The Two Blokes Talking Electric Cars podcast – Episode # 131 – Choosing the Zeekr 7X over the Tesla

Two Blokes Talking Electric Cars
Episode: 131 – Choosing the Zeekr 7X over the Tesla
Date: 2 August 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 Unidan. You're looking very dapper, Steven. I like the way you're—

[00:00:12] Stephen Fenech: I like how you mix it up too.

[00:00:13] Trevor Long: Like, did you know we had two intros?

[00:00:15] Stephen Fenech: So you're first and I'm first. So I've got to be ready, mate.

[00:00:18] Trevor Long: I've got to be ready. Yeah, I keep forgetting that there's two intros. One that's you first and one that's me.

[00:00:22] Stephen Fenech: Keep me on my toes.

[00:00:23] Trevor Long: And just by the way, I've got to remember which one it is so that I press the right button. Anyway, Two Blokes Talking Electric Cars. Thanks to NRMA Insurance, helping Australians protect what matters most for 100 years or more, one of Australia's largest insurers of electric vehicles, and Uniden smart dashcams. If you've got a car, you should have a dashcam front and rear. And if you're looking for a dashcam, we just ask that you consider Uniden. They sell so many dashcams in Australia. Award-winning. Award-winning. Award-winning.

[00:00:47] Stephen Fenech: As Stephen says, design and function.

Josh — considering the Zeekr 7X Performance over a Tesla

[00:00:49] Trevor Long: That's right. Great quality as well. So just do us a favor. When your insurance comes up, just ask NRMA for a quote. That's all we ask. And when you're shopping for a dashcam, do likewise. Get yourself a Uniden, or at least compare them to whatever is in your shopping cart. 0477657657. We'd love to hear from you. Josh is on the line. G'day, Josh.

[00:01:09] Josh: Hey guys, how you doing?

[00:01:10] Trevor Long: Well, we're not doing as well as you because you're on the ski slope with your family. We appreciate you taking time out and just pushing the kids and the wife down the hill before you. What, where are you, mate?

[00:01:21] Josh: That's exactly what I just did.

[00:01:23] Trevor Long: Thank you, mate. We appreciate it.

[00:01:26] Josh: I'm at the top of Blue Cow.

[00:01:27] Trevor Long: Nice.

[00:01:28] Josh: Yeah, Parish and Stow Resort. So yeah.

[00:01:30] Trevor Long: Well done, mate. Well done. What's in the driveway, mate, or what's coming?

[00:01:35] Josh: So we have been— look, I've been looking for ages, but with obviously the things that happened with petrol earlier this year, my wife's finally got on board. And yeah, we're going to pull the trigger soon on electric car. We've looked hard at the thing and at this moment we're pretty sure we're going to go the 7X Performance.

[00:01:53] Trevor Long: Nice. That's a great car.

[00:01:56] Stephen Fenech: Very nice vehicle.

[00:01:58] Trevor Long: We hear a lot of positive things about it.

[00:02:00] Stephen Fenech: So many, so many. And the Zeekr brand in general. But How long, Josh, did it take you to decide to land on that? Did, did you do a few test drives? What happened?

[00:02:12] Josh: I've driven a couple more, actually friends' cars and stuff. And yeah, the Zica was just amazing, but I've done more of a spreadsheet search of what I was going to buy.

[00:02:21] Trevor Long: Yeah.

[00:02:21] Josh: And came down to the 3 cars that sort of ticked the box was the Zica, the IM6, and the Tesla Long Wheelbase. Y Long Wheelbase.

[00:02:33] Stephen Fenech: YL, right.

[00:02:34] Josh: And Yeah, I was actually almost gonna pull the trigger on the Tesla. Yeah, it's a little bit cheaper and 6 seats is awesome. Yeah. And then my wife's mad on child car seat groups and stuff on Facebook and it just started blowing up that all the car seat manufacturers of baby seats are saying no go for second row.

[00:02:55] Trevor Long: We had no go for second row. There's a bloody slogan. We had this a couple of weeks ago with a caller, didn't we? And it was reported pretty wildly a month or so ago too. This is unbelievable that if you put a child seat in the ISOFIX point point, because in Australia you have to use the anchor point. The anchor point over the top of the seat, the belts just fade down and come off the seat. So there's literally no grip and it's a no-go for child seats in the second row.

[00:03:23] Josh: Yep. So we had to put a line straight through it. In every other way, that's the car which I like. I'm glad because I think it's ugly.

[00:03:30] Trevor Long: But hang on a minute.

[00:03:32] Stephen Fenech: You've been listening to this show for too long, haven't you?

[00:03:35] Josh: Pretty much.

[00:03:36] Trevor Long: Old Frogginton. Frogginton Road, eh? So hang on.

[00:03:41] Stephen Fenech: So you think it's ugly, but even the new model, the new model is much nicer.

[00:03:44] Trevor Long: The new model's a frog.

[00:03:47] Josh: The new model's acceptable.

[00:03:49] Stephen Fenech: There you go.

[00:03:49] Trevor Long: There you go.

[00:03:50] Josh: It ain't pretty.

[00:03:51] Trevor Long: On value, the Tesla was there for you.

[00:03:54] Stephen Fenech: Yeah. Yeah.

[00:03:55] Josh: And like, I got two kids. So the concept of being able to take another two, a friend each in the back.

[00:03:59] Trevor Long: Yeah, totally.

[00:04:00] Josh: It was pretty huge. And like, the space in the back of it was awesome. And the range is obviously the best out of everyone. I really want all-wheel drive. As I say, we do snow trips. So something with all-wheel drive is a mega bonus. Of course. Which is why it's a 7X Performance, not the Long Range, because I would happily have the Long Range. Yeah. And that's kind of— and so on paper it was like, that's the car we should buy. My wife hates Tesla, so she was in the same thing. So she was stoked when there was—

[00:04:27] Trevor Long: So you both were happy.

[00:04:28] Josh: We couldn't get it.

[00:04:29] Stephen Fenech: Wow.

[00:04:29] Josh: Yeah.

[00:04:30] Trevor Long: Crazy.

[00:04:30] Stephen Fenech: So how does the 7X then suit your needs then?

[00:04:34] Josh: So look, obviously, like, she's got an X3 right now, so like BMW X3. So 5 seats is fine. It was just nice to have this X extra seats. But mate, it's, it's such a nice car to drive. The range is just enough that we want. We want to be able to drive to Canberra in a go and it can just do that. Like taking into consideration it's being uphill the whole way because there's nowhere near that many kilometres. But yeah, it does add. And yeah, it's just, it's the interior is amazing. Yeah, it is just a really luxury car. And I think the final thing, nail in the coffin for my wife, where she was like, all right, that's the car. She's got a friend who a different tax bracket to us. They have nothing but Porsches normally, and they've recently bought one and they're like, yeah, this car's amazing.

[00:05:21] Trevor Long: And that is an interesting observational endorsement of a car.

[00:05:26] Stephen Fenech: Wow.

[00:05:27] Josh: Yeah. It's just like if they're— if they've got one, it must be good.

[00:05:30] Trevor Long: I love the way you describe them too. They're just in a different tax bracket. They must be influencers.

[00:05:35] Stephen Fenech: Yes.

[00:05:36] Trevor Long: Wow.

[00:05:37] Stephen Fenech: Wow.

[00:05:37] Trevor Long: So that's interesting.

[00:05:38] Stephen Fenech: That's a big win. They've gone— haven't gone the Macan EV. Yeah, they've gone the Zeekr EV.

[00:05:42] Josh: And you know what I think in that part, that's because it's a beautiful car.

[00:05:45] Stephen Fenech: Porsche Club members.

[00:05:46] Josh: They're Porsche Club members and they've chosen the Zica over it.

[00:05:50] Trevor Long: Can you, Josh, can you get them on the show? Josh, can you tip to them?

[00:05:52] Josh: I could ask the question.

[00:05:54] Trevor Long: I'd love to talk to them.

[00:05:55] Stephen Fenech: They've gone from Porsche to Zica.

[00:05:56] Trevor Long: And, you know, they're among friends here. Like, I love my BMW back in the day. Steven loves his Mercedes. We're not going to look down upon them for having a penchant for a beautiful Porsche. Right. But there's some Porsches that I'd love to know why they didn't consider. And I'd also love to hear the story of the Zica. So Have you taken delivery yet? Sorry, did I miss that?

[00:06:17] Josh: We haven't. No, we're actually doing some home loan stuff, so we're just getting that finalized. And then as soon as that, I'll be doing the novated lease to get it. Because again, that's the other reason, mate. It's just, it makes so much sense right now to have an electric car.

[00:06:29] Trevor Long: Green or black?

[00:06:32] Josh: Look, we are a black car family. So are we.

[00:06:35] Stephen Fenech: Once you go black, you don't go back.

[00:06:37] Josh: It's your car. You choose what you want. And she's actually a little bit interested in the white on this. And it's weird because black is the cheap car, white is is actually more expensive on the Zikr. I don't know if you've seen that. Black's their free color.

[00:06:49] Trevor Long: Yeah, I, I haven't seen a lot of white in white. Oh, it's on the homepage. Yeah, actually, you know what, Seekers, that's not an— it— I'm just gonna say, mate, you got to talk to the wife. It looks so much better in black and green.

[00:07:01] Josh: Yeah, I like black, but you say everyone you see is green. That's probably the negative of the green. It's like, it's the color that everyone—

[00:07:07] Trevor Long: you know, it's funny because I've told this story before. That's why I bought the blue Cupra, because I thought it's the only one that costs more. So yeah, you know, Trevor's doing very well. So I thought, I thought there won't be many around. Every third I see is blue.

[00:07:19] Stephen Fenech: I'm like, Jesus, I drive a Mercedes, so you can imagine they're either black or silver. Yeah, that's it.

[00:07:25] Stephen Fenech: Yeah.

[00:07:25] Trevor Long: I don't think they have any other colors.

[00:07:27] Stephen Fenech: I don't think so.

[00:07:27] Trevor Long: And so, mate, what, you know, from a family perspective, how old are the kiddies?

[00:07:32] Josh: I've got a 2-year-old and a 6-year-old.

[00:07:34] Stephen Fenech: Okay.

[00:07:35] Trevor Long: And they're on the slopes right now.

[00:07:36] Stephen Fenech: Wow.

[00:07:37] Josh: Yeah.

[00:07:38] Stephen Fenech: Yeah.

[00:07:38] Stephen Fenech: The future Winter Olympians right there, mate.

[00:07:40] Trevor Long: Scotty James, eat your heart out. Get them on the halfpipe.

[00:07:43] Josh: I hope.

[00:07:44] Trevor Long: Mate, put them towards golf and tennis if you're looking for money. Just get them. Don't get them excited about motorsport. That'll burn through all your money.

[00:07:54] Josh: My man, we're very much into that. Don't you worry about that. So that is their dream. Both of them are wheels kids. So that's 100%.

[00:08:02] Stephen Fenech: What are you coming out of, George? Did you already mention what are you driving now?

[00:08:06] Josh: So she's got a BMW X3, so it's replacing her car.

[00:08:10] Stephen Fenech: Of course you said that. Yeah. Nice.

[00:08:10] Trevor Long: And what are you going to do at home charging-wise?

[00:08:13] Josh: She works from home, so we'll have— we haven't done it yet, but we're going to be putting a big solar system on and she'll just charge from home and yeah, basically. We do actually do about 30,000 K's a year, but it's mostly like big, like road trips to Sydney. So like most of the time she'll just drive for free and we'll never have to pay to charge.

[00:08:31] Trevor Long: So yeah, beautiful. It's a win. It's a win. Have you done any of the investigation about those road trips? Do you feel confident that they're going to be an easy run?

[00:08:38] Josh: Oh yes. My friend that has his Zeekr 7X Performance, he lives around the corner and he does Sydney trips all the time. He gets there and back. We're in Newcastle. He gets there and back, does a bit of running around and still only has like 25 to 30%. Charge. And Canberra from our place is 420 km and it's got 560 range. So should, should just—

[00:08:59] Trevor Long: Yeah, I think, look, I think, I think you're— it's right to know that it's a just because you would normally go 560 to 4, it's fine. But on highway speeds, maybe it will get closer and different, different days, different weather in the winter, it won't be as good. Oh geez, I just thought about that with my trip coming up. It's going to be—

[00:09:14] Stephen Fenech: I've done, I've done the Sydney to Newcastle run a few times and I know it's 200 km to Sydney and Newcastle, a full charge. My cars are like 450, 430 km range up and back on its own without having to charge. It's not a problem.

[00:09:30] Josh: I have no qualms. Sydney and back will be no issues. The Canberra one, because it's actually a lot of people don't realize, but it is uphill the whole way to Canberra. Yes. So yeah, that's, that's the concern one. But I was like, at the end of the day, the Zica has the fastest charging out of every car as well. That was the other car we were looking at was EV5 until I saw that its fastest charging is very, very slow.

[00:09:50] Trevor Long: What is it, 110?

[00:09:52] Josh: Yeah, something like that. And 7 kilowatts at home.

[00:09:55] Stephen Fenech: So what's the ZEEKR then?

[00:09:57] Trevor Long: What's the ZEEKR do?

[00:09:57] Stephen Fenech: 350?

[00:09:58] Trevor Long: 450 Super?

[00:09:59] Josh: 450 Super and 22 at home.

[00:10:02] Trevor Long: But obviously there's no— I was looking, I was looking at the— I think it's Ampol. I think it's Ampol that have opened some new chargers on the M4 in Sydney out near Eastern Creek at the new kind of Ampols there. And I was looking at some of the Plugshare results and there's a few ZEEKR people going, I didn't get a very fast charge. It was like 150. But then there's a few you go and they got 300. Like, and I've never seen that in a car. Like, it's crazy good speed. So, mate, it sounds like you're in, you're on a winner. It's going to be great. We now, you've got two things, two things you need to take from this chat, mate. Firstly, we want to hear from you in a few months once the car's in the driveway and there's smiles on the face of you and the missus. Secondly, what are we on, a snowboard or skis right now about to head down?

[00:10:46] Josh: Snowboard.

[00:10:46] Stephen Fenech: Snowboard.

[00:10:47] Trevor Long: You sound like a snowboarder.

[00:10:48] Stephen Fenech: Plenty of powder down there, mate. A lot of powder.

[00:10:50] Trevor Long: How's the powder?

[00:10:52] Josh: No, no, it's, we're actually pretty lucky. Yeah, like, let's tell people, the people that this is recorded a little bit early and there was no snow and then we've just got a dump this weekend. So, but it's, but it's not very deep. So it's, it's good for the kids, but not for venturing out when you're still better than being at work.

[00:11:13] Trevor Long: Poor Josh is not cutting it up out there. Is that what you call it? Is it called cutting it up?

[00:11:18] Stephen Fenech: What do you— I don't know.

[00:11:19] Josh: I won't judge you too hard.

[00:11:21] Stephen Fenech: No idea.

[00:11:22] Trevor Long: Hey, Josh, happy, happy snowboarding. Enjoy the slopes. And mate, look forward to hearing from you when you got the Zika.

[00:11:29] Stephen Fenech: Thanks, buddy.

[00:11:30] Josh: No worries. See ya, boys.

[00:11:30] Trevor Long: Thanks, mate.

[00:11:31] Josh: Cheers. Catch ya.

[00:11:32] Trevor Long: Good man. Excellent stuff. Look, Josh said to me when I—

[00:11:36] Trevor Long: because I—

[00:11:37] Trevor Long: yeah, you send us a text, 0477 657 657. And then we record on a Wednesday, happy to tell you that. And we're recording a few shows a week because we've got a bit of travel coming up. And so on a Monday, Tuesday, I start texting people back and go, hey, you available? Some people like, I'm working on Wednesday, can't. And Josh was like, yeah, no, not this week. And I'm like, I'd really like to talk to you. And he goes, we're on holidays. I said, mate, come on. 10 minutes. What are you talking about? Just a phone call, mate. So I am grateful for Josh literally pushing the family down the mountain. And now that I realize the kids are so young, the wife's now got two little tiny kids at the bottom of the mountain and Josh is probably going, ah, I might stop here for another minute.

[00:12:10] Stephen Fenech: They're probably back up on the chairlift, mate.

[00:12:11] Trevor Long: They're getting back up to the top again. Anyway, so I appreciate him taking that time with us and chatting about, mate, don't we hear some good things about the Zika?

[00:12:18] Stephen Fenech: Zika, yeah, on fire. I love the story about the rich friends who decided, you know what?

[00:12:24] Trevor Long: Friends in a different tax bracket.

[00:12:25] Stephen Fenech: We're not gonna go Porsche again. We're gonna come down to a Zika.

[00:12:28] Trevor Long: So good. Amazing. Well played. What a great endorsement.

[00:12:32] Stephen Fenech: Yes, they should get a pull quote from those people and put it on the website.

[00:12:35] Trevor Long: Well, let's try and track them down and get them on the show. Two blokes talking electric cars. If you know someone who's wealthy and drives wealthy people cars and they've bought something surprising to you, get them to text us. Or if that's you, let us know. It might be you. You could be wealthy. Trevor is. Stephen is.

[00:12:54] Stephen Fenech: We both told each other we're doing very well.

[00:12:58] Trevor Long: We're enjoying life. 2 Blokes Talking Electric Cars. It's—

[00:13:12] Stephen Fenech: I'm gonna have to hire a choreographer or something, you know, to change it up a bit.

[00:13:16] Trevor Long: Is that in the budget?

[00:13:17] Stephen Fenech: I don't know, mate. I'll have to ask after the show.

[00:13:20] Trevor Long: We might need another sponsor. 2 Blokes Talking Electric Cars. And it's one of the joys of my week getting to watch Steven perform for camera.

[00:13:29] Stephen Fenech: You're missing out if you're just— you're not watching YouTube. You're missing out. You are.

Steve — an extensive multi-brand EV test-driving journey

[00:13:32] Trevor Long: You're definitely missing out. Also, a video also available on Spotify, by the way, so you can watch it there as well. But that's just one way to enjoy the show, and we love the fact that people are listening, people are watching, whatever you're doing, and we appreciate your loyalty and what you're learning from the show. We love your messages, and we love having you on the show because it's just so much fun to be able to talk to real people about their electric car experience. And one such person is Steve, and he joins us now. G'day, Steve.

[00:13:56] Steve: Good morning, gentlemen.

[00:13:57] Trevor Long: Mate, great to have your company. Now, your message to us suggests you have driven quite a number of cars.

[00:14:07] Stephen Fenech: Yes.

[00:14:07] Steve: Well, I'm not going to knock off Penelope, but I'm getting a very close second.

[00:14:11] Stephen Fenech: You're very— you're just shy, mate. You're just shy. You're on the podium, put it that way.

[00:14:16] Steve: Yes, yes.

[00:14:17] Trevor Long: I think podium position. So, so tell us about the journey. What was it that made you go, I think I should start driving these cars, and how long ago was it?

[00:14:27] Steve: Well, we, we started probably 2.5 to 3 years ago at the first Everything Electric show in Sydney.

[00:14:35] Trevor Long: Yeah.

[00:14:35] Steve: And we saw the MG4 and the BYD Atto 3, and we then decided that I'd been looking at the overseas YouTube reviews of the cars. And so we decided to start test driving, and the first car we test drove was the MG4.. And we did that locally in Narrabeen. We live in the Northern Beaches of Sydney, and the dealer was, was pretty good. Um, we— they gave us the car. Um, we had about a 40-minute drive. We have a— because we live at the Northern Beaches, we've got an extremely steep driveway, and it's, it's not only steep, it's got a big dip in it as well. So we were concerned about getting a car up to drive, MG4 just flew up the drive, not a problem. Right. Um, we thought it was very dark inside and the fit and finish was just a little bit below what we had hoped for.

[00:15:39] Trevor Long: Okay.

[00:15:39] Steve: And also it had nickel-manganese-cobalt batteries, which we— which I'm not a fan of. So we then went off to BYD. This drove the ATO 3. I should point out that my partner is Italian. It's good to have Italian heritage. So looks are the number one priority. And pronto, looks, looks great outside.

[00:16:06] Trevor Long: Allora, that's all of our Italian, by the way. We've just exhausted our Italian. Anyway, 8 years at SBS, mate. You know, I did absolutely nothing in terms of learning the language.

[00:16:16] Steve: I should have said buongiorno.

[00:16:21] Trevor Long: Yeah, exactly.

[00:16:22] Steve: Exactly. Yes.

[00:16:23] Trevor Long: So you got to the ID.3 and what was it? Did they get ruled out by the Italian? Yes.

[00:16:31] Stephen Fenech: Smashed. Right.

[00:16:32] Steve: Yeah. So we then went and looked at the Polestar.

[00:16:36] Stephen Fenech: Oh, that's a good looking car.

[00:16:38] Steve: Nice. We, we like the look of that on the outside. We just felt the inside was a bit claustrophobic and it had some compromises from it being left over from the ICE design.

[00:16:53] Stephen Fenech: Yeah.

[00:16:53] Trevor Long: The Polestar 2 has the transmission tunnel and I would agree it's— I wouldn't call it claustrophobic. I would call it designed around the driver. It's like it's designed so that everything's there for you.

[00:17:03] Steve: Yeah, yeah. It's almost like a—

[00:17:05] Steve: yep.

[00:17:06] Steve: It's like a wraparound cockpit.

[00:17:08] Trevor Long: And it's a contrast essentially, Steven, to the Tesla, right? People get in a Tesla and they go, wow, look at this.

[00:17:13] Stephen Fenech: It's very spacious.

[00:17:13] Trevor Long: And then you get in a Polestar and you go, this is— yeah, two different cars, two different feels. So we brush the Polestar.

[00:17:19] Steve: So we then went to the Tesla dealer in Chatswood and looked at the Model 3 and Model Y. We sat in them. We felt that the Model 3 was more appealing than the Model Y, but we didn't test drive either.

[00:17:40] Stephen Fenech: Okay. But can I just say, just can I— sorry, Steve, reading your message to us. I have to read this out and Trevor will get a laugh out of this. I felt the Model Y was designed by a 4-year-old with a box of crayons. So that caught my eye. So you're obviously not a Model Y fan like Trevor.

[00:18:01] Steve: No, I think calling it a toad is a disservice to toads. Wow.

[00:18:08] Trevor Long: Oof.

[00:18:09] Stephen Fenech: Boom.

[00:18:10] Trevor Long: That is a polarizing vehicle.

[00:18:11] Stephen Fenech: I like saying that.

[00:18:12] Steve: My partner's, my partner's cousin had got one. Okay. Okay.

[00:18:16] Trevor Long: It can't be that bad then.

[00:18:18] Stephen Fenech: Beauty's in the eye of the beholder, mate.

[00:18:20] Steve: Absolutely.

[00:18:21] Steve: Yeah.

[00:18:21] Steve: We then looked at the BYD Seal.

[00:18:24] Stephen Fenech: The Sealine.

[00:18:25] Steve: Yeah.

[00:18:25] Stephen Fenech: And the Seal. Sorry. Seal.

[00:18:27] Steve: The, the, the, the Seal. Yep. The sedan. Okay. We test drove all 3 models. Loved the car.

[00:18:33] Stephen Fenech: Yeah, that's what they are.

[00:18:34] Steve: It wouldn't get up our drive.

[00:18:35] Stephen Fenech: That is a very popular car and a great car. We've driven it. And very appealing in terms of the design, cost, performance. Ticks all the boxes.

[00:18:46] Steve: It does. It does. And we were really keen on the premium, but again, it just couldn't get up our drive. It scraped as it went up the drive.

[00:18:55] Stephen Fenech: So you got a similar problem to me, mate. I got a driveway. Not maybe— doesn't sound as steep as yours, but there is a little point where you do— I had to buy a car that had a lift, a raisable suspension kitchen so it doesn't scrape the driveway too hard.

[00:19:09] Steve: Yeah, yeah. Okay, well, when we drive up our drive, you're committed when you hit the bottom because you can't see what's in the garage.

[00:19:16] Stephen Fenech: Ah, wow, it's that easy.

[00:19:18] Steve: You're almost looking at the sky. Wow. It would be illegal now.

[00:19:23] Trevor Long: Yeah. Okay, well, look, I feel like we're going to go through the whole list, so let's keep going. Let's, let's barrel through them. Sea Lion was next, I think.

[00:19:31] Steve: Sea Lion 7. Invited to the launch.

[00:19:33] Trevor Long: And I was going to say, you note here that you actually put down a pre-launch deposit.

[00:19:38] Steve: Yeah. So we looked at the car to be— but saying that, son-in-law Tim, he's bought the premium and the performance.

[00:19:48] Stephen Fenech: Okay.

[00:19:48] Steve: And a friend of ours has bought the premium. So look, it's just— it's a nice car, but it's just too big for us.

[00:19:55] Trevor Long: Too big.

[00:19:56] Steve: You know, after that, we looked at the Xpeng G6 and we had 3 test drives of that. Really liked it. It went up our drive, it drove extremely well. It— we were only looking at the Standard Range version because that had LFP batteries, right, which gave us plenty of range. Uh, we— I was very nervous about the fact that they only had one car, that the service was done by a third party, and we decided that we And again, we had to— we paid a deposit on that. We cancelled the deposit and the order and I think we dodged a bullet on that one.

[00:20:39] Stephen Fenech: Okay.

[00:20:40] Steve: Look, I know they've just rereleased it and I know that Xpeng have dumped True EV and now they are doing their own thing and the new L3 looks like a nice sedan, you know, but—

[00:20:54] Trevor Long: But it's got to be hard. I just got to be honest. It's got to be hard to think Xpeng right now with all that dealership stuff going on. It's like, is there certainty? I feel like BYD's transition from EV Direct with Todd was very public, but very, like, what do you call it? Amicable. It was like they decided this was the time. We're bringing it forward. We're doing well, all that kind of stuff. Whereas Xpeng was like, hang on a minute, we need to come in because this isn't working. Or I don't know, it just doesn't feel great.

[00:21:25] Steve: I totally agree with that.

[00:21:27] Trevor Long: Yeah.

[00:21:28] Steve: So we cancelled the order on the X-Ping. We drove the Moto5.

[00:21:35] Trevor Long: Cherry.

[00:21:36] Steve: Okay, let's just— let's pass that one.

[00:21:38] Trevor Long: Wow. No, no, no, we're not passing it. Your text message, by the way, ladies and gentlemen, Steve sent a detailed message. Was this via email or text? I can't remember. But anyway, you said it was text. Yeah, very long.

[00:21:50] Stephen Fenech: That's the world's longest text.

[00:21:51] Trevor Long: If we were still paying per 160 characters of text message, this was a few dollars. Right. Let me just say that. Yes, but you wrote a motor 5 worst car we've ever driven. But it did have a spare wheel.

[00:22:04] Stephen Fenech: Yeah, that's some redeeming feature.

[00:22:08] Steve: Yeah. The MG S5 or 5S.

[00:22:12] Trevor Long: Yeah, not a bad car.

[00:22:13] Steve: Again, drove very well. Little things like no height adjustment in the passenger seat. Oh, now it didn't worry my partner.

[00:22:26] Trevor Long: Yep.

[00:22:28] Steve: But it worried me in that I just had difficulty getting into the car and getting my head out of the roof.

[00:22:35] Trevor Long: Really?

[00:22:35] Stephen Fenech: Wow. So you're a tall guy, are you, Steve, or how?

[00:22:37] Steve: Well, I'm not that tall, but, you know, but I just felt that I was sitting up too high.

[00:22:43] Stephen Fenech: Wow. Okay.

[00:22:43] Steve: You know, in our current cars, or, um, Volkswagen Eos, it's got height adjustment. Okay, it's manual height adjustment in the passenger seat.

[00:22:52] Trevor Long: Yeah, yeah, right.

[00:22:56] Steve: So, Leak Motor C10, the dealer in the Tarmac was exceedingly good.

[00:23:01] Stephen Fenech: Okay.

[00:23:01] Steve: Let us have the car overnight. It went up to drive. Just again, too big. Software was very bad. You know, it was just binged and bonged. And look, I know they fixed it, but we at that time, it was very new. Yeah, yeah. So same dealer is the Geely dealer in the Taman. So we drove the GX5. I liked it. Yeah, my partner didn't. She changed her mind and I changed my mind naturally. So we passed on that. Next was the JACU J5.

[00:23:44] Trevor Long: He paid another deposit on this car. I mean, the amount of— you spent thousands on deposits. How often did you have to— what's the average time you had to wait to get a deposit get it back? Because that's actually a really interesting thing.

[00:23:56] Steve: Well, 1 to 2 months.

[00:24:01] Trevor Long: Wow. I mean, that's, you know, you're putting it out there. Yeah, I guess that's a really important thing for people to know though. If you're going to put a deposit down and you think you're going to change your mind, you're not going to get it back the next day. Yeah. And I don't, to be honest, I don't begrudge the dealers or the car companies that because it's a process thing, right? It's like, hang on a minute, it's there and you've got to move it out of here and all that kind of stuff. All right. So JQJ5, we, Steven and I both—

[00:24:23] Stephen Fenech: Very impressed with it.

[00:24:23] Stephen Fenech: Really impressed with that car.

[00:24:25] Trevor Long: Mainly on value, I'll be honest. Yeah, I want to go back and watch the video and listen to what we said about it here because we definitely had things, we had feedback on the car that weren't perfect. But I'm always surprised by how many people have bought them. Yeah, but I believe it's selling on value.

[00:24:42] Stephen Fenech: It is also huge.

[00:24:44] Trevor Long: There's a big campaign advertising, there's on TV, spending a lot of money, a lot of money on a network on that car. Yes, I've noticed.

[00:24:50] Steve: Yeah, yeah. Look, I think they certainly wanted to buy the market.

[00:24:54] Trevor Long: Yes. Fair call. Fair call. And what were the couple of things that put you off that?

[00:24:59] Steve: Well, yeah, when we first— the first time we drove it, the regenerative braking was just diabolical. But we drove it about 2 weeks later after they did a software update and it was a different car. It drove just superbly. The thing which— and it still hasn't got an NCAP rating.

[00:25:17] Trevor Long: Yeah, that's a problem. Yeah.

[00:25:18] Stephen Fenech: Yeah.

[00:25:19] Steve: And even though it's got— yeah, even though it's got electric seats, they— you can't memorize the position.

[00:25:26] Trevor Long: Do you remember?

[00:25:28] Stephen Fenech: Yeah.

[00:25:28] Trevor Long: EV9 Earth model, the middle one that I bought, same thing. Yeah. It bugs me that I've got a car that uses my fingerprint to log in as me. It knows it's me, but it can't go and move the seat for me. It's a simple thing for a $120,000 car.

[00:25:43] Stephen Fenech: Yeah.

[00:25:43] Trevor Long: Should remember the seats. That's right.

[00:25:45] Stephen Fenech: Yeah. Absolutely.

[00:25:46] Steve: That was a showstopper.

[00:25:48] Trevor Long: Yeah.

[00:25:48] Stephen Fenech: Yeah.

[00:25:49] Steve: But one thing in Brookvale, Titan Ford are the dealers and they are a traditional car sales company. The dealer knew everything about the vehicle. They were— I got rung up about 4 or 5 times by, do you want to help us? You want us to help you with insurance? Do you want us to do this? You know, they knew how to sell a car.

[00:26:15] Trevor Long: All right. Well, that's 13 cars you've looked at. Not, not all driven. 14 is the Aura GT, which is the newer GWM Aura.

[00:26:25] Steve: That was the little red again. Okay. It's red.

[00:26:29] Trevor Long: That's a win.

[00:26:30] Steve: Tick from the Italian quarter. My partner's daughter's got the Aura 3. Oh, and, and my partner loves the rounded shape. It's not a boxy on wheels. Yes, it's got some curves, it's got some nice styling, it's got some switches inside rather than everything on the screen. And it was just too small for a replacement of our EOS.

[00:26:57] Trevor Long: Yeah, fair enough.

[00:26:58] Steve: It would be fine for me, but I didn't really like it. Okay, but it drove extremely well. Again, um, and again, GWM dealer, great dealer Perfect. No complaints about the dealership. Then we looked at Deepal. Now I saw the Deepal SO5 online, watched a lot of reviews from China, from Thailand, and from Europe and the UK. We really liked the look of it. It had frameless doors, tick. It had rear-wheel drive, tick. It had an LFP battery, tick. Yeah, it had nice styling inside.

[00:27:38] Stephen Fenech: Yeah, good-looking car.

[00:27:40] Steve: Yeah. So we went and contacted Deepal Australia. They said, go and talk to the dealer in the Tarmac.

[00:27:46] Stephen Fenech: Yep.

[00:27:47] Steve: Okay. That was just the worst experience we had.

[00:27:51] Stephen Fenech: Oh, really?

[00:27:53] Steve: So what happened? Well, the salesperson basically argued with me in terms of telling me that there was nickel metal cadmium and LFP batteries. He just didn't want to sell. He just didn't want to sell us the car. That's how we felt.

[00:28:12] Stephen Fenech: That's a bit of an issue in a car dealership.

[00:28:14] Trevor Long: It's a pretty fundamental part of your job.

[00:28:16] Stephen Fenech: You want to sell the car.

[00:28:17] Steve: Like, so we went— Deepal then suggested that we go out to Parramatta, which is a fair drive from us. We went out there and the dealer there was the complete opposite.

[00:28:29] Stephen Fenech: Wow.

[00:28:31] Steve: He gave us— he said, look, why don't you just take the SO7? He said, I know you're not interested in the SO7.

[00:28:36] Trevor Long: So 7.

[00:28:37] Steve: Yeah, but why don't you take the SO7? Because you'll see the fit and finish, you'll see that it will drive similar. And he gave us the keys and said, I'll see you in a couple of hours. Wow. He said, just take it anywhere you like, freeway, you know, suburban.

[00:28:52] Trevor Long: That's what you want to hear.

[00:28:54] Stephen Fenech: Okay. Yeah.

[00:28:55] Steve: And we came back and said, okay, we'll put a deposit on it. And he said, well, we have a problem that we can't take a deposit Because the SO5 is not on our books. And the manager of the franchise came and said, look, how about we just give you a deposit for an SO7, but in the fine print we'll make it an SO5. And I said, done deal.

[00:29:15] Stephen Fenech: Okay.

[00:29:16] Steve: We paid the deposit.

[00:29:17] Trevor Long: All right.

[00:29:17] Stephen Fenech: Okay.

[00:29:17] Trevor Long: So you've got a deposit down on an SO5 and that deposit's still standing?

[00:29:21] Steve: Yes.

[00:29:22] Trevor Long: Okay. We're getting close then. We're getting close.

[00:29:25] Steve: Yes, we're getting close.

[00:29:26] Trevor Long: Yeah.

[00:29:27] Steve: We then We're invited out by a Geely dealer in Leichhardt.

[00:29:34] Trevor Long: You've been to so many car dealerships, they're just handing out invites now. They're wooing you, Steve.

[00:29:39] Steve: They're thinking, yeah, we went to the EX2. The little—

[00:29:43] Trevor Long: this cute little car. I saw it in China. It looks like a great little car. I haven't driven it properly on the roads, but yeah.

[00:29:50] Steve: No, we sat in it. It's got its rear-wheel drive, LFP battery. It's got a front it does. It would replace my little car. I've got a Volkswagen Up.

[00:30:02] Trevor Long: Oh yeah, that's a much bigger car than the Up, I think.

[00:30:06] Steve: Yes, it is. So we paid a deposit on that.

[00:30:10] Trevor Long: Okay, so we've got 2 deposits active. Are we buying 2 cars, Steve?

[00:30:15] Steve: Could do.

[00:30:16] Stephen Fenech: Wow.

[00:30:17] Steve: Not sure.

[00:30:17] Stephen Fenech: Wow. So one for the missus, one for you.

[00:30:21] Trevor Long: Porsche-owning Zeeker drivers. Let's talk about Steve anyway. Doing very well.

[00:30:26] Steve: So we then got the dealer from GWM in Brookvale, rang us and said we got the Ora 5. So we went out and looked at that.

[00:30:35] Stephen Fenech: Nice.

[00:30:36] Steve: That's the SUV. The pink one is a little out there. Yeah. And so is the— I would call it cyan.

[00:30:46] Steve: Yeah.

[00:30:47] Steve: But we did a test drive. And Wanda really liked it. So we paid another $1,000 deposit.

[00:30:57] Trevor Long: Hang on. So you've got— you've currently got 3, 3, 3 active deposits, active vehicle orders essentially out there. How does that work? Because they're all obviously cancelable. Yes. Interesting.

[00:31:11] Steve: And fully refundable. And they're all supposedly August, September delivery.

[00:31:18] Trevor Long: So, so talk us through what's the, what's the process now? Is it about waiting for them to say, okay, the car's on its way, here's now the final price? Because in a lot of these cases, like, I don't think we've got final pricing on the EX2. So is it about finding the final details and then deciding whether you buy one or two?

[00:31:37] Steve: Yeah, look, I suppose we don't know the final price of the SO5.

[00:31:41] Trevor Long: Right.

[00:31:41] Steve: That still is probably at the top of our list.

[00:31:45] Trevor Long: Right.

[00:31:46] Steve: If that comes in low 40s for the rear-wheel drive, look, it would be nice to have the all-wheel drive, but I think the rear-wheel drive will be fine.

[00:31:56] Stephen Fenech: Okay.

[00:31:57] Steve: We may do that. And again, depends on what the EX2 comes in at.

[00:32:02] Trevor Long: What do you want it to come? What do you want the EX2 to come in at?

[00:32:06] Steve: Low 30s.

[00:32:08] Trevor Long: I think you'll be fine. I mean, I don't know, but, you know, it's one of those things when we were, you know, when I was in China China with Geely, they never— it's like all these companies, they know what the price is going to be, but they're, you know, could be $600 this way. And I just got the sense that low 30s was where they were going to try and land with that car because that puts it solidly up against the Atto 1 and the MG4 Urban. Yes.

[00:32:33] Steve: Yep. Yeah, you're right. Exactly those two vehicles it's got to compete with.

[00:32:37] Trevor Long: Yes. Okay.

[00:32:39] Steve: The— I think being rear-wheel drive and having a frunk, it surpasses the ATTO 1.

[00:32:46] Trevor Long: It may. It probably does. It's a different style. You've got to want that kind of curved, bulbous look. I love the ATTO 1 for its sharp lines. Simple as that. But yes, but yeah. So basically now you're in a, you're in a sit and wait situation. You're not going to look at any more. You're not going to put any more deposits down.

[00:33:03] Steve: No.

[00:33:04] Trevor Long: Okay, it's done.

[00:33:05] Stephen Fenech: So we've broken some records the last few weeks. So the longest drive from the dealer dealer. Yep. And now the most deposits.

[00:33:11] Trevor Long: Yeah. Yeah. Well played. But most, that's definitely the, this is a number.

[00:33:14] Steve: Yeah. Yeah.

[00:33:14] Stephen Fenech: That's a record holder, the most deposits.

[00:33:16] Trevor Long: That's great. No, no. At one time. You've probably got a record for most deposits paid.

[00:33:20] Steve: Yeah.

[00:33:20] Trevor Long: And the most deposits held at one time. Yes.

[00:33:23] Steve: Yes. Look, it's a sort of, you know, it's the second most expensive asset you buy after a house.

[00:33:31] Stephen Fenech: How true is that?

[00:33:32] Trevor Long: Yeah. True. So yeah.

[00:33:33] Stephen Fenech: You want to be sure.

[00:33:34] Trevor Long: Yeah, for sure. Great stuff.

[00:33:35] Steve: And I think that the— it's interesting that none of the deposits are with traditional car OEMs.

[00:33:43] Stephen Fenech: Yeah.

[00:33:43] Trevor Long: You're not a legacy. You've got not gone with any legacy. And that's also interesting to me because you don't— I don't think once you mentioned Volkswagen, who do have a couple of EVs. Cupra is a sub-brand of Volkswagen. Skoda is, you know, there's, there's other cars you didn't consider in your 17 cars you looked at and 14 that you test drive?

[00:34:04] Steve: Well, I think, okay, they all run NMC batteries.

[00:34:09] Trevor Long: Right. Okay. Very big on the battery chemistry. Steve's an engineer, so he's very—

[00:34:15] Stephen Fenech: he knows what he's talking about.

[00:34:16] Trevor Long: Very detailed about his battery chemistries.

[00:34:18] Steve: And I admit that I'm a nerd and I wear the badge proudly.

[00:34:24] Trevor Long: Fair enough. As do we.

[00:34:25] Stephen Fenech: Yeah.

[00:34:26] Trevor Long: Well, here's the thing, Steve. The thing for us, you've run through a beautiful beautiful buying process. You've now got a couple on the boil and we now need to put a pin in it and wait to hear your firm decision. Now I would suggest, given your timing and the way our schedule's going, we'll probably speak to you, I think, in October and we'll get a sense of how you've gone and what did you buy and what's in the driveway, mate.

[00:34:47] Stephen Fenech: Absolutely.

[00:34:47] Steve: Yep. Yep. Could be one, could be two.

[00:34:50] Trevor Long: Between now and then, just quickly, are you putting in charging infrastructure at home in preparation No, we're—

[00:34:57] Steve: we've got a 15-amp outlet in the garage which I use for my other, you know, TIG welding because I have a boat. So it's— yeah, it's my— it's my real bad habit. And well, it's a sailing boat, so it doesn't cost that much. But yeah, I'm welding bits of stainless steel. So I bought a TIG welder and taught myself how to TIG stainless steel weld.

[00:35:21] Trevor Long: So you've got it. You got to do some fast trickle charge, basically.

[00:35:24] Steve: Yes. So yeah, so We have— we can't put solar on our roof because of all the trees and pot water. We had thought of putting in, and I'm still thinking about putting in a battery and charging it with the solar soak, the cheap rate during the day.

[00:35:42] Trevor Long: Yeah, that's, that's a smart way to go. Even if you can't have solar, put a battery in and take advantage of the moments where you can get the most affordable electricity. Good, good idea.

[00:35:51] Steve: One, one thing with Both the Aura 5 and the SO5, they do 6 kilowatts vehicle to load.

[00:35:59] Trevor Long: Okay.

[00:36:00] Stephen Fenech: Yeah.

[00:36:00] Trevor Long: Not, not a bad little extra benefit.

[00:36:03] Steve: So can you charge your home battery with excess energy in your car?

[00:36:08] Trevor Long: It depends on the battery. Critically, you do need a bidirectional— you need something that's bidirectional. Sig Energy is probably the only option for you there.

[00:36:16] Stephen Fenech: Sig Energy have a—

[00:36:17] Steve: Sig Energy. Yep. Sig Energy. Energy are bringing out a new battery called the Nero, which has got a gateway built in. It doesn't have the DC-DC bi-directional charger, but you could do it AC. We— where we physically have to put our battery, it's too far away to run a DC cable to our garage.

[00:36:38] Trevor Long: Gotcha, gotcha.

[00:36:39] Steve: So we can't do DC-DC, but we certainly could do AC-AC charging.

[00:36:44] Stephen Fenech: Okay.

[00:36:46] Steve: And I have spoken to a few people about whether this is feasible and they've said, yeah, the only issue is that you'd have to change plugs on the vehicle between the vehicle to load plug and the vehicle charging plug.

[00:37:02] Trevor Long: Yeah. Okay. Yeah. No, it's, it's a whole other world there, Steve. It's a whole other world, mate.

[00:37:06] Steve: Yeah. So I have a battery, I have a power monitoring system. I can, I know at any instant of time what every appliance is drawing.

[00:37:16] Trevor Long: None of that surprises me, Steve. Steve, based on the now world record on the Two Blokes Talking Electric Cars call length and the number of cars you've run through, it doesn't surprise me at all that you have a power monitor for every single appliance in your home, mate. Bottom line, great journey. And let's talk in October and find out where you ended up, mate.

[00:37:37] Steve: We will do that. We will do that.

[00:37:38] Trevor Long: Lovely, lovely to hear from you, Steve. Thanks so much.

[00:37:41] Steve: You have a very good day, gentlemen.

[00:37:42] Stephen Fenech: Thank you.

[00:37:43] Trevor Long: Cheers, mate. Cheers, mate. Talk soon. Cheers, mate. See you later. Thank you very much. See you, guys.

[00:37:46] Stephen Fenech: Steve, now see, why do you need to test drive everything?

[00:37:49] Trevor Long: Steve's already done it for you. So Steve's a retired engineer. I actually worked with him at SBS.

[00:37:55] Stephen Fenech: I saw that little note on there.

[00:37:58] Trevor Long: I thought he was going to say what a crap boss you were. Different department. I don't think I managed his department. I think I was probably more annoying than anything else because I wanted things done in different ways anyway. You can hear the analytical nature of how he's approaching things.

[00:38:13] Stephen Fenech: You say he's an engineer, is that right?

[00:38:14] Trevor Long: That's right. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:38:16] Stephen Fenech: So very analytical mind.

[00:38:18] Trevor Long: Here's the thing. I wouldn't mind betting in October when we speak to him again.

[00:38:22] Stephen Fenech: What do you reckon he's gonna land on?

[00:38:23] Trevor Long: Oh, good. I think the Deepal feels very— I think the Deepal and the Geely EXC.

[00:38:27] Stephen Fenech: Is that the one where he took the deposit for the higher one and he's gonna get the lower?

[00:38:30] Trevor Long: Yes. Yeah, that's right. Different model.

[00:38:32] Stephen Fenech: Does that sound dodgy or what?

[00:38:34] Trevor Long: No, I hope he had legal advice on the contract. That's all. That's all. That's all I'm going to say. Yeah. Anyway, we'd love to hear from you about your journey. You might not have documented it in the same detail that Steve clearly has.

[00:38:45] Stephen Fenech: That was the longest email I've ever received.

[00:38:47] Trevor Long: Because that was copy-paste, because he definitely had that same information.

[00:38:49] Stephen Fenech: He had that in his fingertips. Yeah, we were like reading it out.

[00:38:52] Trevor Long: He was reading it out to us. But I hope you enjoyed that because I enjoyed listening to that section.

[00:38:57] Stephen Fenech: Well, it's interesting, his considerations, which other people— he's obviously a very big battery guy, like wants a certain type of battery. Battery. Nickel cadmium, forget that. He wants the other types.

[00:39:07] Trevor Long: He wants the lithium-ion phosphate something.

[00:39:09] Stephen Fenech: Yeah, he's got his mind set on that. But, and interesting to hear his dealer experiences too within the same company, one dealer to the other was chalk and cheese.

[00:39:18] Trevor Long: Now I just want to end this show reflecting on a story and look, it was weeks ago because as we've said, we record in advance. So we apologize that we're kind of late on things, but it's frankly not unusual to see this kind of thing. It was, My rarer moment, I was on Facebook and I saw a bloody news.com.au article about Chinese cars and spying, right?

[00:39:38] Stephen Fenech: Yes.

[00:39:39] Trevor Long: And the headline on news.com.au was, "Top cyber expert warns popular Chinese cars could be spying on owners." Now, Alistair, the story is written by Stephen Otley, who is a well-respected, long-time Australian motoring journalist. Yeah. But there's quotes in here from Toyota. And I just, I just would wonder who prompted the story. What prompted the story? Was it Alastair MacGibbon, who was previously, you know, former advisor to the Prime Minister on eSafety and then, then was a senior director at CyberCX, which is a big cybersecurity company? The bloke knows cybersecurity. I want to be very clear.

[00:40:16] Stephen Fenech: Yes.

[00:40:17] Trevor Long: Alastair MacGibbon is someone I absolutely respect for his cyber credentials. Right.

[00:40:21] Stephen Fenech: Yeah.

[00:40:21] Trevor Long: But then it goes into this, you know, bloke from Toyota saying, well, yeah, but this is why we use, you know, servers in the countries. And it's all very good commentary. Commentary from Toyota, but I'm wondering whether it was that commentary which spurred on the article. I just— the article is clickbait in that it's scaremongering. And while I respect Alistair MacGibbon, my problem with the commentary around, okay, so a Chinese car company is beholden to the Chinese government, they're required to hand over information if asked— all those things are true, no doubt. And therefore, if you've got a connected Chinese car— and Alistair MacGibbon makes the point it could be petrol electric, doesn't matter. If you've got a connected car, because all cars are connected now, then you're at risk in some way. My point is there's no evidence, yeah, no evidence that any car company ever has been asked by any government ever to hand over information about any Australian driver, user, anything, right? You know, and so it's this whole— you're getting alarmed about something that's theoretical. And now if that's you, yeah, there's a bit— you know what, Steve might have that theoretical concern and you might go, I'm I'm gonna disconnect the SIM card from any car I buy. Okay, that might be what you do, but the theoretical concern really annoys me.

[00:41:36] Stephen Fenech: Yeah, I think there is, uh, you hear the word Chinese and it doesn't just apply to cars, by the way. There's so many other things that are Chinese-related that people assume that they're spying on us, they want our data.

[00:41:49] Trevor Long: No one assumes that of other brands from, say, Germany or, uh, you know, Italy or Other parts of America, if you buy a Ford F-150 Lightning, yeah, okay, and it's been converted over here, but it's still a Ford. Ford Mustang, you buy a Ford Mustang Mach-E and it's connected, it's got a SIM card. Can the US government get that information from Ford? We don't know because, do you know what, Stephen's watched enough spy movies, I've watched a couple. Yeah, people spy, countries spy.

[00:42:21] Stephen Fenech: To be clear though, Your car does collect data, some data and shared, like how, not personal information, but like telemetry, like how your car performs, how it is. And they use that data to make the vehicle better.

[00:42:35] Trevor Long: And for context, the quotes from Toyota were excellent. They were very smart. Mr. Pappas from Toyota, who's quoted, says he thinks customers should really be aware They need to be aware of data management. And he says, um, Toyota Australia's data servers, which collect information from the cars, are based in Australia. So their servers are here, and then their backups are in Singapore and the US. So basically saying, when we collect data from cars, it's stored in that country, which is— that's a great policy. And if this kind of thing does worry you, then that's a great reason to buy a Toyota.

[00:43:12] Stephen Fenech: Absolutely.

[00:43:13] Trevor Long: But mate. But, you know, it's—

[00:43:15] Stephen Fenech: I remember a few—

[00:43:16] Trevor Long: mountain out of a molehill.

[00:43:17] Stephen Fenech: A couple of months ago, I had a similar— I did a radio interview about similar fear on South Korean cars. Yeah. And, or— and I was actually driving a Korean car at the time.

[00:43:31] Trevor Long: I think we were going into Amazon, weren't we?

[00:43:33] Stephen Fenech: In the Kia. So I think I'm actually in a South Korean car. They're probably listening to this conversation right now.

[00:43:38] Trevor Long: But I was joking. I just, yeah, honestly, I, I'm not, I'm not saying I don't care about this kind of thing. I'm just saying, what are the chances that any government in the world cares what speed I'm going at any point where I've been and what I'm doing? Now I'll say this, and we've said this on the tech show that we have, and if you haven't listened to Two Blokes Talking Tech, we'd love you to join us. 15, 16 years of podcasting. It's what we do. We are nerds and we are tech experts. So we appreciate you joining us on that show as well. But I've said it about things like TikTok and all those kind of things, right? Yeah. You know what? Oh, I don't care. Bring it on. Should the Prime Minister or the Defence Minister or the Foreign Minister have TikTok on their phones? Absolutely not. Should the Prime Minister, the Foreign Minister, the Defence Minister be driving a Chinese-connected electric car or like Chinese electric— Chinese-connected car of any sort? No, I don't think so. Yeah, you know, can they buy an Australian car?

[00:44:30] Stephen Fenech: No.

[00:44:31] Trevor Long: Will they have to go through some process to determine who is able to access systems in their car. Yes.

[00:44:37] Stephen Fenech: Yeah.

[00:44:37] Trevor Long: Those people should be worried about this. The average person, the average listener to this podcast, I don't think you got too much to worry about.

[00:44:45] Stephen Fenech: You described it earlier though. It's great clickbait though. It's great. It's, look, a good headline like this, clickbait headlines play on your fear. They play on your curiosity. And this ticks all the boxes for that. Yeah. Yeah. It, there's a massive could in that headline.

[00:45:00] Stephen Fenech: Yeah.

[00:45:01] Stephen Fenech: So that's their, that's their cover. Cover, but food for thought nonetheless. I think people, we need to be aware that your car does collect data and share it, but they're not, they're not listening in on your conversations. They're not doing anything like that.

[00:45:14] Trevor Long: I think most people, if you think about all the number of people have mentioned things like over-the-air updates, that the advantages that come from a connected car, I believe, far outweigh any of the potential concerns that people might have. I think most people go, I'd prefer to have the latest features in an updated car.

[00:45:27] Stephen Fenech: And just quietly, if you're worried about being spied on with your car. Hello, we carry these around.

[00:45:32] Trevor Long: Do you have a Facebook account?

[00:45:33] Stephen Fenech: Do you have any social media or a telephone or a smartphone?

[00:45:37] Trevor Long: Have you been on Google lately? Yeah, so hello, Two Bikes, Storing Electric Car. We'd love to hear from you. And if you've got an opposing view on that very topic, I'm happy to have a conversation about it. 0477 657 657. Stephen, we should just attempt to come back and just do it all again next week.

[00:45:53] Stephen Fenech: It's already in the diary, mate. Really?

[00:45:55] Trevor Long: Yeah. Thanks, mate.

[00:45:55] Stephen Fenech: Permanent weekly spot right here.

[00:45:57] Trevor Long: All right, Two Blokes Talking Electric Cars. We'll see you next week.