The Two Blokes Talking Electric Cars podcast – Episode # 145 – Mary got her first EV and Ash has regional questions

145 – Mary got her first EV and Ash has regional questions

Podcast: Two Blokes Talking Electric Cars
Date: 9 November 2026
Hosts: Trevor Long and Stephen Fenech
Callers: Mary, Ash

[00:00:01] VOICE OVER: This is Two Blokes Talking Electric Cars with Stephen Fenech and Trevor Long. Thanks to NRMA Insurance and Uniden.

[00:00:09] Trevor Long: Thank you to NRMA Insurance and Uniden. NRMA Insurance helping protect what matters most and helping insure Australians for over 100 years. And they’re one of Australia’s largest insurers of electric vehicles too. And Uniden smart dashcams, and they have some cracking products which we can probably tell you about in a week or so.

[00:00:28] Stephen Fenech: In a little while, yes.

[00:00:29] Trevor Long: We’ve got some inside running on some some cool new stuff in the dashcam world. But if you’ve got a car, you’ve got to have a dashcam, and Uniden will look after you when it comes to ensuring that you’ve got one that’s both affordable and feature-rich, no matter what your budget is. Stephen, good to be with you, mate.

[00:00:44] Stephen Fenech: G’day there, mate. Yes, good to be here. And yeah, the EV market’s still thriving, especially after your recent

[00:00:51] Trevor Long: purchase. Hey, look at you, new car owner.

[00:00:55] Stephen Fenech: My CLA in the driveway, my Mercedes-Benz has arrived.

[00:00:58] Trevor Long: Your number one comment to me just now though was The range.

[00:01:02] Stephen Fenech: Range is phenomenal on this car. Like my other, the EQE had about 520. Yeah, this is about 680-something. That’s crazy. Unbelievable.

[00:01:12] Trevor Long: That is crazy numbers.

[00:01:14] Stephen Fenech: Yeah. Wow.

[00:01:14] Trevor Long: Can I borrow? I’m going to go to Young in a couple of weeks.

[00:01:16] Stephen Fenech: Sure.

[00:01:17] Trevor Long: I’ll take it down there and I’ll get there and back.

[00:01:19] Stephen Fenech: Cost you $1,000 a day, but that’s fine.

[00:01:22] Trevor Long: That’s, that’s, that’s an extraordinary road on a good mate. That’s unbelievable. All right. We’re, we’re keen to take your calls. 0477 657 657, the number to text or WhatsApp. WhatsApp if you want to have a chat. There is a little quick bit of news I wanted to bring you though. Uh, the, uh, Zeekr 7X, one of the most popular cars on this show, frankly. We hear a lot about it, we hear from a lot of owners. We’ve spoken to the EV club, um, founders in the recent weeks. Um, they’ve got a 2027 model just been announced. Now I think the design is primarily the same, there might be some tweaks to the front end, but it’s actually— they’ve given it a little bit more power and performance, which, you know, when you’re competing against the Model Y, I think is probably a smart move from Zeekr. So yeah, this is— well, Zeekr’s

[00:02:05] Stephen Fenech: already— remember, we like— they’re in the top 3 of brands at the moment in EVs. Yep. And so what they’re doing, they’re going ahead with their upgrade to a 500-kilowatt model, which takes the range up to 627 kilometers.

[00:02:20] Trevor Long: Yeah. So it’s only 25 kilowatts more, but that’s a bit of power and performance that you want, especially when you’re in the rear-wheel drive model, which goes to 335. So,

[00:02:30] Stephen Fenech: and it’s under 60K on the road. We’re talking— I think they were talking about 57 $69,900 plus on-road costs.

[00:02:37] Trevor Long: Plus on-road costs. So, you know,

[00:02:38] Stephen Fenech: you might be a bit over $60,000.

[00:02:40] Trevor Long: But 100%. Yeah. In every way they target this car, it’s competing with the Model Y.

[00:02:46] Stephen Fenech: Absolutely. And Model Y is more than that.

[00:02:47] Trevor Long: I think you can get a Model Y at that price, but you basically, you know, there’s like 6 different or 4 different Model Y options. Essentially, they’re doing the same thing. They’re trying to compete on whether it’s whether you want range, whether you want performance. They’re trying to give you all those different options to really cater to that market. I think it’s smart. And look, I’ll say it a million times. I think it’s a better looking car than the, than the Froggy is anyway.

[00:03:08] Stephen Fenech: It is. It is a very nice car. I know a lot of people. I know people who bought this car.

[00:03:13] Trevor Long: Yeah.

[00:03:13] Stephen Fenech: Yeah. A friend of mine I do a radio spot with up in Port Macquarie, he’s Dave Sutherland, bought this car. Yeah, right. The 7X. Yeah. Loves it.

[00:03:21] Trevor Long: I cannot remember where it was. So apologies to the person who actually wasn’t listening to the show. We were talking about EVs and I said, I’m not a fan of the look of the over the Model Y and he goes, looks like a frog. And I went, oh, I was blown away. No. And I said, have you heard my podcast? He goes, no. And I was like, this is it. Either it’s infiltrated society or it’s not just me.

[00:03:45] Stephen Fenech: Yeah, it’s not just you.

[00:03:47] Trevor Long: Anyway, that’s so basically the 2027 model is essentially on sale from now. So you can put your orders in if you’re a Zeekr fan.

[00:03:55] Stephen Fenech: You won’t get your order until early next year.

[00:03:58] Trevor Long: They might get some supply in December. I would say they’ll get supply. Yeah, cool.

[00:04:00] Stephen Fenech: We’ll get behind the wheel of that.

[00:04:00] Trevor Long: We’ll get It’s been a while since we drove the Z7X, so let’s get back behind the wheel.

[00:04:06] Stephen Fenech: Let’s go.

[00:04:07] Trevor Long: And at the time of recording, we don’t have the sales number for October, but they will be out by the time the show is published. We might talk about the, the October sales numbers on next week’s show, but before that, let’s take your calls. You’re a bit early on the point.

[00:04:30] Stephen Fenech: Yeah, sorry, mate.

[00:04:31] Trevor Long: You gotta get your timing right. Has anyone noticed with the Around the Blocks that we’re trying to synchronize time? But we don’t actually have the audio.

[00:04:38] Stephen Fenech: Very bad, very poorly too, yeah, yeah.

Mary — Bought her first EV, the Kia EV3

[00:04:40] Trevor Long: Anyway, someone that would notice is our first caller, 0477 657 657. Mary’s back on the line. G’day, Mary.

[00:04:48] Mary: Hi guys, how are you?

[00:04:50] Trevor Long: Really, really good.

[00:04:50] Stephen Fenech: Nice to see you again.

[00:04:51] Trevor Long: Last time we spoke, you were in the world of Getting close. You were getting close. Where have you ended? What have you bought?

[00:05:00] Mary: Well, I would say I was in a world of pain when I spoke to you the last time. But I have bought and I ended up buying the Kia EV3 Air Long Range.

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

[00:05:13] Trevor Long: Nice car. Nice car. So I think the EV3 is a great option because it’s kind of, it’s a compact-ish size, but it’s, I think it’s still a good-sized car overall.

[00:05:22] Stephen Fenech: Yep.

[00:05:22] Trevor Long: I think it’s got great fit and finish, it’s got good range for everything it is. What tipped you long range versus standard? Was there anything that helped make that decision for you, or was it something you realized after looking at the market?

[00:05:37] Mary: I suppose, well, two people sort of helped me get across the line. I ended up, Aaron, your contact Aaron.

[00:05:44] Trevor Long: Oh yeah, Aaron, our man Aaron.

[00:05:45] Mary: He sort of suggested if you can go the long range, just just to have it in your back pocket.

[00:05:50] Trevor Long: Yeah.

[00:05:51] Mary: And also Penelope came with me.

[00:05:53] Stephen Fenech: Of course. Of course.

[00:05:54] Mary: And she was gunning for the Long Range for me, so, and I’m highly suggestible, so I went with that in the end.

[00:06:02] Trevor Long: Have you picked it up yet?

[00:06:04] Mary: Yeah, yeah, yeah. I’ve had it for, I think, about 5 weeks. 5, 6 weeks.

[00:06:08] Stephen Fenech: Oh, very good.

[00:06:09] Trevor Long: So how’s the drive? Like, how’s it feel being an EV owner finally?

[00:06:14] Mary: Look, it’s It’s just unbelievable, to tell you the truth. Like I think I said to you the last time, I wouldn’t consider myself a car person as such, but I went a bit crazy over this and I just absolutely love— I’ve done probably about 1,200 km over the last— since I’ve had it. Yeah.

[00:06:37] Trevor Long: Wow. That’s pretty good.

[00:06:38] Mary: Like, haven’t, haven’t paid a cent. It’s just unbelievable.

[00:06:42] Stephen Fenech: Oh, so you say you’re— tell us about your charging situation. How are you charging? It at home or on the go? What is happening?

[00:06:52] Mary: So basically, I— we’ve got a carport and there isn’t a power point in the carport. Right. So I’ve done a bit of granny charging, just running an extension lead. It’s

[00:07:02] Trevor Long: fine

[00:07:03] Mary: to it.

[00:07:03] Stephen Fenech: Yep.

[00:07:05] Mary: Which is like super slow. You get like 1% per hour.

[00:07:08] Stephen Fenech: Yeah.

[00:07:09] Mary: We’ve got solar and a battery, so that’s been fine. But then at my gym that I go to, they’ve got some free chargers. Oh, right. So just maybe 1 or 2 times a week I just plug in for an hour and a half and that’s been, that’s been keeping it topped up.

[00:07:27] Trevor Long: That’s 1 or 2 times a week at the gym more than I am. I mean, yeah, it’s just an observation.

[00:07:33] Stephen Fenech: Yeah. And are you finding—

[00:07:34] Mary: It’s getting trickier though. It’s getting trickier to get a charging spot because others are

[00:07:37] Trevor Long: doing the same thing, right?

[00:07:38] Stephen Fenech: I was going to ask that. How are you finding it? Yeah, like the gym is something you— before now you were thinking, well, you didn’t even look at those spots, but now you are. Is there competition for the spots now? People thinking, oh, here we go. Is that what you’re finding?

[00:07:54] Mary: Absolutely. Like one of the times I go to the gym is 8:00 on a Sunday morning, but I’m finding myself going at 22:08 to get the spot.

[00:08:03] Stephen Fenech: To get the spot.

[00:08:05] Mary: And out of 8 available spots yesterday, there tends to be at least one unit that isn’t working. So there’s 5 units that can do 10 cars.

[00:08:14] Stephen Fenech: Okay.

[00:08:14] Mary: So there were 8 spots on Sunday and by the time I got there at 22:08, there was only 2 left.

[00:08:20] Trevor Long: That’s a lot of spots. Wow. Is it a big gym?

[00:08:23] Stephen Fenech: Yeah. Or big?

[00:08:24] Mary: Yeah, it’s a big gym. Not a big car park, but a lot of EVs. Oh, wow.

[00:08:31] Trevor Long: Smart. That’s good. And what, what’s, what’s the number one thing that I guess you’ve realised about owning an EV as opposed to what you thought coming into it?

[00:08:44] Mary: I think just the ease. Like once, once I got over the pain of making the decision and like there was always going to be compromise. I mean, I think if I look at the car, I don’t love the front of the EV3. Yeah. Like, and I think when I spoke to you the last time, you asked me about the EV4 EB5, which was the very first car that I drove, and I didn’t particularly like that. But, um, like, I love the side and the back of the EB3, just not the front.

[00:09:13] Trevor Long: We all have our good angles and our bad, Mary.

[00:09:16] Mary: That’s it, that’s it. But, but I think just once, once I’m in, or now that I’m in, just driving past petrol stations is just unbelievable. Um, yeah. Yep. Yeah. So, you know, the pain was— the pain is spread out like the financial pain of it, the actual purchase. But knowing that, you know, in the main, we’re looking at putting a home charger in in the coming month or so.

[00:09:47] Stephen Fenech: That’s a good idea.

[00:09:49] Mary: Yeah. And yeah. And then I start to change over, you know, the family fleet as such.

[00:09:56] Trevor Long: Wow. You’re going to— you’re going to go the whole hog then. So what’s the fleet? What are we looking at? How— what sort of vehicles? Vehicles a year in time.

[00:10:03] Mary: Well, not a couple of years. Husband’s car is next. That was sort of always on the agenda. He’s been for his first drive in an EV. We went and he had a go because actually what was really great about this whole process was sorting through what I needed and what I didn’t need. And I really need to thank you guys because it was just so useful taken the kids out of the scenario last time.

[00:10:30] Trevor Long: Yeah.

[00:10:31] Mary: So I got it down to, you know, what I need. And now that we’ve got this car that’s got range, like it’s over 600 range. Yeah. That’s our car that we can get away in if you want to. And then what we need for the second car, it’s made the second car look easier because we only need a little city runaround for the second.

[00:10:50] Trevor Long: Stephen’s got the perfect one for you right now. I can’t wait to tell you about it in a few weeks, but it’s called the Honda Super One. It’s, it’s the size of a shoebox and it does 200kms.

[00:10:59] Stephen Fenech: I can barely fit in it. I’m sitting in the back seat almost.

[00:11:02] Trevor Long: I’m definitely taking photos before we leave in that car. But you know, you’re right. Like the BYD Atto 1 is only until December. I’m— I don’t know if that’s public, but I’m confident that the deal ends in December. It’s a $20,000 car right now.

[00:11:18] Stephen Fenech: Right. That’s drive away.

[00:11:19] Trevor Long: Drive away, $19,990. It has 200 km range. Right. So that’s, that’s its biggest downfall. But, you know, I think about it and I go, like when, when is that ever a problem for me? And it’s sometimes you think to yourself, oh my God, like if Jackson’s baseball’s on the other side of the city, for us the other side is maybe 30 k’s away, man. I’ve got to charge the car. I’m like, babe, you got 200 k’s range, you’re at 40%, you’ll be okay.

[00:11:45] Stephen Fenech: Fine.

[00:11:45] Trevor Long: Even in an ATTO 1, you’ll be okay. And especially if you’ve— if your second car, you’ve got charging at home and stuff like that. There’s not going to be a lot of cars that have low range because range is just inherently growing in cars. But the options are so much greater for something that has less of that concern around range, Mary. So I think you will, you will find that. How far away is that, that next step for him?

[00:12:12] Mary: Look, when I can sort of get him there, he’s— I’ve got him to the BYD dealership that’s just local to us. So he’s had a drive in the Dolphin. He had a seat in the Atto 1.

[00:12:24] Trevor Long: Yep.

[00:12:25] Mary: He sat in the ATTO 3, liked the size of the ATTO 3. But again, I tend to think like, like I got down to choosing really between the ATTO 3 and the EV3.

[00:12:36] Trevor Long: Yep.

[00:12:37] Mary: And I don’t think we need two bigger cars.

[00:12:41] Trevor Long: Yeah.

[00:12:42] Mary: So he didn’t mind the Dolphin.

[00:12:44] Stephen Fenech: Yeah.

[00:12:45] Mary: But yeah, again, it’s timing will be when he gets time, right? Yeah.

[00:12:52] Trevor Long: The funny thing about size though, I’d say to you, Mary, and I was quite critical of Stephen behind the CLA when we were driving, I’m like, mate, it’s just, it’s so small for you. It is actually. But then, but no, no, and this is my point, you made the point to me, Stephen, after you went and sat in at a dealership even before we drove it, was it feels the same to you as sitting in any other car, even your EQE, because what do you need? You need the pedals, the wheel, and really the only thing you should think about is whether or not you’ve got the comfort to kind of, you know, move your legs side by side a bit to, you know, to have that space for yourself. You don’t want to feel actually cramped. But generally speaking, especially if you’re driving on your own most of the time, which you are. Yeah. What is the rest of this space for? What are we doing here? And that’s what you think about with something like the Dolphin or the ATTO 1. And, you know, in the end, you don’t need all that extra space if you’re, if you’re going to the shops.

[00:13:39] Stephen Fenech: Yeah.

[00:13:39] Trevor Long: You’re driving to a mate’s place or something like that.

[00:13:42] Stephen Fenech: Can I ask, Mary, are you now a bit of an EV advocate to your friends and any of your circle of friends that haven’t made the jump to an EV? Are you talking up the benefits of having an EV to them as well? Are you as you were influenced by others?

[00:14:01] Mary: I would say annoyingly so.

[00:14:03] Trevor Long: So Penelope level or?

[00:14:08] Mary: Yes, I would say I match her on my enthusiasm for it. I was talking to her last night actually. She said to pass on her greetings.

[00:14:18] Trevor Long: Love you, Penelope.

[00:14:19] Stephen Fenech: Thank you. Great to hear. Oh, that’s good. Well, yeah,

[00:14:22] Trevor Long: well, I’m assuming you’ve taken her for a drive.

[00:14:25] Mary: Uh, no, not yet.

[00:14:27] Trevor Long: Oh, will you let her drive it to see how much better it is than her Smart #3?

[00:14:32] Mary: Possibly. Do

[00:14:33] Trevor Long: you think, do you think, uh, because that’s a very different price and class of car, but it’s actually similar size, I would think. Do you think you got the better car?

[00:14:43] Mary: No, not necessarily. I mean, I, I like the look of her car better than the G3.

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

[00:14:49] Mary: but probably, probably. I mean, I wasn’t setting out to spend the budget that I ended up spending, but yeah, as I said, I still think it’s a compromise. I’m really happy with the way the Kia drives. I would love the Kia drive in the Smart 3 look.

[00:15:09] Trevor Long: Yep.

[00:15:09] Mary: But at the same time, I got a boot that does everything that I need it to do in my life.

[00:15:15] Trevor Long: Yeah. So I think, Mary, you’re spot on. It is about going, what are my needs? Versus wants. What can I compromise? What can’t I? And in the end, do you know what? You approach the car from the rear quarter, you won’t see the front, and you’re only driving it, you don’t see it. Like, well, who cares what it looks like in that sense? So you’ve got the practical car that’s going to do what you need it to do, Mary. And that’s a great thing. And by the way, shout out to Aaron, who did get in touch with Mary, was able to provide a quote. But Mary lives in Melbourne, so he wasn’t able to provide it on transport. It was going to throw it out. Still willing to spend the time talking to Mary about her options. And hopefully that was a good part of the experience for you, Mary. So we’re glad he could give you a little bit of help in making the decision.

[00:15:56] Stephen Fenech: Yeah.

[00:15:57] Mary: Look, he was fabulous. Thanks for the contact and thanks to Aaron. He was, he was super generous with his time and, you know, having somebody sitting on the fence, he was just so great to push me over the other side as well. So well done.

[00:16:12] Stephen Fenech: Well done.

[00:16:12] Mary: Really appreciate it.

[00:16:13] Trevor Long: Congrats on the purchase and happy motoring. Look forward to finding out when, when the other half jumps over the fence as well.

[00:16:20] Stephen Fenech: We’d like to We’d love to hear about that as well. We’ll get you back on the show.

[00:16:23] Trevor Long: We’ll get him on.

[00:16:23] Mary: I’ll let you know if we get there.

[00:16:25] Trevor Long: Is he camera shy?

[00:16:25] Stephen Fenech: We’ll get your partner on here. That’s right.

[00:16:28] Trevor Long: Good on you, Mary. Great to see you again.

[00:16:30] Mary: Thank you.

[00:16:31] Trevor Long: Cheers. See ya. Yeah, I mean, look, it’s a tough process, but I think the best lesson there is compromise can be okay.

[00:16:40] Stephen Fenech: Yeah, well, I think if you have a list of what you need, like you said before, not what you want, needs and wants, I think there’s a lot of choices. More choices than ever before. Now there’s so many other cars in the market. There is one, something for everyone.

[00:16:58] Trevor Long: Something for everyone. Yeah. 0477 657 657. We’d love to hear from you. Has Joe seen these, by the way?

[00:17:15] Stephen Fenech: No.

[00:17:15] Trevor Long: Okay. So if I sent a little like Instagram DM reel of you.

[00:17:19] Stephen Fenech: I’ve got a lot more rhythm than I show here, I’ve got to say. Yeah, you’ve got— I’ve got more rhythm. Better, better, better in real life than on this show. Okay, IRL, way better.

Ash — Zeekr 7X Performance in regional Victoria

[00:17:32] Trevor Long: Two blokes talking electric cars. Thanks, NRMA Insurance and Uniden, we appreciate their support. 0477 657 657. Ash is on the line. G’day, Ash.

[00:17:42] Ash: Good morning, guys.

[00:17:43] Trevor Long: Great to have your company. Tell us about your EV journey, your thinking, you in the making the leap.

[00:17:50] Ash: Well, there’s been some development since I first reached

[00:17:52] Trevor Long: out. Let us know. Let’s go.

[00:17:55] Ash: We, uh, well, we had a, uh, 2017 Mazda CX-9. Uh, we’ve got two primary school age kids and we own a small business in regional Victoria. So our accountant had said to us that we would be silly not to consider an EV given the FBT advantages. Small business at the moment. And it wasn’t really something that I’d given much thought to. I didn’t think there would be an EV that would suit our family situation. We’ve got quite a lot of family in Melbourne, so having enough range to get to Melbourne from the border of Victoria, New South Wales.

[00:18:31] Trevor Long: So primary school age kids in a CX-9, which is a larger, larger Mazda.

[00:18:37] Stephen Fenech: So you need decent size, you need range.

[00:18:40] Trevor Long: So it sounds like you’ve, you’ve looked at a bit and you’ve ended up somewhere. Tell us, tell us where you’ve ended up.

[00:18:46] Ash: I’ve ended up buying a Zeekr 7X Performance.

[00:18:49] Stephen Fenech: Hello!

[00:18:49] Trevor Long: We were just talking about at the start of the show, there’s a, there’s a 2027 model coming out. Don’t be stressed, it’s just a little bit extra power and stuff. But yeah, um, wow, what, what, what else did you look at before we talk about the Zeekr? What else took your eye?

[00:19:03] Ash: Well, it was a bit tricky because of where we are. There’s, uh, access to dealerships for EVs means sort of a weekend to Melbourne, um, to even lay eyes on anything, which made things a bit tricky to just go and test drive or have a look. So I did a lot of research online, looking at Facebook groups for the different manufacturers, things like that. And in my trolling of all of these groups, I actually found a friend of mine that lives within an hour of us. She’d actually just bought a Zeka 7X as well.

[00:19:37] Trevor Long: Oh wow.

[00:19:38] Ash: And so I reached out to her and said, oh, I saw you on the Facebook group. Are you going to buy one or have you brought one? And she’d only taken delivery about a month beforehand. And she said, oh, why don’t you come up and have a drive and have a look and we’ll go out for lunch. And so that meant that we could actually go and have a look at one.

[00:19:54] Trevor Long: Win-win-win. Hello.

[00:19:56] Ash: Having to go all the way to Melbourne.

[00:19:57] Trevor Long: Yep.

[00:19:57] Ash: Um, so that was really nice to go and have a look and drive it and, and see, and she was really happy with it. She couldn’t have anything bad to say.

[00:20:06] Trevor Long: And she’d already had it for a month, so there’s real-world experience in there as well. Because did you have any of those reservations as well about going EV? You’d had the advice from the accountant that it was a smart move, but again, regional area, charging, all these different things. Did she help you with that kind of fear, if you want to call it that?

[00:20:26] Ash: Yeah, she sort of shared the same concerns as us regarding servicing and breakdowns. You know, we’re a long way from a ZEEKR dealership if something bad does go wrong. Um, and she had similar concerns, but she also said they’re building a lot of infrastructure, it’s like the one of the top-selling cars in the country at the moment, you know, hold on and, you know, fingers crossed we’ll have some better serviceability closer to us. Yeah, in the hopefully not too distant future. Um, and while we were in that regional town looking at the 7X, we test drove the IM6.

[00:21:04] Stephen Fenech: Yeah, nice.

[00:21:05] Ash: And had a look at that and it was nice to drive, but I just didn’t love the look of it. It was a bit of a blob.

[00:21:11] Stephen Fenech: Plus you’re thinking, something that caught my eye, Ash, in your message to us was, will my golf clubs and my MGi electric buggy, which I have as well, I’ve got golf clubs and the MGi as well, will they fit? And so Yes or no? Do they fit?

[00:21:33] Ash: Well, yeah, they absolutely do. And interestingly, when I posed this question on one of the Z-Care Facebook pages, and there was quite a lot of people that said, oh no, absolutely not. They’ll definitely not fit without putting the seats down. And it was important for me to not have to put the seats down because I’ll have car seats for kids.

[00:21:51] Trevor Long: Yeah, you know, taking car seats out just to put golf clubs in, good luck. Yeah.

[00:21:56] Ash: Um, so that was sort of really important to me, and, and we didn’t want to drive to Melbourne to find out if my golf clubs would fit or fall in with this car, fall in love with the car, only to then realize my golf clubs wouldn’t fit. So I actually took my golf clubs with me to see my friend in Albury and put them in the back and was incredibly happy to see that they fit quite easily, um, without having to put the seats in the back down.

[00:22:20] Stephen Fenech: And so the buggy, the buggy’s in there clubs on top, is that, fits in without having to put any seats down?

[00:22:28] Ash: Yeah, yep. So the MGI actually goes hard to the back of the boot space and then my clubs will lay in front of the buggy and I don’t have to take any woods out either to make it fit. So

[00:22:39] Trevor Long: it’s the golfer’s perfect vehicle, the ZX-7S.

[00:22:43] Stephen Fenech: I tell you what I used to do, when I had my EQE, my Tesla Model S used to fit everything. Big car. Massive boot in that, right? But then when I got the EQE, the Mercedes EQE 350, I used to have to put the right passenger seat down and put my clubs long ways through the boot.

[00:22:59] Trevor Long: Even though that was a big sedan, you had to do that, right?

[00:23:02] Stephen Fenech: I had to do that. And then my, the MGI was on the hard to the back of the boot. But yeah, still had to.

[00:23:08] Trevor Long: Ash, what’s the, what’s the rest of the storage in the 7X like? I’m trying to remember. Does it have a frunk?

[00:23:14] Ash: It does have a very small frunk, right? I actually watched a YouTube, a YouTube video from another car reviewer in the States, and he described it as being big enough to fit your wife’s boyfriend’s shoes in, which is, which is about right. That’s a good line. It’s not huge. We just have the adapter cable living in the frunk.

[00:23:40] Trevor Long: Yeah, I’ve found that to be the perfect place on our EV9. There’s, yeah, there’s a frunk, but it’s, I mean, it’s two shoeboxes, maybe a bit more, but it’s, it’s where I feel good about the fact that in that space there is a standard granny charger. Plus I’ve got one of those, you know, male-to-male chargers for your public chargers without cords. Everything that I could possibly need is in there should I need to be charging somewhere that’s not well equipped. And it’s, you know what, I get it that in your Tesla Model X, Stephen, you used to be able to put pizzas under the— but who?

[00:24:11] Stephen Fenech: Yeah, seriously. My CLA’s got a solid frunk now too. Yeah, it does. I’ve got like a, I could put like a carry-on suitcase in that space now, which is very handy. But you mentioned, Ash, charging. Tell us your charging situation. How are you charging it? Where are you charging it?

[00:24:27] Ash: So currently I’m just using the trickle charger at home whilst we wait for the electrician to come and install a smart charger. Yep, that’s been working fine. It is very slow, so I think if I had to do a lot of K’s each day, that would be problematic. But we only live about 15-20 kilometers from work, so I’m really only doing less than 100 kilometers a day. Just charging it at home. We have solar panels at home. So if I’m home during the day, which sometimes I work from home, I can have it plugged in.

[00:24:59] Stephen Fenech: Yeah,

[00:24:59] Ash: charging for free at home and then it’s charging overnight. But I’m expecting that the charging will be much better at home once the Smart Charge goes in. It’ll be much faster.

[00:25:09] Stephen Fenech: Well, I’ll give you a tip. I’ve got solar and batteries too, but— and I do have a— still, I still maybe need a little bit off the grid. I’m with— look for an energy plan that gives you— that are tailored for EV owners. So you’ll get maybe periods during the day where it’s free charging and at night, overnight you get really cheap charge like $0.08 per kilowatt. You might, you know, you charge your car up for like $6.

[00:25:32] Trevor Long: Yeah.

[00:25:33] Stephen Fenech: But have you, have you used any public charge?

[00:25:35] Trevor Long: Because in Wangaratta I think there’s NRMA, there’s a couple, but nothing. There’s not a huge number of them, is there?

[00:25:42] Ash: No. And there’s quite a few around the place that are Tesla only, which I didn’t quite appreciate until we got the car. So we live not far from Brown Brothers winery. So there’s Tesla-only chargers at the winery. There’s Tesla-only chargers in the CBD of Wangaratta as well. There is just an NRMA one that’s opened at one of the servos close by, but I haven’t actually needed to charge in Wangaratta because I can charge at home. The times that we have charged publicly has been when we’ve driven to Melbourne to see family, and we’ve had to plan our trip, as everybody knows that you do.

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

[00:26:22] Ash: And we planned and stopped at Euroa off the Hume Highway. The kids needed to have some lunch. I haven’t yielded on letting them eat in the car yet, so. Fair enough.

[00:26:32] Trevor Long: Fair enough. Keep it. Hey, it’s a good extra few minutes of charging, so that’s fine. And Euroa, the chargers at Euroa last time I was there was a while ago, but they were at a major service station, Maccas kind of area. So yeah, good spot.

[00:26:46] Ash: There’s lots of options for food and what have you. The thing that, um, we found quite puzzling was on the app we could see that I think there was either, uh, 6 or 8 chargers there. So we thought, oh fantastic, there’ll be plenty of space for us to charge. And we pulled up there and yes, there was that many chargers, but there was only half the amount of car parks.

[00:27:10] Trevor Long: So Yeah, you know, I’ve got to tell you, I don’t understand sometimes who’s designing these things. Where I live in Hornsby, there’s, there’s an EV charger up like behind the shops in like one of those behind the shops car parks, right? And there’s, there’s 2 car spaces that are dedicated to it, but there’s 2 EV chargers which have things on each side. So there’s 4 plugs with 2 spaces. What are we doing here? I don’t understand what the point of that is. Is that what you’re coming across?

[00:27:41] Ash: Yeah, 100%. And so when we pulled in at Euroa, there was 4 cars in the only— like, there’s only 4 dedicated car spots for the chargers, and they were full with 4 cars. And I could see on the app that 4 out of the 8 chargers were being used. So I thought, oh, beauty, there’s still 4 chargers, we’ll be able to charge, no problem. And pulled up there, and there, all of the car parks had actually been taken. So, so there were free plugs but not a spot?

[00:28:04] Trevor Long: Yes, not spaces. Oh, that’s insane.

[00:28:07] Ash: How frustrating. So we did a bit of a dodgy and drove sort of around the other side of the chargers and pulled up on the nature strip and, and kind of plugged in that way. But

[00:28:16] Trevor Long: I’m betting you weren’t the first.

[00:28:18] Stephen Fenech: Do what you got to do.

[00:28:18] Ash: But I just thought, not very well designed if you’ve got 2 plugs per charging bank but only 1 car park.

[00:28:26] Trevor Long: Do you— I’m assuming because there’s Tesla Superchargers in town, I’m assuming there’s a few Teslas around town. Is it common? Like Teslas are common, but nothing else is? Tell me about Wangaratta in that, in the EV world.

[00:28:38] Ash: Seeing lots of Teslas in the last few years, um, and I’m actually starting to see a few 7Xs around. So

[00:28:46] Trevor Long: nice.

[00:28:46] Ash: Um, I went to the golf club last week and there was a white one parked in the car park, not sure who it belonged to. And then I saw a forest green and a black one driving around town the other day.

[00:28:57] Stephen Fenech: Very popular color for us. What color did you get, Ash? What’s yours?

[00:29:01] Ash: Uh, mine’s the silver.

[00:29:02] Stephen Fenech: Ah, nice.

[00:29:03] Trevor Long: I’ve not seen it. That’s good. Nice.

[00:29:05] Stephen Fenech: Okay, good. I’ve got another question. What’s your golf club? Where do you play golf at?

[00:29:12] Ash: I play golf wherever I can. Are you a member somewhere? Yeah, my husband and I are members at Wangaratta Golf Club.

[00:29:19] Stephen Fenech: Husband and wife members, how good’s that? My wife would never join a golf club.

[00:29:23] Trevor Long: My wife wouldn’t come to a golf club.

[00:29:24] Stephen Fenech: How good’s that?

[00:29:26] Ash: Yeah, it’s great. So it’s a beautiful country track, and then we’re not too far from Black Bull Golf Course in Yarrawonga. Which is a top 100-rated course. So we try and get on there.

[00:29:37] Stephen Fenech: So I can understand then the reason your husband’s a golfer too, to fit the clubs in the car. That was very important to both of you.

[00:29:45] Ash: Yeah, so we need to be able to fit both sets of clubs.

[00:29:48] Trevor Long: Wow.

[00:29:48] Stephen Fenech: Are you putting golf clubs in your kids’ hands maybe one day to keep you in, keep you in, in the look after you in your old age and make some money for you?

[00:29:56] Ash: Oh, 100%. Yeah, 100%. They’re both starting to get into it a little bit. And my absolute dream would be to holiday with the, with the whole family just traveling around playing different golf courses. That would be fantastic.

[00:30:07] Trevor Long: Yeah, I hear that dream, but it’s the baggage that’s the problem. You’ve got to take clubs everywhere. You’ve got

[00:30:12] Stephen Fenech: to take clubs

[00:30:13] Trevor Long: because you don’t want— you don’t want to rely on renting clubs at every course because then you look like a schlep. So you want to turn up and then you’ve got to have the arm. It just feels like a real drama to me. And I don’t know if you’ve traveled extensively with those young kids, but it’s bad enough traveling with kids, let alone throwing in golf clubs.

[00:30:29] Ash: Yeah, 100%. Yeah, we travel a lot in the caravan. So hubby’s got a ute, um, and so we travel with the caravan and chuck the clubs in the caravan along with the kids, and we try and see a few courses that way.

[00:30:42] Stephen Fenech: Who’s a better player, Ash? You or your husband? Who gets the cash?

[00:30:45] Ash: Oh, I’d have to say overall hubby’s the better golfer. He’s a very low marker. Okay, really?

[00:30:53] Stephen Fenech: How low?

[00:30:53] Ash: What’s his handicap? I think he’s currently sitting on about 4.

[00:30:57] Stephen Fenech: Oh my God. Okay. Unreal. What about yourself?

[00:31:01] Ash: I’ve got a handicap of 27.

[00:31:03] Stephen Fenech: Okay. Not bad.

[00:31:05] Trevor Long: You know my handicap?

[00:31:06] Stephen Fenech: Golf. His swing. That’s your handicap. That’s right.

[00:31:09] Trevor Long: Yeah. Whatever the biggest number is, that’s me. And we are playing in a few weeks.

[00:31:13] Stephen Fenech: I’m off. Yeah, I’m off 21, but I probably haven’t played for a while, so I’ll be probably off 25.

[00:31:18] Trevor Long: Yeah, I’m off the ladies tee whenever possible.

[00:31:21] Ash: It’s the great equalizer. You can play with anybody. Oh, exactly. Yeah. Exactly right. It’s the only sport that I can actually beat my husband in because of the handicap system. So I think that’s why I love it so much as well.

[00:31:34] Trevor Long: I’m excited about—

[00:31:35] Stephen Fenech: you drive around in an EV as well.

[00:31:37] Trevor Long: You’ve got a beautiful car. It’s going to last you a long time. It’s going to save you big bucks because you’re not paying for that fuel. Even when you start visiting family and doing the road trips, you’ve made a great decision. It’s probably— if we had got the time to talk to you before you made the decision, I reckon we would end up exactly where you are. You’re in, you’re in great debt to your friend who wasn’t, wasn’t too far away and could get you that test drive. And so is Zica, by the way. And isn’t it funny how every single owner becomes an advertiser for the, for the brand if it’s a good experience, which it sounds like it has been overall. Just quickly, was the dealership experience a good one for you?

[00:32:12] Ash: Yeah, I was actually a little apprehensive about what the experience might be based on what I had read in some of the Facebook groups. But I’m pleased to say that the dealership experience I had, I could not fault the salesperson. That I dealt with got back to me same day with every email. He was honest around timeframes. Yeah, I actually inquired about the car on, I think, the Monday, and then I had a VIN number and a car assigned to me by the end of that week.

[00:32:40] Stephen Fenech: Wow, that’s great.

[00:32:41] Trevor Long: That’s what you want.

[00:32:42] Stephen Fenech: So you didn’t have to wait too long then. What, a couple of weeks and you’re in the car?

[00:32:46] Ash: Yeah. Yeah. And then the follow-up, once I signed the paperwork and the following week I was booking a train ticket to go down and pick it up.

[00:32:52] Stephen Fenech: Fantastic. How good is that?

[00:32:54] Trevor Long: Congratulations. Enjoy the drive both on the course and in the car.

[00:32:58] Ash: Thanks so much, guys. Thanks for having me.

[00:33:00] Trevor Long: Good on you. Great to chat. Excellent stuff. There we go. Brand new Zeka owner. Zeka 7X. We love that car.

[00:33:06] Stephen Fenech: Yet another Zeka owner. Yeah, we’ve had a lot. Absolutely.

[00:33:10] Trevor Long: Yeah. We also hope—

[00:33:11] Stephen Fenech: But you know what? The word of mouth, mate, is what’s selling the cars, mate. Word of mouth. No question. Look, she had her friend end there. And

[00:33:20] Trevor Long: because she may not have gotten to Melbourne for a month and may have heard about other cars in the meantime and all that kind of stuff.

[00:33:26] Stephen Fenech: I reckon Zeka should offer referral codes. Yeah, because they’re, I think they’re referring them anyway. I think, imagine if there’s an incentive to do it.

[00:33:33] Trevor Long: I think they’re doing very well anyway. They don’t really need to. Hopefully Ash joins the Zeka Club of Melbourne too and can get down to the odd event with Gary and Andrew. Andrew, I feel like last week

[00:33:45] Stephen Fenech: we had him on the

[00:33:45] Trevor Long: show. We’ve had him on the show in the last few weeks. So yeah, we’re not here looking for Zikr owners. There’s just a lot of them out there.

[00:33:52] Stephen Fenech: So there’s more and more and more each month.

[00:33:54] Trevor Long: Yeah, exactly. All right, well, after this, we’re going to go around the block in something a little different. It’s the Cherry E5, Steve.

[00:34:02] Stephen Fenech: Cherry, is that the song?

[00:34:04] Trevor Long: Oh Cherry. What is it normally?

[00:34:06] Stephen Fenech: It’s Cherry. Is it Cherry? Yeah, pretty sure.

[00:34:08] Trevor Long: Why have they not used that in an ad?

[00:34:10] Stephen Fenech: I don’t know. Copyright issue, mate. Costs a lot.

[00:34:12] Trevor Long: All right, before we get in the car, I’ve been driving it, he hasn’t, so I’m going to take Stephen around the block in the Chery E5. Two blokes talking electric cars and we are going around the block, Stephen. And look, we have to admit, a good of my travel and different arrangements, I’m taking you around the block in the Chery E5. Yep. You haven’t driven this car yet? I haven’t yet, but here’s what’s going to happen. Initial impressions, uh, it’s nice interior. I’m going to give you this to drive for the next couple of weeks. It’s going to be great. Okay. Um, so initial impressions as a passenger? Yeah,

[00:34:54] Stephen Fenech: I think, uh, very nicely styled, very like the, the, you know, stitching and the leather feel and the— what, what do you call this sort of wood grain finish on there. And in the central console, plenty of storage. There’s even room under here, uh, two screens. So there’s a driver screen and then a, the central screen as well. Pretty much like the Kia, that’s a similar arrangement. Yeah, not too bad. Yeah, and, uh, very similar, very familiar OS as well for the thing. But a lot of space in the back, very, very spacious. Yeah, it’s a good mid-size SUV.

[00:35:30] Trevor Long: Yeah, it sits very high off the ground. Like, there’s a— mate, there’s a lot of space between the top of the wheel and the arch. It’s like it’s been lifted. And I’m like, it doesn’t— I don’t love the look of the car, if I’m honest with you. It’s not an attractive car. So you mean it’s been— it just looks like it’s sitting—

[00:35:43] Stephen Fenech: is there a setting to do that, or that’s just how it is?

[00:35:46] Trevor Long: This is a $40,000 car drive away. Okay, so let’s be real, uh, anything I say here comes from a place of objective love, but also we get to drive some, some really nice cars. But I just think that at its price point, I would want a bit more. Really? There’s a couple of things, having driven this for a little bit. This steering wheel is— honestly, it feels like it’s angled downwards, like, really, like a bus driver. And you can’t tilt it, you can’t adjust it. If I sit up high, maybe it would be better, but I just— there’s something about the way it’s positioned that is bugging me as I drive.

[00:36:20] Stephen Fenech: So what do you mean though? So the angle of it is

[00:36:22] Trevor Long: It’s like the top of it is too far forward. Oh, I don’t know, I may be just losing my mind, but it just feels strange to me. I struggled.

[00:36:32] Stephen Fenech: It looks normal to me, comfortable position where I’m sitting. It looks normal, mate.

[00:36:35] Trevor Long: I struggle to find— losing your mind— complete comfort in it, if I’m honest.

[00:36:39] Stephen Fenech: What sort of controls are on the wheel there? Are they good?

[00:36:41] Trevor Long: Oh, you know, pretty standard. No, they’re, they’re just, uh, they’re, they’re sensitive buttons, but they’re not tactile buttons, so they touch screen style button. Okay, to use fine, to use, um, not as easy as you would think to turn the volume up.

[00:36:55] Stephen Fenech: Another observation, not many buttons. Oh, there’s zero central.

[00:36:58] Stephen Fenech: They’ve got your AC and your, your—

[00:37:00] Trevor Long: yeah, you’ve really got air conditioning on and off. You can turn the screen on and off.

[00:37:04] Stephen Fenech: Oh, right,

[00:37:05] Trevor Long: okay. So we can turn that screen. Yeah, so did I at one point. Yeah, hazards and then, uh, demisters, which is good. I like having a button for demisting. Absolutely.

[00:37:14] Stephen Fenech: Yeah, you don’t want to be stuffing around with the screen doing that.

[00:37:16] Trevor Long: Yeah, yeah, I love that we’ve come around the block. People here don’t know how wide or narrow their cars are, and so they’re like, oh, I can’t get through. Mate, you can get through, just drive, it’s fine. Um, anyway, that’s just not Trevor’s first. Relax, love, you can get through. Um, this guy’s pulled over so far that he doesn’t— yeah, anyway, back to the car. Um, there’s something about the drivability of this car that I am absolutely not in love with. Really? Um, and it’s— look at several things. Firstly, uh, the steering is so light. And look, that may appeal to some people, if I’m honest. Some people may love the way—

[00:37:51] Stephen Fenech: light as in not much to move the car, right?

[00:37:54] Trevor Long: Not much at all. It’s not a driver’s car.

[00:37:57] Stephen Fenech: Are there any different modes? Is there like an Eco mode?

[00:38:00] Trevor Long: Here, right? Okay, a normal mode. Normal, Eco, and Sport. Okay. Hey, hey, steering’s still— yeah, right, still and wobbly and soft, and it’s not enjoyable. So what were you in before? Normal? I think I was in, uh, normal. Um, so, so the steering disappoints me because it’s not a driver’s car, and I’m a driver. I like driving, right? So, but I feel like someone like my wife, like, oh, this is really easy to drive. So, right, so I get you that. It’s definitely kind of to take on a test drive. Um, but there’s two big problems with it which are very hard to portray, but I think you’ll pick them up been a test drive. Um, and this is— remember, this is Chery, Amada, JACU. It’s a conglomerate group, so this is a part of the JACU group as well. Or JACU is part of the Chery group, to be more specific. Do you remember my feedback on the JACU J5 about the acceleration of it? This suffers the same. So you don’t—

[00:38:52] Stephen Fenech: lack of acceleration?

[00:38:53] Trevor Long: No, no, just weird throttle response was the problem. Now I’m going to do here is I’m going to try and sit at 60 km/h, right? And I, I think you, you might notice it as, as a passenger. Um, it’s like being in an Uber with a really crap driver. Um, it’s very hard not to make the car go lurching as I just button on and off the throttle, just ever so, just gentle throttling just to try and maintain a speed.

[00:39:18] Stephen Fenech: Yeah, can you feel that? I can feel that.

[00:39:20] Trevor Long: Like, that’s okay. Ridiculous. All I’m doing is trying to maintain 60,

[00:39:25] Stephen Fenech: right?

[00:39:26] Trevor Long: And it happens at 100, it happens at 80, it happens everywhere.

[00:39:28] Stephen Fenech: What about— has it got recuperation as well, or no?

[00:39:30] Trevor Long: Yeah, but that shouldn’t happen in any form of recuperation, right? I should be able to manage the throttle to not give you a sensation, but if I’m feeling it, it must be bad.

[00:39:41] Stephen Fenech: So you think it’s oversensitive?

[00:39:43] Trevor Long: They just need— and I genuinely believe this can be fixed with a software update, right? It’s a throttle mapping, so it’s something to do with way they map the response to the throttle. When you feel that, like when, when you’re off the throttle, it’s, it’s just too extreme at that last moment, really, sort

[00:39:58] Stephen Fenech: of.

[00:39:59] Trevor Long: And it’s horrible. So then I thought to myself, driving to Channel 9 this morning on the freeway, I thought, okay, so I’ll use the cruise control. Okay, so I’ll get to 100 and I’ll click set.

[00:40:07] Stephen Fenech: Yep.

[00:40:08] Trevor Long: And it does a very good job at maintaining speed.

[00:40:10] Stephen Fenech: Yes.

[00:40:10] Trevor Long: But then the lane keep is horrid. So Again, it’s too brutal. So Lane

[00:40:20] Stephen Fenech: Keepers wrenches it out of your hand, is it?

[00:40:22] Trevor Long: Yeah, and it creates this, creates this wall in the lane that you’re constantly like, mate, I don’t want to break it to you, I want to be just a little bit further that way, let me be. Okay. And so you’re pushing against it, you’re like, oh my God, I’m bouncing around now.

[00:40:34] Stephen Fenech: So that forced you to turn off Lane Keep then, or is this too much work?

[00:40:37] Trevor Long: I just turned off cruise control and went with a stupid Uber driver style throttle. So, mate, the 10-minute test drive of this car is I couldn’t buy it.

[00:40:47] Stephen Fenech: Really?

[00:40:47] Trevor Long: That would annoy the hell out of me. Okay, so then you’ve got to go, okay, so for $40,000, is this space, is this equipment, is this enough to—

[00:40:57] Stephen Fenech: I’m going to say the look and feel without driving it, nice. Yeah, very attractive. But I think as you you really need to get behind the wheel to get a true appreciation for how it drives.

[00:41:10] Trevor Long: I’ll be honest with you, and we’ll check back with you next week. Yeah, I think once you’ve driven this, we’ll just ask at the start of the show if I remember. Yeah, I think you’ll tell me you didn’t drive it much. Okay. Yeah, because you know, you and I are lucky we’ve got our actual cars as well. Yeah. And mate, there’s very rarely a time where I jump in my own car. I’m happy to take the press car all the time to really get the feel for it, but I, I wouldn’t drive this any more than I already have. I know what I think of this car. It’s done. I know.

[00:41:38] Stephen Fenech: Really?

[00:41:38] Trevor Long: Okay. And that’s not to say I wouldn’t recommend it to someone because the budget is critical.

[00:41:42] Stephen Fenech: Well, for $40,000, I think its value is a big car for $40,000 for the quality you get though. And like JQ was similar, wasn’t it? The J5? Yes. That really punched above its weight in terms of price and quality.

[00:41:53] Trevor Long: And even though I had this similar-ish feedback on the J5—

[00:41:56] Stephen Fenech: yeah, you mean how it drives? Yeah.

[00:41:58] Trevor Long: Yes, it’s selling well, right? So obviously it may be a me thing. Okay, maybe a me thing, right?

[00:42:03] Stephen Fenech: Well, I’ll let you know.

[00:42:04] Trevor Long: But look, for $40 grand, they are doing a good job here. They’re pumping out cars, different models, Chery. And I think that’s what we need. We need competition. The competition that we’re seeing from these Chinese brands is pushing the legacy manufacturers. I genuinely believe that. I genuinely believe it’s pushing them to make different decisions and bring more more cars to Australia, and that’s what we want. Anyway, Stephen, the Chery E5— is that what it’s called? It is E5. Yes. And look, they love the letter and number names in the Chery. Yeah, JAC group. And we did love the JACU J5, and it did get good raps from audience. So I’d love to hear from people who have test-driven this, who own a Chery. Let’s hear about that. We’ve never heard anyone talk about the brand experience, the dealer experience, the any, any experience of Chery.

[00:42:47] Stephen Fenech: So this is relatively new offering too, isn’t it? So this hasn’t been in the market very long, so it’s not like, uh, we’ve heard many people talking about it or putting it on their list of test drives, but maybe now it will be.

[00:43:00] Trevor Long: Let us know, 0477 657 6577, and we’ll do it all again next week on Two Blokes Talking Electric Cars.