hybrid."
The segment compares a hybrid powertrain to a battery-electric (battery) car. The key idea is that ownership experience can differ—hybrids often feel more familiar day-to-day, while battery cars change charging routines and how the car delivers power.
"Yeah, I just have a bit of a Tesla rich still got it. Charging at home and for the long trips, the Tesla superchargers are excellent and always reliable and abundant."
Tesla makes electric cars. The speaker is talking about their Tesla and how it’s been to live with—especially charging and updates.
Tesla is an EV manufacturer known for software-driven updates and a large charging network. In this segment, it’s the brand of the speaker’s EV and the context for charging and performance upgrades.
"They've got this new, Renault has got this new facility opened in 2024 in Shanghai, to source suppliers."
Renault is the car company making these models. In this segment, they’re also talking about how Renault is organizing suppliers and production to support these new designs.
Renault is the automaker behind the Twingo and Renault 5 being discussed. The speaker also mentions Renault opening a new facility in Shanghai to source suppliers, tying the “parts reduction” theme to manufacturing and supply-chain strategy.
"Isn't there also a comparative figure with the Clio, isn't it? ... Yeah, so a Clio, or there are other combusted cars, there's sort of 2,200 to 2,500 parts."
The Renault Clio is another Renault model used here as a comparison. The host is saying that regular gas cars like the Clio tend to have far more parts than the new Twingo.
The Renault Clio is referenced as a benchmark for typical component complexity in a conventional combustion car. The speaker claims the Clio has roughly 2,200 to 2,500 parts, which is used to highlight how the Twingo’s 700-part figure is dramatically lower.
"[2438.9s] He said, in China, they have organized the supply chain, that if we put out a question
[2443.8s] like that, we will know within a day."
A supply chain is the whole system that gets parts to the factory. If it’s well organized, the carmaker can get the right components on time and plan production better.
A supply chain is the network of companies and logistics that provide parts and materials to build a car. The speaker is saying that in China, the supply chain is organized tightly enough that delivery timing and availability can be predicted quickly.
"somebody said to me, BMW normally really good at handout pictures. You know, they're early pictures of their cars, but this one looks as though there's been 10 people who have to sign it off"
Handout pictures are the official photos a car company gives to journalists. They’re usually meant to look perfect, so they can end up feeling a bit “too edited.”
“Handout pictures” are official press images provided by a manufacturer to media outlets. They’re often controlled for branding and messaging, which can lead to highly polished, sometimes overly processed visuals.
"We've had issues with some JLR trips before that we've been on, where we've asked for pictures, and there has been some back and forth"
JLR is Jaguar Land Rover, the company that makes Jaguar and Land Rover cars. They’re mentioned here because their press-photo process also involved lots of approvals.
JLR stands for Jaguar Land Rover, the parent company behind brands like Jaguar and Land Rover. The episode mentions prior “JLR trips” where photo approvals and edits created back-and-forth with media.
"[3177.8s] You've got to convince people of their worth.
[3182.4s] That was my problem at Goodwood.
[3184.3s] I just kept on looking at these cars.
[3187.7s] I just didn't, just didn't know whether to care about them."
Goodwood is a famous UK motorsport venue where car events happen. In this segment, it’s the place where the speaker is checking out the cars and figuring out how they feel about them.
Goodwood is a well-known UK motorsport and automotive venue, often hosting events that mix racing heritage with new car reveals. In the episode, it’s where the speaker is looking at cars and deciding whether they “care” about them—reflecting how new EVs are being received.
"[3228.0s] So busy, it's interesting to see how, just this last few days, how busily [3233.1s] Ineos are building a heritage for the Grenadier. [3236.1s] You know, they're, they're suddenly making sure we all understand that it's named after a pub"
Ineos is a company that also makes cars, especially the Grenadier off-road SUV. Here they’re describing how Ineos is working hard to create and share a backstory for the vehicle.
Ineos is a company best known for industrial chemicals, but it also builds vehicles—most notably the Grenadier, a modern off-road SUV inspired by classic 4x4s. In this segment, the speaker talks about Ineos actively promoting the Grenadier’s “heritage” story to generate interest and credibility.
"Isn't it two plus two?
Yes and no.
There was, I think the coupe was a two plus two."
“Two plus two” describes a car layout with two primary seats up front and two smaller rear seats. It’s a common way to market a coupe or convertible as having occasional rear-seat use, even if rear space is limited.
"My first week, we were sitting in a thermodynamics tutorial and the lecturer went around and he handed out this two-sided piece of paper with a load of questions on it such as..."
Thermodynamics is the study of heat and energy. This kind of class is about how temperature changes and how heat moves around.
A thermodynamics tutorial is a class focused on how heat, energy, and temperature move and change. In car terms, it’s the same physics behind things like engine heat management, cooling systems, and efficiency.
"There's a heater in the corner, which pumps out three kilowatts. The thermal efficiency of the doors is this..."
Kilowatts are a way to measure power—how fast energy is being used. It’s like the “strength” of a device, not how long it runs.
Kilowatts (kW) are a unit of power, describing the rate energy is used or produced. In automotive discussions, you’ll see kW used for electric motors and charging power, and it’s also related to how much heat a heater can generate.
"And up for sale came this MGTC hill climber, which was for sale. And I just became obsessed with this car."
A hill climber is a race car built for timed runs up a hill. It’s usually set up to handle sharp turns and uneven roads better than a normal street car.
A hill climber is a car prepared for hill-climb racing, where the goal is to accelerate and maintain control over an uphill course against the clock. These cars are often set up with performance-focused suspension, brakes, and tuning to handle repeated climbs and tight, uneven surfaces.
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Hello, welcome to the AutoCard podcast.
My Week in Cars with Pry here.
Steve Cropby there.
Monique Steven.
Morning to you, mate.
This podcast is brought to you in association with our sponsors Anderson,
makers of high quality design led home EV charges.
Visit Anderson-EV.com to check out the full range.
Steve, we have a letter.
See, it's slightly EV related actually for a Marcus Roller who says,
reading your My Week in Cars on the 18th of March,
you suggested that your interest in EVs had been rekindled.
I think we talked about that last week or week before.
That must have been last week.
I'm not sure whether you're aware of a repricing in the electric markets as Marcus
in April that might drive a few more people to take up EVs.
Apparently the government is finally taking their tax boot off the neck of the renewables
and reducing the levy on energy generated this way by 75%.
The result, at least for me as an octopus user,
is a 3.5p reduction per kilowatt hour across all tariffs.
So my six hour EV tariff will halve in price from its current seven pence
and the daytime rent of 28p also has the same discounts.
That's another 16% price drop.
If you can charge at home, these prices should help EVs and plug-in hybrids sell themselves.
And next time, please do stand up and give those bureaucratic numbskulls what for?
That was following a small rant last week.
Never has the quote in last week's magazine from the head designer at Braun
been more apt?
Indifference towards people and the reality in which they live
is the one and only cardinal sin in design.
Substitute ill-considered legislation, arrogant utility companies, big brother, etc.
And you get to understand why the politics of the world
is an omess and people across all walks of life.
They're losing patience with establishment.
So box rant over.
Fair enough, Marcus.
Thanks for the note.
Interesting intel on that energy pricing.
Yeah, I'm curious that there hasn't been more fuss about that.
I suppose we've been too busy concentrating on the straight-of-all moves and all the rest of it.
Yeah, that seems like another step in the right direction, at least for the EV owner.
And even the EV owner who hasn't quite selected his correct tariff yet.
Have you not done that?
No.
Anyway, I got a letter from somebody last week saying,
I'll tell you what, I'll call them for him.
That is Steve's call to Anderson, which he has not yet made,
to see if he's on the right tariff.
I mean, I suppose the fact of the matter is that it's not bad anyway.
You know, even though I pay, I don't pay octopus rates.
It still works for me.
Everything works for me, just being able to charge in your backyard and all that.
Which is great.
You went to see, did you drive a Toyota CHR Plus?
I did.
Yeah, the thing about that car is I never know where to put the hyphen.
No, no, that's it.
I think it's after the C.
C-HR Plus.
H-R Plus.
Well, what does the Plus do?
Well, the Plus denotes a completely different car.
There is a thing called the CHR, which is a...
The CHR Plus is an EV on a new platform.
The CHR minus the Plus is a hybrid on a different platform, a different size.
Launched differently.
There's really actually no relationship.
It's very, very strange.
It's a car that did the Prius no favours, isn't it?
Because it's a crossover-y type thing and it's kind of C-segment-focus-y size.
Is that right?
And everybody stopped buying private buyers, stopped buying Prius,
is because they thought the CHR Plus was...
CHR, not Plus, was more interesting and didn't make them look like an Uber driver.
I think it might have been a better deal too.
Oh, really?
Because the CHR Plus for an EV is quite, I think, quite well-priced.
But I tell you what, there was a Prius parked around the plate.
I went to an actual Toyota facility to have a go in this car.
It's a good idea.
They just got us in to a sensible place where, you know, with a lot of screens
and a lot of experts and we departed from this Toyota facility near Gatwick,
Grounder Route, came back.
There was no nonsense hospitality and, you know, giving you presents and all that nonsense.
I'm all for this, mate.
Me too.
I've had enough time.
I like my life.
I like my job very much, indeed.
But more of that is fine by me and slightly less time spent going places.
And the press kit was good, the picks were good, and the route was good.
So it worked fine.
And the whole thing was done in the morning, and I enjoyed just doing it.
Perfect.
But the oddness of the nomenclature still stays.
Oh, I was going to say, there were a couple of Prius's parked around the plate.
What good-looking cars they are now.
The new one.
It's great, isn't it?
Yeah, it's really cool.
Quite big, I think.
Yes, but, yeah, just so sleek.
And they do remind me a bit of, I know you're not a gamer, Steve, particularly,
but they remind me all those cars you see in insurance adverts that don't look a bit like
some other cars, but don't quite look like anything in particular.
Yeah, and it's, or in sort of Grand Theft Auto, there's this kind of cars that look
something like something, but they don't totally look like something.
The Prius has that vibe of a sleek, hatchy, coupe-ish thing, but doesn't quite,
I don't know, because it doesn't look like any Prius before it or any other Toyota.
No, no.
That's very sleek, isn't it?
It's very sleek.
And the thing I keep on, the thing I notice most is the windscreen rake.
It's got this really radical windscreen rake.
Good, though.
I liked it.
I think I've only been in one for five miles, but one of these days I'll get a good one.
Yeah, and the CHR Plus is any good?
Yeah, I arrived in the Ford Capri, which was another EV, obviously,
sort of a similar size.
The CHR Plus made me think more of the Ford Capri's ride and steering, interestingly.
The CHR Plus was very Toyota, you know, lovely directional stability and, well,
a little bit rubbery in here and there, and a good ride, but a real mainstreamer.
And nicely made, funny, but the colors fought the interior quality in that some of these gray
colors that Toyota is addicted to are quite sort of low rent colors, and yet the actual
materials were very good.
Oh, really?
It's funny.
Yeah, I'm going to have a look now at the CHR Plus.
There is a difference.
Is there not between some wheels and other wheels?
Yeah, well, this car is available on 18s or 20s, and the difference between the range
that's offered on the, from the same battery, there's two batteries offered,
but you don't want the big one.
With the 18-inch wheels, you get 377 miles WLTP.
With the 20s, you get 347.
So you're talking about 10%.
10% drop-off just to make your wheels look allegedly a bit flasher and to fall into
potholes more readily.
I'm just having a look.
So I think I reckon those are the 18s, don't you?
There?
Yeah.
And then those are the, and then those are the 20s.
So it looks perfectly serviceable on 18s, doesn't it?
Yeah, it looks fine.
It's, and the thought of paying more to go crashing into potholes and conceding 10%
of your battery range just seems capital B for bar meat.
That's a lot, isn't it?
10% for wheels.
I wrote to them, actually, the techie chaps came back and said,
they didn't actually quite put it like this.
But what they meant to say is the 18s are the best.
The 20s are available because if we didn't offer them, people would ask for them.
But a sensible person such as you and me and all the people that listen to this
podcast would go for the 18s.
Would go for the 18s.
Do they look a bit better?
Marginally.
They don't look bad on the 18s.
It looks fine on the 18s.
It's behind the edge, God.
It looks fine on the 18s.
My dust is on 16s and I look at it every day with admiration.
Well, yeah, my Audi A2 is on 15s.
15s, yeah, yeah.
I still need to sell these 17s if anybody would be interested in buying them.
But what else have you done, Steve?
We've been, or you've been, we've both been down to Goodwood Motor Circuit for the media drive day.
Yeah, that was good, wasn't it?
I don't think I've, I'm not sure I've ever been to one before, but tell me.
I've been to a few.
It's, well, various manufacturers, probably about a third or a half of the people who
offer cars at this country brought some cars for people like you and me to drive.
But the job for us was to meet Rob Dickinson, wasn't it?
They, the, the, the founder and boss of Singer.
Yeah.
Singer vehicle design who make, oh, well, re-imagine Porsche 911.
Porsche 911's exhaust, yeah.
Yeah, they have to be a bit careful sometimes, don't they, about how they say it.
It's, because I think there is the risk that if they said
Singer 911 Porsche would get very annoyed.
So they're very cautious to say, we are not affiliated in Porsche anyway.
They are a Resto mod company.
They take, as you say, nine, six, fours and they,
well, they would say improve them, make them the perfect, they're called
911 experience, Rob would say.
He would, and I think he's right, don't you?
Some of the cars look fab, really good.
But I think he, well, we're going to have much more of this on Saturday, am I right?
Yeah, in three days time.
So 28th of March, three days after the publication of this,
this weekend's Auto Car Meets podcast will be properly and prior meeting Rob Dickinson from Singer.
And great interview, isn't it?
It's really good.
I mean, I know a new bit about him, but I've not met him before.
I've not spoken to him on the phone before or anything, but he's top black.
Yeah, very, you know, likes the mag, lives in LA, says that he picks up the British car
magazines when he lands back at Heathrow.
Has been reading you for a long time, mate.
He was super car classics magazine, which of course, you were
Yeah, I've been involved with here.
Yeah.
So, yeah, no, really, was interesting.
I wasn't talking to him about, because I was busting to ask him the question,
you know, aren't you going to run out of nine, six, fours?
Because he told us they've done 500 cars for customers in, I don't know, 10 years.
Since 2012-ish, I think.
Yeah, so 13.
Doesn't do a 13.
Slow start, I imagine they're doing more now than they have done at any point.
But he said, they've got 600 employees, amazing.
Yeah, it is.
But he said, they made 55,000, mate, we've got a few to go.
Yeah, and from speaking to one of the other 9-11 RestoMod companies,
Theon Design, they're based near me.
I've said to them about that before, he says, well, the thing is, is that we tend to buy,
we don't tend to buy immaculate ones.
We tend to buy ones that need a lot of work.
But by the time, how much, how many hours did Rob so they put into the bodies alone?
Does he talk about 1200?
1200, 1500 hours just into the body alone.
The cost of doing that is something that you wouldn't do just to sell a 964.
So these are 964s that aren't in very good condition in the first place.
And you bring them back up to amazing condition.
But because of the amount of hours you spend bringing the body back up to good condition,
you won't do it to keep the car standard.
So actually, what you're not, you're not taking a good 964 off the road.
What you're doing is you're taking a knack at 964 and making it better.
And you wouldn't bring it back to standard because they're not worth enough money
to just bring them back to standard.
So you have to do something better with them.
So there is an argument that actually the usable 964 pool is getting bigger
because of RestoMoz rather than smaller.
Because actually, if you take a, unless you take a good one and they don't like to do that.
No, no.
So in fact, he said the same dickers and didn't he?
They, we only pick up the pick up the rock ones.
Yeah.
It's good.
Yeah.
And I think great interview.
Really interesting.
Yeah.
We've got to, we've got to have a, you know, warm appreciation for, for swear words, but
Yes, there are a couple.
There are a couple, but you know, he was,
I thought he was really interesting.
You know, yes, yes, interesting bloke.
He was in a band called Catherine Wheel.
And I think 80s and 90s up maybe up to 2000 sort of rock band.
He is the cousin of Bruce Dickinson of Iron Maiden as well.
So who I think flies the band around in a 747.
Wow.
I mean, there's, you know, there's casual piloting in the background and there's having a 747.
Yeah, boy.
Yeah.
That sounds like a luxurious chariot doesn't it?
I mean, how big is a band?
Half a dozen people?
I suppose there's hangers on.
Yeah.
I suppose there's, maybe they take the kit around.
Say two dozen.
I think you'd still get it in.
Yeah.
You get some leg room, wouldn't you?
I think, yeah.
Also Rob Dickinson, well, this is all going to come out,
but he was a designer, a lotus for a while.
Yes.
Yeah.
Now I'd forgotten.
Peter Stevens gave him a job.
So he talks a little bit about that.
It's a good, it's a good interview.
It is a good interview.
Yeah.
He's, he's interesting.
He's a proper car bloke.
Really?
Yeah.
And he arrived in a Bentley.
Yeah.
Bentley Continental T, which is a sort of, what, late 90s Bentley Coupe, Coach Bill Coupe.
Oh, was that the era it was?
It was a...
Yeah, I think so.
So 6.7 litre V8 and all that.
And he was going to, he says he was gently singerizing it.
So that might, I mean, he was definitely talking about,
talking about projects of the future, wasn't he?
He wouldn't tell us a lot of detail, but he,
but that could be one, I'd say.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So that is coming in three days time.
Did you drive anything when you were down there, Steve?
Because I just came down, I chatted to Rob and then I had to scoot to pick up, pick up a car from an MOT.
A few pretty ordinary Chinese chariots, to be honest.
I just wanted to get up to speed with, you know, a motor versus JQ and all that kind of thing.
I'm afraid I...
Are you up to speed?
Well, I know what they look like, but I didn't,
I didn't spend a lot of time on comparative driving impressions, I have to say.
I just, I should be more open-minded.
I drove an MGS9 the other day.
Oh, I do, that one.
I took it down, I took it down to Sussex.
Okay, go on then.
Yeah, fine.
Yeah, fine.
Yeah, nothing wrong with it.
And, you know, for over a price, seven seats feels okay inside.
Range extender with 60,
some plug-in hybrid rather than range extender, sorry.
It's, well, it's quite complicated because the transmission,
they said it's got a single speed transmission.
I was like, how does this work?
How is a single speed transmission?
Is it a range extender only with a motor, with the engine not driving the wheels?
No, it will, it will, but, and then I looked up some previous stuff.
There was a time when an MGHS hybrid system had six ratios on the engine
and four ratios on the electric motor.
That's right, yeah.
But now, but effectively, the engine will drive the wheels at a single fixed ratio.
The motor will drive the wheels.
The electric motor at a single fixed ratio.
But the engine can also decouple and provide power to the battery.
So when you're driving up, like it's coming out of, driving up Harding Hill on the way to,
on the way to Goodwood and you get the high revving, like you're in a CVT variable transmission,
but you're not.
It's just that the engine's spinning away, making sufficient power and you're driving on the motor.
But there will be times when the engine, a bit like in Honda Civic,
the engine can occasionally drive the wheels directly.
It's complicated these days.
It also sounds a bit unnecessary to be truthful, you know, you know,
just just to have a nice generator motor that pumps power into the battery,
which then drive the wheels.
Yeah, I wonder if, I mean, it should be fine.
I wonder if it's to stop the engine
singing away at high revs on long inclines or something.
Yeah.
Or it might be, everybody tells you that EVs are no use at fairly high cruising speeds.
Oh, it could be.
Yeah, it could be quite.
And maybe it chimes in, then it takes you down.
When you're doing 75 down the M4, that's what it,
yeah, that's when it works.
Certainly, I think that's what a Civic does.
It's only connects.
The Civic has a false eight speed gearbox or six speed gearbox.
But anyway, it has fake gears because it's always driving on the electric motor,
except in top gear.
But the engine responds as if it's driving all the time.
Yeah, I see.
Which is mad.
But anyway, it works.
It's quite confusing.
You can feel like you're driving it.
I don't know whether I find myself wondering about the future of this sort of stage management stuff.
I think we'll, what they're trying to do is get us over a hump and, you know,
we'll, in three or five years, we'll laugh about it.
Yeah.
But I think another big step in battery technology, and we will.
But we'll also look back at some of the EVs that we're driving now and think
that wasn't good enough.
Well, you already...
That now P&A 290 range is not good enough.
It's not good enough.
In winter, it's really pop.
Yeah.
And that's...
As we found on our trip to the gym sport, remember?
Yeah.
Maybe we should have stayed overnight somewhere nice, don't you think?
Probably.
Because it took us quite a long time to get home.
Yeah.
But yes, we could have taken the A2.
Yeah.
Probably.
It was one of its 1,000 of its 20,000 miles that it's done in the last year.
Tell us about the A2.
There's been a few ups and downs with the A2.
Well, I was slightly surprised by the MOT date coming up on me.
I was like, I'm pretty sure it's the end of the month.
And then I checked and it was the beginning of the month.
And I thought, okay, well, I'll just book it in and send it and see what happens.
And I'll service it afterwards.
And last year, it sailed through with no problems.
I had to do...
I bought it with no MOT.
I put a wheel bearing in it and I adjusted the headlights and the handbrake.
And I just sent it to see what would happen.
And it came back having been absolutely fine.
Passed with no advice.
I think at that point, no advisories.
Anyway, so I thought, well, I'll do 1,000 miles in this car and I'll sell it.
And I'll write a story about how you can be paid 13 pence a mile to drive a car,
even in today's things.
And isn't that amazing?
Anyway, just one year and almost 20,000 miles later, I thought, well,
I should probably send it for another MOT and actually get its service now.
So it failed its MOT on quite a few things, like drop link boots and things like that,
you know, and headlight washer and a rear light bumper, number plate light.
One of the number plate lights, not quite working stuff.
And then I thought, well, I better...
I don't have time to sort this out, actually.
It's stuff I could do, but I don't have time.
And I would like to get the cam belt changed because I don't know when that was last done.
I haven't changed the cam belt before, could probably do it, but don't want to get it wrong.
Don't have the time.
Understandable.
Could spend quite a lot of time, two weekends underneath it,
and during which time it would be out of action and that would be a nuisance.
So anyway, I sent it to a classic collective in Bista,
which is a one-stop shop for all things classic.
But their workshop hours are very reasonable.
They're no more expensive than anyone else.
And the A5 is towards the top, towards the newer end of stuff that they do, really.
But anyway, they've had it all done and I've got the car back and it's Diggity Boo.
Good.
Excellent.
But it wasn't inexpensive because it's 14 hours of labor.
Yeah.
Exactly.
You know, and they're very reasonably priced, actually, for an annual...
But it'll be sweet next time.
Oh, it'll be fine, yeah.
These are all sort of chore type things.
Yeah, exactly.
And it's stuff that needed doing and now it has all been done
and that should last a decent amount of time.
And I will just carry on using it.
And I bet I think over the past year,
because it has been put into use where the Defender has not been used,
I reckon I've sort of...
I reckon if all of those miles, it doesn't work out like this
because sometimes the Defender and Audi are in use at the same time.
But if all of the Audi's miles had been done in the Defender,
that would have been...
That would have cost £4,000 in diesel.
So you quits in.
Additional diesel.
Yes, I'm still quits in.
Yes, I'm still quits in.
And the insurance went down this year and it's cheap anyway to insure and blah, blah, blah.
So the business case is still there?
The business case is still there and I still like the car.
It has been recommended to me that I change the dampers and he's like,
look, the Lansford Classic Collective said,
look, the MOT guy can't fail it because there's no oil showing on the dampers
to show that it's leaking.
That's probably because there's none in it.
So you might want to buy a set of shock absorbers
and that'll improve things, the ride at no end.
Yeah, so I will do that.
And I will do that myself because it's not urgent.
No.
But I just needed it done.
I needed it.
Yeah, it is the MOT season for us to do with it.
Well, you know, the Raptor has just been around to see the four dealer.
No problems with that.
But 30,000 miles, I shouldn't be.
Do you remember the dust I was whinging about?
The duster needing a new set of front brakes costs 500 quid or something to do.
At exactly the point, I was sitting in the dealer waiting room because I always wait for cars.
Boasting about what a great car it was and the bloke turned up and said,
it's just failed and needs a new set of front discs.
After four years, I think it's all right.
They were correct.
Yeah.
But I like the MOT season.
I tend to go and cuddle the car while it's being probably a huge pain in the backside
to the dealership, but I don't care.
Yeah, I don't love it, but I tolerate it.
Yeah, it's fine.
It's fine.
But it's my bike needs doing soonish.
And I won't say what it is yet, but I am about to buy another car and that will,
that has an MOT until November.
Fantastic.
Which is good news.
Good.
So I don't know when, I don't quite know when that's going to turn up.
It's the sort of car from the sort of place where I think their workshop gets quite busy
in spring because everybody wants it at the same time.
Now we go to Aerial.
Do you have your Aerial Atom service that area?
Yeah, yeah.
I remember Tom saying there, I don't know why people just can't get their car serviced
in November and December.
They all want it done in March.
They all want it done in March and April.
That's it.
But if they just, if they just sent it down two months earlier, they could have it back quick.
Because it's cold.
Because it's cold.
Yeah.
You know, the end of your nose freezes off on the way to summit it.
Yeah.
So what, if you've got bikes, MOT, do you have everything coming up at the same time?
More or less.
Yeah, I've got, there's also two bikes, a Honda 750 and a Drive 1200.
They are about to need MOTs.
And they've got the Daft Electric BMW, which gets done at another time.
I try, I just like to compartmentalize them.
And they're also the big bill from the insurers.
Lobs at about the same time.
So I just feel, if you can just negotiate the pain and then you can contemplate the rest
of the year without too much aggregate.
Yeah.
Do I, do I prefer to have it spread out a bit?
Because just logistically.
Yeah.
Because to be without two or three vehicles, if, if everything failed, as it could do,
if the Audi and the Land Rover and my motorbike all failed and needed some work,
that could be a pain in the bum.
It could be, big one.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Well, it just, it's a matter of memory for me as well.
It just, just if I corral them all, then I'll, if three of them are being done,
I'll wonder about the others.
Yeah, okay.
Yeah, fair enough.
But yeah, there it is.
Yeah.
Let's take a quick commercial break, which is me saying this podcast is brought to you
and associated with Anderson, makers of, designers of, engineers of British built domestic EV
chargers.
They have got some cool things going on and they have an offer which saves you around 250
pounds on energy at the moment.
I think till the end of April, that offer is running.
Well, I do.
But yes, and Steve is going to call them about.
I'm going to call them.
I am going to call them.
But who knows, but who knows, but who knows when.
But the truth of the matter is the, just the, it will be good if the bill goes down a few quid,
but the main, the main advantage is just to have a really nice thing hanging on the side
of my barn that I can use at any time of the day or night.
And when I depart from my gaff, the car is charged.
The car is fully charged.
Alistair Dodwell writes to say, have you been actually before, sorry Alistair, before this,
have you been in the archive this week?
I have not.
Oh yes sir.
Well, I had a little look at the, at the Toyota CHR to find out what the hell it was
against the CHR plus.
Right.
Is this, how many generations into CHR are we?
Because I did the launch of the first one, but I reckon that was 10 years ago,
seven years ago, eight years ago.
It's got to be a car.
It's got to be a second gen.
Second gen, yeah.
I wonder when that was.
Yeah, of course.
Yeah.
Back then, I think there was a, there was a hybrid, but there was also a pure
ice version, which I don't imagine they sell anymore in the CHR land.
No, it's floated out of my head all that.
I was just wondering what, what Mr Matthew Saunders and Co had said about the, the existing
car just so that I could compare my impressions of the battery car with the, with the hybrid.
What did they think?
They, serviceable car, Toyota, well made, works well, quite economical, all the stuff,
you know, comfortable, good ownership proposition, not going to blow your socks off,
a little bit fussy in the styling like the CHR plus.
It's got, you know, when you look at it along the side, it's got all these slightly strange
bumps and bulges and you wonder why they're there.
Yeah.
You can write to us autocar at haymarket.com as Alistair Doddwell has done.
Welcome to part two of the pod.
Just read your latest news article where you end with Tesla model three quest.
What's that from?
Is that anyway?
After five years and just over 50,000 miles in my long range model three,
I can confirm it's a great car.
Maybe this was you talking about potentially being interested.
Yeah, I just have a bit of a Tesla rich still got it.
Charging at home and for the long trips, the Tesla superchargers are excellent and always
reliable and abundant.
So far, I've had one set of tires in a cabin air filter to make the car which make the car
super easy and low cost to run new software every now and again has increased the range
and features available.
I purchased a performance upgrade for a thousand pounds.
I remember that appearing on the model three on a one off moment and the acceleration
when called for is astonishing.
I sold my 996 Porsche 911 Carrera four S for this and the Tesla is a better all rounder
for day to day driving.
It's great.
Go for it.
Says Alistair.
Yeah.
Well, if you have a Tesla rich mate, there is a recommendation.
Yeah, I wrote back to Alistair actually and said thanks.
I remember is we've had corresponds from him before and he made that same Porsche comparison.
I'm not sure everybody would make a Tesla versus Porsche comparison, but I absolutely
get it and I am a bit of a sucker for what EVs can deliver because I do like smoothness
and refinement and I think the model three performance is a bit of a giveaway at the
moment.
Oh, really?
Yeah, I mean you can buy a very solidly healthy one for 25.
Can you?
Yeah, easy.
Maybe less.
And they are brisk.
Are they not?
They get on with it.
I mean they're sort of, it's the, I mean if you're mooching around is normal driving
and then you just want some acceleration, I mean that's, they are pretty good for that.
Yeah, even the sort of lower echelon ones, I think this one's the one that he's talking
about is a long range, isn't he?
Yeah, I think so and I think I remember that thing coming out where you could spend
give them a grand and
performance upgrade year and did, did Polestar do something like that as well on a two?
You could pay more and get a performance upgrade on a Polestar.
Yeah, there certainly, there certainly is a,
thinking five, six, four, five years ago maybe.
Yeah, probably mad not to in a way because I imagine it's 40Ps worth of software and
Yeah, well, there's the thing.
There's the thing, right?
You've got the car, it can do that acceleration.
You have to pay a thousand pounds to do it, but it's already there.
Yeah, I don't, this is your, well, I do get a bit, yeah, I do sometimes get a bit of a thing
about, well, I have a bit of a thing about it.
If you buy something, I think you own it and I think you should have the right to repair it.
Yeah.
And I think you should have the right to take it to any competent person to repair it,
not necessarily just the people who sold it.
What annoys me is that people who sell you something and still think they own it.
Yes.
That's what gets my goat.
Yeah, yeah.
And I don't know, with the software thing, if it's constantly needs updates, well,
you should have built it properly in the first place.
Yeah, well, but I sort of get it, I sort of get it.
But because also, I think if you bought an MG, like that MG S9, they've now fitted a
single button on the touchscreen that lets you turn off the appropriate ADAS systems.
You can, it's like the Renault thing where it's your personal options.
On the MG, you have to do it before you start.
Well, you have to do it while the car is in park.
So if you forget, then you drive off, then you have to stop somewhere to do it.
So that can be a bit annoying.
But the fact is, you can preset all of those things and you can turn off the attention assist,
which certainly when I was running a Cybuster was the worst of them all and couldn't be switched out.
And you just wanted to burn the car sometimes.
You go, this is a really nice car.
I'm enjoying driving it.
And then you look over your shoulder down a slip road and it goes,
please pay attention to driving.
And you just like, I could just get out.
Yes.
I could just get out and set fire.
I'm going to kill you now.
Yeah.
But it now on the S9 has an option on the touchscreen where you push the button,
you go to your configured level of ADAS assistance, which means most of it off.
And that's done.
And I suppose over a software update, they could put that on a Cybuster,
which would transform a Cybuster from being a nice car that was incredibly irritating
to just a nice car.
So I kind of get it.
I kind of get it.
I was in a leap motor over the weekend.
And if you have your hands on the wheel in a particular way,
tend to, but if you've got a large knuckle, they get in the way of the camera that looks at you.
So you have to shift your hands on the wheel to stop it going bong at you
because you're not paying attention, even though you are paying attention.
I'll just give it back.
I would just hand it back.
I was wondering about a piece of black tape over there, camera.
Well, yeah.
That's what I found myself doing in the Cybuster is driving around with BlueTac over the thing.
I mean, how ludicrous is that?
The trouble is every time you slowed to a certain speed,
it would then say the camera can't see your eyes.
So you're in this kind of, do I accept the fact that it just bongs a lot and tells me
it's that I'm not looking?
I don't know if it was not picking up the reflection of my glasses or what it was doing,
but it was bad.
Well, in this case, after about the 20th time, my helpful passenger said,
you don't learn very fast, do you?
That's very helpful.
That is true enough, but possibly didn't need it pointing out.
No.
But why should you have to?
Well, indeed, that was my defence, but it didn't.
Which Leap motor was it?
A C10.
What's that?
It's a, what would you call it?
I suppose a 2.7, 2.8-metre SUV.
Very spacious.
It's their top model at the moment in this country, I think.
Quite a good looking car.
Strange colour, this kind of mud green kind of colour.
But very well made.
You know, and it obeys the Leap motor rule, which is everything is standard.
You know, radar, cruise control, no problem, all that sort of stuff.
So that's an OK car, and I think I'll be in it for a few months.
Oh, it's your new long-term?
I think so.
Oh, interesting.
Well, yeah, the Caprice still with us, but it'll go soon, I think.
Yeah, I came across a TO3 yesterday or this morning that I was following behind.
That's the cheap one, isn't it?
That's the cheap one.
It is tiny.
Yeah, $16,5995.
How far does it go?
I'm just having a look at that.
In an unremitting city of new, anonymously styled Chinese electric cars with equally
anonymous names, the Leap motor TO3 is one with a difference.
It's about £1,000 more than a Dacia Spring, and it is, let's close that pop-up,
it's also made on the old Fiat 500 line in Poland, apparently,
which avoids shipping costs and a 20% EU import tariff.
That makes it a Stalantis car, doesn't it?
Because Stalantis owns the majority of Leap motor outside China.
Yes, I believe.
Yes, and then inside China, Leap motor owns more of it.
Yeah, Stalantis owns 20% inside China, and I've forgotten what a better majority outside.
Well, it is 3.6 meters long, 1.57 meters wide, that's really narrow.
That's what I thought when I came up behind it.
I was like, crikey, so that is narrower and taller than a Kia Picanto.
So that is a small thing.
I tested another sub £20,000 electric car last week.
The driving impression embargo is this time next week,
so I can't tell you about it, what it's like yet.
But the new Renault Twingo, I've had this put this in my column this week,
it's only got 700 parts inside it, which is a reduction from the Renault 5.
It's on the same floor as the Renault 5, but it has torsion beam rear suspension from a capture,
but otherwise it's a 5 platform underneath, smaller battery.
They say, yeah, the Renault 5 has 1200 parts in it, and they've managed to reduce that to 700 parts.
That is a big deal, isn't it?
It's a massive deal.
Isn't there also a comparative figure with the Clio, isn't it?
Yeah, so a Clio, or there are other combusted cars, there's sort of 2,200 to 2,500 parts.
So most of the parts have come out of engine and transmission, as you would think.
So one third of the number of parts in the Twingo compared with a Clio.
Yeah, compared to Clio, and I don't know how they work it out.
I don't know how that, because surely if you peeled back every individual piece of a connector,
and every individual element of a circuit board, or you took out all of the strands of a cable,
surely you'd come to more than 700 pieces.
But as long as they use the same metric all the time, I don't think it matters,
do you know what I mean?
As long as by their own standards, they go, well, that's the number of parts,
that's using the same metric, that's the difference in parts.
They've got this new, Renault has got this new facility opened in 2024 in Shanghai,
to source suppliers.
And I spoke to Fabrice Cambolov, who is the Renault brand CEO.
I said, well, what does this give you?
He said, sometimes if we put stuff out in Europe, and we say how many parts we want,
and we want to know how much it costs, and when you can deliver them, blah, blah, blah,
we might get an answer in two weeks.
He said, in China, they have organized the supply chain, that if we put out a question
like that, we will know within a day.
And he said, they've managed to develop a car in 100 weeks, largely for that reason,
because suppliers have gone, yeah, we can do you 25,000 of those grommets every three months,
and we'll do that for the next six years, and that will be 59 cents a grommet.
Wow, wow.
So, but the difficulty still is making a car off that size, and making money out of it.
Are you able to say whether it's a good car or not?
Apparently not until, because there's the driving impressions in Bargo, but I mean,
if you've seen it, it looks funky.
It hasn't got a mega range, I think that would be the interesting thing to see,
because it's like a 30-ish kilowatt hour battery, just under.
But it's quite efficient.
But there are things that they've done to, because the parts have come out,
but of course, they don't want it to feel like parts have come out or to look cheap.
So they've developed a Twingo alphabet.
So it's got Twingo written in their own font.
So there's a, there's a, it's not unusual for, I mean, there's an auto car font,
isn't it?
I mean, there's not, it's not unusual for people to develop their own font for things.
So there is a, there is a Twingo font.
And on the roof lining of the Twingo, the entire alphabet in its Twingo font
is pressed into the roof lining.
Wow.
But as Lawrence Van Den Aker, who's the design boss at Renault said, he said,
he said, that doesn't cost us anything.
We've got to stamp the roof anyway.
So we've got to do it.
So it's an incredibly funky design.
It looks really cool.
People look up at the roof and they get, oh, that looks great.
Costs us nothing to do over a boring roof.
So, and that's where they can get.
These are the joy of cheap cars, isn't it?
Yeah.
Cheap, you know, cleverly configured cheap cars.
Yeah.
And it weighs 1200.
And there's another one, isn't it?
Yes.
It does that stuff.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I love all that.
Yeah, me too.
And it weighs 1200 kilos, which is a lot for a city car that's 3.8 meters long,
but it's not a lot for an EV and it's 300 kilos less or two good 250 kilos,
less than a Renault five.
I mean, a lot of that will be battery, but it not only is it battery.
So, it's an interesting, interesting car arrives.
And next week you're going to be able to say it's good.
Yeah, next week I'll tell you what it's like.
And also next week we can talk about what the Aston Martin Valhalla is like as well, even though.
There's two ends of the spectrum.
Well, yeah, aren't they?
Yeah.
Would they make a decent two car garage?
That is the question.
That is the question.
You'd have to have something in the middle, wouldn't you?
You probably should, shouldn't you really?
Gold estate, doesn't it?
Yeah, exactly.
Yeah.
What should we move on to next?
I've got the page open for the leak motor still.
165 mile range on the TO3 apparently.
Oh, pretty good.
And it can be charged at 45 kilowatts.
So probably 113 really.
Yeah, it could be.
Yeah, and that's, so the spring has 140 mile range.
Yeah.
So, Honda e in a bit.
Honda e in a bit.
Yeah, that's not bad, you know.
No.
Battery warranty is eight years or 100,000 miles.
Yeah, I like all that.
Yeah, I like all that.
Right, where did I get to in the scheme of things?
BMW i3, what do you think?
Well, I don't really know what to think because all we've seen
and all I've seen are some pictures, but I just saw the pictures
that we were about to publish with it, which are these kind of
horror story pictures.
They've been, they look as though not only have they been
photoshopped out of all reality, but they look as they've been
photoshopped by committee.
I can remember in a horrible part of my career one time,
and we were trying to design, well, the forces of management
were trying to design the cover of a particular magazine
that was important.
And I counted them.
There were nine people standing around this poor designer screen
saying, what about if we make that one in black?
And what about if we just lift this set of taillights
and make them a bit brighter?
And the i3 handout picks look just like that.
Every one of them is horrible.
I just want to find out what the car's like because
when the Neuer-class BMWs first came out, I thought that was
such a breath of fresh air and it still is, but these pictures
managed to refine it away.
So you don't know.
What a disgrace.
All the studio, because I've seen it, but I've only seen it
in a white studio, and I haven't seen it anywhere else.
Any good?
Well, I mean, I like the front a lot, and the rest I don't,
I still don't know because I've only seen it in a white studio
where it's hard to get a feel for what it looks like,
and it's seen that blue color, but the way it's lit looks quite,
I don't know quite what to describe it.
It's almost like it's glowing, it's such a constant.
There were no shadows in it and reflections or anything in it.
You just see the blue, so it's quite a striking.
Nice color.
You've seen the Jaguar Type 00 out and about,
but it doesn't seem to reflect the environment at all.
It all just seems to be its own thing, and that's the only way I've,
I don't quite know how to describe what I'm trying to describe,
but I've not yet seen it in an environment, I suppose.
Yeah, we need some shadows, don't we?
We need some normal light, but this, in particular, these BMW,
somebody said to me, BMW normally really good at handout pictures.
You know, they're early pictures of their cars, but this one looks as though
there's been 10 people who have to sign it off,
and it's been across 10 desks, and I've all said, well, let's just,
Let's just change that a bit, let's just do this.
Yeah.
And they've finished up, you know, could be anything.
It's not unusual for, or is it unusual?
Some manufacturers do ask their photographers to only shoot cars from certain angles,
and we've had a, I suspect this problem is likely to go away.
We've had issues with some JLR trips before that we've been on,
where we've asked for pictures, and there has been some back and forth,
and to and fro, because somebody has to sign off every individual press picture.
Yeah, somebody in very high authority.
Somebody in very high authority has had to sign off a press picture to see
whether it's from X angle or Y angle, and whether that's okay.
And actually, could you just tweak this bit out the background,
and could you make it this look like this?
And in the end, they just look a little bit marketing-y, overly processed.
Such a bad mistake, isn't it?
Yeah, I think so.
Yeah.
Here we are in this era where every single person that gets convinced by something says,
it's genuine, it's got, you know, what we're always after is genuineness,
and these things strike at the foundations of genuineness.
Yeah, in entirely unrelated news, Jeremy Govind has officially left JLR.
Yeah.
He's going to start, they say, his own consultancy, which sounds to me like a very,
very cheery next five to 10 years.
I mean, he's 70.
But I, for one, would be very interested in what a Jerry McGovern watch was like.
Yeah, he did the Norton.
Yeah, he still, I think he still works in a way with them.
TVS is that the company, huge motorcycle company that owns Norton.
And he's certainly, I think maybe designed consultant, but he,
he, I mean, he's going to have plenty to do.
And I can imagine him, his phone will be ringing now, right now,
because from Chinese manufacturers saying, you know, get your backside over to our place and,
you know, give us a view on these 12 cars we're about to launch.
Yeah.
Because he, the thing he's been able to do is put his stamp on cars and the image.
Nothing that he's been recently involved with is bland, is it?
No, no, 100% not.
And yet they're very modern.
So I think man's got the touch.
I'd love to have heard some of the content of some of the meetings because,
you know, his departure, we presume that his departure without anybody saying anything was
because it was going to be a fair bit of legal discussion.
And those discussions are now complete.
And then his reappearance was after the discussions were complete.
And Mr. Balaji, the boss, was able to say what a marvelous contribution.
And then off he went with honor.
Yeah.
But I want to see a Jerry McGovern watch.
I want to see, you know, I'd even like to see, you know, a Jerry McGovern house or furniture.
He's interested in all that, isn't he?
Yeah, yeah, yeah, very much.
So I think he's got a fantastic career ahead.
If managed correctly, but he's a bit headstrong, I think.
Yeah.
I was in California in December and some Landrovers and Range Rovers out there
with the kind of light they have out there.
And also they don't look that big out there either, do they?
No.
Because all kinds of big, they just look brilliant.
Just looked really terrific.
Yeah.
And I think he sort of knows that, doesn't he?
He builds them for that optimal lighting.
Yeah.
Yeah.
That's just their biggest market, isn't it?
Uh, that probably, well, we're only 48 minutes in.
What else have we got to talk about, Steve?
Uh, yeah.
I mean, I think we've wrapped up both of our respective columns.
Yeah.
What would you...
Just trying to think what...
Oh, there was a thing that I put in my column this week, which was a...
There was a rather excellent bloke called Martin Sander, who was,
um, uh, I called him VW's director of everything.
He seems to be in charge of sort of sales marketing, um, strategy, all kinds of things.
Anyway, he came over to the UK and took part in this event called SMMT Electrified.
And he made a lot of sensible comments about the progress of electrification and so on.
But the thing that really stopped us in our traffic and caused everybody to reach for
their phone and photograph it was a visual that showed 50 Chinese brands,
just the badges of 50 Chinese brands all on the same board.
And he said about 10 of these are successful.
So 40 of them are going to fail sometime.
Right.
Some in the future, some in the near future, some later.
But that's the, that's the, um, strategy.
You know, just, uh, um, don't bother trying to choose which is best.
You know, if you're the government, don't try and choose which is best.
Just give them all a go and then see which one's...
See which sticks.
You know, it's like chucking your kids off the end of the jetty.
See which one can swim.
See which one swims.
Scary, isn't it?
Well, it is.
I mean, if you were a European manufacturer, I mean, I don't, I don't know what you,
I don't know what you do.
I mean, like if you're, if you're Renault, you try and embrace it a bit and use
a Chinese supply chain that suits you and cut 500 parts out of a car,
which reduces the weight, which actually could be quite interesting if we don't notice.
Well, he, he was all right about that.
He wasn't, he wasn't sort of, um, you know, full of woe at all.
He was saying, we, there are lessons for us here.
We have got a number of things they haven't got, which, you know,
recognizable brands, a, a, a bunch of loyal people.
Although brand loyalty isn't so much of a big issue in EV sales, it seems.
But nevertheless, loyal, loyal people, um, and we're good at distribution.
So, you know, if you're launching a new Chinese brand,
you've got to find all these dealers.
You've got to get the cast of them.
You've got to convince people of their worth.
That was my problem at Goodwood.
I just kept on looking at these cars.
I just didn't, just didn't know whether to care about them.
That was my problem.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Whereas, um, so Martin, he was, he was a really, you know, one of those
blokes that was plausible on every single subject.
Yes.
It's really, really annoying.
I think that was the, that's the thinking, isn't it, from Renault's point of view about,
about Twingo, because it looks like an original Twingo, about Renault five,
because it looks like a Renault five and the Renault four.
That's the same.
I think, you know, there's, because there are so many reasons you could not buy a car.
They just give you a, they just give you a very clear design led reason to have one of those,
which I think is quite compelling.
So busy, it's interesting to see how, just this last few days, how busily
Ineos are building a heritage for the Grenadier.
You know, they're, they're suddenly making sure we all understand that it's named after a pub
and they're getting the CEO over to the pub to interview the likes of us
in the pub and talk, to talk about the heritage and talk about the,
you know, just whatever they can find.
That's a kind of cute story.
They, they're busy unearthing them.
Yeah, yeah.
And of course there are good stories from the testing, you know, cars
attacking unfeasibly difficult terrain and so on.
So they'll do it.
But it's, it's just people who haven't got heritage want one.
Yeah.
Weirdly, the people who have heritage are a bit casual with it.
Well, they can be.
Yeah, they can be very much too casual with it.
Can't they?
Well, the reason, one of the reasons for, as I understand it, for Jerry McGovern's
falling, their management falling out of love with Jerry, because he was
unnecessarily dismissive of the past.
Yeah.
And since he's gone, they've, well, I think Matt Saunders, our rotor said,
it is just about to go over there and drive back.
I think he's there today.
Yeah.
Trying some stuff.
Legions of old cars and they talk about the XJS all the time, don't they?
Long they do now.
Which is, they feel like, has some echoes of Concept 00.
I mean, it does a bit, doesn't it?
It does.
You know, the way the buttresses do give it that look down the
down the rear and the big long, you know, the big long nose out the front.
I really liked the XJS at the time.
I used to try and blag road test cars all the time.
Trips to the West country.
Yeah.
Great.
I've not driven one.
I've not been in one.
I don't think I've ever been in one.
Isn't it two plus two?
Yes and no.
There was, I think the coupe was a two plus two.
The convertible wasn't and then Princess Diana got one and they put some seats in the back
because they were a bit embarrassed, but they don't do anything.
But the, I think you'd be, it's a bit late for you to get in one and feel the wonder of it
because you needed to, you know, you need, you needed to be there at the time in 1980.
You know, you would have been all right.
You possibly weren't in the car reviewing racket in 1980.
I was not in the car reviewing racket.
I might have been in the, I mean, I was in the car interest racket.
I was, where my old man used to work for the MOD at a place called CME,
which is the School of Electrical and Mechanical Engineering.
They used to do, and they used to, you know, your kids could go along for the day sometimes.
But they also, BP used to run a competition and they hosted it there called Builder Car.
Oh, indeed.
And mostly design students and engineering students, I think, would build cars and put
them against each other.
And I remember going to a few of those.
Must have been great.
Yeah, it was great.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Seeing.
Good idea.
Yeah.
Really good idea.
I mean, these days formula student is probably the equivalent of that.
But the builder car thing was, I mean, it wasn't just a formula sports racing car
it could be in anything.
Yeah.
I must.
Did you get involved?
No, mate, I was five.
Oh, God, sorry.
But no, in fact, my engineering degree finished the year before formula students started,
I think.
I think the year below us.
You would have been in there, wouldn't you?
Did formula student.
Oh, yeah, I mean, I've had, we did design a go-kart, I think, and the best designed one,
I think the technicians at the uni were going to build, but I don't know if they
did or not.
But there was, yeah, the formula student would have given,
I think, some really useful hands-on sort of experience because it's quite possible to go
through an engineering degree without picking up a spanner.
Yes.
Really.
Yeah.
I did a, I made a toolbox in my first year and a, and a vice.
Still got the toolbox.
I mean, it's amazing.
It's just so well built.
But beyond that is a lot of, there's a lot of maths.
Yeah.
My first.
I was set out to be an engineer.
Didn't make it.
And the, the reason is I just looked at all these people with, you know,
weren't very interesting to me.
So fair enough.
My first week, we were sitting in a thermodynamics tutorial and the lecturer went
around and he handed out this two-sided piece of paper with a load of questions on it such as
you're in a room, the capacity of the room is a hundred cubic meters.
There's a heater in the corner, which pumps out three kilowatts.
The thermal efficiency of the doors is this and the, the window and the roof is this.
How long is it going to take for the room to go from 12 cent degrees inside to 15 inside
if it's five degrees outside, blah, blah, blah.
And I remember thinking, looking at this and thinking, I cannot do this.
And I don't know where to start with this.
And there is no way I can do four years of this.
I am in trouble.
I can, I will, I, I can't do, there's no way I can do this.
And somebody else, somebody else over the other side of the room put his hand up and went,
Dr. So-and-so, is this sheet for the week or is it for the term?
And he said, oh yeah, it's for this week.
And there was this massive collective sigh of, oh my goodness.
And I thought, oh, maybe I am not the only one who is here looking at this thinking.
I do not know where to start.
And yeah, it was.
Did you come up with an answer, do you remember?
Oh, I shouldn't think, I shouldn't think I've ever been able to do it in my,
I must have, I must have known at one point how to do it.
But I wouldn't remember now.
But I had this, it wired us sort of a moment, it was destructive.
I can remember doing the same thing, sitting in these lectures and thinking,
oh, look, this is not for me.
I was too busy reading motoring magazines.
And I like the, I like the sentences.
I like the connection with a reader just as I do now.
And up for sale came this MGTC hill climber, which was for sale.
And I just became obsessed with this car.
And I was a scholarship boy.
And I, I'm afraid my scholarship went only MGTCs.
No riddle.
Or half of it with another idiot who was just as seized as I was.
Yeah.
Well, I mean, ultimately, mate, we can't say that was a terrible thing, can we?
Well, I, I, I, I'm, I have no regrets at all whatsoever.
No, I mean, it wouldn't have turned out like this otherwise.
No, I wouldn't be standing here talking to you.
Exactly.
Steve and I are going to be talking to each other and to Rob Dickinson
on Saturday, three days time of Singer, Singer vehicle design.
I think they're technically called, but he's very casual about what we call it.
Yep.
Singer do give it a listen because it's really interesting.
Yeah, really interesting.
Steve and I will be back this time next week.
And then at some point you have had a chat with the Duke of Richmond as well.
Yeah.
So we just, so we've got a, we've got some, some bit of a chat with him talking,
looking forward to the fact that Singer is going to be the chosen
mark for the Goodwood Festival Speed, which is quite a big deal.
Isn't it?
And he talks about that and what else is happening and also a little bit about
the significance of the motor industry to Goodwood and what he thinks of electric cars
and just, just some good stuff.
Cool.
We'll have that at some point.
I don't know if we'll put it on a Wednesday pod or we'll have it as a Saturday standalone pod,
but we'll worry about that.
Well, we're going to talk about that in a minute.
But meantime, thanks to our sponsor, Anderson.
Go to Anderson-EV.com and check out their range of design led premium charges.
They've got a concierge service, actually, so if you get in contact with them and say
you're interested, they have a person who will look after you all the way through,
make it incredibly easy to do.
Keep meeting people who've done it.
Oh, really?
Yeah, it's good.
They never, so far, never had anybody saying they weren't very good.
They were, no, they're lots of good experiences.
Excellent.
It's really, it's rather gratifying, I say.
Isn't it?
Should give it a go.
So yeah, should do.
Yeah.
So thank you, mate.
See you.
See you next week.
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