The Two Blokes Talking Electric Cars podcast – Episode # 126 – He chose an MGS5, the Electric Car Journey

Two Blokes Talking Electric Cars
Episode 126 — He chose an MGS5, the Electric Car Journey
28 June 2026
Hosts: Trevor Long & Stephen Fenech

[00:00:01] Trevor Long: This is Two Blokes Talking Electric Cars with Trevor Long and Steven Fenech. Thanks to NRMA Insurance and Uniden. And we do it all thanks to the great people at NRMA, helping Australians protect what matters most for 100 years and more to come. And one of Australia’s largest insurers of electric vehicles. And Uniden smart dash cams. If you’ve got a car, you should have a dash cam. It’s really quite simple because it gives you that peace of mind of knowing exactly what happened around you is recorded.

[00:00:29] Stephen Fenech: Even while you park too. Parking.

[00:00:30] Trevor Long: Absolutely, parking.

[00:00:31] Stephen Fenech: A lot of things happen when your car’s parked.

[00:00:33] Trevor Long: Yeah, a lot of things happen when your car’s parked. So you’ve got that evidence, and hey, if something silly happens, put it on the internet. It’s fun. Um, we’ve got a lot to get through today, a lot of calls to get through, and we’d love to hear from you. 0477 657 657. If you’d love to talk about where you’re at in your electric car journey, uh, just get in touch. Save our number as the Two Blokes in your phone, and you can send us a WhatsApp or a text message. Thanks to Vodafone, it’s simple as that. Uh, and you can, uh, you can get in touch, and then we’ll get in touch with you and get you on the show. It doesn’t matter whether you’ve owned an electric car for 15 years or 5 minutes, or you’re just starting to think about it. You’re just starting to think about electric car and you’ve got questions. No judgment here. It’s a no judgment zone. I do. I’m a little judgy of Tesla owners, but that’s just— I’m just being honest. I’m not really. I just— it’s a joke. It’s a running joke. Okay. It’s a— I’ve actually— there’s been some text messages, Steven, from people about my Tesla hate, and it’s— you’ve got to understand it’s a running joke.

[00:01:26] Stephen Fenech: Yeah.

[00:01:26] Trevor Long: All right. The toad, the frog.

[00:01:28] Stephen Fenech: Let’s just say Elon Musk is still doing very well.

[00:01:31] Trevor Long: Yeah, I mean, the bloke’s a trillionaire, so not doing too bad. Yeah, nothing dodgy about that IPO at all. We’ll take your calls and we’ll do that all through this show. Danny’s on the line. G’day, Danny.

Danny — Geely EX5 purchase, upgrading from Ford Territory diesel

[00:01:44] Danny: How you going?

[00:01:45] Trevor Long: Yeah, really good, mate. You’ve picked up a Geely EX5, mate. What, a month or so ago now? How’s that gone for you?

[00:01:55] Danny: It is, and it’s been a great, great purchase from my point of view. We went through a lot of umming and ahhing and we’re updating from a Ford Territory diesel car.

[00:02:11] Trevor Long: Very common car. Like there’s a lot of— that was a very, very popular car and there’s a lot of people starting to really age out of the Ford Territory. So I think it’s a really good observation of where this car, like the Geely and others, might be perfect for that replacement? Was it an obvious one for size or what dragged you to the Geely?

[00:02:32] Danny: Okay, so we looked at a number of cars like everyone else that does the journey. Hatch was a good idea and we looked at the Hyundai.

[00:02:47] Trevor Long: Ioniq 5?

[00:02:47] Danny: That’s the hatch.

[00:02:48] Trevor Long: Kona?

[00:02:49] Danny: No, no, not the Kona either. The—

[00:02:53] Trevor Long: oh, the Insta? Well, that’s too small. Wouldn’t be that.

[00:02:56] Danny: That’s too small.

[00:03:03] Danny: Yeah, that’s the one.

[00:03:04] Trevor Long: Good little car. It’s not what it’s called but it’s something like that. But really good little car for sure.

[00:03:12] Danny: But I did not like not having the dashboard in front of me. That was overhead display and then a big screen to the side of the steering wheel. Yeah. And having said that, now that I own one that’s got the overhead display, the behind the steering wheel display, and a large screen, I don’t look at the screen behind the steering wheel.

[00:03:36] Trevor Long: You’ve realized you don’t need the instrument cluster when you’ve got a good head-up display on the windscreen. And mate, I’ll be honest with you, I thought on the Alexion, you didn’t get to drive it because we were in a rotation, but it had this really weird head-up display that wasn’t in the middle of the windscreen. It was actually down the bottom in the kind of black bar area. And I loved it. It was kind of recessed in there. It looked really good. But you’re right, you think you want it, you think you want that screen behind the steering wheel. But if you’ve got a head-up display, it’s all you need as long as it’s showing you the basic details. So you’ve kind of gotten used to that now.

[00:04:06] Danny: Yeah. So when we talk about size of the car, I do have one granddaughter. I have the youngest child in our family, 15 as well. So we’ve still got her living with us.

[00:04:22] Stephen Fenech: And so it’s big enough, really.

[00:04:24] Danny: Our needs, our needs had changed. We didn’t need a 7-seater anymore.

[00:04:29] Trevor Long: Yeah, yeah, that’s fair.

[00:04:30] Stephen Fenech: So you say you had— this is obviously your first EV. So what was it that said, right, our next car is going to be an EV? What was it that in your mind, the thought, we need to make the switch?

[00:04:43] Danny: Look, I think that the prices of fuel certainly had hurt us for a long period of time. My diesel car had cost me probably 7 and a bit grand in the last 12 months trying to keep it on the road and trying to see how we go. And I just went, you know what, let’s get solar on the roof, let’s get a battery, let’s buy a car, let’s start this journey because we’re going to get left behind.

[00:05:16] Stephen Fenech: Wow. So you’ve made quite some adjustments in your life then. So how, how has it, how has it been now fit into your lifestyle? The Territory, I’d imagine you would take on long trips and be doing a lot of stuff, pretty active with it. How, how is it now with an EV?

[00:05:33] Danny: Well, we’ve already done about 8 grand in the new car. 8,000 K’s, that is. And that’s the same with a granny charger and portable charging because I like going to the in-depth stuff to go with solar and batteries. Let’s just say I’ve got one on the roof and it is still not hooked up to the AusNet network, so it’s not of any benefit to me at the moment. And it doesn’t matter how much kicking and screaming I’ve done, it’s still—

[00:06:05] Stephen Fenech: So you said you’re using—

[00:06:06] Danny: Waiting.

[00:06:07] Stephen Fenech: The granny charger, do you intend on getting a wall charger down the track when everything’s all set up properly?

[00:06:13] Danny: I’ve got a wall charger to go on once they’ve sorted all the solar.

[00:06:17] Stephen Fenech: Oh, okay, so you’ve already bought it.

[00:06:18] Trevor Long: So you’ve gotta get through the solar and battery dramas and certification before you can then upgrade to that. But the granny’s been okay for you though?

[00:06:27] Danny: Look, we’ve survived it with those Ks. We’ve pulled into, like I travel from Warrigal, regional Victoria to Narre Warren every day for work. So round trip, 120 Ks.

[00:06:39] Danny: And sometimes I use it for work. I’m a palliative care community nurse, so I go out in the community and sometimes if it works out, I head back towards Warrigal.

[00:06:53] Stephen Fenech: Yeah.

[00:06:54] Danny: Other times I’m driving a nice Kona at work and I like the Kona. I almost bought a Kona EV as well. But we ended up settling on this one.

[00:07:10] Trevor Long: What was it that made you go, the Geely’s the one? Then if you did look at a couple.

[00:07:16] Danny: Okay, so our first experience with Geely was terrible. We went to Berwick and service was terrible. And that was probably at that point, no, this isn’t going to be our car. Went to the motor show in Melbourne. We went to have a look at the different cars and we got looking at the EX2, which is of course the new little one that’s coming out later this year, which looks like it’s going to be a pretty good thing given that it’s sold half a million of those in China last year.

[00:07:52] Trevor Long: Yeah, it’ll be about a $30,000 car, but it’s a very— it’s a much smaller car than the EX5 that you’ve got.

[00:07:57] Danny: Yeah. Yeah, and that’s what happened. We went, oh, but the EX5 is such a good looking car. And we spoke to the reps there at Geely and told them our experience and they said, look, have you been able to test drive one? And we said, no, it was too much, too much drama at Berwick. They were too busy, which, okay, we understand busy, but not enough people.

[00:08:24] Trevor Long: Busy in sales is not an excuse.

[00:08:29] Danny: If they want to sell a car, you’ve got to, got to get people’s details and you’ve got to be apologetic. I couldn’t even get in and look inside the car. So it was like, you know, and you still came back to them.

[00:08:43] Stephen Fenech: Must be. Yeah, it says a lot, I think, about the quality of the car.

[00:08:46] Trevor Long: Then it also says a lot about the treatment that you felt you got at the motor show, because for them to essentially convince you to come back.

[00:08:55] Danny: Well, we got speaking to a guy there named Daniel who runs another YouTube channel, uh, and he gave us a fair bit of time to talk about the Geelys. And, uh, so the rep ended up sending us across to Fern Tree Gully on our way home from the motor show, and they had a beautiful charcoal gray, uh, with white interior car that had just been pushed into the showroom. Wow. We test drove one, came back to the showroom, and we walked out with that car.

[00:09:30] Stephen Fenech: Yeah.

[00:09:31] Stephen Fenech: So charcoal, the charcoal gray with the white interior.

[00:09:34] Danny: We had no waiting time, so it was ready to go. We went through their finance, which was a pretty good deal. I think we got 3.88% or something.

[00:09:43] Stephen Fenech: Wow.

[00:09:43] Danny: Which was going to be better than trying to go through corporate doing the leasing, like we did the sums, it was nearly 15% with the company that our workplace deals with.

[00:10:00] Trevor Long: And now that you’ve had it for a little while, just finally before we let you go, is there anything that you’ve learned about the car that you didn’t expect?

[00:10:11] Danny: I probably thought I’d get more kilometers out of it, but it hasn’t been bad when you’re putting it on the charger every day. Uh, it’s— that’s not an issue. We took it to Melbourne last week and we were there for the weekend, and the car was brilliant under those conditions of being in a city and stop-starting. However, Melbourne wasn’t great for finding a charger for the car. Um, it was terrible. We didn’t need it. I think I had 200 clicks in there and I would have got back to Warragul, no worries. I just thought, while we’re in the city, let’s try this as an experience. And I found one in Richmond, so not too far out the CBD, that was a Tesla fast charger, but few and far between when you go into the city. We went to Melbourne Market, but they have 7-kilowatt chargers in an underground car park, and that’s really probably not— that’s not even worth a sneeze. I could do that at home.

[00:11:13] Trevor Long: Yeah. Look, true city centers aren’t really a prolific place for chargers. Even in Sydney, it’s really the outskirts. You’ve got to get to where some of the suburban shopping centers and things might have those. But yeah, it’s— but that’s a learning experience, Danny. You’ll pick all that up. You’ll start to, you know, use the Better Route Planner or PlugShare and those different apps to see these chargers and understand that stuff.

[00:11:36] Danny: Yeah, got all of them. But look, very happy with the car. And anyone that’s come to look at the car, that’s a friend or family or work person, has just gone, oh wow, that’s a lot of car for the money. It feels solid. We’ve driven Mercs and that sort of thing over time. And look, all the doors and componentry and everything just feels solid. You feel like you’ve got a solid car around you, which I guess is Geely’s ownership with Volvo.

[00:12:03] Trevor Long: They’re not a little startup, mate. They’re making a lot of cars under a hell of a company. That’s, you know, Volkswagen scale equivalence. You know, that’s a company that owns a lot of other companies and you know, their heritage in motoring is not lengthy, but it’s strong. And that’s what you’re buying into there. So I think you’ve done a good job and it sounds like a car that you’re loving.

[00:12:27] Danny: Yeah, no, enjoying it totally.

[00:12:29] Trevor Long: Good stuff, mate. Lovely to hear from you. And you keep us in the loop as you learn more things. We’d love to share that with everyone else as well, mate. Great to talk to you, Danny.

[00:12:38] Danny: Thanks very much. See you guys, have a great day.

[00:12:40] Trevor Long: Awesome stuff, good on you. And that’s all, we’d love to hear your journey in the electric car world. How’s it shaping up for you? How are you going with it? And we’d love you to share those with us just by sending us a text, 0477 657 657. Great to have your company. We’d love to have you on the show. You know how to be part of the show. Just save in your phone, 2 Blokes, 0477 657 657. Send us a text. We’ll get you on the show. Welly’s on the line. G’day, Welly.

Welly — New MG S5 EV purchase, first EV

[00:13:14] Welly: Hey, good day, guys.

[00:13:16] Trevor Long: Mate, you’ve bought an EV. Tell us about your new car.

[00:13:22] Welly: Okay, so picked her up, what, 2 weeks ago now? So yeah, still exciting.

[00:13:28] Trevor Long: What’d you get?

[00:13:29] Welly: Fresh? Yeah, yeah. Just got her tinted this morning.

[00:13:33] Trevor Long: Tinted. Nice.

[00:13:34] Stephen Fenech: And so don’t forget the dashcam, mate. Dashcam.

[00:13:36] Welly: Yeah, I already have that.

[00:13:38] Stephen Fenech: Uniden dashcam.

[00:13:42] Stephen Fenech: Consider NRMA Insurance as well, mate.

[00:13:42] Trevor Long: I hope you’ve already got insurance around the car for tours. Well, what’d you get, mate? What did you get? And tell us about it.

[00:13:48] Welly: I got MG S5 SN62.

[00:13:53] Stephen Fenech: Very nice.

[00:13:54] Trevor Long: What made you choose that one, mate? How many other cars do you think you considered?

[00:13:59] Welly: So we shortlisted two cars, Eto’o 2 and MG S5 EV. And the reason being we wanted a smallest, medium smallest SUV with controls inside. Yeah, right. And with normal door handle, not flush. And it came down to Eto’o 2 and MG S5 EV. Okay, so we went to see the ETO2 at the dealership and my wife was not a fan because it’s small compared to the MG. So in the end we decided to go with the MG.

[00:14:37] Trevor Long: Mate, the S5 is a good looking car too. I think MG styling has really come into its own. It’s a good looking car, mate. Nice. Did you have any reservations at all about MG or was it easy to make that choice?

[00:14:54] Welly: Well, before I went and purchased the car, I’ve spent probably like a year just being involved in the MG S5 Facebook group. So I kind of know what I’m coming into. And from what I’ve seen, I’m okay with it. Yeah, I’m happy with the purchase.

[00:15:14] Stephen Fenech: And so what— tell us about your driving. Do you drive a lot? Is the transition to EV going to be easy for you? What’s the situation?

[00:15:25] Welly: Well, it’s mostly used by my wife because we only have one car and she drives the car during the week for work. But we have took her on a day trip to country Victoria on the first weekend that we get her. And yeah, I’m the one who drove it and yeah, I loved it. I love how effortless it is to just go up and down the hill. So yeah, that was great.

[00:15:53] Trevor Long: And how have you found the first couple of weeks of learning about the car charging and things like that?

[00:15:59] Welly: Oh, it’s very easy. I use Granny Charger, so just plug her in at night. And driving-wise, there’s not much of a difference. Just probably need to learn the control, like how to use cruise control and all that. But other than that, it’s fine. And it’s— yeah, it’s great.

[00:16:20] Stephen Fenech: So when you took your big drive, would you have to use public chargers, I’d imagine? Have you had an experience with public chargers yet?

[00:16:28] Welly: Yes, we use public charger at the Woden, and that was also easy. I got, already got the app set up and already have RFID tag set up. So yeah, just tap and go. So pretty easy.

[00:16:43] Trevor Long: Very, very good.

[00:16:44] Stephen Fenech: You’ve got it all together.

[00:16:45] Trevor Long: You are ready to go.

[00:16:46] Stephen Fenech: So organized, mate.

[00:16:48] Trevor Long: And was there, was there just with the wife, was there any hesitation from her about going EV, or were you both leading this together?

[00:16:57] Welly: Uh, so that’s a bit interesting. So initially I’m the one who interested to go into EV, but I didn’t tell her because we weren’t looking into replacing our car. And this was like 2 years ago or so. Yeah, but now and then we just like mentioned about getting a new car, a bigger car, because our previous car was like a small hatchback.

[00:17:21] Welly: And sometime around last year, I mentioned to her that if we’re getting a new car, I would want it to be a full EV. And then I remember she’s standing in the kitchen and suddenly she turns around and told me that, oh, if we have EV, we don’t ever have to go to petrol station anymore. I mean, since she’s the one who drives during the week, she’s the one who has to put the petrol in and she hates that.

[00:17:49] Trevor Long: So, yes.

[00:17:51] Stephen Fenech: Well, I want to ask, I picked up on something you said earlier. One of the things you looked for on the car was proper handles, not the flush handles. Is that a safety thing for you? Why were you thinking that?

[00:18:07] Welly: I guess I just like the ease of it. Like normal door handle, like you already know what to do, but with flush handle, kind of like, how do I open this?

[00:18:19] Trevor Long: Yeah. I mean, the number of times you see people struggle with that as they’re getting an Uber or it’s a Tesla or something like that. And frankly, like, let’s be honest, they’re doing it all for aero efficiency. Can you— can anyone really tell me that you’re saving hundreds of kilometers? No, it’s got to be 1 or 2 kilometers in added range from having those little door handles. Honestly, I like— again, I’ve been driving the Cooper for the last couple of weeks, walk up handle done easy, don’t have to wait. I don’t know, my handles pop out, but same on the Kia. They pop out.

[00:18:52] Stephen Fenech: Correct me if I’m wrong, Trev, but is there a ruling in China that they’re not allowed, they’re going to ban those flush handles?

[00:18:59] Trevor Long: I think because there’s been some issues with like emergency services at accidents, they couldn’t open the door because it might have stayed locked or something. So honestly, I think we’re going to see a little bit of a reversal in the way that that is happening and just simply ease of use. I mean, what— it’s this car with these handles sticking out looks bloody amazing, Wally. So why would you bother? But it’s a job. It’s a fascinating— you’re right. It’s a fascinating little requirement of the car from you, Wally. Really interesting observation.

[00:19:26] Stephen Fenech: What color did you get, mate?

[00:19:27] Welly: Yes, we got the white one. White? Just a standard one.

[00:19:33] Trevor Long: Couldn’t stump up the extra $700, mate.

[00:19:35] Stephen Fenech: Hey, hey, it’s a nice color scheme.

[00:19:38] Welly: We like the white one.

[00:19:39] Trevor Long: Yeah, I mean, they do. The colors on this one are slightly different to that. Remember the MG4 used to have a really bright orange, a really bright blue. Yes, I’ve got to say, and I’ve had it on the screen here for a while, the red, the metallic red on the S5, it’s a gorgeous looking thing. Well, enjoy the car, Welly, mate. Congratulations on the purchase and let us know what you experience through the journey over the months ahead.

[00:20:05] Welly: Sure. Thanks, guys.

[00:20:06] Trevor Long: Good on you, mate. Thanks for getting in touch. There you go. Welly’s with his brand new car and happy, happy about it too.

[00:20:12] Stephen Fenech: His wife’s on board. That’s important. Gotta get the missus on board.

[00:20:16] Trevor Long: Happy wife, happy life.

[00:20:17] Stephen Fenech: That’s how it works.

[00:20:18] Trevor Long: We’d love to hear from you anytime. Get in touch on 2 Blokes Talking Electric Cars. Great to have your company. We’d love to hear from you. 0477 657 657. Shoot us a text and we’d love to hear from you wherever you’re at in your EV journey. Pete’s on the line. G’day, Pete.

Pete — Tesla Model Y 2023, solar setup, secondhand EV decision

[00:20:43] Pete: Uh, g’day, blokes.

[00:20:44] Trevor Long: Really, really good. Tell us about your driveway.

[00:20:48] Pete: Well, I’ve got a 15-kilowatt solar system on the roof, a 40-kilowatt SIG Energy battery. So, Stephen, yeah, what do you think is missing here?

[00:20:57] Stephen Fenech: Uh, an EV.

[00:20:59] Pete: Correct. And what else?

[00:21:00] Stephen Fenech: Um, so you got the panels, the battery, and you want an EV.

[00:21:05] Pete: Wall charger and probably not. I think I’ll get a 25-kilowatt bidirectional.

[00:21:10] Trevor Long: I was going to say if I had the SIG Energy, I’d be putting the extra panel on the top with a 25-kilowatt bidirectional. Is that the plan?

[00:21:19] Pete: Yeah, that’s the plan. So Trevor, tell me, who’s being interviewed here?

[00:21:23] Trevor Long: What’s going on here?

[00:21:27] Trevor Long: What’s your question?

[00:21:29] Pete: Trevor, what do you think about buying a secondhand Tesla?

[00:21:33] Trevor Long: I think it’s a great idea. I genuinely do. I’m for— let me be very clear, for someone asking me that, it’s like when we get tech advice, right? There’s some phones that I wouldn’t continue to use. But if someone says to me, I’m looking at this one, and I would simply say to them, why are you looking at that one? What are you expecting to get from it? And I think you’ve probably done the research on what a Tesla provides. And mate, and it’s funny because I keep reflecting on that call from a couple of weeks ago with the secondhand Model S and even last week. Yeah. I still drive past Model S’s and think that is probably one of the best-looking electric cars on the road.

[00:22:10] Stephen Fenech: Of all the brands, you’d probably say Tesla secondhand, you can probably go in with a bit more confidence.

[00:22:15] Trevor Long: Yeah, that’s probably true.

[00:22:17] Stephen Fenech: You reckon? So because they’ve been around for quite a while.

[00:22:19] Trevor Long: So then, Pete, what are you looking at?

[00:22:22] Pete: Well, I listen to your show, so I had looked at Tesla Model S because I thought I could probably slip a 7-foot surfboard in the back of that, but it’s quite a fastback style.

[00:22:32] Stephen Fenech: So yeah, it is.

[00:22:33] Pete: Yeah. I went everywhere. I looked at all the cheap Chinese stuff. I lived about 120km southwest of Geelong in Victoria. So for all the Australian listeners here, this is the southernmost village in Australia on the mainland. Okay. And I can charge my electric car, which I did buy a Model Y 2023 in the middle of winter on solar.

[00:22:54] Stephen Fenech: Wow. Hang on, you’ve got a lot of panels.

[00:23:03] Pete: Is enough.

[00:23:04] Trevor Long: It’s enough. Just enough.

[00:23:06] Stephen Fenech: You’ve got enough panels, that’s for sure.

[00:23:07] Pete: Yeah, we’ve got enough, man.

[00:23:09] Stephen Fenech: That’s awesome. How do you like it then? Is this— so is this the model that was the previous look or the new—

[00:23:15] Trevor Long: No, that’s the previous 23. So you’ve got a toad, not a frog, is that what you’re saying?

[00:23:21] Pete: Well, you guys have got all the names. Look, for me, it’s just a car I can stick into the solar panel and drive around and rocket on the sun because I think, you know, all of this came along. I’ve been looking for a few years at EVs and sort of wishfully, but with, well, I’ve got a job where I was working a bit manually and I was able to listen to your show while I was doing that, which is very good.

[00:23:39] Pete: And then the Stratagemoose thing sort of sparked up, which really brought my attention to the stupidity of dragging oil across the world to use once.

[00:23:47] Trevor Long: Yeah, it’s, you know what, it’s a funny thing we haven’t really discussed because we don’t really get into it, but it is hilarious really, isn’t it, to think that you could be filling up a car with a bunch of heavy liters of fuel that had to be shipped across the world and then refined to be put in your car when what you’re doing right now is plugging your car in the side of your house and the sun comes up.

[00:24:09] Stephen Fenech: Sun’s charging it.

[00:24:11] Trevor Long: Honestly, Pete, it reminds me of that conversation and I’ve mentioned it before. There’s a marketing dude in England who said this. I’m not the founder of this idea, but the idea that if electric cars had taken off you know, 100 years ago. And then we were now trying to tell people to switch to combustion engines. You know, you’re trying to tell people to fill your car with flammable liquid that burns, you know, dirty into the environment. And by the way, that fuel needs to be shipped to you from the other side of the world. It’s insanity to think that you would do that.

[00:24:45] Pete: So it’s wild, especially when that fuel is coming out of a 65, at least a 65 million-year-old dinosaur. Like, that’s crazy. So we’re done with that. And I think that, you know, the feel of this car being so quiet, it’s got a sick subwoofer. I’ll tell you what, the pre-Juniper Teslas come with good subwoofers.

[00:25:04] Stephen Fenech: The Tesla sound systems have always been good.

[00:25:06] Trevor Long: You say pre-Juniper, so has it changed?

[00:25:09] Pete: The Juniper rear-wheel drive does not have a subwoofer. There is my news for the program. Look out for that. And it’s not easy to get one fitted.

[00:25:17] Stephen Fenech: So you can enjoy your doof doof music while you’re driving around, mate. Is that what you’re saying or what?

[00:25:22] Pete: You better believe it, buddy.

[00:25:23] Trevor Long: What’s it like down there in that southernmost part of Australia, the mainland? What’s it like for charging through to Geelong and around to Melbourne?

[00:25:34] Pete: So there’s Tesla chargers north of Geelong and in Colac and across to Warrnambool. I’m talking to a chap in town here who might be open to having Tesla use his land to put a Supercharger in. Wow. But there is an EV charger which is really unreliable and it’s 70 cents a kilowatt. Oh, there’s another one in Lorne which I think is a Firefox, that’s 50 cents a kilowatt. And then in South Geelong I think there’s another EV charger there and there’ll be stuff in Torquay as well. But look, there’s certainly— you can get around, there’s no problem. And well, with this car, what’s it doing? It’ll do about 400 and probably more like 375 around here. So you can do it pretty much off the house.

[00:26:14] Stephen Fenech: So what sort of driving are you doing? I heard you mention earlier you want to fit a surfboard in, so it’s trips to the beach. And is that, uh, yeah, you got family too, I’m assuming. So what’s your driving habits like?

[00:26:27] Pete: We pretty much get around town on pushbikes and walking, and then we have to do trips to Geelong for medical appointments or what have you, uh, and then surf trips along the coast. So it’s pretty much a recreational vehicle, and it can be charged during the daytime, which is magnificent.

[00:26:43] Trevor Long: Fantastic.

[00:26:43] Pete: But yeah, very quiet, effortless to drive. Very, very compelling compared to the cars I’ve driven. I think any new car that I got was going to be a massive step up on my cars that I’d had.

[00:26:54] Trevor Long: And just in terms of the choice you made. Considered any other. I think you mentioned in your text to us that you did look at some of the newer brands. What was the reason you went Tesla over one?

[00:27:07] Trevor Long: Pick one other. What was the defining factor?

[00:27:10] Pete: So, yeah, I think I was pretty keen to get the Zeekr or the Geelys or, oh, there’s a bunch of them. I even talked to the MG dealer, but I didn’t want to go up to Geelong every couple of days and go and scout around and do all that because I knew that the Tesla product and I never drew it. But if you do a spider’s web of all of the aspects of an EV, whether it’s the computer system, the efficiency, the handling, the reliability, the service, serviceability, or ability to get parts and have expertise available. You know, it goes on and on. The Tesla feels the spider’s web.

[00:27:46] Trevor Long: Yeah, there’s no little dip anywhere around that.

[00:27:49] Stephen Fenech: You’re totally right.

[00:27:50] Pete: It’s a solid, it’s a totally solid product. Whereas, you know, the cheap Chinese, it might be nice to get a new car. It doesn’t do anything for me. But that is all what they always come with a compromise. Well, we’ve discussed overall that this whole thing becomes always you can’t get the perfect car. You’re going to have to sit at the 80% and you pick the 20% of things you’re not going to be able to get.

[00:28:10] Stephen Fenech: Well, we’ve discussed in the past about how you do need to look sort of further than just the purchase of the car and the maintenance and servicing. And it sounds like you’ve done that. And we’re finding that being aware of that at purchase, I think that that could even affect your decision whether, how easy is this to service? How easy is it to get parts if I have an accident? What’s the full picture? Your spider’s web, as you described it, is a great way of looking at it.

[00:28:40] Trevor Long: If, if 80% is where you land, what was your 20% compromise?

[00:28:44] Pete: Well, I didn’t want to surf the steepest part of that depreciation curve, so I really would have liked to get a new Juniper dual motor long range. But then, you know, there’s $75,000. And so this car’s, you know, a bit on— say it’s $45,000 on the road. I just divide that by 10 years and think, well, it’s going to be worth something in 10 years. But if I can manage $4,500 a year in not paying for fuel service costs and the like. Yep. Which I think is reasonable, then it’s pretty cool. And if it’s doable, if it’s doable, leave the dinosaur juice alone.

[00:29:19] Trevor Long: Love it.

[00:29:21] Stephen Fenech: Yeah, that’s a good way of looking at it actually.

[00:29:26] Pete: We’ve all got to put our hand in our pocket somewhere in the transition to get off those fuels. And yeah, whilst I’m not saving the Earth by any measure, it’s a step.

[00:29:35] Trevor Long: And it’s funny how often that comes up, isn’t it? Especially when you’re in a debate-style environment, whether it’s on the internet or at a family barbecue, someone’s gonna be like, “Yeah, I’m trying to be green.” Mate, not doing it for being green. I’m doing it because by being green, I’m saving myself money. The simple cost savings are hard to argue with.

[00:29:56] Stephen Fenech: That’s your higher priority.

[00:29:57] Trevor Long: The overall environmental benefit is one for the future that I’m glad to be playing a role in. I’m doing the best I can for myself and my family. And it sounds like you’re doing the same, mate.

[00:30:08] Pete: Yeah. Well said, Trevor. It’s good. You guys are a great show. I really enjoy listening to you both. And Stephen, I’m really proud to tell you about my solar system because you always ask the question about what’s going on with the solar.

[00:30:19] Stephen Fenech: Absolutely. Yeah. I’ve had solar. I feel like I’ve had solar for nearly 10 years now.

[00:30:23] Trevor Long: I feel like what Pete did was he studied. He did his research. Absolutely. He went, you know what, they’re going to ask me this, this, and this. I’m going to throw them back at them. So he came prepared, Pete.

[00:30:33] Pete: I know you don’t like a long drawn out ramble about research, so spare you all of that.

[00:30:39] Stephen Fenech: And well, you know what, we do have— we do hear from a lot of people who do a lot of test drives. I think, what’s her name? Penelope still got the record of 16 test drives.

[00:30:50] Trevor Long: So yeah, Pete, enjoy the Toad, mate. Enjoy the Toad.

[00:30:55] Pete: Yeah, we’re talking from the toe today. So yeah, inside the mouth.

[00:30:59] Stephen Fenech: What color did you get? What color is it?

[00:31:02] Pete: Oh, white, mate.

[00:31:03] Stephen Fenech: They’re all white. Yeah.

[00:31:06] Trevor Long: Are you on the hands-free?

[00:31:09] Trevor Long: Is this on your hands-free in the Tesla?

[00:31:10] Pete: Yeah, we’ve got to go straight from the—

[00:31:11] Trevor Long: wow, it’s pretty clear.

[00:31:12] Stephen Fenech: That’s really solid quality. Another concession. Jeff’s got to concede another quality feature. Absolutely.

[00:31:20] Trevor Long: Hand on heart, that’s a big part of the spider’s web, mate. That’s top quality there.

[00:31:24] Pete: That’s good quality. That’s broadcast quality. Yeah, I should have got a red one for the phone box, but I’ll go with a white phone box.

[00:31:33] Trevor Long: Congrats, mate. Enjoy the car.

[00:31:34] Stephen Fenech: Thanks, mate.

[00:31:35] Pete: Yeah, thanks so much. Well done.

[00:31:37] Trevor Long: Really good to hear from you, mate. Thanks very much. Cheers.

[00:31:40] Trevor Long: See, loving the Toad. And the Toad has great Bluetooth. That’s what we’ve learned.

[00:31:45] Stephen Fenech: Yeah. Good microphones and speakers in there, by the sounds of it.

[00:31:47] Trevor Long: You know, it’s a silly thing, but we, you know, but inside baseball, when we ring you to get you on the show, we listen. We talked for a couple of seconds and we go, hang on a minute, can you pick up the phone?

[00:31:56] Stephen Fenech: We didn’t even flinch, ask him to change. The quality was there at the get-go.

[00:32:02] Trevor Long: I’m still a bit overwhelmed by the number of questions. No, he came prepared, it was good.

[00:32:07] Stephen Fenech: And you know, you can tell he listens, mate, it’s great.

[00:32:09] Trevor Long: We appreciate it. Lovely to hear from our audience. We love doing this show as much as all that we’ve been doing podcasts for 15+ years. This is an enjoyable part of our week because we get to speak to real people about their real experiences and their real questions and their real problems with their transition.

[00:32:26] Stephen Fenech: And that, I enjoy that because I get to talk to other people apart from Trevor all the time. It’s really good.

[00:32:34] Trevor Long: All right, get in touch, folks. 0477 657 657. Choose Team Steve or Team Trevor. It’s up to you. Two Blokes Talking Electric Cars. We’d love to hear from you at any point when you’re driving along. You could probably just ask your voice assistant to call us. I’m not going to use names, but call the Two Blokes. Yeah, call the Two Blokes. Save us in your phone first.

[00:33:11] Stephen Fenech: and that’s Trent’s personal number. So if you get through to him, he’ll be very happy.

[00:33:16] Trevor Long: Don’t call it. It won’t go anywhere.

[00:33:18] Trevor Long: It doesn’t work.

[00:33:21] Trevor Long: No, you can’t. Yes.

[00:33:23] Stephen Fenech: No, but you can leave it in your car. You can leave a text message. You can send a message.

[00:33:27] Trevor Long: Yeah, send a message via WhatsApp. You’ve been driving a very interesting car, Steven, because it’s not a fully electric, it’s a plug-in hybrid.

[00:33:34] Stephen Fenech: Plug-in hybrid.

[00:33:35] Trevor Long: But it’s from GWM. Yeah, I love it. Appropriately named the Tank.

[00:33:40] Stephen Fenech: The Tank 500.

[00:33:42] Stephen Fenech: Now this is a hybrid, as you said, big car, 7-seater.

[00:33:46] Trevor Long: It’s plug-in hybrid or just hybrid?

[00:33:47] Stephen Fenech: Plug-in hybrid.

[00:33:49] Stephen Fenech: It’s got a little cap on both sides.

[00:33:53] Stephen Fenech: It is a, it’s one of those, I think it’s ideal for that driver who still wants to head out on those trips, but also for just running around town. I think it’s got about 75, 80 kilometer range around town. Yep. You’re able to just get by on the battery. So it’s, I think it’s an ideal combination for someone who’s not quite fully in the electric camp, maybe drives a lot more and the range, because like the petrol range is like 700-something kilometers.

[00:34:21] Trevor Long: So it’s a full decent 7-seater.

[00:34:23] Stephen Fenech: Oh yeah, it’s a 2-liter plug-in hybrid.

[00:34:26] Trevor Long: Yeah, so it’s like when we say tank, it is legit, uh, Toyota Land Cruiser 300 Series size car.

[00:34:33] Stephen Fenech: One of the biggest cars I’ve ever driven apart from the EV9. Yeah, it’s up in— not quite as big as the EV9, really. Yeah, I think the EV9 is bigger than this. I don’t know.

[00:34:42] Trevor Long: Yeah, you can see this probably sits a lot taller.

[00:34:44] Stephen Fenech: Yeah, or maybe— yeah, but it’s high up off the road. Then if you’ve got a step even that comes out, the step come— once when you unlock the car, the— what do you call that? The snowboard? The shelf?

[00:34:54] Trevor Long: Running rail?

[00:34:55] Stephen Fenech: It pops out the side of the car.

[00:34:57] Stephen Fenech: And it’s great. I picked up my mum in it the other day and she stepped in there, stopped on the step, pulled herself up on the handle and got up there. Doris did a good job.

[00:35:04] Trevor Long: Doris was like, what the hell?

[00:35:06] Stephen Fenech: What is this? And just getting up in and out of it is pretty good too. But you know what? One little warning, don’t forget stuff in the car and go back to get it. Cause I remember I forgot my mobile in there, my phone, and I’ve gone back to the car, opened the car, reached in to get my mobile and the shelf just came out. The step came out, went bop, straight in the shins. The shin, it’s a shin buster.

[00:35:30] Trevor Long: The shin buster.

[00:35:31] Stephen Fenech: Be careful of that rail. It just sort of pops out automatically.

[00:35:34] Trevor Long: That’s a simple observation.

[00:35:35] Stephen Fenech: Yeah. Like you wouldn’t want that to happen more than once.

[00:35:39] Trevor Long: It’s about an $80,000 car, right?

[00:35:40] Stephen Fenech: Yeah. It starts about $75,000.

[00:35:42] Trevor Long: Unbelievable value for a car this big. You compare that to a Toyota Prado. I mean, it’s pretty awesome, but it’s a fascinating space, right? And last week, Sean from NRMA mentioned that the 100 cars on the market and he said, but there’s still some vehicle categories that are not covered.

[00:36:02] Trevor Long: And that would be utes. There’s a couple we’ve spoken about, but this big four-wheel drive market.

[00:36:08] Trevor Long: Is huge, right? Think about the number of Toyota Prados and those kind of things on the road. And look, I own a big 7-seat SUV, but it’s far more expensive than a Toyota Prado. So that balance is not there yet. This and the Denza, so BYD’s kind of secondary brand, the Denza.

[00:36:25] Trevor Long: The B8, I think it is, which is their big bulky thing.

[00:36:28] Trevor Long: You know, it’s more expensive than this one. I think it’s probably a little bit more luxurious too.

[00:36:33] Stephen Fenech: This is very nice inside too. I’ve got to say, luxury-wise, interior, very classy. So the sort of leather, leather look inside and beautiful paneling on the dash and beautiful big screen. It’s like 15-inch screen on the front as well. And it’s got the cluster in front of the driver as well as the heads-up display. So you got the trifecta of coverage there.

[00:36:55] Trevor Long: You got everything you need.

[00:36:55] Stephen Fenech: And room for miles as well. Like there’s— I’m taking this up to see my daughter with my— I’m taking my mum and my mother-in-law. So it’s the great-grandma express.

[00:37:11] Stephen Fenech: they’re gonna be in luxury. All this nice room they’re going to have to enjoy the ride.

[00:37:16] Trevor Long: Who gets the front seat?

[00:37:18] Stephen Fenech: Probably my mum. Yeah, she’s got her knees a little bit sore. She needs a bit more space.

[00:37:22] Trevor Long: So the mother-in-law gets second row.

[00:37:24] Stephen Fenech: But in second row, even there’s still plenty of room, mate. I said to her, I said, look, there’s still plenty of room here. I can actually— we can move the front seat back and you can sit behind that seat and you still— it’s like you’re in a limo. It’s fine.

[00:37:35] Trevor Long: She’ll be loving it.

[00:37:36] Stephen Fenech: Yeah, but a few little things, a couple of annoying things about it. Yeah, it’s very— interestingly, I don’t know whether I hit a switch or something, but when I’m driving with a passenger, a lot of warnings saying, oh, the merging ahead, and you’re over— exceeding the speed limit, and it pauses.

[00:37:57] Trevor Long: Only when there’s a passenger.

[00:37:59] Stephen Fenech: But get this, I drove here today alone and didn’t mention anything. It just gave me the beeps, no voice.

[00:38:05] Trevor Long: So it’s a snitch.

[00:38:07] Trevor Long: It’s basically a snitch. When your wife’s in the car, it’s like, oi, yeah, he’s speeding.

[00:38:11] Stephen Fenech: But yeah, when I’m by myself, I found— well, today at least it wasn’t talking to me.

[00:38:16] Trevor Long: It’s just beeping.

[00:38:18] Stephen Fenech: So I don’t know whether that’s on purpose. So if it feels someone else is in the car, it’s sort of, okay, if you’re on your own, good luck to you. You can— I’m not going to be as vocal, but you’ve got a passenger, you’ve got to be a bit extra careful.

[00:38:32] Trevor Long: That’s amazing.

[00:38:33] Stephen Fenech: Well, I don’t know whether that’s actually a feature or whether I’ve hit some button or something when I got in the car, but that’s what I found. Now, when I drove out here to you today in the GWM Tank 500, it was just beeping when I went over the limit. Not that I go over the limit often, but it was beeping.

[00:38:48] Trevor Long: And you know what? It’s a footnote to say, but everyone drives over the limit by a couple of kilometers because your car is actually under the limit. Like if you’re going 50, it’s actually going 47 or 48. So I’m going to go 51, 52. I’m going to go the speed limit.

[00:39:02] Stephen Fenech: GPS is looking at your speed on Waze, aren’t you?

[00:39:04] Trevor Long: Yes, always. First thing I do in a car is I go 60 and work out how far off it is and then work out what my number is.

[00:39:10] Stephen Fenech: But yeah, in terms of the comfort of the car, it’s obviously very big, very easy to fit in it. The central panel there, you got actually a gear stick with a button. So there’s no—

[00:39:22] Trevor Long: Old school, mate.

[00:39:23] Stephen Fenech: Old school gear changer.

[00:39:25] Trevor Long: I think that would resonate with a lot of people.

[00:39:27] Stephen Fenech: The cup holders are a little bit tight, sort of a bit further back. So to reach them—

[00:39:31] Trevor Long: You gotta have your T-Rex arm to get in.

[00:39:32] Stephen Fenech: Yeah, yeah, that’s right. You gotta sort of shrug up.

[00:39:38] Trevor Long: It’s very close to you there, but very good.

[00:39:40] Stephen Fenech: Yeah, overall it’s a quality ride. For the drive, drive’s great.

[00:39:45] Trevor Long: For sub-80,000, yeah, it’s pretty remarkable.

[00:39:47] Stephen Fenech: Normally, like, my car, like, I’m like I’m sitting on the road, my Mercedes and other cars we drive. But this car, I felt like I’m in a truck, just, um, I’m above everybody.

[00:39:57] Trevor Long: There you go. Tank 500 from GWM, uh, you can find them online. And, uh, yeah, there you go. That’s Stephen’s glowing endorsement of the beast other than the shin basher.

[00:40:07] Stephen Fenech: Yeah, the shin buster. Yeah, I’ve got a couple of little marks.

[00:40:09] Trevor Long: It’s the shin buster 500.

[00:40:10] Stephen Fenech: I’m telling GWM about who’s gonna cover my medical expenses.

[00:40:13] Trevor Long: I’ll dry your eyes, princess. All right, well, we’d love to hear from you if you own a GWM tank. Let’s talk about it. Or a Denza. I’d love to hear from people that have bought the Denza ’cause it’s a fascinating market. Very small numbers right now, but I see that brand really evolving. So we’d love to hear from you, 0477 657 657. Steven, let’s just do it all again next week.

[00:40:33] Stephen Fenech: I will make a note of that.

[00:40:35] Trevor Long: All right, and you’ll be here?

[00:40:36] Stephen Fenech: I’ll put it in my diary.

[00:40:37] Trevor Long: I won’t say if you’re not here, you’ll need to know, because that’s someone else’s line. But anyway, yes, see you then, mate.

[00:40:41] Stephen Fenech: Bye-bye.