The Two Blokes Talking Electric Cars podcast – Episode # 133 – A Mega trip to Uluru in a Model Y

Episode: 133 – A Mega trip to Uluru in a Model Y

Podcast: Two Blokes Talking Electric Cars

Date: 17 August 2026

Hosts: Trevor Long & Stephen Fenech

[00:00:01] Trevor Long: This is Two Blokes Talking Electric Cars with Trevor Long and Stephen Fenech. Thanks to NRMA Insurance and Uniden. That's right, NRMA Insurance helping Australians protect what matters most for 100 years, and we appreciate their support and hope that you consider them for your next insurance renewal. And Uniden smart dashcams, give them a shout and find them at major retailers for some of the best dashcams on the market at all price ranges. That's a beautiful thing, they've got you covered no matter what your price and no matter what car you've got. Consider the one with the R in the model, which means it's got a rear camera as well to keep you safe and protected. Stephen Fenech, g'day.

[00:00:35] Stephen Fenech: G'day, Trev. What's going on?

[00:00:36] Trevor Long: I feel like we often don't really start the show saying hello.

[00:00:40] Stephen Fenech: Okay.

[00:00:41] Trevor Long: You know what I mean?

[00:00:42] Stephen Fenech: Off camera we say hello.

[00:00:43] Trevor Long: I think people need to know that we're together all day recording different podcasts.

[00:00:48] Stephen Fenech: All day.

[00:00:50] Trevor Long: It's not like—

[00:00:51] Stephen Fenech: It took me like hours to get here too, though.

[00:00:53] Trevor Long: Yeah, he's had to get his passport out and everything. Sorry, mate. Sorry.

[00:00:57] Caller: All good.

[00:00:57] Trevor Long: We can't afford all to live in the eastern suburbs. Out here in leafy suburbs of Sydney. Anyway, great to have your company, mate, and great to be talking EVs as we do each and every week. We love having your company. If you're watching on YouTube, thank you. If you're watching on Spotify, also thank you. If you're listening, also great. The primary part of our audience is the listener, and that is why it's not a hyper-visual show. Also, it's why we have heads for radio, as has been said many a time. Mate, I speak for the audience. What have they— someone, as Chippy once said, someone been through your house and smashed all the mirrors?

[00:01:35] Stephen Fenech: Saw the mirrors. Yeah, no mirrors at your place.

[00:01:37] Trevor Long: That's right. That's right. We will take your calls. 0477 657 657. Send us a text. 0477 657 657. We'd love to hear from you. Doesn't matter what you want to talk in the EV world. If you hate them, you love them, you bought one, you sold one.

[00:01:51] Stephen Fenech: I like what you said a few weeks ago. If you're rage watching this show, we want to hear from you.

[00:01:57] Trevor Long: Imagine rage watching this show. Yeah, that's hilarious.

[00:02:00] Stephen Fenech: Yeah, bring it on.

[00:02:01] Trevor Long: Come on, we're here for it. And listen, I'm ready.

[00:02:06] Stephen Fenech: Trevor's got some experience arguing with people online about various subjects and he'll happily do it live on our show.

[00:02:13] Trevor Long: What about yesterday? Yeah. Whose comment on my Kia, we talked last week about the PV5.

[00:02:18] Stephen Fenech: Yeah.

[00:02:19] Trevor Long: Whose comment was, tuck your shirt in.

[00:02:20] Stephen Fenech: Oh.

[00:02:21] Trevor Long: And I wrote back, mate, what?

[00:02:23] Stephen Fenech: Mate, I don't want to.

[00:02:23] Trevor Long: He goes, it's distracting.

[00:02:24] Stephen Fenech: I wanna cover my guts.

[00:02:25] Trevor Long: Yeah, I didn't, you know what? I nearly went to say, mate, to be honest, that would be the most horrific thing to look at. And secondly, I'm talking about the car.

[00:02:34] Stephen Fenech: Can we move on?

[00:02:34] Trevor Long: Fair enough. And then I said, mate, Mate, if you said that to a woman, you'd be canceled instantly. Absolutely, yeah, wow.

[00:02:40] Stephen Fenech: You're not on a golf course, you know, that's the etiquette on a golf course. You're supposed to have your shirt tucked in.

[00:02:45] Trevor Long: Yeah, I would've worn a different shirt anyway. Now I'm fashion conscious. It's like my wife and daughter went shopping the other day and they went to Gazzman and Mandy goes, "Oh, there's a shirt for Dad." And Vivi goes, "He's already got that one and that one and that one." Yeah, he's got the entire collection. They've got a whole storage for me.

[00:02:58] Stephen Fenech: Yeah, there you go.

[00:02:59] Trevor Long: Anyway, we're not here to talk about that. We're gonna talk about the Kia EV9.

[00:03:02] Stephen Fenech: Yes.

[00:03:03] Trevor Long: And not my one.

[00:03:04] Stephen Fenech: Which you own.

[00:03:04] Trevor Long: I own a Kia EV9.

[00:03:05] Stephen Fenech: How long have you had it?

[00:03:06] Trevor Long: 3 years now? 2 years.

[00:03:07] Stephen Fenech: 2 years.

[00:03:08] Trevor Long: Kia EV9 Earth. So when I bought the car, there was the Air, the Earth, and the GT line, right? So the GT line to me had digital mirrors and the Earth had, I think, all-wheel drive and more range. Yes. And I wanted the range. That was the number one thing. I also didn't like the digital mirrors. But they've introduced—

[00:03:25] Stephen Fenech: I'm not a big fan myself, actually.

[00:03:26] Trevor Long: Another level, which is the GT. GT, yeah. The one supplied to us is the same stunning blue that was their hero color when they launched this car, but it's not the matte finish. And I actually prefer this color. So it's shiny in the shiny finish.

[00:03:41] Stephen Fenech: Remember the one, the first one we got? Maybe it was the one that had the Australian Open livery all over it.

[00:03:44] Trevor Long: Yes, it actually had AO on it.

[00:03:45] Stephen Fenech: They were big sponsors.

[00:03:47] Trevor Long: But can I just tell you my biggest problem with this car from the outset is that this GT line is all about performance, trim, style, right? Yeah. It doesn't matter whether it's in the blue we've got or in a red on the website.

[00:03:57] Stephen Fenech: Yeah.

[00:03:57] Trevor Long: It has these green brake calipers. Mate, they look horrible.

[00:04:02] Stephen Fenech: Yeah. Green. Is that the only choice you got?

[00:04:04] Trevor Long: Yeah. So they've got this GT line, is this green. It looks like the color of tennis balls, to be honest. So it's this green.

[00:04:10] Stephen Fenech: So lime green.

[00:04:11] Trevor Long: The GT button on the steering wheel, the trim on the steering wheel and everywhere. And the calipers is green. And I just thought on a blue car, bright green calipers looked strange to me.

[00:04:23] Stephen Fenech: Didn't they ever learn blue and green should never be seen? Did you not know that as a kid? Hello.

[00:04:29] Caller: Whoa.

[00:04:30] Stephen Fenech: Whoopsie.

[00:04:33] Trevor Long: However, aside from that, it's a stunning looking car. There's also another annoying thing as an owner. And do you remember my story of my BMW 3 Series?

[00:04:42] Stephen Fenech: I had it.

[00:04:42] Trevor Long: It was great. And then they introduced a different one, which was the exact same car, but with a different indicator.

[00:04:48] Stephen Fenech: Did you sell?

[00:04:49] Trevor Long: Yeah, I sold. I traded mine in and leased a new one and lost a lot of money.

[00:04:52] Stephen Fenech: Idiot, mate.

[00:04:53] Trevor Long: This car's really bugging me because in America when they launched the EV9, the front panel, so you've got headlights which are straight up blocks and then there's this colored panel of the car. In America, that colored panel has these kind of LED lights in it. Oh, it looks sick. I remember seeing all the reviews going, oh, that looks sick. The Australian ones don't have it.

[00:05:09] Stephen Fenech: Why is that? Is it our law, our road laws?

[00:05:11] Trevor Long: This one does.

[00:05:12] Stephen Fenech: Oi.

[00:05:13] Trevor Long: It's got these extra little lights that appear. I'm like, oh, that looks sick.

[00:05:16] Stephen Fenech: So is that worth the extra cash, mate, for the GT or what?

[00:05:18] Trevor Long: Let's just talk about that. This is $150,000 on-road. Yes. $129,000 plus on-roads. Okay. $150,000 for a Kia.

[00:05:29] Stephen Fenech: It's a big— you're getting a lot of car though. It's a big car. So it's a 6-seater.

[00:05:32] Trevor Long: It's a 6-seater. Mine, my Earth is a 7-seater because you've got the 3-seat middle row. So I took this on a mega road trip. I took this to Canberra and back on my own. And then I took it to Young and back with my kids, with my 2 middle— youngest kids. Yeah, they loved the— Harry loved the captain's chair seats in the middle row. Didn't even ask to sit in the front. He thought it was cool. It's got massage, heating, everything, right? So the comfort for the middle seat passengers is excellent. And, you know, if you don't need 7 seats, great. But again, it's a compromise because as a family— excuse me— and we were, we were a Carnival family and we moved to the EV9 in the, in the Earth model with the center bench seat, you can put all the seats down. It's a big lay flat. It's a wagon.

[00:06:16] Stephen Fenech: Yes.

[00:06:16] Trevor Long: Whereas in this, you can put the, the captain's chairs forward but never properly down. Okay. Similar to a Carnival. Yeah, right. It's a simple little thing, but for us, we like— my wife takes stuff for the carnivals and fairs and baseball, and so it's actually useful for us as a wagon in that sense. Yep. But mate, as a driver, this car is ridiculous.

[00:06:37] Stephen Fenech: It's a driver's car. It's beautiful.

[00:06:38] Trevor Long: Made to drive.

[00:06:39] Stephen Fenech: Very comfortable drive. And, uh, and stylish too. Like the GT, I love the little accents, green accents are quite nice. And blues, blue's not the only color you can get.

[00:06:47] Trevor Long: No, you can get whatever color you want.

[00:06:49] Stephen Fenech: Yeah, but the one that we had just happened to be blue.

[00:06:51] Trevor Long: Happened to be blue. You can get it in, yeah, there's about 12, 6 different colors.

[00:06:55] Stephen Fenech: I'm really not a fan of the digital mirrors.

[00:06:57] Trevor Long: No.

[00:06:58] Stephen Fenech: And if that's extra, that costs extra to have that. So it's like the regular one doesn't have that. So that'd be one of the details of the add-ons.

[00:07:10] Trevor Long: My kids are like, why do they have them? And I go, I assume it's for aerodynamic performance.

[00:07:15] Stephen Fenech: So it's smaller.

[00:07:17] Caller: Yeah.

[00:07:17] Trevor Long: But honestly, how much extra range am I getting from this little thing, right? What? How much? If it, if it's, if I'm losing 10 kilometers in range from the bigger mirrors, I'll take them every day of the week.

[00:07:27] Caller: Yeah.

[00:07:28] Trevor Long: And here's the thing. The way the mirrors work is perfectly fine. It's not about being able to see. My problem is where they are.

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

[00:07:38] Trevor Long: I keep looking for the passenger spot. I got really used to it on the passenger side because you're glancing over there and it's there. But the driver's side, the driver driver, you would normally look out the window. Yes. Whereas with this, you've got to look down here. Did it every time. Did it every single time. Victoria and I decided that if they were mounted so that you could move them, it'd be brilliant. Because if I could go, yeah, and go, that's where I want it.

[00:07:58] Stephen Fenech: That's a good idea.

[00:07:59] Trevor Long: Perfect.

[00:08:00] Stephen Fenech: Yeah. So they're kind of fixed in one spot whether you like it or not.

[00:08:02] Caller: Yeah, right.

[00:08:03] Trevor Long: And it's for the driver's mirror, it's the wrong spot. And I was saying to Victoria, because she's, you know, months away from getting a license, I'm like, so, bub, normally you look out the window to check your blind spot, you know, so you look out the window and at the same time you kind of seeing the mirror. Whereas here I look at the window and then I've got to go down here. I don't like it at all. And it makes— honestly, yeah, I wouldn't buy it for that reason. Yeah, I'm with you. Now, this car—

[00:08:25] Stephen Fenech: what other car had digital mirrors?

[00:08:27] Trevor Long: I think Audi's got them as well.

[00:08:31] Stephen Fenech: Yeah.

[00:08:31] Trevor Long: Um, it's, it's a hard no for me. And then obviously Polestar has the, the no rear window, so there's a digital rear vision mirror.

[00:08:38] Stephen Fenech: Yeah.

[00:08:38] Trevor Long: This car has 374 kilowatts of power, 740 newton meters of torque. It does 0 to 100 in 4.5 seconds.

[00:08:45] Stephen Fenech: This thing moves for a big car.

[00:08:47] Trevor Long: In the menu, because I know the menus like the back of my hand, there's an extra menu called Performance and you press ready. I'm like, what's— I'm ready.

[00:08:54] Stephen Fenech: What's happening?

[00:08:55] Trevor Long: You press the GT button, dashboard goes green.

[00:08:58] Stephen Fenech: Yeah, I did that. I'm thinking, what does this do?

[00:09:00] Trevor Long: And, and then you're from a standing start, not on a public road.

[00:09:04] Stephen Fenech: Yes.

[00:09:04] Trevor Long: From a standing start, you put your foot down and it gives you your 0 to 100 speed, your 200 meter and your 400 meters. So basically you can do a quarter mile drag in this thing, right? I never did it. I don't know what.

[00:09:17] Stephen Fenech: So on the way to Young, there was no—

[00:09:20] Trevor Long: I didn't get 4.5 seconds. I got a little bit higher than that. But here's the thing. I didn't drive it in GT mode much. But what Harry noticed was on the open road between Young and Yass, the back roads, he could see me driving. We'd come up to traffic and he could see me move my thumb down and he goes, we're about to overtake, aren't we? And I went, yeah, buddy.

[00:09:38] Stephen Fenech: Press that button and I'm around people.

[00:09:41] Trevor Long: You know, that's what I use it for. I use it like an overtake button. Fair enough. But you know, it felt really good on the road. Like it's a heavy car, it's a big car, but it doesn't, it genuinely doesn't drive like a big car.

[00:09:51] Stephen Fenech: No, it never drove like a big car.

[00:09:53] Trevor Long: It was very nimble for a big car. Driving this car made me very happy that I bought the EV9.

[00:09:59] Stephen Fenech: Absolutely, I know.

[00:10:00] Trevor Long: I don't regret that purchase at all.

[00:10:01] Stephen Fenech: It's very sure-footed, but yet nimble for a big car.

[00:10:05] Trevor Long: That's what I found. The Air is $106,000, so that's the entry level. Sorry, it's $97,000+ on roads. The Earth is $106,000+ on roads. GT-Line, $121,000. GT, this new one, $129,000. So you're paying a premium over the GT-Line of about $8,000 for performance. But I still think the pick of the bunch is the Earth for range and for other reasons.

[00:10:29] Stephen Fenech: Sort of the sweet spot, isn't it? With normal mirrors.

[00:10:31] Trevor Long: And it's a lot of money. But if, if you're anywhere near this market and you are anywhere near considering the EV9, can I just say to you that We have our mate Aaron who can absolutely hook you up with a deal. He'll just give you a quote. You're not obliged to take the quote. I've said it a million times. We don't make any money off it. It's just us wanting to make sure our listeners get the best price on a new car. Now they mainly do Kia and a few other brands, but I'll say it simply, they don't do the new Chinese brands, the dealership, but they've got a bunch of brands in their dealer network. So don't hesitate to reach out if you're buying a new car. It might save you $500, might save you $1,000, might save you more. And let me be clear, Aaron got me a price, same deal as he could get our listeners. And I was blown away by the price that he could do on it. So great for a car of this value. It's probably the right thing to be doing is properly shopping around.

[00:11:21] Stephen Fenech: One last question.

[00:11:22] Trevor Long: Yeah.

[00:11:22] Stephen Fenech: Can you— would you— if you had your heart set on the GT line?

[00:11:26] Trevor Long: No, you can't take the mirrors off.

[00:11:27] Stephen Fenech: Can't take the mirrors off.

[00:11:28] Trevor Long: No.

[00:11:28] Stephen Fenech: You knew what I was going to ask.

[00:11:29] Trevor Long: Yeah, I knew it, mate, because I, I love my car, but I was driving it all the time thinking, I do like this little punchy performance. I do love that front little headlight. Doobie Malacca.

[00:11:39] Stephen Fenech: So that for you, literally, that was a deal breaker. You wouldn't buy that because of that.

[00:11:43] Trevor Long: Yep.

[00:11:43] Caller: Yeah.

[00:11:44] Trevor Long: So I would not buy this car because the digital mirrors.

[00:11:46] Stephen Fenech: Me too.

[00:11:46] Trevor Long: And I think it's a miss from Kia to keep ramming them down people's throats because Hyundai— I reckon they should give you the option.

[00:11:53] Stephen Fenech: You reckon that should be a tick a box if you want it?

[00:11:56] Trevor Long: Yeah.

[00:11:56] Stephen Fenech: And especially you're paying that much money.

[00:11:58] Trevor Long: Well, like at this price, people buy Mercedes and BMW and wait 3 months for a car to be delivered. You know what? I don't care if you've got to build it for me. Do you know what I want? I want the Earth with these seats.

[00:12:10] Caller: Yeah.

[00:12:10] Trevor Long: And, and this extra performance option. So like an Earth Sport.

[00:12:14] Caller: Okay.

[00:12:15] Trevor Long: Is what I want. I want the Earth without the GT, without the mirrors.

[00:12:19] Caller: Right.

[00:12:19] Stephen Fenech: Because they do have a GT and a GT-Line.

[00:12:22] Trevor Long: Yes. The GT-Line have the digital mirrors and it has things like, like, so my car doesn't have memory seats. We paid over $100,000 for a car and it doesn't have memory, memory storage. It's crazy.

[00:12:34] Caller: Yeah.

[00:12:34] Trevor Long: So it's a little fundamental.

[00:12:36] Stephen Fenech: There's little things, you know, but they often the little things that think, that's not for me.

[00:12:41] Trevor Long: But you know what, if our car was older and we were coming up on a lease, yeah, I'd be into another EV9. There's not been— and I have this problem every year with the EFTM magazine, like, you know, best car under this, best car, best family car, electric only. I don't think there's a better family electric car on the market.

[00:12:57] Stephen Fenech: Yeah.

[00:12:58] Trevor Long: Well, now people might say Tesla Model YL. I could potentially be convinced of that. Yeah, but I don't think— and Tesla Model Y owners will tell me it's got great space and everything, but you can't put adults in the backseat of that car with adults in the middle row of that car. Yeah, you can put—

[00:13:13] Stephen Fenech: but it's cheaper though than the EV9.

[00:13:15] Trevor Long: It's a very cheap car. Yeah, it's compared totally. Yeah. But I think on overall, this car is still just an absolute standout.

[00:13:23] Stephen Fenech: Absolutely. I agree. Great car.

[00:13:25] Trevor Long: Let us know what you think. If you've bought a new car, we want to hear about it. And if you're in the market for a new car, don't hesitate to send us a text. Tell us what car you're looking for and we'll We'll find out whether Aaron can help you out and we'll send you his details or him your details and he'll get you a quote and hopefully we'll get a new car.

[00:13:42] Stephen Fenech: Get your mates' rates.

[00:13:43] Trevor Long: He's delivered a few Two Blokes Talking Electric Car owners vehicles and it's lovely to know that people have walked away with a great deal.

[00:13:52] Stephen Fenech: Yeah, and just, we don't make a cent out of this. We just wanna help you guys get the best price.

[00:13:56] Trevor Long: There are plenty of people on the internet, on YouTube and other places that will ask you to do the same thing. And they're doing that because they get a commission, which I don't begrudge them. Yeah, but we, we make money from this show because the show is sponsored by advertisers. That's, that's all we do. Everything else we do is for you, to give you the best experience of your EV. So we'd love to help you out. Two blokes talking electric cars. Go on the sides of the screen there, Steven. Yeah, nice work. Two blokes talking electric cars. We'd love to hear from you. 0477657657 is the number to send a text or a WhatsApp to, to get in touch. Lucas has been in touch on the WhatsApp. Lucas, we spoke not quite a year ago, maybe half a year ago, a little bit more, about your plans to do a bit of a road trip. What's happened, mate? Where have you been?

Lucas — Epic Model Y road trip from Canberra to Uluru

[00:14:49] Lucas: So yeah, I finally upgraded the car and I got a Model Y Performance.

[00:14:56] Stephen Fenech: Oh, Trevor's favorite. That's great.

[00:14:59] Lucas: Yeah, just because I can.

[00:15:01] Trevor Long: Yeah. Remind us, what did you have before that?

[00:15:04] Lucas: It was a rear-wheel drive Model Y.

[00:15:07] Trevor Long: Okay.

[00:15:07] Lucas: Right. Yeah. Yep. So if you remember, I, I didn't want to— I was uncertain of being able to do a trip to Uluru from Canberra. It's a big trip in the rear-wheel drive.

[00:15:18] Stephen Fenech: Solid drive.

[00:15:19] Trevor Long: One of the biggest. So is that purely based on range you were worried about? The ability to get there based on range.

[00:15:26] Lucas: So my issue was with all my planning that between Coober Pedy and Earldunda, that there's a stop that you have to do in Marla, which is a 7-kilowatt charger only. Oh yeah. And I, the rear-wheel drive, I don't think would have made it unless I was hypermiling.

[00:15:50] Stephen Fenech: Right.

[00:15:51] Trevor Long: Going to my site.

[00:15:51] Lucas: Yeah, right. Yeah.

[00:15:53] Trevor Long: So just give us a context of the overall trip. Okay. Canberra to Uluru. I think anyone knows that's a long way, but what sort of distance are we talking about? And aside from a regular road trip, you've already described the amount of planning required for just one part of it. How intricate was the planning for you?

[00:16:13] Lucas: The planning was relatively intricate. I spent about 3 months sort of going through a better route planner and looking at different routes. The hardest part is Central Australia has bugger-all chargers, and so I brought my granny charger and a spare wheel and tyre plugs. Yep, yeah, that sort of thing. So if I got stuck, then yeah, I'd should have been able to get out of trouble. And as it stands, the issue that I had on the way back was Eldunda, the NRMA station.

[00:16:57] Stephen Fenech: Okay.

[00:16:58] Trevor Long: Which is—

[00:16:59] Stephen Fenech: is that the same as—

[00:16:59] Lucas: No, Nullarbor is good. Okay. No, that's an NRMA, you know, the drop-in ones with the diesel generators and the solar panels. Yep.

[00:17:08] Trevor Long: Righto. So what was the issue you had on the way back?

[00:17:11] Lucas: Apparently there's a crap ton of people that are driving EVs in the outback now because it ran out of diesel. Oh, oh, so you, you plug it in and it just go click and everything would go out. And yeah, so we were completely screwed. Oh wow.

[00:17:33] Stephen Fenech: What did you do?

[00:17:35] Lucas: So luckily at Earldunder there's a roadhouse with campsites. Actually, I should say The roadhouses along the way are awesome. 24-hour check-in. So you get in late and they'll still check you in and do all that sort of stuff. But we ended up going in and getting a powered campsite for about $30 and we charged at 2.8 kilowatts for 8 hours.

[00:18:00] Trevor Long: That's, that's enough. Yeah, make it happen.

[00:18:02] Lucas: Which, which, which gave us enough to hypermile to Marla. So a 2-hour journey was a 3-hour journey.

[00:18:13] Trevor Long: Okay. So just, just stop there and describe hypermiling. I just described it as slow driving. But how do you, how do you moderate yourself? How do you determine what speed to go? What, what's the process?

[00:18:26] Lucas: So the Tesla actually tells you, and it said to get from Eldunda to Marla, I had to stay under 93 kilometers an hour.

[00:18:34] Trevor Long: That's not horrible.

[00:18:36] Lucas: No. So to be, to be cautious, because I'm a cautious person, I did about 80-85. Yeah. And then as we're going along, the percentage was actually going up, so I'd speed up a little bit. And yeah, we got in there at about 11 PM. Oh no, sorry, we left at 11 PM and got in about 2:40. Wow. And then I went, we went in to get a cabin and they go, oh, school holidays, all booked out. So, so we plugged in and we slept in the car essentially.

[00:19:16] Trevor Long: You got to do what you got to do.

[00:19:17] Lucas: Yeah.

[00:19:17] Stephen Fenech: Oh, there's room in the car, isn't it, to do that? You can, you can easily. Is there a camp mode?

[00:19:22] Trevor Long: It's got a spare wheel in there as well, remember?

[00:19:24] Stephen Fenech: Yeah, that's true.

[00:19:25] Lucas: Yes.

[00:19:26] Stephen Fenech: But does the Tesla still have a camp mode like that? Still in the car?

[00:19:29] Lucas: Yeah, it does.

[00:19:30] Stephen Fenech: Yeah. Okay, nice.

[00:19:31] Lucas: Yeah. Well, So yeah, it was good. I mean, it wasn't great.

[00:19:35] Stephen Fenech: And so just, just sorry, sorry to stop you, but how many people on this trip? Just you and your partner or?

[00:19:41] Lucas: Yeah, just me and my partner.

[00:19:42] Stephen Fenech: Right.

[00:19:42] Trevor Long: Okay.

[00:19:43] Lucas: Okay.

[00:19:43] Stephen Fenech: Yeah.

[00:19:44] Lucas: Okay.

[00:19:44] Trevor Long: And mate, I'll tell you what, I'll tell you this for nothing, right? You sent us some photos and I've got to tell you, very nice. The side-on photo of your Tesla Model Y, which you've clearly wrapped in a stunning kind of What do you call that? It's like a purple metallic finish. I'm assuming that glows at different sun rates.

[00:20:05] Lucas: Yeah, Deep Space Flip it's called, and it's blue, purple, or orange depending on the light.

[00:20:12] Trevor Long: Mate, behind it, the landscape. Mount Cooper in one of them. In front is your car. Mate, just gorgeous.

[00:20:20] Stephen Fenech: Right in front of Uluru. What a great photo.

[00:20:22] Trevor Long: Worth the road trip. Have you ever been to Uluru? No. I have.

[00:20:24] Stephen Fenech: I've been there years ago.

[00:20:25] Trevor Long: Really?

[00:20:26] Stephen Fenech: And Mount Cooper is what they call when you're driving in, it's the— you think, oh, there's Ayers Rock, but it's not.

[00:20:31] Trevor Long: It's Mount Cooper. The flat one.

[00:20:32] Lucas: Yeah.

[00:20:33] Stephen Fenech: Yeah.

[00:20:34] Lucas: And that got us exactly.

[00:20:35] Trevor Long: Yeah.

[00:20:36] Stephen Fenech: And then you think, oh no, hang on, that Ayers Rock's down there more. And then, and the rock itself, I gotta say, and you're not— you don't climb it. They don't let you climb it anymore. But I did. But it's a magnificent place to visit.

[00:20:47] Trevor Long: Yeah, right. Yeah. Beautiful thing. Do you—

[00:20:50] Lucas: any—

[00:20:50] Trevor Long: that was a bucket list thing. Any sense of— I mean, no regrets, I'm assuming, because you made it there and back. But is it something that you would recommend to someone? I mean, that's, that's a, that's a big deal.

[00:21:02] Lucas: If you're adventurous. Yes. And if you're aware of certain limitations that you may encounter, that'd be good too. Because when we were charging at Earl Dunder, there was a guy and he was from Brisbane sort of heading towards Darwin, I think. And then he had 67%. So he decided he was going to hike a mile to Alice Springs.. But he didn't have a spare. He didn't have plugs. He didn't have anything. So, wow. I hope they made it.

[00:21:32] Trevor Long: Just raw dogging it. Good luck to him, bro. Good luck.

[00:21:37] Stephen Fenech: And so you've been an EV guy for quite a while. Yes. When you were actually at— oh, the pictures at Ayers Rock are stunning, by the way. When you were actually at the Red Centre, was there any infrastructure there? Were there chargers? I know there's— what is it? Yulara Resort. Is that still there where all the hotels and that that are?

[00:21:58] Lucas: Yes.

[00:21:58] Stephen Fenech: And do they have facilities for charging EVs?

[00:22:02] Lucas: There is actually a Shell service station that has an NRMA charger with the solar panels and diesel. Okay. So we're able to use that. But those two chargers, they were $0.94 a kilowatt.

[00:22:17] Stephen Fenech: Whoa.

[00:22:18] Trevor Long: They're not missing there, are they?

[00:22:19] Stephen Fenech: Yeah, well, they know where else— where else you're going to go to charge, I suppose, unless you're Granny Charge. And where else are you going to get fast charging?

[00:22:26] Lucas: Yeah.

[00:22:26] Stephen Fenech: Wow.

[00:22:26] Lucas: Wow.

[00:22:27] Stephen Fenech: But they had you over a barrel and it wasn't an oil barrel.

[00:22:30] Trevor Long: Yes.

[00:22:31] Lucas: No, we met a guy in Pimba and he'd been travelling Australia in his Model 3 and he was like a war veteran. He was just on pension. He was just driving around and he told us about a Destination Charger at the resort. That he's sneakily used and we asked about it when we checked in and they go, oh, don't know anything about it. So I went and had a look and there it was. And yeah, so we got to charge for free on that one.

[00:23:07] Trevor Long: Great. Wow.

[00:23:07] Lucas: Yeah.

[00:23:08] Stephen Fenech: Amazing.

[00:23:09] Trevor Long: What a cool, what a cool experience. I mean, that's exactly right. You know, it's— I assume with the greatest respect, your partner is very patient, very understanding. I'll be honest with you. My wife, you're like, what the hell?

[00:23:19] Stephen Fenech: Ball up and go, what are we doing? Yeah, that's right. Can't we just get a—

[00:23:22] Trevor Long: I just don't think, see, you're at the precipice, you're on the edge of innovation there in terms of EVs. And there'd be plenty of EV haters that will listen to this and go, well, this is a great story. We can tell people how rubbish it is out there. You had to rent a campsite and da da da da da. Look, the diesel had run out and you know how your electricity, your green cars powered by diesel, all those things. God love you. But obviously a very patient partner to put up with this or understand this and really be part of it actively.

[00:23:55] Lucas: Yeah, she was very good, and she, um, she'd never done a trip like that before, so it was new to her, which was exciting. Um, the 18 hours that we had to spend, um, trickle charging, nerves were a bit frayed, but we got over it. So yeah, it was good.

[00:24:15] Stephen Fenech: You know what, I just let her pick the music for the next trip. You mentioned earlier just how if you have a, if you know you've got a sense of adventure, you know these things are gonna happen.

[00:24:25] Lucas: Yeah.

[00:24:25] Stephen Fenech: You're not in any time rush, then make the most of it. I think that was a good way to approach it. Good, that sense of adventure.

[00:24:33] Trevor Long: So it's a bucket list tick, mate. Have you got other plans?

[00:24:36] Stephen Fenech: Where you going next?

[00:24:38] Lucas: Oh, we're planning Nullarbor for next year.

[00:24:41] Trevor Long: Oh, okay. That's been run and done by a few people. So I think there'd be well-documented experiences there, but same tentative nature, I guess, of a few things.

[00:24:50] Lucas: It's actually going to be easier because when you look at a better route planner, there's charges every 150 to 200 kilometers.

[00:24:58] Trevor Long: Yeah, really? Oh no. Yeah.

[00:25:00] Stephen Fenech: Wow.

[00:25:00] Lucas: That's great. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:25:03] Stephen Fenech: Could you ever go— Have you ever—

[00:25:04] Trevor Long: You get to know a Roadhouse coffee.

[00:25:06] Stephen Fenech: Have you ever imagined maybe doing a, doing a lap, mate? Get around, do a lap of Australia in an EV?

[00:25:13] Lucas: I reckon we might. We're approaching retirement age, so that's definitely a consideration.

[00:25:21] Stephen Fenech: I reckon you're about my vintage, mate. What are you, late 50s? 56. Yeah, I'm actually older than you, but anyway.

[00:25:29] Trevor Long: And you're approaching retirement age. Steve has a rapidly approaching retirement age.

[00:25:33] Stephen Fenech: How good are you going, mate?

[00:25:34] Trevor Long: You're younger than me and are rapidly approaching retirement. Stephen hasn't considered the lap of the map yet, but you know what? I'll consider a lap of the map. Obviously be doing it on my own. There's no way my wife—

[00:25:44] Stephen Fenech: or maybe with me.

[00:25:46] Trevor Long: Maybe Trevor. Could you imagine you and I on a lap of the map?

[00:25:48] Stephen Fenech: Why not?

[00:25:48] Trevor Long: How would we find the time?

[00:25:50] Stephen Fenech: I don't know. We'll have to work something out.

[00:25:52] Trevor Long: We'd have to be retired, Steven.

[00:25:53] Stephen Fenech: Well, yeah.

[00:25:55] Trevor Long: Yeah, mate. What a cracking, cracking experience, mate. Congratulations on being prepared. Dib dib dib dob dob dob. You were a Boy Scout back in the day or what?

[00:26:04] Lucas: No, not at all.

[00:26:06] Trevor Long: Well, you were very prepared. The tyre kit, the wheel. Yeah, you were ready.

[00:26:10] Stephen Fenech: That's— yeah, kudos. Yeah, well done. I just—

[00:26:13] Lucas: yeah, I just want to mention that my partner did all the numbers.

[00:26:17] Trevor Long: Okay.

[00:26:18] Lucas: So we did 5,496 km in 8 days. Charging cost us $713.22, which is about $0.13 a kilometer.

[00:26:31] Stephen Fenech: And I think $700 of that was in the Red Centre.

[00:26:34] Trevor Long: Is that 94 cents?

[00:26:35] Lucas: Yes.

[00:26:36] Stephen Fenech: Is that the Red Centre?

[00:26:38] Lucas: Yep. And total energy use was 1.05 megawatts.

[00:26:45] Trevor Long: Megawatts. That's some power. That's some power.

[00:26:48] Stephen Fenech: And the photos, mate, were stunning too, by the way. You should post something. I'm sure you've got— I'm sure you went nuts on the social media with your photos and that, mate. And just say, look, it can be done. Simple as that.

[00:27:01] Lucas: You can do it.

[00:27:02] Stephen Fenech: It can be done.

[00:27:03] Trevor Long: You proved it.

[00:27:03] Stephen Fenech: Yep.

[00:27:04] Trevor Long: Well done. Hey, just quickly, did you update like every Plugshare out there with photos? 'Cause that to me is a real community thing to be, you know, not just the photos, but the information about what's working and what's not.

[00:27:16] Stephen Fenech: Yeah.

[00:27:17] Trevor Long: Yeah.

[00:27:18] Lucas: So I did, I checked in everywhere and I did upload photos. And if you have a look at the Earl Dunder one, you'll see my comment about the charger being cactus and being— on with NRMA, which was kind of good because a guy, his name was Alex, actually pinged me on Plugshare and asked because he was in Marla heading up. And I told him, like, you know, it's not working for me. You can go to the Roadhouse and get a powered campsite. They're fully aware of EV users because she said, oh, you're going to be there for a while. I said, yeah, we know, but we got no choice. Yeah, right.

[00:27:59] Trevor Long: So that is, that is life.

[00:28:01] Stephen Fenech: Yeah.

[00:28:02] Trevor Long: Well, good on you for being in the community spirit.

[00:28:05] Stephen Fenech: Tick that off the bucket list, mate. How good's that?

[00:28:07] Trevor Long: Thanks for talking to us, mate.

[00:28:09] Lucas: No worries.

[00:28:10] Trevor Long: Thanks, lads. Good on you. Enjoy, enjoy the car. And we appreciate you listening, mate. Cheers very much. Thank you. There you go. He's done the full, done the full experience.

[00:28:18] Stephen Fenech: That's inspiring. That's inspiring what he did. Because you know what? He just went out there, he goes, we're going to have a crack. Yeah, we're going to go. He planned it. There was a lot of planning involved, but But all the little obstacles that were in his way didn't stop him. He found a way around it. Smart, put the spare tire in the back. As Teslas, as you know, not having you, no EV has a spare tire.

[00:28:37] Trevor Long: I love the idea if we ran into this guy was going to Darwin. We hope he made it.

[00:28:40] Stephen Fenech: Hope he made it.

[00:28:41] Trevor Long: Because he didn't. What Lucas said was he basically didn't seem prepared.

[00:28:45] Stephen Fenech: Yeah, well, that's, you know, I think like what a great story. Great call that one. And mate, good on him. Those photos again, we should share them on our show notes or something on our— somewhere on our story, on our stories about this episode. I want to share a couple of those images.

[00:29:01] Trevor Long: Excellent, we will. All right, we'd love to hear from you, whether you've done a 550K delivery of your vehicle, which was a few weeks ago, or a 5,500-kilometer road trip. We're here for you. It doesn't matter, it could be a 50K little drive and you got an experience to share. 0477 657 657. Great to have your company. Two blokes talking electric cars. And of course, we'd love to hear from you at any time if you want to talk EVs. Steven, a fascinating finance decision from Tesla, which is something you're familiar with in the Mercedes world.

[00:29:41] Stephen Fenech: Correct. Yeah, the— well, the problem over the years has been people, especially Tesla owners. There's a lot of Teslas out there. They're worried about their depreciation, the resale values, which is a genuine concern. There's a— the, the market's sort of gone up and down. I think they've stabilized a little bit now, but Tesla has addressed these issues with a new leasing model which basically guarantees the future value of your vehicle when you try— when your lease finishes, right? Which is a direct copy of the leases I've had with Mercedes-Benz. They call them the Agility Program.

[00:30:18] Trevor Long: Program.

[00:30:19] Stephen Fenech: And basically I can remember the first time, the first Mercedes EV, which is my current car that I bought, the guy when we were doing the financing said, this is, this is, there's no better vehicle to use the Agility Program with because you just don't know where the price is gonna go.

[00:30:36] Trevor Long: Let me talk out of school with you in the room. That was an expensive car. It was a, it was a new model. It was a, it was a different style of car for Mercedes. It looks different. So there's a lot of reasons why that may may not have been a great financial decision, right? The trading on that may not have been smart in the long term, but what you've done is you've gone, "Don't matter." Yeah, no, they've guaranteed the future value and it's— And that's allowed you to just do what you've done with the CLA.

[00:31:06] Stephen Fenech: By the time this episode goes to air, I've already finished that lease, right? So that future, that value that we agreed on 3 years ago is about, But it's a little bit around what the second hands are getting. So it's pretty much spot on. Yeah.

[00:31:23] Trevor Long: Okay.

[00:31:23] Stephen Fenech: I'll probably, my car's in—

[00:31:25] Trevor Long: Getting or listed for? 'Cause—

[00:31:28] Stephen Fenech: No, listed for.

[00:31:30] Trevor Long: 'Cause remember listed for is not what people say.

[00:31:32] Stephen Fenech: Oh no, getting, getting. Yeah. Okay. And my car's got really low Ks and it's gonna, I think it'll be valued more than what the Agility value initially stated. Tesla decided they're gonna go down the same path, which you think about it, it's a really smart move on their part because obviously they sell new Teslas, but now they get to control the value of their secondhand fleet as well. So that, I know that they have to be competitive, but if an owner is thinking about getting into a Tesla thinking, well, and that in the back of their mind, well, is this gonna just depreciate like all get out in either year?

[00:32:08] Trevor Long: It's also smart too, because you've got all these incremental and slow changes to that, no-bated lease, fringe benefits, all that kind of stuff going on, right? Which has been a huge incentive for people to get EVs. And that may or may not have an impact on the secondhand market and values in the next 2 to 3 to 5 years. So yeah, it's fascinating. We're not trying to sell Tesla finance here. Get your own financial advice and make sure you shop around, of course. But it's a peace of mind thing.

[00:32:35] Stephen Fenech: Absolutely. Just like—

[00:32:36] Trevor Long: I don't know. I remember it was only yesterday I was looking at my— my cars because I emailed the bloke that did my finance and because I'd forgotten how long I'd done them for. Right. So my Cooper is, I've got that until mid-2028 and the EV9 to mid-2029. So a long time to go. Yeah, but like I look at the balloon value on those leases and I go, do you know what? Like if the Cooper is not worth that, it's remarkable. Like I think I'll be okay.

[00:33:04] Stephen Fenech: Yeah, that's what I thought with the Mercedes.

[00:33:06] Trevor Long: And the same with the EV9. I would be blown away if you couldn't sell, even if it's just that amount, if I couldn't sell it for that amount and therefore trade in, trade up and get another vehicle. But you know, it's a risk at times, especially if you are, you know, really playing with the edges of finance. You know, you're trying to get the best deal, you're trying to narrow it, you're trying to minimize your repayments. You might often, we talked last week in the intro about, you know, getting an insurance quote and playing around with the— The premium, what's it called?

[00:33:39] Stephen Fenech: Premium? Not the premium.

[00:33:39] Trevor Long: Holy hell.

[00:33:40] Stephen Fenech: No, no, the excess. Excess, yes.

[00:33:45] Trevor Long: Anyway, the idea of playing with your excess. So you pay a higher excess, you get a lower premium. In reality, you pay a higher balloon, you get a lower payment. But that's a very risky world to be in.

[00:33:56] Stephen Fenech: Yeah, definitely.

[00:33:56] Trevor Long: Much different to an excess because it's a big lump sum that's due when your car's lease is up.

[00:34:02] Stephen Fenech: Think about if you're a first-time EV buyer and this is the— oh, you've done your homework and you've seen that values can vary, secondhand values can vary. So this, you know, that on top of— I think if you do your homework properly, looking at something like this, looking at maintenance costs, servicing, repairs, getting a general idea, then this sort of completes the picture for me. So that you know that at the very least, this is what you're gonna get. And often, I know maybe not often, but most times the car's actually worth more than the stated value. And you'll get maybe a credit. They might say, okay, well you can put that to a new Tesla if they wanna keep you in the family, just like Mercedes do. Mercedes go, okay, we'll give you more towards the next car. So yeah, I think if you play it smart, you'll get a result.

[00:34:50] Trevor Long: I mean, Cooper will hear from me when I'm due. But you know, I think I've paid reasonable payments. So the balloon is such that I look at it and I go, by that time, time. Yeah, the amount of money I spend on the Mazda 2 per year on insurance and stuff, I'm probably better off buying out the Cooper and making that our, uh, just half of the kids' car thing. Yeah, well, I also love the car. I can imagine, I can imagine. You still drive it? Not enough. Your son's got it.

[00:35:16] Stephen Fenech: Jax has just taken ownership. Has he taken over the payments though? No.

[00:35:20] Trevor Long: Yeah, funnily enough, all the insurance. But, uh, but you know what happened? Um, something needed to be paid for. It was the tires. And I said, here's the Amex, just take it, do your best. And he texts me, he goes, no, they don't take Amex. I went, oh mate, just pay it and I'll pay you back and everything. And he said something to me later on about looking after the car or something because he understands the value of things now. Like he didn't know what a set of tires cost. How do you know that when you're 20, right? And so I think that understanding of value is critical. And so I think it's important to share those kind of things. But absolutely, we're going on a trip, so we're not gonna be able I'm going to be without a press car for a little while, a few days, and then about a week when we get back because I'm just going to cancel the two cars we've got the week after that because we're away for a bit. Fair enough. Anyway, so I said to Jacko, mate, just so you know, for the next two weeks while I'm not home, Mazda. Bad luck, buddy.

[00:36:12] Stephen Fenech: You're back in the Mazda. Although didn't you say Victoria's about to start driving soon?

[00:36:16] Trevor Long: Yeah.

[00:36:17] Stephen Fenech: So she'll be taking the Mazda and Jack will say, I'll have the Cupra.

[00:36:20] Trevor Long: Yeah, exactly. You'll be home either way. Still reviewing cars for a long time to come. All right. Two blokes talking electric cars. Let us know your Well, I don't wanna talk finance on this show directly, but if you've had an experience that helped you understand a better way to finance a car, 'cause here's the thing, I often see on Instagram people or TikTok, there's these people that go, "Can someone tell me how everyone's affording the lifestyle they've got?" Do you know what I mean? Like you see people with a big house or the family holiday and they've still got a big Mercedes car or whatever and you're thinking, "How do you afford it?" Like if there's a trick, I'd love to know it. I'm just doing my best and paying a monthly payment. But if there's ways to do it that might help other people, not sneaky ways, but genuine ways that people can learn.

[00:37:03] Stephen Fenech: I know a lot of people who do salary sacrifice as well. And they fold that into a lease too. And so that helps. So you're paying your pre-tax dollars with your—

[00:37:13] Trevor Long: I never knew of a term novated lease until that became a thing here on the East Coast.

[00:37:17] Stephen Fenech: I've always leased my cars.

[00:37:19] Trevor Long: Yeah, but not a novated lease. At lease. It's a very different thing, you know, because we're not employees anymore. So, you know, when I was at SBS, maybe I could have done a novated lease and saved money on a car. I mean, I missed out, right? I just didn't know about that kind of stuff. It is what it is. Let us know your tips and tricks on buying a car. 0476 57657. Stephen, let's just do it all again next week.

[00:37:41] Stephen Fenech: I'll be here. Will you? I think I will, yeah. Here? Right here.

[00:37:44] Trevor Long: All right. See you then.

[00:37:45] Stephen Fenech: Bye-bye.