The Two Blokes Talking Electric Cars podcast – Episode # 138 – Loving her new Skoda and the Geely EX2 test drive

138 – Loving her new Skoda and the Geely EX2 test drive

Podcast: Two Blokes Talking Electric Cars
Date: 21 September 2026
Hosts: Trevor Long and Stephen Fenech
Callers: Nax, Lisa

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[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 us, and we appreciate their support. NRMA, helping Australians protect what matters most for 100 years or more. And Uniden, smart dashcams, get them front and back for your car to give yourself a bit of peace of mind so that if something does happen, then you’ve got—

[00:00:24] Stephen Fenech: they’re your eyes and ears for the road.

[00:00:26] Trevor Long: A little bit of reassurance that your story was true. Like if your wife takes your car to a big car park and suggests that it wasn’t her that scratched the car, get a dash cam.

[00:00:36] Stephen Fenech: Yeah, get a dash cam.

[00:00:37] Trevor Long: You can have a great argument at home just over a dash cam. Why not?

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

[00:00:40] Trevor Long: Or if someone hits you, you can prove what happened. It’s all about having your same bit of peace of mind. Stephen, great to be with you, mate.

[00:00:47] Stephen Fenech: Great to be here with you, Trev. This is the highlight of my week.

[00:00:51] Trevor Long: Is it though?

[00:00:52] Stephen Fenech: Highlight of the week.

[00:00:52] Trevor Long: That didn’t sound genuine, I’ll be honest with you. Oh mate, I’m fair dinkum. We’ve got a bunch of calls to get through today. If you want to be part of the show, 0477 657 657. We’d love you to be on. On the show, send us a text. We’ll get back in touch with you. And Stephen just loves talking to people. I do.

[00:01:07] Stephen Fenech: I’m a people person.

Nax — New EV owner hunting a 7-seat SUV

[00:01:08] Trevor Long: He is a people person, far more than me. Yeah, I am a people person. Can talk underwater, Stephen Fenech. Joining us now though is Nax. Nax is on the line. G’day, mate. How you doing?

[00:01:18] Nax: Hey, Stephen, Trevor. How you going?

[00:01:19] Trevor Long: Mate, we are excellent. Welcome to the show. Welcome to the wall as well, mate. It’s great to have your company. I’ll be honest, I think I pressed the wrong button at the start.

[00:01:26] Stephen Fenech: You did.

[00:01:27] Trevor Long: You did. People might have a little preview over there. I might be able to edit over that.

[00:01:29] Nax: You never know.

[00:01:29] Trevor Long: But anyway, Nax, tell us about your electric car world. What have you got in touch about?

[00:01:35] Nax: Yeah, so I’m pretty new in my EV journey, probably 3 months or so, but a lot’s happened in that time and I thought I’ll get on and share and also wanted some advice and opinion as well. So a bit of, bit of context for me. I’ve got 3 kids, a wife and I at home. They’re young, 8, 6 and 4. So pretty young kids, 3, 3 car seats. So CX-9 Mazda is our car, family car.

[00:01:55] Trevor Long: Good size.

[00:01:56] Nax: Yeah, good size and good boot space, which is what the wife wanted. So that kind of ticks the box. But our second car, runaround car, was it, was it BMW? BMW 118i hatch, and that kind of took us around for the odd jobs. But mainly between my wife and I, we go into the city 3 times a week. We live down in the Mornington Peninsula in Victoria, so we commute 3 times a week into the city and it’s a good car, but just not probably not comfortable and wanted to really get into the, get into the EV space.

[00:02:24] Trevor Long: And for people that don’t know Victoria, the Mornington Peninsula to Melbourne, what’s that like, a 40-minute drive? What sort of case?

[00:02:29] Nax: Probably an hour, 1:20. 120 kilometers round trip.

[00:02:34] Trevor Long: Round trip. Okay.

[00:02:34] Nax: Right. Yeah. So 3 times a week up there. So I just wanted to kind of explore what the EV market was like. So I did a bit of research, had a look around, looked at the BYD, looked at the Geely as well. And I think what I came back to is probably I was looking still at that mid-SUV size range, even though I was kind of— that’s what I kind of kept coming back to. Anyway, my father-in-law has been on the bandwagon for 6 years or so, and he kind of said to me, why don’t you look at my Tesla Model 3 2021. It’s only done 15,000 km. Have a look at it, use it for a few weeks, see how you go, see what you think. And I used that for a few weeks and I really enjoyed it. Came around to it. Very, very, very nice car. I think, you know, everyone has their opinions about Teslas, but, you know, it performed really well. I got used to it over that period of time. It’s just the charging capability for me at home as a granny charger didn’t really suit me because I was 3 days in a row. Okay. Yeah. And it wasn’t probably going to charge as where I needed to get to. In terms of being topped up again. So that was one thing that I need to figure out, but I kind of sorted that out at home. But yeah, that was my reflection on it. And he said to me, I’ll do you a good price and I’ll sort you through. So long story short, I’ve kind of jumped onto that and I’ve installed at home an EVNext wall charger as well. Yeah, that’s been excellent.

[00:03:53] Trevor Long: So it’s a big difference. It’s a big difference when you go from granny charging and hoping, especially in your case, hoping to get those K’s back to just going, oh, this will be done in just a few hours. It’s, it’s a game changer.

[00:04:03] Stephen Fenech: Yeah.

[00:04:04] Nax: Yeah, it’s excellent. And you know, the EVNext has the apps. Excellent. You can just come in, plug it in and then it schedules it. So I changed my electricity provider as well and moved across to off-peak rate. So between 12 AM and 6 AM, it just schedules a charge and within 4 or 5 hours it’s fully charged. And so that’s been a great experience as well.

[00:04:23] Stephen Fenech: You’re already getting the hang of it, mate.

[00:04:25] Trevor Long: You’re all right. You’re killing it. What are you worried about, mate?

[00:04:27] Stephen Fenech: But let me ask you though, your experience with the Model 3, the— so you said you were the replacement for your CX-9. You weren’t Are you looking at the Model Y or the YL?

[00:04:42] Nax: No, so I wanted to replace the BMW. Right.

[00:04:44] Trevor Long: So the CX-9 is still a big part of the family. The BMW’s gone as the kind of little day tripper. But you’re now— so you’re now in a position where you’ve got yourself an EV. Good times. But you’re now thinking, hang on a minute, this is a very efficient way to drive. And is there now a conversation about replacing the family car?

[00:05:02] Nax: Yeah. So 6 years old, the CX-9. So I kind of want to replace it. I think my only issue is I feel like a 7-seater SUV in the EV space is limited. Like there’s not a lot of options.

[00:05:12] Trevor Long: Very much so.

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

[00:05:13] Trevor Long: I mean, I’m lucky I’ve got an EV9, but that is a very different price bracket to a CX-9. And, and I get that. And you might even if you look at EV5, uh, Geely EX5, Zeekr 7X, these are reasonable size SUV electric cars.

[00:05:30] Stephen Fenech: Zeekr 7, that’s big.

[00:05:31] Trevor Long: Zeekr 7, probably not big enough for 3 3 car seats. That’s going to be the challenge, isn’t it? 3 car seats.

[00:05:36] Stephen Fenech: Yeah, right.

[00:05:36] Nax: That’s right.

[00:05:37] Trevor Long: Yeah.

[00:05:37] Nax: 3 car seats is the biggest. And even as a kid, you know, with friends and you want, you kind of like, you don’t mind the extra seats at the back in case they’ve got a few friends. And I’ve got, I’ve got a cavoodle as well. So, you know, when we go a bit longer around for it. Yeah, the dog as well. So that’ll be handy.

[00:05:50] Trevor Long: 8-year-old, what they’d be still, they’d just be in a booster, wouldn’t they?

[00:05:55] Nax: Transitioning into a booster. So yeah, like I think of that. But the plan is, is that, you know, in a year or whenever I do plan to do it, you know, I’d want to keep the car for a relatively long period of time, at least, you know, 6, 7 years. I think that’s the lifecycle of cars for me. So eventually they will be out of car seats. But I think just for me, the boot space is one of the things, you know, whether you’re lugging in, you know, bikes and luggage and different things and living down in the Mornington Peninsula, when you do go for a hike into the city, you do have a lot of things that you do take. So yeah, a larger size car is an option. I think I looked at, to be honest, I looked at the plug-in hybrid as well.

[00:06:27] Stephen Fenech: Oh yeah, I was going to ask that too.

[00:06:29] Trevor Long: Yeah.

[00:06:29] Nax: So yeah, and that does about, I think, 150K range before it kicks in. So yeah. And to be honest, that’s perfect for like school drop-off sport, that would be really good. But when you’ve gone to an EV, you kind of think, why?

[00:06:43] Stephen Fenech: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Once you go EV, you’re not going back, eh? You’ve got the taste for it now.

[00:06:48] Trevor Long: I wonder what the secondhand market will look like in a, in a short while for things like the EV9. You know, that’s coming on 2 and 3 years old. I don’t know where your budget will stretch to, but you can’t imagine that’s going to be, you know, that’s not going to drop down below $80,000 easily. Like, I don’t expect my EV9 at the end of its lease to be worth $70,000, maybe even $60,000. I don’t know. I think I put a 50% balloon on it because I don’t assume it will hold great value being a first generation. So you’ve got a secondhand Tesla. Has that been a good experience being secondhand? I can’t imagine really a reason why it’s negative because electric cars don’t really have the mechanical parts issues that petrol cars do.

[00:07:29] Nax: Yeah, no, that’s a great point. And I think they— for me, my experience has been great. You know, obviously buying it from my father-in-law was a good experience and had everything that I needed. And not only to be frank, it only done 15,000 kilometers.

[00:07:39] Trevor Long: Wow. You know, it’s Secondhand, you know, it’s, it’s, yeah, it’s, it’s, that’s, that’s still firsthand, just a different name.

[00:07:46] Stephen Fenech: So did your father-in-law replace that car then? Is he, has he got another EV or?

[00:07:50] Nax: Yeah, yeah, he’s got it. He’s got the CUPRA.

[00:07:53] Trevor Long: Hey, hey, hey, which one?

[00:07:54] Nax: Yeah, the Born, I think it’s the Born.

[00:07:57] Stephen Fenech: That’s what Trevor drives.

[00:07:58] Trevor Long: Your father-in-law’s a good man. What a great taste he has.

[00:08:02] Stephen Fenech: Hey, that’s Trevor’s car.

[00:08:03] Trevor Long: That’s a little car to go from, from a Tesla Model 3.

[00:08:07] Nax: Yeah, but he’s pretty close to home in terms of work, so doesn’t do too much and travels a bit.

[00:08:12] Trevor Long: So he loves a Fang, doesn’t he? He loves a little hot hatch. That’s what he loves.

[00:08:16] Nax: Yeah, yeah, that’s right. So I think it’s, it’s, it’s worked out well. But yeah, our experience of that is good and that’s definitely an option. I think hopefully in a little bit of time the market kind of, as you know, all the companies are pumping out these cars, you know, maybe something will come up.

[00:08:28] Trevor Long: Yeah, look, I think, I don’t think it’s out of school for us to say when we were at the Geely EX2 launch recently, they put up a sheet, didn’t they, Stephen, of the next kind of 12 months worth of cars. And they didn’t announce the cars. They just showed a shape, a little silhouette with like a silhouette and a shade over them. And they had hybrid and plug-in hybrid and electric. But so I don’t know what the mix will be, but I’m confident they’re going to have a large electric. One was large SUV electric and maybe a larger plug-in hybrid electric, which might be worth considering. But I would keep my eyes fixed on Geely a little bit because it doesn’t sound like you need to bite the bullet immediately.

[00:09:08] Stephen Fenech: So you’ve got a bit of time, have you? There’s no— what’s the timeframe you’re looking at here, Max?

[00:09:12] Nax: No, not anytime soon.

[00:09:14] Stephen Fenech: Not in a hurry.

[00:09:15] Nax: Next year will be good. I mean, the CX-9’s done about 85,000. It’s 6 years old. It’s doing well. But, you know, I think it’d be good to kind of jump at it at the right time. So yeah, just maybe keep my options open a bit.

[00:09:26] Stephen Fenech: I’d say, like Trevor said, there’s going to be some other options, some other vehicles released late this year, early next year that might suit you to a tee.

[00:09:35] Trevor Long: And I think BYD are going to be the same. Both with BYD and the Denza brand. They’re like, let’s be honest, those upstart new companies are trying to absolutely cannibalize the market. They’re trying to take every share of every different segment. So it makes perfect sense that what you’ve identified here is, and we’ve talked about it before, it’s a gap.

[00:09:54] Nax: It’s a gap.

[00:09:54] Trevor Long: The gap is at the, at the larger SUV end. There’s plenty of these small and midsize SUVs, but the gap is now in the large space. Kia did good to be in there because that’s the only option for a solid 7-seat SUV. But if 7-seat car, I mean, I know there’s others that have got seats, but And trust me, and as you know, Nax, those rear seats that come up and lose all your storage, what’s the point of that? You know, you want something that has the row and the storage. You want everything. And so I do think the next 12 months are going to be pretty exciting for that space, Nax. So I feel like you should— you’re our 7-seat large, medium to large SUV correspondent, mate. We need to, we need to follow this journey with you, mate.

[00:10:29] Nax: Yeah, definitely. No, I’ll be on it and I’ll keep you guys posted on how it’s going. But I also wanted to mention as well that when I started this journey, which is pretty new, listening to this podcast helped me a lot. So thank you to all the listeners and both of you as well. I think, you know, the perspective of how to set up at home and also, you know, listening to other listeners who also have experiences of going to different dealers and learning about different cars, I think that really helped me in my journey early on. So, you know, yeah, I’m an avid listener and I will be going forward as well.

[00:10:55] Trevor Long: Really appreciate you saying that, mate, because, you know, it’s a weird thing to say, but it is a lot of effort to do the show and it’s the most rewarding thing to actually get to talk to real people people like you about the experience and try and understand that journey.

[00:11:10] Stephen Fenech: Help you, give you our help on the journey.

[00:11:12] Trevor Long: Everyone’s journey is different, mate. And we’ve got to find a new word to journey. I feel like it’s very, you know, influencer style. Roadmap. Can we take suggestions on new words for the electric vehicle experience or journey? Yeah, we need suggestions. Send them through. 0477657657. Nax, great to speak to you, mate. Appreciate you getting in touch.

[00:11:31] Nax: No worries. Nice to talk to you both.

[00:11:32] Trevor Long: Thanks, mate. Appreciate it. And you can be part of the show as well. 0477657657. Stephen, you’re bopping along is becoming infectious. Do you know how I know it’s becoming infectious?

[00:11:54] Stephen Fenech: I noticed too.

Lisa — Her new Škoda Enyaq and EVnext charging

[00:11:55] Trevor Long: I noticed too. Our next caller was bopping along. Our next guest was bopping along, Lisa.

[00:12:00] Stephen Fenech: You did it.

[00:12:01] Lisa: That was amazing.

[00:12:02] Stephen Fenech: Yeah, see, it’s not just me.

[00:12:05] Trevor Long: It’s a simple life we all lead. Lisa, welcome to the show. 0477 657 657. How Lisa got on the show, she sent us a WhatsApp. And Lisa, you were very excited about your new purchase. So tell us all about it.

[00:12:17] Lisa: I am. I’ve had her for just under 2 weeks. I picked up a car which I haven’t had a lot of people— I’ve not heard you talk about a lot on the show, so I thought I’d send you a few pictures because I’m pretty happy with it. I got the Škoda Enyaq and I love it.

[00:12:33] Trevor Long: Absolutely love it. What drew you to it? That’s the first thing that’s interesting to me because obviously you’re right, we haven’t talked about it a lot. I don’t think we’ve driven it and I know we did. Was it the Enrock? Yeah, there’s a couple. We did drive it. We did drive a Škoda, but it’s not, it’s not heavily talked about, is it? So was it ads? Was it online? What drew you to it?

[00:12:51] Lisa: Honestly, I drove 10 cars, about 10 cars. I may have done a couple more. Nowhere near Penelope’s amount.

[00:12:57] Trevor Long: So good.

[00:12:57] Lisa: And I got into the Škoda and it was like I just, it was like coming back home. It was familiar. I’ve done a, I had a Volkswagen. So Volkswagen Group, obviously.

[00:13:06] Trevor Long: In the group.

[00:13:07] Lisa: Yep, in the group. And I drove that car, jumped in, drove this car and just went, this feels really familiar, really comfortable. It felt like an EV version of a petrol car that was just better in every regard.

[00:13:19] Stephen Fenech: So you’re saying that it felt like, you know, there’s some EVs that there’s tech in there for the sake of it. And so you, you feeling that the Škoda sort of felt like a regular car, just had an electric motor in it?

[00:13:32] Lisa: Pretty much. And I think a lot of the things I was a bit worried about that I wasn’t sure that I would need, I kind of found ways ways that I, I just didn’t think they would be as important. So something with the Volkswagen Group is they don’t have the connected services, and probably since owning the car, that’s been the only thing that I might have liked in that I could go into an app and, and, you know, set on the preconditioning for the car, change the time, see your charge state.

[00:13:57] Trevor Long: Yeah, yeah, but basic things. It is, it is frustrating. Did you talk to the dealer about that at all, or did they tell you that?

[00:14:04] Lisa: No, I was on a lot of forums and basically everyone said there’s zero interest for the Volkswagen Group to bring that here. I think Škoda had been toying with it and in the end I just decided that I like the car enough that I’d learn to live without it. I’m coming from a— I came from a 2012 Golf, so any technology felt like a far superior.

[00:14:24] Trevor Long: I went from a 2012 Mazda 2 into a Cupra Born and I went, you know what, I can do without the app. Yeah.

[00:14:30] Stephen Fenech: So Lisa, tell us, this is your first EV, as you said. So how has the experience been? Tell us about about your charging setup and getting used to driving an EV? What’s it been like?

[00:14:42] Lisa: It’s been incredible. We definitely have given it quite the squirt on a few of these road trips so that we’ve done only small little— I shouldn’t call them road trips, we’ve sort of driven into Melbourne and the partner’s driven it already. He quite liked the acceleration. I have tried to be a little bit less lead foot because I am trying to be quite efficient. But honestly, the simplicity of it, getting home, putting it on the charger, I have a wall charger. I got the EVnext Flex 2, which I believe is made in New Zealand.

[00:15:12] Trevor Long: Didn’t you say the same thing that Nev from Naxx has mentioned? We just had a caller had the same, same one.

[00:15:16] Lisa: Okay.

[00:15:17] Trevor Long: Oh, there’s a special down there.

[00:15:19] Lisa: Amazing charger. It really is.

[00:15:21] Trevor Long: It tells you what makes it amazing for you, because a lot of people don’t understand that all the wall chargers can be different. Some of them are just dumb and plug in and they create power. We’ve talked about ours being able to, you know, deviate solar and be exclusively solar. What— sell, sell me the EVnext.

[00:15:37] Lisa: I am happy to. So it was a New Zealand-made product, which I really like that it was a locally made or somewhat locally made product. It’s got the ability to connect into solar down the track if I ever choose to go down that route. I’m not sure that I can or will, so it was nice to have that option. But I really like the app. It has the ability to put in the rates. So I’m on an EV plan now, 8 cents overnight, so I sort of have it set to only charge between the 12 and 6 AM. And then before I got the, um, the EV electricity city retail offering, I was still charging on the regular rate and it’s just showing me how much that’s costing me. It’s actually also showing me how much power is in the grid that’s, you know, renewable and nonrenewable. I work in renewable energy, so it’s actually kind of interesting to see how that works in the grid and, and have that breakdown. And of course, it’s just amazing to see the low cost. I think I’ve put about 1600, 1700 kilometers worth of range and it’s cost me like $58, which, you know, that’s just incredible value. These days. So I really like the EVNext app. Really intuitive. As I said, everything’s just plug and play.

[00:16:46] Stephen Fenech: All right.

[00:16:47] Stephen Fenech: And are you actually sitting in the car, Lisa? Is that the car you’re in there now? There you go. Nice. So what sort of— tell us what sort of driver you do. Do you drive a lot? Are you— do you go on long journeys? What’s your— what are your driving habits?

[00:17:00] Lisa: We are— this is my main car for just getting to work. So sorry, the only car for getting to work. So I’m doing about 160K round trip through a lot of hills when I go to work. I I live regionally, so something that was really important for me was the drive quality. So soaking up the bumps in the road, the potholes, and I just love that this doesn’t beep and bong at me. You know, there’s lots of soft edges on these roads that don’t have very good line markings, so you’re not getting this alert all the time of, you know, I don’t know what’s happening. So 160K when I go into work, I work a couple of days a week in the office and then sometimes, usually once every month, I’m traveling into Melbourne, which is my closest capital city. About 150 km from home. So really the main thing is I wanted it to be able to get me to Melbourne and back without needing to charge. And this will absolutely be able to do that. We haven’t taken it on big road trips yet, and I might down the track when I get more, get more confident. We’ve got a couple of projects in the west of the state that I might go and drive the car to and, you know, then tackle public charging. I have a really good understanding of public charging now, actually listening to you guys. You’ve given me some really good tips on that. So I’ve got it all set up with the RFID card. I’ve already got my account, I’ve already logged in. In terms of payment options. So I have faith in it, but I genuinely think I’m going to do 99% of my charging at home, which is what I think most people should and would do if they can.

[00:18:26] Trevor Long: Yeah, that’s, that’s absolutely the stats. I’m going to be a massive sticky beak and ask about your— do you have another car? Because in one of the photos you sent us, there’s a boat on the driveway. So do you have another car to tow?

[00:18:38] Lisa: We do have another car to tow. So that is—

[00:18:41] Trevor Long: that looks like a big boat.

[00:18:43] Lisa: Yeah, it’s a big boat. And my partner, he’s got a large sort of Ford Everest at the moment to tow that.

[00:18:51] Stephen Fenech: Right.

[00:18:51] Lisa: Yeah, we probably would never look to get an EV, a full EV for towing. It’s just not something that’s a priority. And at the end of the day, this does the majority of the driving in the household. When we go to Melbourne, we’re going to take my car, not his, and I do the majority of the driving in the household. He works more locally, so it’s fine for our needs.

[00:19:10] Trevor Long: Yeah, perfect. Yeah, no, that was going to be my next question about whether you convince your—

[00:19:13] Stephen Fenech: because you said your partner quite enjoys driving your car and putting the foot down.

[00:19:17] Trevor Long: So maybe he— I think it’s interesting When we have those conversations about towing and things like that, there are, there’s a couple of cars out there like the Denza, which is, you know, hybrids could do it that could absolutely be on people’s radar in that sense. So you mentioned you work in renewables, but you’re not all in on solar. So, you know, the savings that you get just generally from, from being in the EV space are good. Plus, I would assume that if you work in renewables, you’d want to try and take advantage of that. Does that allow you to do things like with an energy plan, choose renewables and things like that? Like, is that the smart thing to do if you can’t do solar for people?

[00:19:50] Lisa: I think what we will find in Victoria soon, because that’s where I’m based, we don’t currently have that SolarShare program here in the state yet. That’s coming in October. So that’s the 3 hours of free power in the middle of the day. I’m really looking forward to that to just generally reduce our bills. We are a pretty high energy use household. We’re constantly running dryers. We have a bit of an Airbnb out the back, so they’re always leaving the heater on in winter. So that is something consideration, and it has got me thinking more solidly about solar. Thankfully, I work in a company where there are so many experts in electrification. It’s really, for me, it’s can I get it onto our roof? It’s a pretty unique roof. It’s not the best roof for solar, and I’d probably want to get a battery as well. And doing that all in one is going to be a pretty chunky hit to the finances. So in, in future, yes, definitely, I would love to have an EV energy plan that’s fully renewable. I’d be paying a lot of money for it, but I’m really looking forward to that through 3 hours of free power coming in. And the cool thing about my EV plan is it’s not one of those plans that limits you to a certain amount of charge or that it must be going to the EV. I’m, uh, our hot water heat pump is running at night and, and basically doing its cycle around the same time as the EV plan. And I always set our dishwasher to, to run at the same times for that 8 cents a kilowatt hour.

[00:21:09] Trevor Long: Nice. Smart, smart work.

[00:21:12] Stephen Fenech: That’s great.

[00:21:13] Trevor Long: Well, you’re on a winner there. It’s a good looking car. It’s, uh, what’s the, what’s the color? It like an olive green to me.

[00:21:20] Lisa: It is the olive green. They call it the olive green. But it has inspired her name. So we were talking about what name— I always give my car a name. We’ve landed on Martini.

[00:21:33] Trevor Long: Oh, nice.

[00:21:34] Lisa: Martini for short, because olives.

[00:21:36] Trevor Long: Olives. Yeah. And very, very important.

[00:21:39] Stephen Fenech: How do you, how do you say the name?

[00:21:41] Trevor Long: Yeah, I was going to ask that too.

[00:21:43] Stephen Fenech: Is it Škoda? Škoda? How do you say it?

[00:21:45] Trevor Long: It’s definitely Škoda.

[00:21:47] Lisa: Škoda.

[00:21:48] Stephen Fenech: It’s a fun word to say.

[00:21:49] Trevor Long: As a former SBS employee, I can tell you that it’s definitely Škoda. Do not tell a Czech person that it’s Škoda. How did you determine that she was a she?

[00:22:00] Lisa: She drinks martinis.

[00:22:02] Trevor Long: Of course.

[00:22:03] Lisa: She has to be a she.

[00:22:04] Trevor Long: Then again, I drink Russkis. What does that say? I mean, you know, what’s happening here? So there’s a lot of issues. Well, congratulations on the car. Awesome to share the experience with you. We appreciate the kind words and we wish you all the best on your electric journey. And we’re always here if you’ve got any questions or want to share any part of the experience.

[00:22:22] Lisa: Thanks guys. Thanks Trevor. Thanks Stephen. Absolutely love the podcast. I’ll keep listen— listening.

[00:22:26] Trevor Long: Appreciate it. Thanks so much. There you go. You can join us anytime as well. Like Lisa, you can just send us a text or a WhatsApp, 0477 657 657. Sawing electric cars, back to your calls next week on the show. If you want to get in touch, send us a text or a WhatsApp, 0477 657657. Hopefully we can get this audio sounding okay. Worst case scenario, it’s audio from the GoPro. Best case is from these microphones, so consider this a tech test at the same time as doing a car review. Stephen, we are in the Geely EX2, which is now on the market in Australia as one of the most affordable EVs in Australia alongside BYD Atto 1, MG4 Urban, the GAC— there’s a bunch now in that $30,000 price range.

[00:23:18] Stephen Fenech: It’s a very popular category, this one, obviously not only because of the affordability but also what you get in the car. Like, this is surprisingly spacious for a small car.

[00:23:27] Trevor Long: It’s spacious, but it’s also a lot of features that I think if you were car shopping and you were legitimately like, okay, I’m going to look at a hatchback from Toyota and Hyundai, whoever else, I think if you actually listed all features. You’d be blown away with what you get pretty much from any of the electric car brands, but this one probably tops it out because of just little things like the frunk, for example, 75 liters of frunk, automated tailgate, like stuff like that.

[00:23:52] Stephen Fenech: Yeah, a lot of features on a car of this, uh, of this price range is some surprising features, including a lot of safety features of course, but also lane assist. And there’s even got the— and you’re on cruise control, the lane changing as well.

[00:24:07] Trevor Long: Yeah, so if you’re in proper adaptive cruise control on a highway cruising at 100 and you want to change lanes, you tap the indicator and it will actually— what, check, merge, do the whole lane change for you, which I’ve seen in a few cars, but normally that’s like— that’s at the premium end. That’s really top-end stuff. There’s, there’s things coming, like they’ve got an app coming that’ll allow you to control certain things, but most importantly, there’s also an emergency call feature which if you have a crash, the car will communicate through a third party, which is essentially how Apple satellite, um, emergency services works, not calling triple zero, um, and, and send things like how many occupants were in the car, did the airbags go off, and all that kind of information. Yeah, everything, which all helps them get that top-end ANCAP rating, which is what they’re all trying to get.

[00:24:50] Stephen Fenech: Yeah.

[00:24:50] Stephen Fenech: And also too, you can’t see it of course, but nice big 14.6-inch screen, driver cluster cluster. And there’s a drawer here you can’t see.

[00:25:00] Trevor Long: Instead of a glove, there is a drawer. Well, it’s still a glove box, right? But instead of a glove box coming out on an angle, it comes out and you’ve got the whole space. They reckon— what is there, 30 storage compartments?

[00:25:11] Stephen Fenech: Plus storage areas in the car. We mentioned the frunk already. In the back seat, I think there’s a drawer under the— under one of the back seats as well. There’s all this door storage under the center console. There’s a center layer under here. So below, below the cup holders is another area to store stuff.

[00:25:26] Trevor Long: I feel like it’s a challenge to find all 30.

[00:25:28] Stephen Fenech: Yeah, it’s like a, like a, uh, it is a little competition.

[00:25:32] Trevor Long: This is the most popular car in, in China last year. They sold 400 plus, I think 450,000 of these last year. Now why that’s relevant, right? Now China’s a big market, they sell tens of millions of cars a year, but 400,000 of these have already been produced, sold, and are driving around. So you’re not buying something that’s, you know, untested or untried. And just to be clear, Geely is not a little Chinese startup. They’re one of the biggest brands. They own or have part ownership in things like Volvo and other things. So they own a lot of the sub-brands that are already in Australia as well. Like Zeekr is a sub-brand of Geely.

[00:26:10] Stephen Fenech: They were also very clear to point out, you know, the customer service and post-sale service and battery warranties up to 8 years.

[00:26:17] Trevor Long: And also, did you notice on the warranty, 7-year any warranty on the car, a year on the battery, unlimited kilometer. Like, that’s, that’s good.

[00:26:23] Stephen Fenech: That’s great because you don’t want any— because that’s the thing, like, you buy these cars, you’re all excited, they’re all brand new, but you’ve got to check those things that you’re going to get looked after after you’ve actually put your money down.

[00:26:34] Trevor Long: They—

[00:26:34] Trevor Long: I don’t have the numbers in my head, but they, they’d gotten to like 80 service centers and sales centers, um, I reckon they’ll be at 100 by the end of this year. And that growth is exponential, like, they’re growing at a big rate because, see, the thing is, they’re a big enough company globally to actually invest in that stuff and really, really put the effort into that kind of thing, man. On the road, I would describe this again— I think I might have described the Mercedes the same way— but it’s a soft feel, which is what you want from a small car like this. Nice drive. It’s, um, yeah, like, it’s not a direct feeling. I don’t feel like I’m, I’m actually moving the wheels. I feel like I’m, I’m moving the wheels through a mechanism that is nice and soft and easy. It’s an easy drive, which is what you want. Like, I imagine both ends of the market here. I imagine people that are just at a price point, maybe looking for a first car, but I think retirees—

[00:27:20] Stephen Fenech: yeah, that’s what I was to say, who would drive this car? Like, would it be older people, younger people, maybe their first EV?

[00:27:26] Trevor Long: It’s, it’s the— it’s a great one of two cars for a family because obviously you’re not going to fit a huge family in here. But yeah, like, we’ve always had in our driveway two cars, you know. We had the Holden wagon and the Mazda, then we had the Carnival. So you had like the road trip car and your daily car, or the car for the whole family to be in, or than the one to run up the shops in, you know.

[00:27:44] Stephen Fenech: Yeah, but let’s talk about the range. So what is it, about 250 on the entry model, 340-ish, 350-ish on the high end? And so you could still technically drive this up the coast and down the coast. You just got to charge when you get there, charge it before you go. Um, um, so still a road trip car potentially.

[00:28:03] Trevor Long: This is, uh, you know, aggressively priced because they’re all like— when we compare, and I did on the Saturday Show, you had the MG, the BYD, this one, we’re talking about— they say it’s either a $26,000 car or $30,000 car. I look at on-roads, right? And if you’re in New South Wales, do some calculations, you’re talking about a $30,000 on-road car, right? That’s phenomenal for pricing-wise. But there are cheaper cars, like there’s a Kia Picanto, there’s smaller cars you can buy. But the comparison I thought was interesting was a Toyota Yaris, which is obviously smaller than a Corolla, so it’s cheaper than a Corolla. So I wanted to go, um, you know, really affordable on that cents. It’s a slightly smaller car than this, slightly, but it’s more expensive than this. So it’s more expensive to run? No, no, more expensive to buy. But of course it’s a petrol car, right? But see, a Toyota Yaris Hybrid is of course super efficient. It’s a very efficient car on the road, it’s like 3.3 liters per 100. So I got out the spreadsheet, worked out the fuel tank size, the number of refills you’d have to do at 15,000 kilometers in a year, and it was something like $900 to fill up the Yaris a year, and this was about the same at public charging at 65-odd cents. So at public charging, this is the same as owning a Yaris. But as soon as you put in home charging, which is, you know, 30 cents a kilowatt, or mix in a bit, a bit or a lot of solar, you start to go, hang on a minute, I’m really, really saving some money on the running costs. Yeah, of a car like this.

[00:29:23] Stephen Fenech: Well, I think what’s going to appeal to people is that this— the car punches above its weight in several areas. Yeah, we’ve discussed them already, but even like the quality of the car is, is not too bad.

[00:29:33] Trevor Long: We’re a bit blessed, you know, we’re driving cars like Mercedes and BMW and, you know, so you can notice that this is not a Mercedes, right? There’s plastic trim here, but this is the same style of trim that you’d get in any car at this price.

[00:29:44] Stephen Fenech: Yeah, of course. Yeah, but it is, uh, like I said, mate, like I’m, I’ve got my legs right in front of me here, uh, plenty of leg room for the front passengers, but Yeah, even you can— there’s enough room. I think 3, 2 adults could sit comfortably.

[00:29:58] Trevor Long: 2 adults comfy, 3 kids, no dramas. Good boot size for a couple of bags of luggage, plus you got the frunk, which is— and they, they made a point, didn’t they, of showing how many cars in this segment even have frunks?

[00:30:08] Stephen Fenech: Cuz this is a rear-wheel drive, so they can, they can have the frunk.

[00:30:11] Trevor Long: But then even comparing it to bigger cars, even the largest SUVs, let’s— I’ll be honest, the Kia EV9, which is a $100,000-something car that I own has room for a couple of charging cables and maybe a pizza. This is, this is not quite carry-on size, but it’s pretty. It’s 70 liters, 75 liters.

[00:30:30] Stephen Fenech: Yeah, it’s pretty good.

[00:30:31] Trevor Long: It’s a proper frunk.

[00:30:32] Stephen Fenech: The big question is, do you call it a frunk, or what were they saying?

[00:30:37] Trevor Long: Who’s calling it a front boot?

[00:30:38] Stephen Fenech: So front boot or a front trunk?

[00:30:40] Trevor Long: Look, I get it, right? Because in America, the thing at the back is the trunk.

[00:30:44] Stephen Fenech: Yeah.

[00:30:44] Trevor Long: And it’s our boot. But I think since the Tesla had the frunk, so that’s kind of become the, yeah, the I don’t believe anyone should attempt to call the Range Rover a fruit.

[00:30:53] Stephen Fenech: It’s up to you. If you buy the car, you can call it whatever you want.

[00:30:56] Trevor Long: That is true. That is true. Call it what you want. Colors are dynamic. There’s a cosmic sense to them. You know, I thought you liked the nebula.

[00:31:01] Stephen Fenech: I did like the— they were kind of all star-related, universe-related. Pretty nice.

[00:31:07] Trevor Long: Yeah. Yeah. So look, it’s a good-looking car on the road. It’s more of a curved line design than anything sharp. And that appeals to many. The headlights, frankly, as a Tesla Model 3 drives past me, an older model, the headlights do remind me of the original Tesla Model 3 and the Y. You know, they, they have that teardrop effect to them. Yes, um, that almond shape. So I do, I do worry that in 5 years this design will have aged and they’ll have come up with something even better.

[00:31:33] Stephen Fenech: But it also, it does have a— you’re saying the curves, it has a softer look. It’s not really— no hard lines.

[00:31:38] Trevor Long: I mean, I think this will do very, very well.

[00:31:42] Stephen Fenech: Yeah, I agree.

[00:31:42] Stephen Fenech: Yeah, not just on the price price, but for what you get for that price, I think it’s, it’s a great, great first EV for someone.

[00:31:48] Trevor Long: They hinted to a bunch of new cars coming, both hybrid, plug-in hybrid, electric, including an electric sedan, which I’ll be curious about. Was that fully electric?

[00:31:56] Stephen Fenech: Yeah, fully electric sedan they’re going to bring out.

[00:31:58] Trevor Long: Okay. And then there was a big— and a lot of hybrids that look like an old Land Rover style, you know, rugged 4-wheel drive.

[00:32:05] Stephen Fenech: Big one.

[00:32:06] Trevor Long: They’ve got a bit going on at Geely, so yeah, impressive.

[00:32:08] Stephen Fenech: Solid roadmap.

[00:32:10] Trevor Long: Oh yeah, I like it. If you put your— I think we’ve spoken to someone who had an order down on a Geely EX2. If you’ve got an order down, you’ve taken delivery, we’d love to hear from you because we want to know what, what drew you to the car, what else you considered when, when thinking about this. Because the thing is, it’s great for other EV-interested people to hear from other EV-interested people, but it’s also great for the brands to hear from people what are they choosing and why. Yeah, because they’re doing focus groups and things, but we’re talking real people. You can just send us a text, 0477 657 657. Love to hear from you, whatever car you’ve bought, whatever car you’ve got your money down on. Let us know and, uh, get in touch. We’ll get you on the show very soon, Stephen.

[00:32:48] Stephen Fenech: Let’s do it.

[00:32:49] Trevor Long: And, uh, we’ll be back next week with, uh, more of your calls and another car to drive here on Two Blokes Talking Electric Cars.