The Two Blokes Talking Electric Cars podcast – Episode # 120 – Why is Zeekr booming? Plus Government incentive clarity at last

Episode: 120 — Why is Zeekr booming? Plus Government incentive clarity at last
Podcast: Two Blokes Talking Electric Cars
Date: 17 May 2026
Hosts: Trevor Long & Stephen Fenech

[00:00:01] Trevor: This is Two Blokes Talking Electric Cars with Steven Fenech and Trevor Long, thanks to NRMA Insurance and Uniden. Great to have your company. NRMA Insurance, helping Australians protect what matters most for 100 years and many more to come. They’re also one of Australia’s largest insurers of electric vehicles. Shout out to my uncle who just bought an ATTO 3 and insured it with NRMA Insurance. What a legend. Yes. And of Uniden smart dashcams. If you own a car, you should have a dashcam. It’s really that simple. There’s nothing to do with you’re just about to buy an electric car, make sure you’ve got yourself a dash cam so that you’ve got that peace of mind, which is what we always say. And all we ask of these sponsors who make sure this show is free for you to watch or listen to wherever you are, all we ask is that you consider them. So give them a— if you are looking to buy a dash cam, please consider the Uniden range. They’ve got a huge range in all price points. And when your EV, when your car comes up for insurance renewals, just make a call, go online, get a quote from NRMA so that they can see that this support he’s doing something for their business as well. Stephen, we’ve got a big show, we’ve got a bunch of calls to get to.

[00:01:07] Stephen: We do, yes, some great chats today.

[00:01:09] Trevor: We can’t wait to—

[00:01:09] Stephen: Looking forward to it.

[00:01:10] Trevor: We can’t wait to speak to them. If you wanna be one of those people next week or in the weeks ahead, 0477 657 657. We are also gonna talk to the head of marketing and strategy essentially at Zika Australia, Andrew—

[00:01:23] Stephen: Stamatakis.

[00:01:24] Trevor: Stamatakis.

[00:01:25] Stephen: Stamatakis.

[00:01:26] Trevor: Stamatakis. I’m reading it going, I’m gonna stuff it up. And there he is, Andrew. Thanks for joining us later in the show, but I’ve stuffed it up at the very start. But no, Andrew, I met him in Melbourne at the motor show. I just spent some time in China with Geely and ZEEKR, saw some cool stuff. So we’ll ask him about that. We’re going to talk about the federal budget last week and how it impacts EV because there’s been some legislative changes which you could see as negative, but it’ll be interesting to see how the car brands are looking at it. And also I think we just want to understand from ZEEKR how—

[00:01:55] Stephen: Yeah, where did they come from? They just— they’ve done such— they’re so visible now and they’ve done a great job building up the company.

[00:02:04] Trevor: It’s like a fullback taking a kick-off and just running straight through them and scoring a try. It’s like, what is happening here?

[00:02:10] Stephen: Amazing.

[00:02:11] Trevor: All that to come here on Two Blokes Talking Electric Cars. Two Blokes Talking Electric Cars. Lovely to have your company and keen to get your thoughts on the world of EVs wherever you’re at in the EV world. If you’re about to buy one, you just bought one, you’ve been driving one for years, share your thoughts, share your knowledge. And help educate and inform other people along the way. Steven, let’s take some calls. 0477 657 657. Send us a text or a WhatsApp. Thanks to Vodafone, we’ll get you on the show. Anthony’s on the line. G’day, Anthony.

Anthony — Test-drove 15 EVs, putting deposit on new Zeekr X

[00:02:49] Anthony: G’day.

[00:02:50] Trevor: Yeah, really good, mate. Where are you at in the EV world? You’re in the market and you’ve done some serious test driving, I see.

[00:02:55] Anthony: Yeah, I’ve just come out of a deep, deep rabbit hole. I think I looked at 22 cars. I test drove 15.

[00:03:03] Stephen: Hey, whoa, whoa, whoa.

[00:03:04] Trevor: Slow down. Slow down. You looked at 22, you test drove 15. Anthony, you are one car away.

[00:03:11] Stephen: One car off the record, mate.

[00:03:12] Trevor: From the Two Blokes Talking Techno record.

[00:03:14] Anthony: I heard that. Yeah. And I don’t know if I’ll get there because I’ve put a deposit down.

[00:03:17] Trevor: Oh, okay. You’ve got to—

[00:03:20] Anthony: I might just need to drive one more.

[00:03:21] Stephen: Just for the sake of it.

[00:03:23] Trevor: Yeah.

[00:03:24] Stephen: Or two more. Two more. One more would equal two more would take over.

[00:03:27] Trevor: Yeah. For the record, Penelope, episode 25 joined us and she’d driven 11 and then she joined us again episode 55. She’d driven another 5. So 15, 16 cars. Cars in total, you would need to test drive 2 more, but I don’t know that it qualifies if you test drive them after you’ve placed a deposit. I’m just gonna call it out right now, Anthony.

[00:03:47] Anthony: Yeah, I know.

[00:03:47] Trevor: So what did you, let’s start with where you ended. Where did you, I wanna go the other end. Where did you end? What have you put money on?

[00:03:55] Anthony: Oh, you’re gonna jump right to the end.

[00:03:57] Trevor: Yeah, we’ll get back to the start, yeah.

[00:04:00] Anthony: Okay, I’ve put a deposit on the new Zeekr X.

[00:04:04] Trevor: Hey, we are about to talk to the marketing manager of Zeekr. So this is fascinating. I wanna know how you ended up the new X, because we drove the X premium, smaller style car. It felt, it felt expensive, but the newer model is slightly reduced in price with more features. So what was it that got you over the line?

[00:04:23] Anthony: Right. I mean, that was a big selling point. It came in well under my budget. The size probably was exactly what I was looking for, that sort of small SUV around 4.5 meters, the premium feeling, and then mostly, to be honest, the LFP battery. So they introduced that new golden battery, I think it’s called, in the rear-wheel drive model. And that was kind of the— sealed it for me. Wow.

[00:04:48] Stephen: So, okay, now that we’ve— Trevor’s read the last page of the book. Let’s go back to the beginning.

[00:04:54] Trevor: So what didn’t make the cut?

[00:04:55] Stephen: Yeah, well, where— well, how long have you been at it for a start? I know it’s been a while by the sounds of it. And so where— and where were you coming from as well?

[00:05:06] Anthony: So I had a Mini Cooper hatchback, 5-door petrol car for, I think, just almost 11 years actually. Put it on the market in February expecting it to take a while to sell, manual gearbox, and it sold within 2 weeks.

[00:05:21] Stephen: Oh wow.

[00:05:22] Anthony: I kind of thought it, I assumed, you know, I had in my mind a couple of cars, but I hadn’t really made my decision up. But yeah, anyway, it went and then my journey began sort of in February. So it’s been, it was about 3 months.

[00:05:36] Stephen: Can I ask what was it that made you think, right, I’m getting an EV? What was it?

[00:05:44] Anthony: Well, my son is just about to turn 14 and he was getting a little bit too big for the backseat of a Mini. And then of course, the novated lease with the no fringe benefit tax that, you know, I could do through novated leasing was a big— it was basically when I did the calculations going to end up roughly the same cost.

[00:06:05] Trevor: Right.

[00:06:05] Anthony: Running an EV.

[00:06:06] Trevor: So financially, great decision. It was about money and that made it financially.

[00:06:12] Anthony: Yeah. And also, you know, about the time, I think, when you need to move out of the small hatchback cars when you get teenage kids.

[00:06:19] Trevor: So can you give us a little run through of the kind of cars, the journey? What, where did you start and how did you get to where you ended up? Because, you know, obviously you looked at a lot of cars.

[00:06:29] Anthony: I’ll have to go through my notes because it’s a reasonable story, but I’ll try and be quick. So yeah, it was, look, I guess my criteria was I had a budget around $60,000. I wanted something still small because I live inner city Sydney, but as I said, big enough for a teenager in the back. And so I was looking around that 4.5-meter, and my wife kind of was keen to get something a little bit easier to get in and out of, so the small SUV sort of made sense. Mini was a pretty premium, solid-feeling car, and I wanted something similar to that, but also something with decent software and good ADAS system. And something I could, you know, take on the occasional 3 to 4 hour trip down to Canberra or just out of Sydney. And as I said, like the LFP was sort of a preference, although I think I could have dealt with NMC. I just wasn’t sure how long I’d keep the car given I had the last one for 11 years.

[00:07:19] Stephen: Sure.

[00:07:20] Anthony: LFP might just be less, less to worry about. So anyway, yeah, I—

[00:07:25] Trevor: Yeah.

[00:07:26] Stephen: When you did your first one, what was the first car you test drove and was that the first time you ever drove an EV?

[00:07:33] Anthony: I’d hired Teslas before, so I’ve been over in the US on work a few times and taken a Tesla for a weekend, Model 3 and Model Y. Okay. And that was kind of my benchmark, um, I guess, for software and technology. And I had mixed feelings about the fit and finish, but I think the US models are a little bit weaker than the Australian ones. Um, I had a number of friends with Teslas and big advocates for them, but obviously it wasn’t they don’t have a compact SUV shape.

[00:07:59] Stephen: Yeah.

[00:07:59] Anthony: So it was kind of the benchmark, you know, that I guess I had for dynamics. But my first cars were the Kia EV3, MG S5, and the BYD Atto 2. And that’s where the journey began. That’s when I started testing those with those three.

[00:08:14] Trevor: Yeah, right. And, and where did you— how far out of the ordinary did you go? Because obviously there’s a lot of cars on the market now across the 11— what did you say, 14 cars? How many different brands are there? Like, how wide did you spread your—

[00:08:30] Anthony: So after that, then it went much wider. So I did look at the Zica then, at the pre-updated all-wheel drive model, both the Smart cars, #1 and #3, I think they’re called, Geely EX5, Leap Motor B10, GAC Aion V and the UT as it was at the same dealer, Renault Scenic, Hyundai Alexio. I think they’re the ones I drove. And then I looked at the Polestar 2, Toyota bZ4X, BYD Sealant C-Line, Volvo EX30. You’ve done a lot of work, mate.

[00:09:07] Trevor: I was trying to type them out as you went. I’ve lost track. So bottom line, I mean, let’s be really rude to the car companies. What was the worst of them?

[00:09:21] Anthony: Well, they were— I don’t know. One that’s clearly— so they are positives and negatives, and that was the hard thing. Like, nothing hit everything, so it was always like figuring out what the compromises were and then which ones I could deal with. Um, I don’t know if I can make a call on which was the worst. I mean, like, we landed on the— the Giulia X5 was what my son and wife loved because it was like the luxury of it, the massage seats, you know, the big opening roof. But for me, like, it was just too soft and floaty to drive, especially coming from the Mini and I test drove it 3 times. Yeah, but in the end I was like, I need more of a driver’s car.

[00:10:03] Trevor: It’s a really interesting thing because I don’t know that enough people appreciate how different cars feel. And you know what, some people don’t feel it. Some people don’t have that. But like, we just got into Skodas. We’re both in Skodas this weekend. Yeah, I got in and went, this is— I can feel this is a European car.

[00:10:19] Stephen: It’s tuned, it’s nice.

[00:10:21] Trevor: I can feel the ride. It’s so much different to many other cars on the road. Yeah. And you obviously, despite the overwhelming love from your partner and your son, the GLE didn’t make it just because you didn’t like the driving dynamics. I mean, that’s fair.

[00:10:35] Anthony: That’s right.

[00:10:35] Trevor: That’s totally appropriate.

[00:10:36] Stephen: Absolutely.

[00:10:37] Trevor: Would you say that was your second choice before the Zico or was it something else?

[00:10:43] Anthony: That— no, it wasn’t the second choice. It came down to the Alexio. The Alexio, I thought, was a better version from a driver’s perspective.

[00:10:49] Trevor: Oh, the Hyundai.

[00:10:50] Anthony: It was another— yeah, the Hyundai one, the new one. It was $10,000 more. I had that last week.

[00:10:54] Trevor: It’s made in— it’s not made in Korea, it’s made in China. I didn’t realize.

[00:10:57] Anthony: It’s made in China. Yeah, that’s right.

[00:10:59] Trevor: And can I ask you this? Were the seats comfortable? Because honestly, in the Alexio, it felt like it was squeezing me from the side. No, no, I’m a big human.

[00:11:10] Stephen: But so what had like the wing seats?

[00:11:12] Trevor: Yeah, but it wasn’t like sports seats. But I just, yeah. But what I did love, I’ll tell you this, what I did love, mate, was the head-up display, Steven, because unfortunately you didn’t get to drive it because I went away and you had the Mercedes you loved. Yeah. Was the head-up display was down the bottom of the windscreen and it was a reflection as all head-up displays is, but it had this depth to it. So it made you think it was kind of further into the screen than what it was. It had a really good look to it. I really liked that. And I think that’s what the new BMW Neue Klasse windscreens are going to look like. That was the sense I got from it. Did you like that?

[00:11:46] Anthony: I didn’t notice the seat thing, but I think the problem with test driving cars is like, you know, you’ve got max half an hour. Most of the dealers in Sydney are in the inner city streets, especially on a Saturday, you get stuck in traffic. So you’re just driving 20 k’s an hour around in traffic. You don’t get a good feel of the seats. The heads-up display, I liked it. I think that I like those ones with that full augmented reality projection on the windscreen. But I think that the Alexia had a more practical one. I drove the Kona as well, actually.

[00:12:16] Stephen: Anthony, you said that you live in the inner city.

[00:12:21] Anthony: Yeah, that’s right.

[00:12:22] Stephen: What’s your charging situation there? Do you have off-street parking or how’s it going to go?

[00:12:26] Anthony: I have off-street parking. I have a power point in the garage. Nice. And I don’t use the car every day, so I’m okay with that. But the ZEEKR, you know, pre-order deal comes with a charger.

[00:12:38] Stephen: Oh, nice.

[00:12:39] Anthony: I just need to get the electrician to wire it up.

[00:12:42] Trevor: Yeah.

[00:12:42] Anthony: But yeah.

[00:12:43] Trevor: Well, mate, you’re on a winner. What’s the timeframe for delivery if you put your money down?

[00:12:48] Anthony: Well, they said June, but I’m realistically thinking July, August. I did put my money down with condition of test drive, ’cause you can’t test drive the newest models. So there is a chance that I drive it and somehow something goes wrong and I withdraw and get my money back and then I continue my search and maybe I can hit the record then.

[00:13:07] Trevor: Only under those circumstances are you entitled to the record. Well, mate, keep us informed when you take delivery, when you’ve got the charging sorted, we wanna hear from you and let us know what it’s like, mate.

[00:13:17] Anthony: All right, guys, appreciate it.

[00:13:18] Trevor: Wonderful to hear from you. Thank you so much. There you go. Ended up on the ZEEKR. Off the record. And we are so close to chatting to someone, to Andrew from ZEEKR about where that comes from. Company’s at. There you go. There’s a lot of people who are going down that path, hey Zeke?

[00:13:34] Stephen: And we, in the sales figures last week, they also did very well. So they’re doing something right.

[00:13:38] Trevor: One of the things we’ll talk to Andrew about is just how, I mean, with the greatest respect.

[00:13:42] Stephen: Yeah, they’ve come out of nowhere.

[00:13:44] Trevor: Yeah, they are a bolt from the blue. So we’ll find out about that. We’re taking your calls though. 0477 657 657. Great to have your company, Two Blokes Talking Electric Cars. Stuart’s on the line. G’day, Stuart.

Stuart — Choosing between Sea Lion 7 and ATTO 3 Evo, needs left-foot accelerator conversion

[00:14:07] Stuart: How are you?

[00:14:08] Stephen: Thanks and well.

[00:14:09] Trevor: Really, really good here. What, uh, you’re in the market for an EV and you’re tossing up. You’ve narrowed down the model, but you’ve got a bit of a question about which variant to buy.

[00:14:21] Stuart: Correct, yes. So I was looking at Celine Seven, but I’m not too really too sure which variant will fit me. And also I’ve got other things I’ve got to think about as well, ’cause I’ve got to actually got to, I’ve had a stroke, so I have a left foot accelerator for my car. So that’s the other thing I’ve got to take into account is the conversion cost as well. So that’s what’s on my mind.

[00:14:38] Trevor: Okay. Have you asked the con— is there a couple places that do conversions? Or do they feel like it’s more expensive on an electric car than a petrol?

[00:14:47] Stuart: It’s about the same price, I’d say. About $5,000, I think, roughly around there, they said. So, yeah, it’s not too bad, but it’s still a cost I’m factoring.

[00:14:57] Trevor: And what are you debating, mate?

[00:14:59] Stuart: I’m debating between a Sea Lion 7 and the up-and-coming ATTO 3 Evo. ‘Cause I used to own a WRX, but I own a Forester now. So I would like something that’s got a bit of punch to it, you know what I mean? Bit of performance.

[00:15:12] Trevor: Yeah.

[00:15:13] Stuart: And you get with most electric cars.

[00:15:16] Trevor: Yeah. I mean, you know, it’s punch is what it’s all about. And I think their decision to bring out an Evo is because they want to widen that Atto range like they’re selling in great numbers. You think about Volkswagen, right? When Volkswagen had the Golf, sells great, good car. Then you add in the R32, the GTI, you start to really entice people who love the car into something that does a bit more. So I feel like that’s—

[00:15:40] Anthony: Like a hot hatch.

[00:15:41] Trevor: Exactly. Now, I’m loath to use those words because it’s probably, you know, not going to be true hot hatch, but they are talking 0 to 100 in 5.5, which is pretty cool. There’s a big difference in size though, wouldn’t you say, between the C-Line 7 and the ATTO 3? Is that not an issue for you?

[00:15:58] Stuart: Oh, it’ll fit in my carport, so I don’t mind the small car because I used to have the small— the WRX is not huge, but I like the small cars, you know, because I get— the thing is that the C-Line 7 is quite large. Take up a lot of room in my garage. Yeah, that’s something you should have. So anyway, it’ll fit, but you know.

[00:16:17] Stephen: So have you— what other cars have you test driven?

[00:16:20] Trevor: Have you been—

[00:16:21] Stephen: Have you— what’s caught your eye apart from the Sea Lion 7?

[00:16:25] Stuart: There is a Zica 7. 7. Zica 7.

[00:16:29] Trevor: Are you talking about the Zica 7X or the 7GT?

[00:16:34] Stuart: Both. I was looking at both.

[00:16:36] Trevor: Because, dude, I was in China a few weeks ago and that GT is a stunning looking car. Like, I’ll be honest, it has a Ferrari look to it. Like, if you got that thing in hot red, like, it’s not a—

[00:16:49] Stuart: Sharp edges.

[00:16:51] Trevor: You know, one of the, I don’t know, more recent Ferraris with a rear seat, you know, one of those kind of Ferraris. It’s just got styling to it. It’s got a real, real, real back end to it. Really nice looking.

[00:17:00] Anthony: Yeah, sure.

[00:17:01] Trevor: Everyone was drawn to it. So, but, you know, price-wise, are you willing to expand your budget a bit? Because I feel like the 7X and the 7GT are going to be above the C-Line 7, that’s for sure.

[00:17:13] Stuart: Oh yeah, I think my budget is probably maybe around $60,000-$65,000. Really, that’s my budget. So I can go a bit more, but you know, that’s my price range basically.

[00:17:24] Trevor: Yeah. I mean, I think in the end, with the greatest respect, the 7GT and the 7X will probably, if you want a little bit of performance, will probably push you out of your price range. Yeah. And, you know, look, even, even the performance version of the C-Line 7 is really— it’s going to top you up into the mid-$60,000, $70,000 on road, really. I think you’re better off waiting for that 803 Evo.

[00:17:50] Stuart: I know that’s my point. I’m going to wait for this. Apparently it’s going to come out in a couple of months, but you know, that’s— I’m happy to wait that long.

[00:17:57] Stephen: And so what’s— I know you obviously looking for an EV. Is this the— what, what made you decide, okay, now’s the time to pull the trigger on an EV?

[00:18:08] Stuart: Well, because I have a solar system and I have a battery as well. I know, it’s a no-brainer for me. So I thought, might as well get an electric car.

[00:18:14] Stephen: Okay, well, that was going to be my next question. Your charging situation seems like it’s pretty much sorted itself out.

[00:18:19] Stuart: I’m ready for charging. I just need to get the wallbox basically and done.

[00:18:24] Trevor: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[00:18:25] Stephen: Okay, sorted.

[00:18:27] Trevor: And how many have you driven, mate? What’s— is it hard for you to do test drives because of your left foot acceleration?

[00:18:31] Anthony: Yeah, I know.

[00:18:32] Stuart: That’s the thing. I had to let the the driver do it and the dealer do it. But, you know, it’s not the same, you know, because I— yeah, so that’s my issue because I sort of have to maybe get someone that I can trust and knows how to drive a car properly or how I would like to drive it.

[00:18:47] Trevor: Well, it’s a good point because, because what do you do on a test drive, right? You go, oh, does it feel good? Where’s the cup holder? And then you go, hey, listen, let’s just give it a quick squirt. And then like, I remember, and I’ve told this story before with my BMW when I bought it in Perth, go through a roundabout, you know, like a little bit more spirited as you might normally. And so you need to find a mate who has taken a test drive with you feeling.

[00:19:08] Stuart: That’s right.

[00:19:08] Stephen: And give it—

[00:19:08] Stuart: And you give it a go. Yeah, they’ll actually drop the driver like how I would like to drive it and test how I’d like to test it. So that’s my issue, is that I can’t really— well, I can drive a normal car, but it’s not really simple, you know what I mean? So I’m not cross-legged over that. It’s not convenient for me to do that.

[00:19:26] Trevor: Yeah.

[00:19:26] Stuart: Um, so it’s— I’m a bit of a conundrum, basically. So that’s why it’s very hard for me to buy a car.

[00:19:33] Stephen: Yeah, I think you’ve done enough homework though. You’ve driven a few. You sort of know the most important thing is you know what you want. You know, you’ve got boxes to tick and you know what you want. So our advice would be to keep trying other. Have you tried other brands? Have you looked at like wider than BYD and Zeekr? Have you seen others that caught your eye? Is it, mate, one of the Teslas maybe would suit you?

[00:19:58] Stuart: Yes, I was thinking Tesla as well.

[00:20:00] Stephen: Okay.

[00:20:01] Stuart: But then that’s probably some of them a little bit out of my price range, you know what I mean? I mean, I can get the— I’ve even looked at the secondhand market as well. Yeah. Yeah. But that’s my issue. I’m worried about, you know, the usual thing, like how, how good is the battery going to be? Has it been abused? That sort of stuff. You know, that’s the unknown. A lot of unknown. But then it’s again, it’s not like any other secondhand car really, isn’t it?

[00:20:20] Trevor: That’s right. And I think our advice there is to anyone looking at a secondhand EV is don’t buy a secondhand EV if it doesn’t have a battery health report included like Pickles and others are doing. So I feel like you’ve got the knowledge. I feel like you know what you need and you’re probably in a situation where you want to wait out for that Evo and find a good mate to take you for a fanga. Look, I’d volunteer if we were local, mate. I’d take you for a fanga for sure.

[00:20:44] Stephen: Yeah, we’ll come and give you a ride.

[00:20:45] Stuart: Oh, great, mate. Just fly out here. It’s not far from you guys.

[00:20:49] Stephen: Yeah.

[00:20:50] Trevor: All right, mate. Great to hear from you and good luck with the journey.

[00:20:54] Stuart: Thanks very much. Thanks for your time.

[00:20:55] Trevor: Cheers. No worries, Stuart. There you go. I mean, that’s fascinating one because you and I and most people listening don’t have to think about, you know, a different setup. You can’t remember what’s Wolfie’s mate, Damien Tomlinson, the war vet, you know, who’s had two amputations and he’s got a— he drives an Audi. And I remember looking at it and he’s driving a lovely Audi, but it’s been fully equipped for hand throttles and handbrakes and stuff. And you’re like, that’s an expense. And how do you test drive those cars? Well, there’s Stuart. He’s got to find a mate. Who can go, mate, this feels good. Give it some. This feels good through the roundabout. This feels good, you know, the way you want to drive it. And I don’t know, the sales reps at electric car places would definitely give it a punch for you, wouldn’t they? Off the line, maybe they’d let you feel that.

[00:21:36] Stephen: Well, they’d want to impress you with the car, wouldn’t they? So you think they would give it a bit of a tickle, would they?

[00:21:41] Trevor: You’d hope so. All right, let us know if you want to chat EVs. Send us a text or a WhatsApp, 0477 657 657. Superb story on electric cars. Thanks to great people at NRMA Insurance and Union Insurance Smart Dash Cams. Back to your calls shortly. If you want to be part of the show, send us a text or a WhatsApp message. Thanks to Vodafone, 0477 657 657. We’ll get you on the show. Uh, and as we were just talking to a caller who’d put money down on a Zika X. And we said to him, mate, perfect timing. We have Andrew Stamatakis, the Head of Digital Integrated Marketing Communications and Strategy at Zika Australia joining us on the show. Andrew, g’day.

Andrew Stamatakis — ZEEKR Australia’s rapid rise, EV incentives and dealer strategy

[00:22:31] Andrew Stamatakis: G’day, Vince.

[00:22:32] Trevor: Mate, we’ve sold another car. I mean, he’d already bought it. He’d already put his money down, but we told him he’d done the right thing, obviously. Before we get into the story of Zika, ’cause we have questions, we’re fascinated by the success of the brand here in Australia over the last 18 months or so. In the federal budget last week, there was a lot of talk about the EV incentives. How important is it that the government sticks with that incentive, at least in the way that they have so far?

[00:23:03] Andrew Stamatakis: Yeah, I think what’s good for the industry is that we have certainty now, and that’s what we were lacking before. There was a lot of speculation in the market about will it extend, won’t it extend, will it change, how will it change, and that speculation is hard for companies to forward plan. I mean, for us, we welcome the government’s decision to give us some certainty over the next 2 years. I mean, for us as a brand, you know, where our cars are currently priced, that works well for us. But we’re not reliant on subsidies to sell our cars. We’re quite proud of the packaging and the pricing of our cars, that even without that, they stand on their own as incredible value. But we welcome the government’s decision to give us some certainty in the next couple of years.

[00:23:43] Trevor: Just for numbers for you, we’ve done some digging into the out of the hundreds of callers we’ve had on this show over the last couple of years, at least 38 callers have specifically called out the FBT and novated leases as part of their decision. And at least a dozen of those callers have said it was the reason they started looking at EVs in the first place. So you really can’t argue with the fact that these kind of incentives, as simple as they are, quite frankly, really do drive people’s interest. And then you pair it with other factors like the fuel crisis and hey presto, it’s a big win for the industry. Industry in terms of really convincing some people to consider an EV?

[00:24:24] Andrew Stamatakis: It’s great that people are really savvy and they’re looking into that. I mean, when you couple those incentives along with pricing of cars like ours, there is really— it’s a no-brainer. Why would you buy a hybrid or a petrol car when you can get these EVs under FBT on novated leases that are cheaper? Which is great that the government, as I said, has given us that surety over the next 2 years.

[00:24:47] Stephen: Can the government do more, do you reckon, Andrew? Is there enough? Is there I know the FT is one thing, but is there enough incentive? Is there enough planning of infrastructure and charging stations? Are they doing enough to really drive up EV take-up?

[00:25:01] Andrew Stamatakis: I think the government’s certainly on the right track. They’re working with a lot of institutions to understand where our charging infrastructure needs to be. And we’re confident that the government will be able to meet that demand as EV adoption increases. I think what’s important is it’s an information game, right? So consumers when we talk to them and we say, look, the majority of EV owners are charging at home, and that takes out the, but where is public charging infrastructure? That’s not really all that relevant unless you’re doing your once annual trip around the country. And if you are, there are a decent amount of chargers around the Eastern Seaboard and the southern parts of the country right now. So I think that is, is the charging infrastructure is still front of mind. But what I say to people is, do you have a petrol station at your house?

[00:25:46] Stuart: House?

[00:25:46] Andrew Stamatakis: No, you have to go out and find a petrol station. But if you have to do that with an EV, it’s seemingly too difficult. When you start to break that down, people go, ah, actually, I don’t have to charge my car every day. I’m not going to be running out of electricity on the M4 motorway. None of that is the case.

[00:26:03] Trevor: I just play devil’s advocate for a minute on that. I think that with— we’ve looked at the sales numbers over the last couple of months and they’ve been extraordinary and they’re excellent, driven probably by fear and concern, but also just a shift. But I wonder whether the rural regional expansion of the charging network is happening at the right rate when you consider how fast the car sales are happening. Because yes, it’s once a year, maybe twice a year for people, but the problem is those trips will happen together. And if we get to places in rural New South Wales, rural Queensland, Victoria, Western Australia, where there is only one charger, and that’s great, but you know, for those big trips, I feel like Andrew, we do need as an industry, I know the government’s got a role to play, but don’t you think the industry itself, selling the cars, needs to ensure that the broader infrastructure play, the broader charging network is bigger and better?

[00:26:58] Andrew Stamatakis: I mean, that’s certainly a consideration. And we do work closely with government to understand how we can support as an OEM. I can’t talk for other OEMs, but it’s certainly something that we’re engaging in. And I know ARENA does great work to unlock, you know, money for institutions to put charging infrastructure out there. What we’re starting to see as well, you mean NRMA is a great example. For example, in their, in their, the Big Four parks, they’ve got EV chargers in them now. That was never a thing before. We’re starting to see hotels and motels putting EV chargers as part of their, as part of their proposition for people to book accommodation there. So it’s not necessarily always just a public charging infrastructure. There’s also private industry that can benefit from that. Our dealerships are putting charging infrastructure, and when we expand our dealer network, we want charging to be part of that proposition. So the reason to go to our car dealerships is not just to buy a car or service a car. It could also be to charge a car if you’re passing through as well. So I think a blend, blend of government and private industry is certainly the key. And we will always be ready to work with government and other institutions to get public charging infrastructure out there.

[00:28:03] Stephen: Okay, let’s talk about ZEEKR, Andrew.

[00:28:07] Stephen: The company is— we’ve only known about it for less than a couple of years and you seem to have sort of gone 0 to 100 in like an EV really fast. How have you done that? Like, what do you put that down to? This brand that no one had ever heard of is now among the top selling EVs in the country.

[00:28:27] Andrew Stamatakis: It’s such a good problem to have, isn’t it? I mean, when you’re pushing a product out there, there’s a few things that you want to do. You want to make sure it’s priced correctly. You want to make sure it’s the right quality. And we’ve nailed that. Absolutely nailed that. The styling, the cars look incredible. You know, they’re well-built, they’re safe. But also how we package that car and bring it to market and price it is key. We’re not asking consumers to pay brand tax for something that shouldn’t cost that much. We’re pricing it to the market. A lot of brands will come out and put their cars too expensive, and there’s many brands that do that, and then they have to go and constantly discount them, which messes with residual values. And for us, if you price the car correctly in the first place, you have some surety on that price over the long term, which helps customers with their residual values. And that is something that is key for people that are acquiring EVs is how much is this thing going to be worth in 3 years’ time when I want to trade it in? Well, for us, pricing it correctly in the first place helps that proposition. So I think it’s a blend of the cars look great, they’re built well. I mean, and you get behind the wheel and drive it and I challenge anyone, go out there to a Zekka dealership, get behind the wheel and see the difference, feel the difference. You get behind the wheel and you go, what’s the catch here? There is no catch. It’s just a great car for the price.

[00:29:44] Trevor: We’ve discussed that a bit, that, you know, a lot of people with a 5 or 10-year-old car going to a car dealership full stop today will be blown away by how much more is in a car. But then when you go to a new brand dealership, like a Zeekr showroom, and you get to get behind the wheel, don’t even drive it, just sit in there and you realize, oh my gosh. And mate, these things are selling everywhere. I was in rural New South Wales on the weekend and I saw 7Xs. And I thought to myself, this car is really taking off. And I think our point, our question about how did you do it, is not a joke. It’s to say, I think there’s analysis that needs to be done here. Stephen, I remember we took a call from someone asking about the 7X and we were like, oh, it’s, you know, it’s coming at the end of the year. And, you know, it’s just kind of been rumored. Yeah, but it hasn’t even been in showrooms. There was a buzz. Yeah, I don’t know what that is. And is that YouTube? Is that the Chinese market infiltrating here in such a way that, you know, families of Chinese owners know about it and the word spreads. Like, genuinely, how were you able to create the buzz for a brand that didn’t exist? That’s, I think, what everyone should want to untap.

[00:31:00] Andrew Stamatakis: When you look at our product, we have safety pedigree from Volvo, we have luxury pedigree from Polestar, we have performance pedigree from Lotus, we have EV engineering and technology from the Geely Holding Group.

[00:31:14] Stuart: Group.

[00:31:14] Andrew Stamatakis: When you blend that together, you don’t have to be a rocket scientist to figure out this car, when it comes, is going to shake things up. And as soon as that hit the global press and started to trickle through, you know, YouTube, and it started to hit the Reddit forums and the Facebook forums— we see those forums, we look at those forums, we get a lot of customer feedback from that— we knew that we were on to something big here. So what we wanted to do is get people to experience it. So across shopping centers. Even the T3 domestic airport right now, the Qantas terminal, there’s a car there. We are putting cars where they’re not generally cars are. We wanna capture people’s intent that maybe aren’t even looking and they go, “What’s that car?” I mean, I was at Rouse Hill Town Centre recently and the car was sitting outside of a Woolworths, yeah? Not the most luxurious location, but my goodness was that car swamped with people going, “I’ve never seen this before. What is it?” “Oh, Zeekr.” And they got behind the wheel and they just went, “This thing is incredible. How much is it?” Wow. And I’m thinking, geez, we could probably charge $20K more and they’d still buy the car. Yeah, but it’s a combination of, you know, the global business doing an incredible job blending the right parts of their holding group together to form that car. And then look, the reality is, guys, these days people walk into a car dealership, they know more about the car than the people selling it. They have done an incredible amount of research. And that is, you know, 15 years ago you’d go to the dealership to learn about the car. Now you can know more about the car and how it’s engineered before you even set foot in that door. So because of that information being disseminated online, people are just more engaged and more confident about the product and they go in and they sit behind the wheel and it validates all the research they’ve done.

[00:32:52] Stephen: Yeah, you said earlier and we did mention the rapid growth of ZEEKR and you said a good problem to have. How have you handled that, that fast growth? I know a lot of businesses who experience really sharp growth, they sort of, their business groans under the weight of it and they can’t handle it. But so how are you guys coping with this sudden success and sudden interest in the brand?

[00:33:16] Andrew Stamatakis: Well, we’re all sleeping a lot less than we were before. We, what we’re doing is we’re being very humble about this because we are very blown away and very appreciative of customers, you know, buying into our brand, dealers buying into our brand. And we love that and we appreciate that. So we do a lot of work reaching out directly to customers to understand how can we improve. We work with our dealer partners to understand if we were to expand, how do we expand, where do we expand, when does that happen, how do we do it in a sustainable way? So we’re not chasing short-term growth for the sake of it. We are looking to build a significant brand that’s going to be in the Australian market for decades to come. And in order to do that, we have to make big decisions like how do we keep our owner group engaged. So we’re running events with owners. We just took them to an oyster farm last week. We’ve got some stuff happening with Vivid in the coming weeks. We’re constantly keeping customers engaged. We invite them for feedback sessions on a regular basis to talk directly with our executives. We take feedback straight to HQ with our R&D division. So we’re doing that at great time and expense because we know that it’s this feedback that’s going to help us grow. And working alongside our dealer groups means that we’ve got an engaged dealer network. And by the way, the ones we’ve got now are incredible and we’re so blessed to have them because they are also sleeping a lot less and we’re just working around the clock to get cars out to people. But we don’t just want to chuck them the keys and go, see ya mate, enjoy the car. We want to give them that good handover experience. We’re not perfect, guys. We know that we have to improve and we accept that and we constantly working on that. So for us, it’s being humble and being aware that we’ve got a lot of work to do because we want to be the biggest in the market. In order to do that, we have to put aside any ego and go, how do we meet the customer demand? How do we meet dealer demand? And how do we put a network in Australia in the right areas that means that the profitability of these dealers is long-term and customers get what they need as well?

[00:35:17] Trevor: Well, on that, I think it’s really important that we address what you would describe as an elephant that floats around this studio, which is dealer feedback. We haven’t had, I’ll be honest with you, we haven’t had specific negative feedback about Zeka dealers at all, but we’ve had a lot about some other new brands. And I wanna, I’m not trying to tell you how to suck eggs, but I think you’re saying all the right things about listening to your owners and reading the forums and all that kind of stuff. I wanna stress to you how important that is because from what we’ve heard, and frankly it went kind of, not viral, it overtook our show for several weeks because one domino of someone saying something about a brand led every other person who’d had that experience to call in. Yeah, they called in. And it can be quite a negative approach.

[00:35:59] Stephen: Cost sales.

[00:36:00] Trevor: While you’ve got beautiful cars, great prices, and all those things, if the dealership experience is poor, it can have a genuinely negative experience. So I think that it’s good to hear that you’re not trying to expand too quickly, I would just pause and say to you, it’s critical that you keep that dealer experience close and close to the brand.

[00:36:25] Andrew Stamatakis: No, I think what I’m saying in response to dealers is I’m not trying to give you marketing spin. Like genuinely, we treat this seriously. Every dealer principal has the managing director’s phone number. At any point in time, if they’re unhappy, they can call Frank and have a chat with him. We are so approachable. Comfortable and exposed to these guys that we’re not shying away from negative feedback. We understand that when you’ve got, you know, Australia’s best-selling medium SUV right now, according to the segment—

[00:36:55] Trevor: Flex!

[00:36:55] Andrew Stamatakis: We know that. Sorry, humble brag.

[00:36:59] Trevor: Yeah, well played.

[00:37:00] Andrew Stamatakis: But when you’ve got, you know, those milestones in the market, we just hit 1,000 deliveries for the first time in our history. You know, we know that there’s going to be growing pains. So we’re not naive. We know that there may be people out there that are unhappy, but what we are doing is we are making every executive available to dealer principals. We have customer focus groups happening regularly and we hear that feedback and we take it very seriously. Every fortnight we have a leadership meeting across the business and we are talking directly about customer feedback and dealer feedback. This is not something that— this is not marketing spin. This is how we live and breathe. So we know that, you know, I’ve been in the industry for a little while and I understand that, you know, there are dealer councils that are quite adversarial in nature where dealers are deeply unhappy with OEM and not being kept in the loop with decision-making. That’s not the case with us. Everything is done in collaboration because we know that we can’t make the mistakes of other legacy brands and then build effectively what they’ve got, which is dysfunctional. So what we want to do is do it completely different and build it sustainably alongside them. If they win, we win.

[00:38:01] Stephen: How has— I know Zeekr is a success story in Australia. How do we compare to other regions in the world? Are we punching above our weight in terms of the number of customers and sales per capita? How are we doing?

[00:38:13] Andrew Stamatakis: I mean, I wouldn’t be around for too much longer if I started talking about sales from other regions, but let’s just say our voice at the table is larger than others.

[00:38:21] Trevor: Nice. Well played. Well played.

[00:38:23] Stephen: Yeah, well done.

[00:38:24] Trevor: And just talking about the future then, one of the cars I got to see in China was the 9X, which is a hybrid. It’s an interesting kind of pivot from being a brand new brand known for EVs SUVs to now expanding your range and including hybrids, which BYD have done, Geely’s doing, everyone’s kind of doing it, Chery, because there is this middle market that don’t want to go full electric. Mate, the 9X is a stunning 6-seat large premium luxury SUV that I think people who, you know, well, let’s— I can say it, think Range Rover, think, you know, Eastern suburbs, you know, wealthy individuals are going to look at this thing go, wow, that’s beautiful.

[00:39:03] Stephen: Does look good.

[00:39:04] Trevor: You’ve got an exciting future ahead as well. Not just the cars that are currently on the slate.

[00:39:08] Andrew Stamatakis: I mean, when I saw that for the first time, I thought, I’m going to see a few of those rolling around Toorak. Yeah.

[00:39:15] Michael: Yeah.

[00:39:15] Andrew Stamatakis: And if I was a legacy luxury brand, I would be very concerned with products that we’ve got coming out. And we know, we know our positions. But hey, look, I think at the end of the day, our product can be great, but our customer experience and our dealer experience has to be good as well. Otherwise there’s no point. So it’s, you know, we’ve got great products. So HQ has done an incredible job and we’re very fortunate that in the current state of NVEs in Australia, we’re able to bring these cars in.

[00:39:43] Stephen: Yeah.

[00:39:44] Andrew Stamatakis: You know, we build up enough credits that we can have a diversified mix of powertrains to suit the Australian market and we can do that without penalty. We don’t have to oncharge NVE penalties to customers. Because our mix is correct. So we’re very fortunate to be in that very privileged position. And I think as you look in the coming years, our product mix is just going to get even more exciting. I mean, personally, when I saw the 7 GT for the first time, I can’t wait to get behind the wheel of one of those. I’m going to start a Change.org petition to have one as a company car because we need more shooting brakes and that style of car in Australia. So I can’t wait.

[00:40:21] Trevor: Yeah, mate, you’ve got a great roadmap coming. Very exciting. The 7 GT, as I said to Steven earlier and our caller earlier, it’s got this kind of, as you said, shooting brake style, but there’s just something.

[00:40:31] Michael: Yeah.

[00:40:32] Trevor: Whether you call it a squashed 7X or whatever you want to do, it’s a gorgeous looking car. You’ve got all the right points. You’re saying all the right things. We’re hearing all the right things as well, which is important. Those two things are matching up. And to everyone listening, we have Andrew’s number. So if we hear bad things, Zeka will know about it. And the thing is, mate, we won’t sugarcoat it because people have opinions. And that’s what’s great about talkback is being able to hear from real people. And the credit to you and everyone involved in the brand right now is we don’t have anything negative to say to you because we’ve only had positive experiences, genuine advocates for your brand. You are building a genuine community for your brand. And that’s something you should all be very proud of, mate. So congratulations and here’s to a long and successful future.

[00:41:17] Andrew Stamatakis: Thank you very much. Really appreciate that.

[00:41:19] Trevor: No worries at all. That’s Andrew from ZEEKR. And yeah, we’ll keep him in the loop. Don’t you worry about that.

[00:41:25] Stephen: Oh yeah.

[00:41:26] Trevor: Two blokes talking electric cars. That was a bit dad dancey.

[00:41:39] Stephen: You’re missing out if you’re not watching this show.

[00:41:41] Trevor: It was a bit dad dancey, that last one, wasn’t it? You know, when you’re doing these ones, it wasn’t quite trumpy because it was thumbs.

[00:41:46] Stephen: I don’t think so.

[00:41:48] Trevor: I think, I think you’re right. Missing out.

[00:41:50] Stephen: You’re missing out.

[00:41:51] Trevor: Is what I’m saying.

[00:41:51] Stephen: If you’re not watching this show.

[00:41:53] Trevor: All right, back to callers. 0477657657. If you’ve got a question, send us a text or WhatsApp. We’d love to have you on the show. Michael’s on the line. G’day, Michael.

Michael — Picking up his new Tesla Model Y tomorrow, first EV

[00:42:01] Michael: G’day, boys. How you doing today?

[00:42:03] Stephen: Really good, mate.

[00:42:03] Trevor: Where are you at? You’ve bought a Model Y, mate. Well done.

[00:42:06] Stephen: You’re a Tesla man.

[00:42:07] Michael: I did. I am, uh, finally a Tesla man. My wife and I were talking about it for probably the last year or so. We always said that, um, our next car was going to be a Tesla.

[00:42:18] Stephen: Yep.

[00:42:18] Michael: Um, both the cars we currently have are under 5 years old, so we’re thinking like maybe in 5 years’ time or so. And then as soon as the fuel prices went up, we were like, let’s just go for it. Um, so we actually pick it up tomorrow.

[00:42:32] Trevor: Hey, congratulations! What are the current cars, mate? What are you going from?

[00:42:37] Michael: So we’ve got a 2020 Subaru XV, which we’re keeping, and we’re selling a 2021 Mazda CX-8.

[00:42:45] Trevor: I feel like last week we had a Mazda. Mazda disappeared into the electric world. Okay, nice.

[00:42:50] Stephen: Was Tesla the one and only brand you looked at, mate? It sounded like you were Tesla through and through. What was— was there any other brands in contention?

[00:43:00] Michael: We did look. I was considering one of the Kias.

[00:43:04] Trevor: Okay.

[00:43:04] Michael: The Kia EV5, I think it was. Yeah. I just, I’m a person that loves tech and I think just the tech in the Tesla can’t be beaten at the moment.

[00:43:15] Trevor: Yeah, that’s fine.

[00:43:16] Michael: Yeah, I am a bit of an Elon Musk fanboy as well, so that helped get it over the line.

[00:43:22] Trevor: None of the big Chinese brands appealed to you? We just spoke to one of the bosses of Zeekr. You didn’t consider Zeekr or Geely or BYD or anything like that?

[00:43:30] Michael: To be honest, when we bought it. We ordered it, I think, about mid-March. I hadn’t heard of Zika at the time. My wife’s friend has one and my wife said it’s absolutely beautiful inside, like very luxurious. Yeah, we didn’t consider any Chinese options, to be honest.

[00:43:51] Stephen: Right. Fair enough. So you’ve had the Tesla— you’ve had the Tesla since—

[00:43:55] Trevor: No, picking it up tomorrow.

[00:43:56] Stephen: Oh, sorry.

[00:43:57] Michael: You’re picking it up tomorrow.

[00:43:57] Stephen: Picking it up tomorrow. But you bought it in March.

[00:43:59] Michael: Waiting a couple of months. Right.

[00:44:02] Trevor: Is this just the standard Y or the— what’s it called? Long wheelbase?

[00:44:05] Michael: It’s just the standard one. Just the base model one.

[00:44:08] Stephen: You know, that’s Trevor’s favorite Tesla, right? The Model Y.

[00:44:11] Trevor: Hey, I haven’t said it for a long time.

[00:44:12] Michael: Well, there’s only two of them.

[00:44:13] Stephen: Well, that’s— it’s— well, you’ve obviously got the new looking— the new model. Frog, not the toad. Yeah. So is it— you mentioned— I know what you mean about the whole tech fear and because I used to drive a Tesla myself, I had a Model S back in the day and it did feel like it was the techiest thing in the world.

[00:44:34] Trevor: Which is a mad thing to be saying given the beautiful screens and everything in your Mercedes now, isn’t it?

[00:44:38] Stephen: But still, I was coming from a Mercedes-Benz.

[00:44:41] Trevor: No, but even when you now went into a Mercedes-Benz with the greatest screens and da da da, it’s still amazing and genuine that the Tesla fits in your head as being the high-tech car.

[00:44:51] Stephen: It still had like, I can remember at the time it had that mystique to it and the real feel of a Tesla was different feel to any other car. Yeah, it’s sort of that sort of less is more. The bit, that massive screen, it really— there was a feel to it that I don’t think any other brands could replicate. It had, it had an early mover advantage.

[00:45:11] Andrew Stamatakis: Yeah.

[00:45:12] Stephen: Being Tesla, one of the first brands, I think that’s, that’s makes— plays a huge part.

[00:45:15] Trevor: If you’re picking it up tomorrow, what’s the, what’s the plan for charging at home or how do you plan to charge?

[00:45:22] Michael: So we did buy a granny charger because we do go camping and holidaying a fair bit, so bought one of them. We did also install one of the Tesla wall chargers.

[00:45:34] Stephen: Yep, okay, nice.

[00:45:35] Michael: My wife, she’ll be the main one using it. She drives about 40 to 50 Ks each way to work.

[00:45:42] Trevor: Yep, 100Ks a day.

[00:45:43] Michael: And she’s the kind of person that will drop the car home with like 10, 20 Ks left in the petrol tank.

[00:45:51] Trevor: Yeah.

[00:45:52] Michael: And I’ve never been a big risk taker, so I thought we’ll just install the faster charger.

[00:45:56] Trevor: Yeah, fair call.

[00:45:56] Michael: Just in case.

[00:45:58] Stephen: Yep.

[00:45:58] Trevor: I bet you she never gets to 10% on her phone battery, mate.

[00:46:02] Michael: Well, I said to her, I said, you can’t take the risk with the EV. It’s just, it’s not worth it because then you got to pay for tow truck and yeah, you know, you’re better off just to charge it up every night.

[00:46:11] Trevor: Every night, mate.

[00:46:12] Stephen: Good thing is that’s right. The chargers will help. Plug her in.

[00:46:16] Michael: However often we need to.

[00:46:17] Trevor: Just do it.

[00:46:18] Stephen: Treat it like all your other devices. Charge it overnight?

[00:46:22] Michael: Well, especially with the— we’ve signed up for the AGL EV plan.

[00:46:26] Trevor: Right.

[00:46:27] Michael: And like the overnight charging is dirt cheap.

[00:46:29] Stephen: Yeah, that’s good.

[00:46:31] Trevor: Yeah.

[00:46:31] Michael: 8 cents a kilowatt.

[00:46:32] Stephen: I’m on OVO.

[00:46:33] Trevor: I’ve got that as well. That’s the one you want.

[00:46:35] Stephen: Yeah. That’s really good.

[00:46:35] Trevor: Mate, what’s—

[00:46:37] Stephen: How exciting.

[00:46:37] Trevor: Where’s the first place you’re going to take it? You’re campers. You think you’ll go camping quickly and soon to enjoy the car?

[00:46:43] Andrew Stamatakis: We are.

[00:46:44] Michael: Yeah, we’re based in Melbourne and so we pick it up tomorrow, Saturday. I’m going with my dad just for overnight. Night trip down to Anglesey, which is along the Great Ocean Road.

[00:46:53] Trevor: Nice. Lovely drive.

[00:46:55] Michael: We’ll take it there, give it a bit of a test drive and just check out charging along the way, I guess.

[00:47:00] Trevor: Hey, what colour did you get, mate? I was going to ask you.

[00:47:05] Michael: We got the Stealth Grey with the black, black wheels. So we’ve nicknamed it the Dark Knight.

[00:47:12] Stephen: There you go.

[00:47:14] Trevor: Look out.

[00:47:14] Stephen: You’re one of those guys who name your car as well, are you? Trevor does that too.

[00:47:18] Michael: Kevin the Yeah, yeah, I’ve probably had 5 or 6 cars and each of them has had a name. So I’m going to continue that trend.

[00:47:25] Stephen: Dark Knight.

[00:47:26] Anthony: I love it.

[00:47:27] Trevor: Well played. Well, mate, enjoy the— enjoy that drive down the Great Ocean Road. Enjoy the car. Despite it looking like a frog, it’s still a beautiful motor vehicle.

[00:47:36] Stephen: And beauty is in the eye of the beholder, Trev.

[00:47:38] Trevor: Well, that’s what my wife says all the time. You’ll love it, mate. Congratulations.

[00:47:44] Michael: Yeah, thanks, boys.

[00:47:45] Trevor: No worries at all. Thanks for getting in touch. Yeah, cheers, mate. Thank you very much. Good on you.

[00:47:50] Stephen: I mean, so he ordered it back in March, getting it tomorrow.

[00:47:53] Trevor: That’s so cool. How exciting.

[00:47:54] Stephen: I still remember the day I got my Tesla. Yeah, it was my first EV. Yeah, that was an amazing time. Yeah, I know what he— I know he’s— how he’s feeling.

[00:48:02] Trevor: You know what he’s feeling.

[00:48:04] Stuart: Yeah.

[00:48:04] Trevor: Well, if you have that new car feeling or you’re pensive waiting for that new car feeling, we’d love to hear from you. 0477 657 777. 0477657. Send us a text, save it in your phone as the Two Blokes, and when it comes to mind that you want to talk about or ask about EVs, send us a text or a WhatsApp. 0477657657. Steven, let’s do it all again next week.

[00:48:22] Stephen: I will make it, put it in my diary, and I’ll be right here.

[00:48:24] Trevor: I would hope that it’s already in your diary, just quietly. It is, yeah. Okay, see you, mate.

[00:48:28] Andrew Stamatakis: Bye-bye.