The Two Blokes Talking Electric Cars podcast – Episode # 135 – Public Charging Facts and Problems!

Two Blokes Talking Electric Cars
Episode: 135 — Public Charging Facts and Problems!
Date: 31 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. Thank you to NRMA. Thank you to Uniden. We appreciate their support. NRMA is one of Australia’s largest insurers of electric vehicles, also been operating for 100 years and many more to come. Uniden smashing it out of the park with their dash cam range. Big part of their business.

[00:00:23] Stephen Fenech: Yeah. Award-winning dash cams as well.

[00:00:25] Trevor Long: They’re not mucking around here.

[00:00:26] Trevor Long: And what’s that thing you always say about dash cams?

[00:00:28] Stephen Fenech: I think you should always go for the version that says R on the end of the Uniden dash cams. That means you’re getting a forward-facing camera and a back camera as well, because a lot of accidents happen from behind you. High percentage. I think we’ve already spoken on the show about this. So just your eyes and ears on the road. Get yourself some peace of mind. And yeah, Uniden dash cams can provide that.

[00:00:48] Trevor Long: We are going to absolutely barrel through your calls today. We’ve got people lined up to chat. We’d love to put you in that list. 0477 657 657. Send us a text.

[00:00:58] Trevor Long: Thanks to Vodafone. Save that number in your phone as the two blocks and send us a text no matter what you want to talk about. We will try and get you on the show. We normally just say no, we normally record on Wednesdays. It takes me probably till the next Tuesday to start contacting people, and sometimes it could be days or weeks before I get to you, but you’re in a list. Trust me, every message, uh, producer Rob from the EFTN podcast, our man Rob, he puts them all in a list, okay? And I then refer to that list. And we get to you, but it just takes some time.

[00:01:27] Stephen Fenech: And just to be clear, we’ll take your calls, good, bad, and ugly about EVs. We’re not—

[00:01:31] Trevor Long: hey, hey, on the ugly—

[00:01:32] Stephen Fenech: we’re not, we’re not here— we want to hear all of your experiences because at the end of the day, if we can, if the right people hear these things, the right companies that we talk to that hear the show, they listen to the show, we’re here to help out. So your experiences help everybody.

[00:01:48] Trevor Long: And at the same time, and similar to what we often get to do with technology, we can’t guarantee this to anyone and everyone, but a lot of the time we do have a contact. And so if there’s a gripe, there’s an issue, we want to try and help with that. Like, we want to try and resolve issues. We don’t want anyone to be upset, not because we’re defending a brand, but because sometimes it just takes a phone call. And we’ve said this on our tech show a lot. It shouldn’t take— it should not take a phone call from us to fix your problem. Yes, but sometimes it can. So let’s help you with that if we can. And another shout out to— I should say to our man Aaron, who is our dealer advocate for you. If you’re looking to buy a car, Send us a text. We don’t claim any commission, but Aaron will do his best to get you a better deal. And they can now do MGs.

[00:02:31] Stephen Fenech: Wow.

[00:02:31] Trevor Long: So if you look, we’ve— there’s a whole range of brands they do. Kia is probably one of their biggest, but they do a range of brands. But MG is now one of them.

[00:02:41] Stephen Fenech: Yeah. And we don’t make a cent off this. It’s all for your benefit.

[00:02:44] Trevor Long: Everything you save goes into your pocket. We’re not clipping the ticket. Aaron probably does because it’s his job. He’s a salesman. But I used Aaron. I got a deal on my car, and we want you to get the the same kind of deal that other people are absolutely entitled to get. It’s nothing dodgy about it. It’s just a great deal from a great dealership, and we’d love to try and help you out. No obligation to buy, by the way. Yes. All I do is if I get your text message, I send it to Aaron and he calls you, and that’s it. I don’t care whether you buy the car from him or not. It doesn’t worry me. He’ll do his best to get you a deal. If it’s not a good deal that suits you, yeah, fine, get a better deal somewhere else. It may help you negotiate with someone else. I don’t know, doesn’t matter at all. We’re just trying to help you out because we want everyone to get the best deal so they can get an electric car and start saving money for the future. All right, let’s get on with your calls on Two Blokes Talking Electric Cars.

[00:03:42] Trevor Long: I just, I knew you had something for us there at the end. I was saving it up for building up, mate, building up to it. Uh, get in touch, folks. 0477 657 657. That’s exactly what Rob did, and he’s on the line today.

Rob — Public EV charging speeds falling short of advertised kilowatts

[00:03:52] Rob: Rob, Hey mate, or hello boys.

[00:03:56] Trevor Long: Yes, we’re both here. Rob, tell us about your journey, mate. You want to talk about public charging. You want to talk about some realities of the public charging world.

[00:04:07] Rob: Well, I just, I was talking to a friend and imagine you went to Japan and you jumped on the Shinkansen and you expected to be in Kyoto in an hour and 10 minutes and it took 4 hours.

[00:04:21] Stephen Fenech: Yes.

[00:04:21] Rob: You’d be a bit peeved.

[00:04:22] Trevor Long: You would.

[00:04:23] Rob: You’d be a bit peeved, wouldn’t you?

[00:04:24] Trevor Long: Bullet train.

[00:04:25] Stephen Fenech: It wouldn’t be so much of a bullet.

[00:04:26] Trevor Long: What’s the analogy relate to?

[00:04:28] Rob: So pull up at a public charger that says this is 150 kilowatt charger. And yes, I know all the ins and outs of charging, but then sit there for an hour and a half at 30 kilowatts. It is, yeah. I’ve had the discussion with EV about it and the fact that why am I paying for fast charging when all I get is 30 or 50 kilowatts?

[00:04:59] Trevor Long: What do they say?

[00:05:02] Rob: They say that their advertising or that their app says that it’s a maximum of 150 kilowatts.

[00:05:11] Trevor Long: Where does it say that? It doesn’t say that often, I’ll tell you that right now.

[00:05:16] Rob: Well, the EV1 does. It says a maximum of 150 kilowatts. And then they went on to explain how, you know, it depends on what point your car is in charging, you know, whether it’s at 10% or at— True. 95%. And yes, I get all that. Yeah, I get all that. But if you’re on a road trip and you’re doing 20/80s, you should be able to plug in and pretty much get what your car— so I’ve got an EV5, so it’s 150 kilowatts. I admit I haven’t ventured into Tesla Superchargers, simply because I don’t use charging, public charging that often. We live off-grid, so everything that the solar produces, not to charge the house battery, goes into the car.

[00:06:13] Trevor Long: And yeah, so I mean, look, I would say to you on that, the Teslas, and everyone knows my views on Elon and Tesla, but I think their chargers are unbelievable and I will choose Tesla first before anyone else in a charging option because you just made it— is it’s reliable and it’s fast and consistent. I mean, I don’t think I’ve gotten less than 75 kilowatts on a Tesla charger, even in a 20-bay with 18 cars there, you know, like they— what Tesla does is design their sites with way too much power so that everyone can get what they deserve. And I think that’s something that the others need to learn.

[00:06:50] Rob: Agreed. And And the, you know, this wasn’t a charger in the back of a car park in the shopping centre or something. This was a charger on the number one highway around Australia at a very large service centre. And there were 4 chargers and we’re all sitting looking at each other, getting 35, 40 kilowatts. And, you know, it’s not, it’s really not the experience that works. And to go that bit further, Megawatt, charging, then it’s just a joke. Yeah.

[00:07:26] Trevor Long: The idea that that’ll even happen.

[00:07:28] Stephen Fenech: Yeah.

[00:07:29] Producer Rob: Yeah.

[00:07:29] Stephen Fenech: Well, one of the—

[00:07:30] Rob: happen in Australia.

[00:07:30] Trevor Long: Here’s the other one. If you think about how it’s not deceptive, but it’s, it’s difficult to understand. So I don’t think it’s deceptive advertising, but it’s difficult. People understand that is a maximum threshold and that there are deterrent factors. And then we’ve again, we’ve seen some amazing cars lately that have 800-volt architecture that can do 400-kilowatt charging. There’s like 4 chargers in Australia that can do that. And so you buy a car when it tells you that it could do 400 kilowatt charging, 0 to 100 in, you know, 21 minutes, and you think that’s unbelievable. And you get it home and it’s like, takes 24 hours. Like, there’s just so much education involved in it, Rob. And I think that’s the challenge, is people have an expectation that, that’s built in simple numbers and not in knowledge.

[00:08:16] Stephen Fenech: Yeah, but I can see Rob’s frustration. Yeah. And like, for people who are— and this is one of— this is one of the biggest hurdles, I reckon, for a potential EV customer is thinking, well, there’s, there’s this notion that it takes a long time to charge, and you’ve shown that it can sometimes take a long time to charge.

[00:08:35] Trevor Long: So does that math ever work out, Rob? On those 4 at a highway, you’ve got 4 cars getting 30 kilowatts each, which works out on 120. What was that charger rated at maximum of, was it 150 or 300?

[00:08:51] Stephen Fenech: 150.

[00:08:52] Rob: 150.

[00:08:53] Trevor Long: Yeah.

[00:08:53] Rob: Yep.

[00:08:53] Trevor Long: It kind of, I mean, it kind of made sense.

[00:08:57] Rob: So they also said, they also said they had some software problems on that set of chargers. But we got, we had very much the same thing up at Hervey Bay where there was a Tesla and us at a, EV charger again. And we’re both 150-kilowatt charger and we’re both stuck on 50 kilowatts just with 2 cars there. Now, but I go back to the fact that the charger that really annoyed me the most was the one on the highway. And why, why is that car— why is that charger not fed with 600 kilowatts so that it can do 4 at 150 and get them out in pronto time? There seemed to be Enough power there to drive a McDonald’s and a KFC and a service station and a Guzmán Gómez and whatever else.

[00:09:55] Stephen Fenech: And you’re still paying, what did you say here, 79 cents a kilowatt hour too. So I know it took you a long time, but you’re still paying for that same price for the— normally that’s the price you pay for fast charging.

[00:10:06] Trevor Long: Yes.

[00:10:06] Stephen Fenech: And you’re still paying that price.

[00:10:07] Rob: Absolutely.

[00:10:08] Stephen Fenech: Yeah.

[00:10:09] Rob: And that’s what you’re paying for. The other thing I don’t— I see as time goes on is that the faster the chargers are, the more cars you can get through. And if there was 600 kilowatts there and 4 cars could charge at 150, then you’re in and out in 15 minutes and the next car can come along. And, and in theory, the electricity should actually be cheaper because they can use the the hardware more.

[00:10:41] Trevor Long: I think, yeah, well, that’s, that’s true. The turnaround should allow them to do that. But the usage rates, and we talked about this on a recent show, the usage rates are actually, you know, quite low for chargers overall. So they kind of need to account for the non-usage in the times that they are being used. But the bottom line in this is if you look at a charger that says maximum 150, fact is you’ll never get 150. Like for a start, it’s normally 150 across 2 plugs. Right. So it’s actually rare that you get 150 even on one plug with only one car there. But to get 30, I agree with you, that’s just great.

[00:11:16] Stephen Fenech: That’s beyond the pale, that one.

[00:11:18] Producer Rob: Yeah.

[00:11:18] Trevor Long: I mean, look, 4 by 30 is 120. Maybe there’s an overcompensation of delivery of power. So 150 is the most. But mate, that 150 is— I’m assuming that 4 is across 2 actual, you know, 2 charging units with 2 plugs on each. So I don’t believe it should be advertised at 150. I think it should be advertised at, you know, 75 or something.

[00:11:41] Rob: Yeah, it’s, look, it’s going to take time and by no stretch am I anti-EV. I’ve had a Polestar and I’ve got the Kia and we use that to do, run into Brisbane, come back. We live out in the country, run into Brisbane, come back. You know, we’ll rack up 600, 700 Ks a week in the Kia. But we, you know, if we just have to duck into town, we use the diesel ute. And but I think if you live in the city and you have your own charging, then EVs are fantastic. Yeah. But the road trip thing, like we went to Sydney one time and we ended up having to get a hotel overnight because again, the charging was just taking too long and we weren’t going to We weren’t gonna make it. Usually we’d do it in one hit. We weren’t gonna make it. So we just decided to break it halfway. But you know, that’s a cost.

[00:12:47] Stephen Fenech: Yeah. Yeah, I think it’s great points you brought up, Rob. I think that maybe the charges need to have similar labels like the NBN, you know, like typical speed.

[00:13:00] Rob: That’s nice.

[00:13:00] Trevor Long: You know what I mean?

[00:13:01] Stephen Fenech: Typical evening speeds of this.

[00:13:03] Trevor Long: That is genius.

[00:13:04] Stephen Fenech: You know, I reckon there should be some disclaimer to say, though all their advertising is the best, they should say what’s typical.

[00:13:11] Trevor Long: That is, mate, that’s a Two Blokes campaign from this point on. Because if that charging that Rob’s talking about, for example, it should say typical, um, typical max, a typical, uh, usage when all bays occupied, you know, 30 to 35 kilowatts. Typical usage when 2 bays occupied, 50 to 56 kilowatts. You know, it should say something like that. Would that work for you, Rob?

[00:13:35] Rob: Well, I’d actually like to see them. I mean, they can change the cost time-wise. I actually think that if they’re only going to give me, you know, 30 kilowatts on a—

[00:13:48] Trevor Long: Charge you per kilowatt based on what’s delivered, not based on the potential delivery.

[00:13:55] Stephen Fenech: Yeah.

[00:13:56] Rob: Yeah.

[00:13:57] Trevor Long: All right. It’s official. You’ve got us on a campaign, mate.

[00:14:01] Rob: So I give you, just as a total aside, look, it wouldn’t be for everybody, but I’ve just installed a device that runs off a separate rack of solar on the house that does DC to DC charging. So now when the sun’s out—

[00:14:24] Trevor Long: Whoa, you’re pumping it right in.

[00:14:26] Rob: How good’s that? If the sun’s out, I can pump up to 20 kilowatts into the car purely on solar with no losses.

[00:14:39] Trevor Long: That’s amazing.

[00:14:39] Rob: Because I do see on the solar that we have at the moment—

[00:14:45] Trevor Long: You see what you’re generating and you’re thinking, I’m not using it all. What are we doing?

[00:14:49] Stephen Fenech: Yeah.

[00:14:49] Trevor Long: As an off-grid man, that’s the right way to go.

[00:14:53] Rob: But not only that, you can see from looking at the numbers at what you’re losing because you’re taking DC off the panels, converting it to AC to charge the battery, which then converts it back to AC to charge the car.

[00:15:08] Trevor Long: So you’re actually losing efficiency in the system.

[00:15:11] Rob: You’re losing about 15% of what comes off the panels.

[00:15:15] Producer Rob: Yeah.

[00:15:15] Stephen Fenech: Yeah.

[00:15:16] Rob: So, all right.

[00:15:17] Stephen Fenech: Yes.

[00:15:17] Rob: Well, I don’t know. If many people will take it up.

[00:15:21] Trevor Long: I don’t think so, because you sound like a visionary in this space, Rob, and we’ll take your guidance on that, mate. I love the idea of living off-grid. I love the idea of living in the country too, Rob. So shout out to that, mate. Enjoy the diesel trips to the city and enjoy the around-town runs in the EV, mate. Thanks for getting in touch and getting us started on a little thought about charging there, mate. We appreciate the chat.

[00:15:45] Rob: See ya, boys.

[00:15:46] Trevor Long: Good on you, mate. Cheers. Anytime. There you go. And we’d love to hear from you. That’s a great thing. We might talk about that more in the weeks ahead. 0477 657 657. That just proves we’re not here to just go, well, EVs are great. There’s problems and we’ve got to work on it as an industry. We have to be having these conversations. I’m getting into it too. Is that a bit of Rocky?

[00:16:14] Stephen Fenech: Kind of bit of Rocky, bit of Trump.

[00:16:16] Trevor Long: Yeah, isn’t Trump these ones?

[00:16:19] Stephen Fenech: Yeah, Trump, Trump, sort of these ones.

[00:16:22] Trevor Long: All right, um, that’s what you’re dialing in for, folks. Uh, good stuff. Speaking of dialing in, 0477657657. Raymond’s on the line. G’day, Raymond.

Raymond — Trading a Mercedes EQE SUV for a BMW iX3

[00:16:31] Raymond: G’day, gentlemen.

[00:16:33] Trevor Long: Now listen, uh, you messaged and said you’d seen, uh, one of my videos. I think we were both in the iX3, just driving it a little while ago with BMW.

[00:16:44] Raymond: Yeah.

[00:16:45] Trevor Long: What, what you’ve got, you’re on your 5th EV. Talk us through where you’re at today, mate.

[00:16:53] Raymond: Well, I think almost exactly 12 months ago we were having this conversation about which luxury EV to buy.

[00:17:00] Stephen Fenech: Yes.

[00:17:01] Raymond: And, and I bought the Mercedes EXE SUV.

[00:17:10] Trevor Long: And EQE SUV. EQE S is what it’s called.

[00:17:13] Stephen Fenech: Yeah. And you got a genius deal too, I feel, from memory, mate. You got a solid deal.

[00:17:17] Trevor Long: Yes, you have a good memory, Steve.

[00:17:20] Raymond: Wow.

[00:17:21] Stephen Fenech: It was like a rock.

[00:17:22] Trevor Long: Very good memory. In other words, Steven’s still filthy about it, Raymond.

[00:17:25] Stephen Fenech: Mate, I paid full freight and you got it for a fraction of the cost.

[00:17:28] Trevor Long: How’s it going, mate? For you?

[00:17:31] Raymond: Well, it’s a gorgeous car. I have to say it’s a gorgeous car and, you know, first world problems, but it’ll be 12 months old in 3 weeks and I’ve traded it in.

[00:17:42] Stephen Fenech: Oh, okay. So that’s it, mate. That’s it. One and done. What’s going on?

[00:17:47] Trevor Long: One and done. One year. Mike, it’s not a mobile phone. You don’t need a new one every year. What’s going on?

[00:17:54] Raymond: Yeah, so the Essentially what happened is it’s just too big. It’s a big car. It’s gorgeous. It’s very smooth. Yeah, it’s a big car. Lovely, lovely to drive when you’re on long drives, but around town it’s just too big. And while I have two daughters and, you know, it’s nice when the family’s in the car, they rarely in the car. So it’s probably a bit too big. So I was thinking initially when the GLC is released, that’s probably the one. It’ll be a bit smaller.

[00:18:30] Stephen Fenech: Yeah, yeah, nice.

[00:18:31] Raymond: Yeah, exactly. So, so I was waiting for that and I thought, well, while I wait for that, I might just see what else there is. And yeah, and I booked in to drive the BMW iX3 50. Yeah. Drove it, bought it on the spot.

[00:18:53] Trevor Long: Yeah, mate. Let me tell you, we drove that a little while ago. Which you wouldn’t have heard of yet because we haven’t published that episode yet. But in fact, we’re going to talk about it probably in a couple of weeks, to be honest, because we’re getting there. We’re going to talk to Brendo from BMW. But I’m torn on this because Steven’s loving his CLA. But we drove the iX3 days before we drove the CLA. And I mean, I just think that is a— that just feels like a ground-up new car platform in every way. Like every button, every sense, every feeling in that thing is just So good. What did you think of that panoramic drive, that, that, that head-up display style?

[00:19:33] Stephen Fenech: Pillar to pillar.

[00:19:34] Trevor Long: Pillar to pillar screen.

[00:19:36] Raymond: So the interesting thing is in the Mercedes, I’ve got the Hyperscreen, which goes all across the front. And I live and breathe. I’m a tech guy. I’m in the tech industry and love gadgets. It’s, it’s overkill. My wife never touches the dash. Yeah, she always goes for the center screen. So she— while she’s got that unit in front of her. Yeah, it’s it’s completely useless, or, or it’s— it makes no sense anyway. So it’s a lot of screen, and when I jumped in the BMW and had that panoramic view of just the core information, it’s just so much calmer, and it’s not as bling in your face. And I actually think it, it aligns really well for the driver as a driver’s car as opposed to a bling car. So, so I actually really, really like it.

[00:20:28] Stephen Fenech: The car— but the car, me, it’s Yeah, because it’s not like shouting at you. Yeah, well, I think.

[00:20:35] Raymond: Yeah, correct.

[00:20:35] Stephen Fenech: And it’s all, it’s the information you need most that’s been surfaced in the car. You don’t need to dig through menus on the screen or look for it in small writing on the cluster.

[00:20:45] Raymond: Yeah, yeah, exactly. Exactly. And the heads-up display, I actually think it probably isn’t needed, but it is probably the best heads-up display I’ve ever seen in a car.

[00:20:55] Trevor Long: On the iX3.

[00:20:56] Raymond: Those two things. Those two things.

[00:20:57] Trevor Long: Yeah, see, I didn’t like it at all because it’s a 3D head-up display. And so it’s meant to have this 3-dimensional look to it. But mate, I just felt like it wasn’t crisp. I felt the panoramic view, and we’ll talk about this when we fully review the car in the next couple of weeks. But panoramic view screen, let’s be honest, is just a head-up display at the bottom of the screen, right? It’s just a reflection.

[00:21:19] Stephen Fenech: It looks like it’s under the bonnet.

[00:21:20] Trevor Long: But mate, it looks like an OLED display under the bonnet. It is so crisp, so beautiful that I felt like the head-up display was disappointing next to that.

[00:21:29] Raymond: Yeah, well, yeah, I actually don’t think you really needed that much, but I felt, you know, I actually think there’s a perfect balance coming from Tesla world where it’s stark and then going to the Mercedes where it was just trying to shove everything in there. I think it’s just a really nice balance.

[00:21:48] Stephen Fenech: So you’re saying that’s a nice sort of midpoint between the sparseness and the extravagance. BMW’s the Goldilocks, just right, eh?

[00:21:58] Raymond: Exactly. And so the other thing that I thought which drove really well about it is the driver assistance piece. So while you’re on the freeway, it’s got great driver awareness of sort of holding the road and doing all that sort of stuff. But if you indicate to go around, the car will do it for you. It’s not— and then you don’t have to force it back in like you do on the Tesla or on the Mercedes where you’re disengaging autopilot, putting it back on and off, it actually knows that you’re going to slow down or start or stop and continue on the path. And it’s a really clever implementation.

[00:22:35] Stephen Fenech: Yeah, they’ve nailed that. You’re right. Yeah, we experienced that when we drove them. Yeah.

[00:22:39] Trevor Long: Yeah, mate.

[00:22:40] Stephen Fenech: You’ll hear about it on this show in a little while.

[00:22:42] Trevor Long: But ground up, that is a phenomenal platform that they’ve built. It’s a technology stack built from the ground up as well. They call it the heart of something. You know, like the actual brains of the thing is intense. So hang on, if you traded and bought, when do you get it?

[00:22:59] Raymond: 3 weeks’ time.

[00:23:00] Stephen Fenech: Wow.

[00:23:00] Raymond: Literally, literally exactly the same time as my car is.

[00:23:04] Trevor Long: Hang on, so what, hang on, just you shut up, Steven, for a second. What you’re telling me, okay, Raymond, is that you’ve traded a car on a certain date in the future and you’re getting a new car that arrives on that date basically, whereas this bloke, over here, he’s going to have to go, I’m tipping 3 months without a car. Raymond, you’ve nailed this.

[00:23:23] Stephen Fenech: This could sway me.

[00:23:24] Trevor Long: This could sway me.

[00:23:24] Raymond: I think timing, timing is working perfectly for me.

[00:23:28] Trevor Long: He just said this could sway me.

[00:23:29] Raymond: I’ll throw in my own little curveball. The one thing that I actually do really like is the GLA. I think that’s actually a little bit smaller. I think that’s a really nice mix, but I’m locked in the BMW. I think the timing is perfect. The range. I think the one thing I over 800kms/h or something, is it? Yeah, I think the real world on freeway test is about 650.

[00:23:55] Trevor Long: Freeway test, 650 is unbelievable. Like, that’s, that’s pretty good.

[00:23:59] Raymond: Exactly. Exactly. So I think it’s just got the perfect balance. A great drive. Great. And it feels just on the road. It feels like a driver’s car.

[00:24:07] Stephen Fenech: 0-100 in like 4.9 too.

[00:24:10] Trevor Long: So punchy off the mark. No one needs because it’s irrelevant in the real world.

[00:24:14] Raymond: But yeah, yeah, I agree.

[00:24:16] Stephen Fenech: You will hear in a future show about how I was torn between. I’d already pre-ordered the CLA 350 Mercedes, and Trevor and BMW, by the way, were saying, oh, look, you know, we can do a deal. There’s a, you know, if you want to join.

[00:24:30] Trevor Long: You literally, if people want to just rewind 30 to 40 seconds, he said, I could be swayed. What I’m hearing is genuinely, genuinely, you could be swayed.

[00:24:40] Stephen Fenech: My beef is waiting so long.

[00:24:43] Trevor Long: That’s what I’m saying. You could, if you rang BMW and said, when could you get me a car?

[00:24:48] Stephen Fenech: I reckon they’ll give me one next week. Yeah, I know, I know.

[00:24:51] Raymond: So Grandpa Stephen, let me say this thing to you. I was listening to your, I was listening to Monday’s show. Yeah.

[00:25:01] Trevor Long: And we don’t remember what that was about, by the way, because we’re about 4 weeks into the show. I’ll tell you.

[00:25:05] Raymond: He just drove 14 cars and he’s got 3 deposits outstanding.

[00:25:09] Trevor Long: That’s it, yes.

[00:25:11] Raymond: Right? A deposit is refundable.

[00:25:15] Stephen Fenech: Okay. Righto.

[00:25:16] Trevor Long: This is from a man who’s bought 5 EVs.

[00:25:18] Stephen Fenech: So yeah, no joke. Yeah. Oh, I’m looking at the car. I’m going to talk to my people.

[00:25:26] Trevor Long: I’m on the edge of my seat.

[00:25:27] Raymond: I know you’re a Mercedes guy. I know you’re a Mercedes guy and a Tesla guy.

[00:25:31] Producer Rob: Yeah.

[00:25:32] Raymond: Now I’m now jumping ship. I thought I’d never buy a BMW. Never. Didn’t even want to have a look at one. But once I was in there and drove that thing, it’s the best thing to drive.

[00:25:42] Stephen Fenech: I agree. No, it’s a beautiful car, mate. Beautiful.

[00:25:44] Trevor Long: And you know what?

[00:25:44] Stephen Fenech: I could that I could see myself in that.

[00:25:48] Trevor Long: I could. This is too good. Can we just— Raymond, can we just get on the record what it was that pushed you towards the iX3? Just to go to the dealer and look at that car?

[00:25:58] Raymond: Just—

[00:25:58] Stephen Fenech: was it our video? Was it the one that you—

[00:26:00] Trevor Long: Don’t lead him. Don’t lead him.

[00:26:03] Raymond: So I saw that TikTok and thought, I have to check it out.

[00:26:07] Stephen Fenech: Right.

[00:26:07] Producer Rob: There you go.

[00:26:07] Trevor Long: There’s a grab. Send that to BMW. We sold a car.

[00:26:10] Stephen Fenech: There you go.

[00:26:10] Trevor Long: If only we got a commission on those sales.

[00:26:13] Raymond: Oh wow.

[00:26:13] Stephen Fenech: Was that the one we were both in? Is that the one we both shit?

[00:26:16] Raymond: Exactly.

[00:26:17] Producer Rob: Yes.

[00:26:17] Stephen Fenech: Okay, nice.

[00:26:18] Trevor Long: Yeah, the two bikes.

[00:26:19] Stephen Fenech: Proof I was driving and Trev was in the passenger seat.

[00:26:21] Trevor Long: We’re just mere influencers.

[00:26:23] Stephen Fenech: Correct.

[00:26:23] Trevor Long: We’re just influencers trying to do our best to influence people in the real world.

[00:26:27] Stephen Fenech: We’re here for you, Ray.

[00:26:27] Trevor Long: We’re here for you, mate. Wow. Fifth car. It’s a BMW. And most importantly, this bloke could be swayed.

[00:26:35] Raymond: Oh, mate.

[00:26:36] Stephen Fenech: Yeah, there’s a lot of— the wheels are turning. Mate, the wheels are turning.

[00:26:39] Trevor Long: I’m just like, Raymond, Raymond, how many times have you been in that situation where you’re like, oh, it’s genuine. It’s not doubt. It’s just there’s another word for it. It’s just you’re not, you’re not absolutely sold or convinced. There’s something that’s driving you to say maybe not.

[00:26:55] Raymond: Yes, it’s exactly kind of buyer’s remorse, you know, like buyer’s remorse and also FOMO because you feel like you’re missing out on something that’s just a little bit better.

[00:27:05] Stephen Fenech: You’ve really my mind, Raymond.

[00:27:07] Trevor Long: Wow, Raymond, this has been my favorite call of some time. We appreciate you being on the show, buddy. Enjoy the iX3, mate. Let us know after a couple of months of driving what it’s like.

[00:27:16] Stephen Fenech: You want a report, mate? If I will do, if I don’t find one myself.

[00:27:20] Trevor Long: Stephen’s going to try and get one before Raymond. Cheers, mate. Thanks for calling.

[00:27:24] Raymond: See you guys. Thanks, mate.

[00:27:25] Trevor Long: Cheers. There you go. This is unbelievable.

[00:27:27] Stephen Fenech: That’s just made things harder for me. I’ll be honest, that’s made it really hard for me right now. I’m absolutely torn now. Yeah, it’s definitely not in the bank. This is not in the bank at all. It’s really because the delay is what— if they were saying you’re going to get it next month, I’m thinking beautiful. But the potential that I’m going to be waiting 3 months, it’s a weird— something I ordered 3 months ago.

[00:27:52] Trevor Long: And this is a massive first world problem because we get to drive a different car every week. This week we’ve got BYD and Kia. Next week we’ve got a Hyundai sports car and a Cadillac. We get to drive beautiful cars. Steven, let’s be clear. And I want to say this. My kids ask me this question and someone else asked me a question like, do motoring journos own cars? And I said, I think it’s important that you do. Yeah, I think it’s important that you own a car because you need to know what it’s like to finance a car, that you put your money down on something.

[00:28:20] Stephen Fenech: Ownership.

[00:28:21] Trevor Long: Ownership experience. Think about the things that you’ve raised on this show about your experience at the dealership, about your experience with Tesla. Yes. You know, it matters, right?

[00:28:29] Stephen Fenech: I agree.

[00:28:29] Trevor Long: And so I think it’s critical. And so even though you don’t need a car because I’ve got you a car until at least October 15th, I think. I know, yeah, yeah. You don’t need a car, but the fact that you don’t have one is grating.

[00:28:42] Stephen Fenech: Because I like to have a car. I like to own a car.

[00:28:46] Producer Rob: Yeah.

[00:28:46] Stephen Fenech: I want a car. And it’s, and look, I have a press car, but I like driving the Mercedes. I’ll leave the press car by the curb one day and I’ll drive my Merc or whatever car I’m driving, you know? So yeah.

[00:28:58] Trevor Long: Ladies and gentlemen, strap in folks, have we got some time ahead of us. Two Bikes Talking Electric Cars, we’d love to hear from you, whatever the experience, 0477 657 657. Oh, I kind of missed it, sorry mate. I didn’t know you were going to be so extravagant there for a moment.

[00:29:22] Stephen Fenech: All good, mate, I’m still here.

[00:29:23] Trevor Long: If you’d like to join us on this extravagance, 0477 657 657. Michael’s on the line. G’day, Michael.

Michael — Choosing a Geely EX2 for his wife while she undergoes cancer treatment

[00:29:30] Michael: Hey guys, how you going?

[00:29:31] Trevor Long: Mate, really good. You’re in the market for a car. It’s going to be electric. What are you looking for, bud?

[00:29:38] Michael: Well, it’s a bit of an interesting one. So I’ve got a Shark 6 myself earlier this year.

[00:29:43] Trevor Long: Okay. Shark 6 is a plug-in hybrid.

[00:29:46] Stephen Fenech: Plug-in hybrid.

[00:29:47] Michael: Plug-in hybrid. Yep. Yep. And it’s kind of convinced my wife to consider going down the either the PHEV path or the EV path. So we’ve both been Mazda drivers for a number of years. She recently had a stroke about the end of June, came out of that all fine. But part of the follow-up checks that they do as part of the stroke recovery has uncovered cancer.

[00:30:14] Trevor Long: Oh goodness. Sorry to hear that.

[00:30:16] Michael: So she’s preparing to start undergoing chemo in the next few weeks. And so we figured, well, now’s probably a good time to downsize her car. She’s got a Mazda CX-5, and she was trying to find something a little bit smaller, something that’s going to be a bit easier for her to drive and get around in when she’s needing to drive to treatment and stuff like that. Um, so we’ve been sort of looking at a few different options, um, and she had settled kind of on a Kia Stonic, um, which is an ICE vehicle, but it’s a mild hybrid. Yeah.

[00:30:52] Trevor Long: By the way, people that don’t know, mild hybrid means it does bugger all on battery except for really get it off the line. It’s like starting the car and getting it off the line. It’s not actually one of those things where you’ve got 10 kilometers of range, let alone 100 kilometers of range off the battery.

[00:31:06] Michael: Yeah. Yeah. Very similar to sort of the Toyota style of hybrid where it’s basically just an assistance hybrid rather than an actual driving hybrid. So I know But then because of my experiences with the BYD Shark, she was open to the ATTO 2.

[00:31:20] Stephen Fenech: Right.

[00:31:21] Michael: She didn’t want to get the ATTO 1. She wasn’t very happy with the styling of the ATTO 1. It was a bit too sharp-edged. She wants something a bit more—

[00:31:29] Trevor Long: I love a sharp edge. I just love the look of the ATTO 1 and I don’t love the look of the ATTO 2, which just shows how starkly different design theory is for people. So. All right, so she’s leaning out.

[00:31:41] Stephen Fenech: So she doesn’t like the sharpness of the car. Is that what you were saying? So sharp?

[00:31:44] Trevor Long: Yeah, it doesn’t like the sharp lines or the, the aesthetics of it. Yes.

[00:31:48] Stephen Fenech: So, okay.

[00:31:50] Michael: Yeah. But then recently we went for a bit of a look at the Geely dealership because they’ve just launched the EX2.

[00:31:58] Trevor Long: We have just been driving it. Yes.

[00:31:59] Stephen Fenech: Driving that hours ago.

[00:32:02] Michael: Right. That, that, well, that’s good timing then.

[00:32:05] Trevor Long: Yes.

[00:32:05] Michael: Because she is absolutely infatuated with it.

[00:32:08] Trevor Long: I was going to say, I was literally going to say to you, Michael, if she doesn’t love the Atto 1, one for its stark lines and doesn’t mind the Addo 2, then the Geely is going to be perfection. Right, it’s this not too bubbly but curvy enough look that it’s— yes, it’s modern but it’s classic. And I’ll tell you one thing that was really interesting to me, and we’ll go into this in, in detail at some other point, but they, they talked when they briefed us on it— and do you remember this, Stephen— about the actual dimensions of it and how the, the wheel size, like, if there’s 3 wheels gap between the wheelbase, it’s 1.4 wheels high and stuff like this. It’s proportional, it’s it plays with your eyes. And I actually think that’s the problem with the, in my mind, the ATTO 2. I think it’s too many wheels high.

[00:32:50] Stephen Fenech: It’s out of proportion.

[00:32:50] Trevor Long: It’s got this real tallness to it. Yes. Okay.

[00:32:54] Michael: So you’ve seen— Yeah, it’s more of an SUV size vehicle.

[00:32:57] Trevor Long: You’ve seen the EX2. Where are you at in that thought process then? Is she on board? Are you thinking about putting money down?

[00:33:05] Michael: She’s definitely on board with it. The issue she’s got at the moment is post-stroke, she hasn’t got her clearance to drive again. So we’re hopefully getting that sorted out it this week and then we want to go and do a test drive. So we kind of agree we want to go and test drive it and just see if it lives up to what I’ve seen online about it. Yeah, I can tell you right now, we’ve had a look at it in the dealership.

[00:33:27] Stephen Fenech: Mate, it’s got a lot of, a lot of storage. There’s a 14.6-inch screen driver cluster and there’s, what is it, 30+ litres of storage, including a 75-litre trunk. The glove box is a drawer you can pull out like a drawer, so it’s a lot of space. There’s an under— I think in the back seat, an under-seat drawer.

[00:33:46] Trevor Long: It’s a very— a frunk, it’s got a frunk, a 75-litre frunk. Yes, I think the— in terms of the drive, before you drive it, it’s a soft feel. It doesn’t feel too floaty, but it also doesn’t feel too direct. You know, it’s not go-kart direct, but it’s direct enough that you feel like you’re in control. The punch on the accelerator is there if you need it, but in general driving, it’s just smoother than driving a petrol car. Mate, I’d be blown away if she isn’t wanting to sign a contract after you test drive the car.

[00:34:15] Stephen Fenech: Got some lovely colors too.

[00:34:17] Producer Rob: Yeah.

[00:34:18] Michael: Well, she is, she is leaning towards the pink.

[00:34:22] Producer Rob: So. Okay.

[00:34:22] Stephen Fenech: Cute.

[00:34:22] Michael: Because she’s always had sort of white cars and time to live it up.

[00:34:27] Stephen Fenech: And, you know, it’s a nice—

[00:34:28] Michael: we go white.

[00:34:29] Stephen Fenech: It’s a subtle pink too. It’s nice, nice pink.

[00:34:31] Michael: It is. It’s like a dusty sort of thing. So.

[00:34:33] Stephen Fenech: Yeah.

[00:34:34] Michael: Yeah. But like, we were really impressed with the size of it inside. Like, it is very spacious inside. We’ve got a 4-year-old in a car seat. And we think he’d be definitely fit in the back of that with no issues. Whereas the Stonic and the ATTO 2 were probably not too bad, but they were also bigger cars on the road. So you would expect that. Whereas something so small as the EX2, it, it definitely was very spacious.

[00:35:00] Stephen Fenech: It is roomier than I thought it was actually. It is quite spacious. We— that was something I commented on. I could like— I’m I’m a pretty tall bloke and could easily stretch out in the front seat and still have room in the back for passengers.

[00:35:12] Michael: Pretty good. Yeah. Yeah. So like, she’s, she’s only fairly short herself, but yeah, having the room for our son, particularly as he starts to grow as well, because this is likely going to be the last car, like it’s going to be a long-term, long-term option for us. So it’s not something that we’re sort of looking to flip in a couple of years’ time or anything like that.

[00:35:31] Stephen Fenech: So. Wow, that’s brilliant. And so like, range-wise, of course, you know, it’s about, I think, what’s the top model is about 340, 345.

[00:35:37] Trevor Long: 340 and the bottom.

[00:35:37] Stephen Fenech: So, you know, this This is a get-around car, not your long road trip sort of car, is it?

[00:35:43] Michael: Yeah. So the Shark 6 will be our road trip car. The CX-5 was that for us because I had a Mazda 3.

[00:35:50] Stephen Fenech: Right.

[00:35:51] Michael: And then so we went with the Shark to be our road trip travel away sort of stuff. And then so this would literally just be her runaround. We work for the same company, so we travel to work together.

[00:36:03] Trevor Long: Fishing off the company wharf, mate. What’s going on there, eh?

[00:36:06] Michael: Different departments. Different departments.

[00:36:09] Producer Rob: Doesn’t matter, mate.

[00:36:09] Producer Rob: Doesn’t matter.

[00:36:11] Trevor Long: Exactly.

[00:36:12] Michael: But we’re about an 80-kilometer round trip.

[00:36:16] Producer Rob: Nice.

[00:36:17] Michael: So the Shark can just make it. But this will be perfect for those, the odd trips that we need to make into the office. Well, mate, if I’m working from home and she’s not, she can make it in there.

[00:36:27] Trevor Long: Hopefully, mate, she gets that clearance to drive real soon. Hopefully you get to the dealership and she falls in love as she did with you. And hopefully we can hear from you. I don’t know how long it’ll take to get deliveries. My guess is that Geely has a boatload of those things ready to meet the early pre-orders and the early demand. And I think the— so basically, the sooner you order, the quicker it’ll come, but then it won’t take long for it to be pushed out a bit. So it will be important to make that, make that early call. But mate, he’s hoping we can hear from you maybe in a month or two about this great little car that you either have taken delivery of or about to, and hopefully your wife wife is getting great treatment and you get great news on that front as well. And we give her all our love, mate. And hopefully you— she loves that EX2 as much as we enjoyed it today.

[00:37:16] Michael: So one thing I did want to ask you guys is your thoughts on the Geely brand in general. Like, I know the group that they’re a part of is pretty established.

[00:37:25] Trevor Long: Yeah, they are the group.

[00:37:26] Stephen Fenech: They’re, they’re, they’re—

[00:37:27] Trevor Long: if you’re gonna, if you’re gonna pick— look, and again, this is in, in retrospect for people listening to this because it’s tomorrow for me on the Today Show. But I’ve got the BYD, the MG, and the Geely on the Today Show. And I picked those three because firstly, they’re the first three that came to mind. But secondly, I trust in those three brands because unfortunately for us, we live in a world where, especially on TV, if I say this is going to be a good buy and then the thing goes bust, I get to blame even though I didn’t tell you to buy it. But mate, BYD smashing it out of the park. They’re not going anywhere. MG, Geeley, now well-established here, not going anywhere. Geeley is the parent brand of a bunch of other ones, which frankly may or may not be here for the long haul. The growth in the brand. That’s the brand.

[00:38:10] Stephen Fenech: But also the sheer number of dealerships have grown. Like there’s more than 80 today and in the next 6 months there’s gonna be more than 100. So your support nationwide is growing. So that doesn’t happen by accident.

[00:38:24] Trevor Long: That’s right.

[00:38:24] Michael: That’s what my thought process was.

[00:38:26] Stephen Fenech: Yeah.

[00:38:26] Trevor Long: If you ask that question about XPeng, different story. Good luck to them. We wish them well. No, no, I generally, I like, I want them to do well, but I just think that only so many can survive in 10 years. But I, mate, I would be pretty, pretty safe and confident about Geely. And remember, they’ve sold, last year they sold 450,000 of those cars, just the EX2 in China, and I think 800,000 around the world. Mate, they’re doing very well.

[00:38:53] Stephen Fenech: They’re going okay.

[00:38:54] Michael: They’re not going anywhere.

[00:38:55] Trevor Long: Yeah. Good luck, mate, and hope to hear from you soon.

[00:38:58] Michael: Excellent. Thanks, guys. We’ll let you know.

[00:38:59] Trevor Long: Cheers, buddy. Thanks very much for getting in touch. Yeah, I mean, it’s a great car. That’s the simple thing. We, we thought it was a great car and we’ll bring you a little video review of that in the weeks ahead. We’re going to start— just so you know, folks, Steven had this crackingly stupid idea which is going to create extra work for me, but that’s okay. While we were driving, we spent so many days in the car together in the last week. It’s crazy that we put a GoPro in or a video cam. We just do— instead of sitting here and telling you what we thought of a car, we drive the car.

[00:39:26] Stephen Fenech: We drive it and tell you what we think while we’re driving it.

[00:39:28] Trevor Long: And no, I’m not going to film the outside. It’s just going to be us in the car instead of in the studio. Because that’s what I said to Steven was, mate, I don’t want to have to shoot B-roll. And you go, mate, we’re either sitting at a desk or sitting in a car.

[00:39:39] Stephen Fenech: That’s it. And why don’t we just sitting in the car, driving the car that we’re talking about?

[00:39:42] Trevor Long: So maybe as early as next week, we’ll bring you the first one of those in the Mercedes, and then we’ll look to bring you a CLA, my potential potential possible future car. Mate, if Sportsbets would do odds right now.

[00:39:55] Stephen Fenech: Wow, bro. Yeah, it’s like, it’s like my, my halfback and 5/8 are injured. The odds of Chudbill just suddenly change, you know.

[00:40:03] Trevor Long: Yeah, with one call.

[00:40:04] Stephen Fenech: We’ll see what happens.

[00:40:05] Trevor Long: One fell swoop. We’d love to hear from you. It’s so great talking to real people about real cars and that feedback helps us be better informed when we’re talking to the brands and the companies involved. And we’re trying to talk to as many as them as we can on the show in the weeks ahead as well. But most importantly, we’d love to hear from you. So, uh, uh, 0477 657 657. We’ll do it all again next week. Stephen, see you there, mate.

[00:40:27] Stephen Fenech: I’ll see you then, buddy.