The Two Blokes Talking Electric Cars podcast – Episode # 130 – A massive 550km drive from delivery!

[00:00:01] Trevor Long: This is Two Blokes Talking Electric Cars with Stephen Fenech and Trevor Long.

[00:00:06] Trevor Long: Thanks to NRMA Insurance and Uniden.

[00:00:09] Trevor Long: Great to have your company on Two Blokes Talking Electric Cars. NRMA Insurance, helping Australians protect what matters most for 100 years, and Uniden smart dashcams, helping you get a bit of peace of mind as to what just happened on the road around you. And as Stephen always says, get yourself the R model, you Absolutely, yes. You want the rear camera as well.

[00:00:28] Stephen Fenech: Most accidents are rear-enders, did you know that?

[00:00:30] Trevor Long: It’s a high percentage of accidents.

[00:00:31] Stephen Fenech: You want to be covered in all areas.

[00:00:33] Trevor Long: We would love to hear from you and share your electric vehicle experience, whether you are just decided, right, it’s gonna happen, it’s our next car. You might be a year away from buying, or whether you’ve 10 years into the journey, we’d love to share it with you and our audience because it helps us all as a part of the community learn from each other, whatever it is regarding electric cars. And you can do that by sending us a text. Thanks to Vodafone, 0477 657657. Tauseef is on the line. G’day, Tauseef.

Tauseef — 550km first drive from Sydney to Inverell in a GAC Aion V

[00:00:59] Tauseef: Hi, good morning. How are you today?

[00:01:02] Trevor Long: Mate, we’re really, really well. Where are you at in your electric journey? You’ve ordered, ready to, or have you picked up?

[00:01:09] Tauseef: I know I picked up my vehicle on the 28th of June. First drive around 580 kilometers from Sydney to Inverell. Yeah.

[00:01:20] Trevor Long: That’s a big first drive straight into it.

[00:01:23] Tauseef: Yeah, I was nervous and it was a learning curve, but The EV community is great. You know, I stopped at the charging stations, asked them to guide me, and they were great. Yeah.

[00:01:33] Stephen Fenech: Yeah, that’s one thing. That’s a really good point. I find— well, I found when I bought my first EV back in the day, it was a Tesla, and it was stopping at the chargers.

[00:01:42] Trevor Long: It was like we were in a little club.

[00:01:43] Stephen Fenech: Yeah. Talking to other drivers.

[00:01:45] Trevor Long: Exactly.

[00:01:46] Stephen Fenech: Yeah. And you know what? They gave me a lot of advice about, okay, if you’re charging here and there’s no vacant spots, go where the vacant spots are because you get a better, faster charge.

[00:01:57] Trevor Long: It is a wonderful thing. Thing about the electric vehicle community. But Tauseef, I’m flabbergasted by your first drive. Is that because you live in Inverell regionally and you bought the car?

[00:02:07] Tauseef: Yeah, I live in Inverell. I have lived in Inverell since 2014. Excellent. Yeah, small community. Everybody knows everybody. Love it.

[00:02:15] Trevor Long: Are you the, are you the electric car ambassador for Inverell now then? Because there wouldn’t be too many EVs out there, would there?

[00:02:21] Tauseef: I have seen a few Teslas and some BYD Sharks. But this is the first GAC Aion V here. So yeah, people have been asking me about it and yeah, yeah, it’s an eye-catcher. Definitely.

[00:02:36] Stephen Fenech: Yeah. Tell us about it, mate. How do you like it? What do you like about it?

[00:02:39] Trevor Long: What do you don’t like about it?

[00:02:41] Tauseef: I haven’t had any trouble. Look, thanks to you, my first drive was smooth because you had advised on one of your shows to download all the apps. Yep. The PlugShare app especially is great. So I had planned my drive. I was a bit nervous, but yeah, that helped. That helped. And I charged in 2 places, probably needed to charge only once. But, you know, the first drive, didn’t want to take any risks.

[00:03:07] Trevor Long: You know, it’s a really good point, Tauseef. I was— I’m planning a really crazy long, weird trip at the moment and using the Better Route Planner, which we’ve recently learned about. It’s like, oh, just charge here. And I’m like, dude, you know what? I’m going to stop twice because A, it gives me that peace of mind, and B, it’s probably— they’re probably going to be short stops because, you know, you’re adding 15-20% at a time as opposed to sitting for the full 40 or 60 plus. I’m the kind of person that needs to stop. Like, I can’t do 5-hour drives anymore. I’m just too old. It just makes me tired. So it’s not a bad thing, I think, to add in that extra stop to receive. And what was the infrastructure like on that journey? I don’t think I’ve done the Inverell Drive.

[00:03:47] Tauseef: We stopped somewhere at an Ampol station near Newcastle. That was the first stop. And the first bay didn’t work. And then I asked for help and they said, look, there’s there’s something wrong here, just try the next bay. And I tried that and it worked. And I made my next stop in Tamworth without any incident, nothing.

[00:04:07] Trevor Long: At the Supercharger, Tesla?

[00:04:09] Tauseef: Yeah, Supercharger, yeah, excellent.

[00:04:11] Trevor Long: You used that many a time?

[00:04:12] Tauseef: I was at 30% and I went to 90 in probably 10 minutes.

[00:04:17] Stephen Fenech: Wow.

[00:04:17] Trevor Long: Wow, that’s awesome.

[00:04:18] Tauseef: Yeah.

[00:04:19] Stephen Fenech: And so—

[00:04:19] Tauseef: By the time I went to the toilet and came back, I was good to go.

[00:04:23] Stephen Fenech: You were ready. So you’re proving our point that a lot of people think that it takes forever to charge your car. That’s not the case.

[00:04:30] Tauseef: Now— Definitely.

[00:04:31] Stephen Fenech: Now, can we talk about what is your setup at home? How are you?

[00:04:35] Trevor Long: Are you—

[00:04:35] Stephen Fenech: do you have a charger at home? What’s the situation?

[00:04:37] Tauseef: Look, we are planning to put some more solar panels. We have around 20 panels and we were planning a battery. So I haven’t put a wall charger yet, but I’m using the trickle at the moment. So just charging. Look, I had the car for just over a week now. So what I’m doing is on the weekend, because I’m not going anywhere, I’m just putting in the granny charger and it tops it up. Yeah. That is working at the moment, but I might put a wall charger. Then we put the battery. Well, the wall charger would give you—

[00:05:07] Stephen Fenech: yeah, the wall charger normally gives you like about 7 kilowatts, 11 kilowatts, 7 to 11, 7 to 11. And that’s obviously much faster than the trickle charger. But do you do a lot of driving though, Tauseef?

[00:05:20] Trevor Long: Or you stay local? Yeah, you’re not usually—

[00:05:23] Tauseef: not usually. I probably drive to work probably 30 to 50 kilometers a day max.

[00:05:28] Trevor Long: The average.

[00:05:30] Tauseef: Maybe if we go anywhere on the weekend. Look, I wanted to buy an electric car around 2 years back. I had a Santa Fe 2011, which was on its way out. So once I decided, my missus wasn’t convinced. She had that, oh, I want something with bigger range. And then I wasn’t able to convince her. So I went and bought a secondhand i30. I said, I’m not buying a new ICE car because I know they are on their way out. And when the fuel crisis hit, she said, She said, “Oh well, I think you were right.” Hang on a minute.

[00:06:08] Trevor Long: Did she use those words?

[00:06:09] Stephen Fenech: Yeah, exactly right. Hang on, Tauseef. Hang on a minute.

[00:06:11] Tauseef: No, those were the words.

[00:06:13] Stephen Fenech: Yeah. Shit, mate. Did you videotape that or what?

[00:06:16] Tauseef: No, I didn’t.

[00:06:18] Stephen Fenech: Wow.

[00:06:19] Trevor Long: I mean, it’s a really interesting part of the journey, isn’t it? Because a lot of the time in a couple, male or female doesn’t matter, there’s just a bit of anticipation or fear around it. There’s a bit of hesitation. And isn’t it interesting how that fuel crisis really tipped a lot of people just completely over the edge?

[00:06:36] Stephen Fenech: But yeah, but how—

[00:06:37] Trevor Long: we’ve got to bring you right back now. How did you end at the GAC Aion 5?

[00:06:43] Tauseef: I look, I have been following electric cars since the first Leaf came out, you know.

[00:06:48] Trevor Long: Yep.

[00:06:50] Tauseef: But I always knew that there’ll be a time that I’ll go electric, but I wanted the technology to catch up. And I’ve been following that YouTube channel, Everything Electric. I think it’s a guy from Britain who does that, and they bring an electric show every year to Sydney. When they came first time to Sydney, I went there. The next year I test drove MG4 and BYD. I don’t remember.

[00:07:20] Stephen Fenech: Probably an Atto or a Sea Lion or something.

[00:07:23] Tauseef: Yeah, it was an Atto, I think.

[00:07:25] Trevor Long: Yeah.

[00:07:26] Tauseef: And then I knew that my Santa Fe will be going, and that’s the time I will buy an electric car. I test drove whenever I got an opportunity. I test drove a few cars. I had come down to GLE EX5, it is.

[00:07:46] Stephen Fenech: Yeah.

[00:07:47] Tauseef: Because the main thing was because we have one in Tamworth, which is around 2 hours from us. But when I compared the GAC Envy and that, I found more value for money. I could not get past the value I was getting.

[00:08:05] Stephen Fenech: Yeah, it’s a nice car.

[00:08:08] Trevor Long: We drove it a little while ago. And I think one of the challenges some people have is the unknown brand, you know, and that makes total sense because it is a brave new world. You know, BYDs established themselves with ups and downs, but they’ve certainly established themselves. We saw sales numbers in recent months, you know, getting them very close to Toyota. Did you— what did you talk to the dealer about in terms of the brand, in terms of, you know, longevity and sales and service?

[00:08:36] Tauseef: I had done I had done most of the research, and then I had also taken a consult from Electric Viking. You remember the guy? Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I had taken a consult from him. He had given me 4 or 5 choices because I had seen so many cars. Like, I was like in a, you know, when you go to a store and you see too many things and then your brain gets scrambled. So, but, uh, then I test drove JACU J5, uh, Geely EX5, and then Tesla and others, and But again, I compared. I had to take a leap of faith here because what I had found out that they will be opening around 100 distributorships in Australia. So I knew that they will open either one in Tamworth or probably in Coffs, which is not very far. Coffs is around 4 hours drive from us. Tamworth is around 2.5 hours drive from us. So it is a bit of a leap of faith, but I have done that always. You know, when I’m convinced about something, I just go for it.

[00:09:36] Stephen Fenech: Yeah, sounds like you’re pretty happy.

[00:09:37] Tauseef: There’s a little risk in that. Yeah, I’m pretty happy till now. It is early days. Yes.

[00:09:43] Trevor Long: And how much driving of the car has the missus done now? Is she not just on board with the financial decision, but—

[00:09:50] Tauseef: She is a little bit overwhelmed with the technology. She hasn’t gotten into it yet, but probably this weekend. Yeah.

[00:09:58] Stephen Fenech: Great.

[00:09:59] Trevor Long: Well, that’s a great story, Tauseef. I’m glad you ended the journey of quite some time in the right place. And now the journey continues and begins as owner. And there’s a lot to learn. And you, and you’re in a really interesting place because being so remote and regional, you’ve kind of got that opportunity to do more testing than most people do. But, you know, I’ve done that drive to Tamworth many a time. So I feel like as long as you know what you’re in for and you’ve planned the journeys and you do them a few times, you’ll be overwhelmed by how good it is. Plus, what a great drive, mate. It’s a good little car.

[00:10:33] Tauseef: No, it is. And I would thank both of you doing a great job. You know, most of my planning and all went according to you guys. Really, you’re doing an absolutely fabulous job. Thank you very much for that.

[00:10:45] Trevor Long: Very, very kind, Tauseef.

[00:10:46] Stephen Fenech: Appreciate the kind words.

[00:10:47] Trevor Long: Lovely, lovely to hear from you, mate. And just keep in touch, mate, as that journey continues. We might hear from you in a few months and get any feedback you’ve got, positive or negative, mate.

[00:10:55] Tauseef: I shall, I shall, I shall. You have a great day and all the best for the show.

[00:10:59] Trevor Long: Thank you so much. Thanks, Tauseef. There you go, Tauseef up in Inverell, which for people that don’t know, New South Wales is kind of north North Central, North New South Wales. So well past Tamworth, you know, closer to the Queensland border than anywhere else.

[00:11:11] Stephen Fenech: And if there’s ever a time when you need to, a place you’re living where you need to know your range and you’ve got to be able to get there.

[00:11:17] Trevor Long: But can we just talk about the absolute kahunas on a bloke to come to Sydney, buy a new car and just go, “Yep, let’s go.” Just take it, let’s drive home. 550 kilometers.

[00:11:28] Stephen Fenech: But he was prepared though. We said, “Get the apps and everything,” and he was prepared.

[00:11:33] Trevor Long: So, you know.

[00:11:35] Stephen Fenech: Baptism of fire.

[00:11:35] Trevor Long: It can’t be a common thing. It can’t be a common thing to drive out of the dealership and go 5 hours.

[00:11:40] Stephen Fenech: Not at all. Not at all. How far was it for you when you got your Cupra?

[00:11:45] Trevor Long: Yeah, I mean, I came home, so 20, 30 km.

[00:11:47] Stephen Fenech: Mine’s like 5 km from my place. So I think I was all right. I think I was going to make it.

[00:11:51] Trevor Long: Oh, well, there’s a new record we’ve set. We know we’ve got Penelope’s test driving record. So now the new record on the show is how far did you drive from the dealership on your first drive? Doesn’t have to be high. 550 km. Tauseef went 550 km.

[00:12:06] Stephen Fenech: That’s the new record.

[00:12:07] Trevor Long: That’s, that’s the benchmark, folks. All right, we’d love to hear from you anytime. Like Tauseef, if you’ve bought a new car, love to share the joy with you. If you’re on the journey, happy to help wherever we can. 0477 657 657. Send us a text or a WhatsApp and we’ll get you on the show. He’s got all the moves, Stephen Fenech, here on Two Bits.

[00:12:35] Stephen Fenech: Better believe it.

[00:12:35] Trevor Long: Talking electric cars. Bryce is on the line. G’day, Bryce.

Bryce — Renault Megane E-Tech, a bargain deal and a Renault RS garage

[00:12:39] Bryce: G’day, gentlemen. How are you?

[00:12:40] Trevor Long: Mate, really good. What’s in the driveway, my man?

[00:12:46] Bryce: A Renault Megane E-Tech.

[00:12:48] Trevor Long: Hey, now the Renaults, that’s a beautiful car. So is that E-Tech, full electric?

[00:12:54] Bryce: Yeah, full electric. Yeah, 100%.

[00:12:55] Trevor Long: We haven’t driven it. Tell us about it, mate.

[00:12:59] Bryce: Drives fantastic, drives like on rails.

[00:13:01] Stephen Fenech: Okay.

[00:13:02] Bryce: And straight off the bat, 300 Newton meters of torque.

[00:13:05] Stephen Fenech: Holy hell.

[00:13:06] Trevor Long: Boom.

[00:13:07] Stephen Fenech: Can you tell us, Bryce, how did you come to settle on that? Were you a previous Renault driver? Are you faithful to the brand, or did you test drive a whole bunch and settle on that one?

[00:13:18] Bryce: 2-minute test drive.

[00:13:20] Trevor Long: Really? Minutes?

[00:13:21] Tauseef: Wow.

[00:13:22] Bryce: Yeah. Just basically how I sort of look around buying a car is I look at the reviews, like the online reviews and all the Australian guys guys raved about how well it drove and it was fantastic. At the time it was well overpriced at $65K, which is, yeah, just no, that’s Tesla money. So no one’s going to buy that. So then they went down to $55K and then talking to people in the trade, they were sort of laughing at how heavily discounted they were. And I thought, oh, hang on, that’s not a bad buy for $46K drive away. And that’s what I settled on.

[00:13:52] Stephen Fenech: So it came from $65K down to $46K?

[00:13:55] Bryce: Yeah. Drive away. Yeah, yeah. $65K. Yeah. They reduced down to $55K and then And then, and then they had the special of $49,000. Like, they’re still on special for just under $50,000. But if you hunt around, they’re doing them for about $46,000.

[00:14:10] Trevor Long: That’s crazy.

[00:14:11] Stephen Fenech: I think you’ve set the record for the best deal on the show.

[00:14:15] Trevor Long: We’re just coming up with records here now. So, but so it sounds to me like you’re, you’re looking for a driver’s car. So you were, you were reading the reviews looking for how it drove, you know, the feeling, right? Which I think I’m the same as you, but I think the question is how did you come to the Renault? Because I would argue, and we could search the transcripts, but I don’t think we’ve talked about Renault much here. So I don’t think we’ve spoken to any other Renault owners. What was the process of getting to Renault? How many others did you read about or consider, or was that the only one?

[00:14:48] Bryce: It was only one because basically I’ve got a 10-year-old Mégane Trophy R275.

[00:14:54] Trevor Long: Stephen nailed it.

[00:14:54] Bryce: In the garage.

[00:14:55] Trevor Long: Yes, Stephen nailed it.

[00:14:56] Stephen Fenech: You’re a Renault guy.

[00:14:57] Trevor Long: You’re a Renault guy.

[00:14:58] Stephen Fenech: You’re a Renault guy. Yeah.

[00:14:59] Bryce: Yeah. Oh, well, and and Nissan, because basically the bit of backstory behind it was I bought like, I just, I’m a mechanic, so I’ve got a foot in both camps. I love electric cars and I love, you know, old school or basically anything with a pulse.

[00:15:11] Tauseef: Okay.

[00:15:12] Trevor Long: Have we spoken before, Bryce?

[00:15:14] Bryce: No, no, no.

[00:15:15] Trevor Long: I feel like we spoke to someone else who’s very similar. They had a, they had a great car in the garage. They were mechanically minded.

[00:15:21] Stephen Fenech: Yeah.

[00:15:21] Trevor Long: And it’s interesting that, and look, I love the fact that you can kind of be passionate for certainly driving style, but also for a brand. I can’t lie. I bought the Cupra because I was passionate about the SEAT brand. But it’s Isn’t it awesome that you ended up with a car that wasn’t only a great deal, but is actually a cracking vehicle? What’s the range on it?

[00:15:40] Bryce: 400, about 424. But I’m in Melbourne and Ballarat’s like 900 meters above sea level. So I can get to Ballarat and back and have 25% left, which is what I need. ‘Cause I have access to a workshop out there. ‘Cause basically I sort of like, I save cars as well. So basically buying, I bought it, came out of a Nissan Patrol Warrior and I bought that the end of ’24. That’s a cracking vehicle. You can’t beat a cold start bimodal firing up that every morning. But unfortunately, here in Melbourne, there’s more people that want it than yourself, if you know what I mean. And I came out of a shopping center one day and here’s this bloke, just don’t know whether he was going to try his luck or not. And as soon as he saw me, he scampered. And I just thought, no, I can’t deal with this. So it’s in the driveway behind a locked gate, but they can see from the street. And I’m just thinking, nah. So I just, funny story was this is just before the oil shock crisis. So that pushed me. And then when I got the offer, I just traded it in, wholesaled it out. And I was just gonna happily just, I usually always have 2 cars registered. So basically I had the Megane and the Warrior and I was happy just to be on 1 car. And then talking to people in the know and they said, oh, these Renault Megane, they’re running them out. So I thought, oh, okay, let’s jump in. So that way if it gets worse and you’re in there, I’m there. And then I sorted out the home charger with EVNext.

[00:17:13] Trevor Long: Nice. Okay, nice. So you’ve taken care of that part. I’m curious, as a car guy, you must have a bunch of car mates. What do they think of the shift to fully electric?

[00:17:26] Bryce: Some are on the fence, some are against it, but it’s just like Oh, he’s just— I don’t know. I don’t know. I just stay out of it, you know? Like, I just— yeah, no, I just—

[00:17:36] Trevor Long: I just don’t invite him around for beers.

[00:17:38] Stephen Fenech: Yeah, but I’m going to say, mate, you don’t— just tell them, this is what I tell people, you don’t know unless you have a go. And you’ve had a go and you’ve got a good deal. Now I’m looking at the car on, uh, so it was the Megane, you said, hey, the Megane E-Tech?

[00:17:52] Tauseef: Yeah, it’s a—

[00:17:52] Bryce: it’s— and see, the other thing too is I saved another $800 because the blue and the red were extra $400. And then if you want the black roof, that was another $400 option as well. So basically I’ve got like the metallic red with a black roof, which I think is the best color.

[00:18:07] Stephen Fenech: Look at that right now.

[00:18:08] Bryce: Nice.

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

[00:18:08] Stephen Fenech: So it’s an SUV. Yeah. SUV style.

[00:18:10] Bryce: Oh no, it’s a hatchback. Sorry.

[00:18:13] Trevor Long: All electric hatchback. It’s a hatch, but they bloody call them like small SUVs these days, don’t they? Just because it’s slightly lifted from, from where a hatch would be, they’ll still call it a bloody small SUV.

[00:18:26] Bryce: And to be honest, the 20-inch wheels are a bit of overkill, but they come— they— that’s what came with the car. Like the basic version in England come with 18s and everyone thinks the 18s are better. But it’s just like with Renault, all they did was they imported the same spec. You can’t get a lower or higher grade than what they imported. They just imported all the same model, basically the E-Tech. And that’s what it’s called, the E-Tech. So there is one model below and there is one model above. Half. But it’s the best of both worlds. Like, I mean, you don’t get leather, but like, at the end of the day, it’s nice fabric. And actually the same fabrics on the dashboard. It’s got a few quirky things, you know what I mean? Being French.

[00:19:02] Stephen Fenech: Well, I was going to ask, mate, you’re a Renault guy already. So what is it about Renault, apart from being French, that’s kept you in the family?

[00:19:11] Bryce: Oh, just like a lot of people knock French cars, but my Renault Mégane RS, I haven’t had a problem with it.

[00:19:18] Trevor Long: Okay.

[00:19:18] Bryce: I’ve only put 11,000 K’s on it because it’s a two-seater, basically stripped out.

[00:19:23] Trevor Long: You’ll keep it that for life.

[00:19:25] Bryce: Yeah, yeah, yeah. It’s basically— it was the Nürburgring special, you know what I mean? They built the car, they put all these special parts on it. So basically they only made 250 worldwide. 50 came here. I snapped one up because basically just they handle and all the parts that are put on, you don’t have to spend any more money on it. You can just go— I’ve only ever done one circuit meet on it and basically, yeah, no, it just drives fantastic. Never had any problems with it. And I thought, you know what, I’ll go electric. And yeah, I haven’t looked back. I’ve done 3,000 K’s.

[00:19:57] Trevor Long: Have you seen the RS Turbo, the Renault 5?

[00:20:01] Tauseef: Yeah.

[00:20:02] Trevor Long: Have you seen that thing? This thing’s— if you search it, Stephen, you’ll see it on AFTM. It’s an absolute rocket. And I don’t think they’re going to make many of those, mate. But that’d sit side by side with your little baby there.

[00:20:14] Bryce: My pockets aren’t that deep. They’re going to be about quarter of a million. My pockets don’t run that deep.

[00:20:19] Stephen Fenech: Can I ask, mate, how is it How is it? Obviously it must be, you’ve been Renault with them a while. How is their customer service, after-sales service, servicing? We have had a few callers over the past few weeks with complaints about the dealer experience. How are they to deal with?

[00:20:37] Bryce: Oh, look, I had, I got a tow bar fitted on the back ’cause I always just like, ’cause he actually can tow 750 kilos with this thing as well.

[00:20:44] Stephen Fenech: Wow.

[00:20:44] Bryce: So that it’s just handy just if you’ve gotta do things or move things. So instead of like getting a removalist in of doing anything. I just bought another little trailer, little 6×4. I think when they removed the rear bumper bar, they didn’t put one of the parking sensors back on. So that came on from— so that went back. And no, look, I haven’t— that was the only issue I had, and they’ve been fantastic to deal with. So I haven’t had a problem with them. So with this car, yeah, no, it’s been great. The other car, yeah, look, that’s a long story.

[00:21:15] Trevor Long: Yeah, that’s a bit specialist, right?

[00:21:19] Bryce: Well, the first dealer was just— they overfilled it with oil and then they tried to blame me and all this.

[00:21:25] Stephen Fenech: And you’re a mechanic, mate, how can they? They can’t blame you, you know what you’re doing.

[00:21:28] Bryce: No, no, well, but the thing is, for the warranty, you’ve got to take it back. So, you know, like, I can’t— like, the car was under warranty, so I can’t service it myself, you know what I mean? So, so I wasn’t happy about that. And then that led to another problem which actually cost Renault warranty, and I took it to another dealer and they were fantastic. So it’s sitting And you know what, that’s a—

[00:21:49] Trevor Long: that’s not an unfamiliar story across different brands and both new and traditional/legacy car brands. You know, some dealers are just better at customer service than others. But it sounds like you’ve landed on something. What a great deal you got.

[00:22:03] Bryce: Wow.

[00:22:03] Trevor Long: What a— what a good-looking car, mate. You’ve done very well.

[00:22:08] Bryce: You guys have got to test drive one because I actually was thinking about the Cupra as well because I was after a driver’s car and this interesting. Like there’s nothing better. You just get in the car and you can be in a crappy mood, but then it puts a smile on your face because you just like the build quality is fantastic. It’s got aluminium doors. It’s actually got, you know, aluminium front end on it and things like that. So that’s, that’s where they’ve spent the money and research into the car.

[00:22:32] Trevor Long: Well, I will, I will send your call to Joshua Dowling, who now works at Renault Australia. Oh, does he? I filled in for Stephen a couple of years ago on the show and he’ll be, he’ll smiles ear to ear to hear your joy with that car. And yeah, we’ll put it on the list for later this year, hopefully. But mate, well done.

[00:22:50] Stephen Fenech: Congratulations.

[00:22:51] Bryce: Yeah, no, thanks. No, thanks. It was great talking to you guys. They’ve just released the update one in Europe, but it doesn’t— I don’t think it looks as good. They’ve actually increased the height and they put a different battery in it. So they are still— I don’t know if they’re still about to come out here or not. So yeah, they’re still evolving it. So the new model The new model is on its way, but I’m keeping this for 10 years. It won’t owe me anything. That’s the way I look at it.

[00:23:13] Trevor Long: Perfect. Fantastic. It’ll save you along the way, mate. Well done, Bryce. Great to hear from you, mate.

[00:23:17] Stephen Fenech: Thanks, mate.

[00:23:18] Bryce: Thanks, guys.

[00:23:18] Trevor Long: Good on you. Cheers, mate. That’s excellent. And again, it’s that niche thing, isn’t it? Isn’t it interesting? Some people buy for— everyone buys for different reasons. And I think Bryce and I are very similar. Driver’s car. Brand loyalty. Brand. There’s a bit of that. You couldn’t have—

[00:23:32] Stephen Fenech: Me too, mate.

[00:23:32] Bryce: Really convinced me.

[00:23:33] Stephen Fenech: I’m a brand guy too. I too.

[00:23:34] Trevor Long: Yeah, yeah. So tell us why you bought your electric car. We’d love to hear from you. 0477 657 657. We got you covered, and we’d love to hear from you. Just chatting EVs with people is such a joy. It is, because we learn from everyone. Yes, little, little tidbits of information here and there.

[00:24:02] Stephen Fenech: Absolutely helps, it helps us all Yeah, yeah, everyone.

[00:24:04] Trevor Long: And it’s funny because we get this over for decades, we’ve done talk radio, and you get that thing where everyone’s like, ah, I wouldn’t ring in, it’s, it’s a silly question, or I wouldn’t ring in, it’s, it’s just my problem. But the, the same problem exists probably in another car, another brand, another place, another time. Yeah, it’s definitely going to help other people.

[00:24:22] Stephen Fenech: And the same, the same anxieties and myths and yeah, these little things that are bugging people, we all have the same ones.

[00:24:28] Trevor Long: Open up your phone’s contacts and type in Two Blokes and save this phone number, 0477 657 657. Anthony did that. G’day, Anthony.

Anthony — Charging costs, public charger frustrations and a Deepal S07

[00:24:37] Anthony: Yeah, hi Steve. Hi Trevor.

[00:24:38] Trevor Long: How are you, mate? Excellent. We’ve spoken before. Where are you at now on your EV journey?

[00:24:44] Anthony: Right, so last time I called you, I was anxiously and nervously awaiting my first EV, being the Deepal SO7. Okay, SO7. Yep, I remember that call.

[00:24:55] Trevor Long: Yep.

[00:24:56] Anthony: Yeah, yeah, yeah. And so it arrived, um, and I’ve had it for just over 2 months.

[00:25:01] Stephen Fenech: Okay. And 2 months in, 2 months in, so you’re still pretty fresh. What, uh, what’s the verdict, mate? How are we?

[00:25:08] Stephen Fenech: Happy?

[00:25:08] Stephen Fenech: Are we— what’s going on?

[00:25:10] Anthony: Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. Look, I’m— I love the car. I mean, you know, I, I could just keep thinking what’s wrong with the car because the value, the price of it was just phenomenal for what I’m getting and what other people comparing it to other cars and that.

[00:25:22] Stephen Fenech: Yeah..

[00:25:23] Anthony: But you don’t see many on the road, which is, you know, sometimes disconcerting, but sometimes nice. But yeah, loving it. But, but 2 months of EV life, I’ve discovered a few things that I can’t understand that no one else is talking about.

[00:25:36] Trevor Long: Oh, let’s talk about it.

[00:25:37] Stephen Fenech: Yeah, let’s go.

[00:25:38] Trevor Long: Yeah.

[00:25:38] Anthony: Unless I’ve totally miscalculated life or I don’t drink the Kool-Aid.

[00:25:42] Trevor Long: Right.

[00:25:43] Anthony: So this is all about the charging costs and experience.

[00:25:47] Stephen Fenech: Yes.

[00:25:48] Anthony: So look, I’ve got a 10-kilowatt solar. I’ve got 13 kilowatt battery and I also have a 3-phase Sungrow charger.

[00:25:57] Stephen Fenech: Okay.

[00:25:58] Trevor Long: Right.

[00:25:58] Anthony: So I’ve got the kit and I’m a semi-retired architect, so I’m an analytical thinker and I have too much time.

[00:26:06] Trevor Long: Spreadsheets, I’m hearing.

[00:26:08] Anthony: Yeah, yeah, yeah. And so, you know, there’s the first problem. So I’ve been— so the first thing I started to look at was how quick the car charges, etc., like that. And I hear all your callers talk about, oh yeah, I’m happy with a granny charger.

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

[00:26:23] Anthony: And you guys promote, yeah, the granny charger is a good way to go. And most people, that works okay. And this is how I started my EV because my son bought a secondhand EV and he was using the granny charger.

[00:26:33] Stephen Fenech: Yeah.

[00:26:34] Anthony: And I thought, that’s fantastic, but I’ll get all my infrastructure in place. I just want to be using a proper car charger and so forth like that. And I thought, oh yeah, this would be sweet, you know, really use the solar and everything like that. And so it’s been very interesting to think about how quick chargers work and how much it all actually costs. So I’ve been, as I said, overthinking it, et cetera, et cetera. And so I had a call, first thing you do, I had a call with my electricity provider to make sure I’m on the right plan with my setup.

[00:27:05] Trevor Long: Yep, sure.

[00:27:07] Anthony: And so they said, yeah, yeah, you’ve got a battery, you’ve got solar and an EV car, you should be on what they call the EV electric plan. Fantastic, works out. I get 12 cents between midnight and 6:00 AM, great. Otherwise it’s like 31 cents.

[00:27:18] Stephen Fenech: Yep, yep.

[00:27:19] Anthony: And I get 2 hours free on Saturday and Sunday, but only at midday. Day between midday and, you know, 12 and 2. Yep.

[00:27:26] Trevor Long: Peak time, peak time for solar generation when there’s essentially excess electricity on the grid.

[00:27:31] Stephen Fenech: Can we ask what provider that is?

[00:27:33] Trevor Long: Which, which provider?

[00:27:34] Anthony: AGL.

[00:27:36] Stephen Fenech: Okay.

[00:27:36] Anthony: Yeah, I’m in Canberra.

[00:27:37] Trevor Long: I was going to say you’re in Canberra.

[00:27:38] Stephen Fenech: Yep.

[00:27:39] Anthony: Yeah. So I don’t really know, you know, how that compare.

[00:27:42] Trevor Long: I hear very different in every state’s very different, but most places have somewhere that has an overnight EV plan and things like like that. So, okay, so you’ve got those numbers in front of you, you’re on the right plan.

[00:27:52] Anthony: All right, so, and this all got me thinking because I just did a big trip to Sydney, my first trip on the road. And so the car has an 80-kilowatt battery, right? I don’t know how that compares with a lot of other cars.

[00:28:02] Trevor Long: Pretty, pretty average.

[00:28:03] Stephen Fenech: Yeah, about standard.

[00:28:04] Anthony: Yeah, yeah, yeah. And so I’m thinking, okay, so if you had a granny charger and you just say you’re charging 20 to 80%, okay, so I worked that out, that’s— I’ve got to go, um, from 16 kilowatts to 60 kilowatts, right? About 48 kilowatts. So it’s what I get. If people were just using a granny charger, you’re only going to get a maximum 2.4 kilowatt charging rate. Yeah, that’s 20 hours. That costs you 20 hours to charge. Yes. Yeah.

[00:28:30] Trevor Long: But so, okay, I’ll stop you right there. Your first assumption there is that people are doing 20 to 80 on a, on a single day of the week. But most people, the average person drives 34 to 40 kilometres a day. And so they’re going, they’re going, they’re actually going from 60 to 73 or, you know, 65 to 80. You know what I mean? They’re topping up as opposed to— the number of times I’ve plugged in and needed to have it on the charger for more than 5 hours is— I don’t even think it’s happened. Apart from once when I drove an electric car to Mum’s pub when she had the pub and there’s no charger there and I’m there for 2 days. So yeah, I took the trickle charger and plugged it in and got as much as I could, right? But that’s not the common scenario. People that tell us that they’re trickle charging using the granny. I think they’re doing it on an either daily or every second day and they’re driving the average and just topping up.

[00:29:21] Anthony: Yeah, yeah, yeah. I get, yeah, yeah, yeah. And I get that. But what I was getting at is like, you know, I find having a proper car charger, a 22-kilowatt charger really makes life easier. I don’t have to like panic or anything like that.

[00:29:33] Trevor Long: But there’s an expense to that, right? You’ve got to buy it and have it installed. So for some people, I think that’s, that’s why we often say just stick with the granny charger if you’re in the routine and you’re just doing small amounts of charging. Charging, totally fine. But I think it’s when people discover that they’ve hit the threshold of needing those nights where I do need to, you know, hit a number faster more often, then you go to the wall charger, which you’ve obviously realised.

[00:29:56] Anthony: Yeah. Yeah. And so I play the game where I make sure I charge after 12 o’clock and if I’ve got excess solar, I quickly plug the car in and so forth like that. And being in Canberra, winter is a real solar challenge. Yeah, winter. Summer, it’s got— summer’s going to be totally different. Totally, totally different. I don’t think I’ll ever pay for any electricity visit in summer. Yeah, but that was this big road trip to Sydney that really got me thinking. You know, you’re sitting in the car for a while, you get to think too much. So it was my first time I was ever using a public charger. Yeah, okay. So I did— I took all the advice, I downloaded all the apps. But when I’m driving to Sydney, I thought, oh look, I was going up there for a funeral, I didn’t know when I’d be able to get a charge, blah blah blah. The car has, you know, theoretically 475-kilometer range, so easy to get to Sydney. But I wanted to stop off and try my first public charger.

[00:30:48] Trevor Long: Yeah.

[00:30:49] Anthony: And that’s when the fun started. Oh, just the app was just being a stupid app and blah blah blah. It took me about 10 minutes to get it going, you know, might be some operator error or whatever. It was just really— anyway, but yeah, once it charges, fantastic. Anyway, so I got it all working, went to this funeral, blah blah blah, all night driving around, oh, everywhere in Sydney. And then, oh, we’re leaving back to Canberra at nighttime. I’ll just pop— I see a BP Pulse charger, fantastic. I’ll go charge up, just top up a little it so I can get to Pheasant’s Nest. That was the plan. So I could then have a break, a coffee, and get some electricity in the car. The charger got stuck. Took me nearly an hour to get the cable out of the car. Oh, not a good experience. No, but I never had that problem anywhere else. So I don’t know if it was—

[00:31:32] Stephen Fenech: so, so you would finish charging and you just couldn’t get the charger out of the car? It wouldn’t let it go.

[00:31:38] Trevor Long: How did you eventually get it out?

[00:31:40] Stephen Fenech: Is there a button or something?

[00:31:42] Anthony: A lot of Googling. Yeah, yeah, they can be frustrating.

[00:31:47] Stephen Fenech: That’s happened to me actually. We drive a new car every week and every experience is different. And that’s happened to me. I think it was the, the LEAP motor did that to me, the LEAP motor. And I’m thinking, how am I going to get it?

[00:31:59] Trevor Long: Just wouldn’t come out. Just sometimes you’ve got to, you’ve got to unlock the car twice because it kind of unlocks the thing.

[00:32:07] Stephen Fenech: Yeah.

[00:32:07] Trevor Long: I mean, there’s a couple of times. So did you have to go to like an emergency cord to get it unplugged or did you just find out why it was stuck?

[00:32:14] Anthony: No, no, no. I had to find where this emergency cord was. And once you pulled that, yeah, hunky dory. And I’ve never had it jam again.

[00:32:21] Trevor Long: Let’s be clear, that sounds like it’s a fault of some sort of communication fault between the BP charger and the car. But unfortunate.

[00:32:27] Anthony: Maybe.

[00:32:28] Stephen Fenech: Yeah.

[00:32:28] Anthony: Yeah. And like I said, I used the Ampol ones after that. Never had a problem.

[00:32:31] Stephen Fenech: Yeah.

[00:32:31] Trevor Long: Down at Fitness First.

[00:32:32] Bryce: Yeah.

[00:32:33] Anthony: After I charge the car and I’m driving back home, blah, blah, blah, I’m starting to calculate everything in my head. How much is it all costing? Anyway, I worked it out. So for me to charge leaving Canberra Canberra, Sydney, back to Canberra using my car home charger, filling up. And so I had to go, you know, fill the whole car up, got to 100%, left, drove to Sydney, paid for public charging and everything like that. Works out about $50 for a trip. That’s pretty good, which is not bad.

[00:32:58] Trevor Long: Not horrible. Not bad. Let’s be clear, it’s not as good as other charging formats. That’s the most expensive way to fill your car up.

[00:33:05] Bryce: No doubt.

[00:33:06] Anthony: Which gets me to another point. So I have a Volvo. I came from a Volvo V40. A diesel, which is very economical. Yeah, that would have easily done that trip there and back on one tank. So say just over $100. So yeah, you’re doing better than the diesel car, but you didn’t have to have all the stops. But I would stop anyway because I’d have coffee and toilet breaks and so forth. So not real drama, not a real problem. But it’s just interesting, you know, that’s okay, half the price. But then that got me thinking further. So if you just had to use public chargers all the time, because you don’t have infrastructure and so forth like that. It gets pretty expensive. ‘Cause I think these public chargers are overpriced at 75 cents on average.

[00:33:48] Stephen Fenech: Yeah, you know what? It is, it’s pretty competitive. It’s around that range of cost, like around 65, 75, 80 cents sometimes. And being fast chargers, that’s what you’re paying for. Like if you were parked at a slow charger, often some of them are free or really cheap.

[00:34:06] Anthony: Oh really?

[00:34:07] Stephen Fenech: I haven’t found them.

[00:34:11] Trevor Long: Yeah, because you’re paying for the speed and the high power. That’s why it’s high.

[00:34:12] Stephen Fenech: And look, I think if I’m hearing you correctly, what you’ve determined is that, you know, broadly public charging is about half the price of a petrol diesel car and your own private charging probably comes down to a third or less. And obviously, as you said, in summer it’s going to be even better. But across the year, let’s just call it a third. That still sticks with a decade’s worth of calculations that I’ve been doing on this.

[00:34:34] Trevor Long: Yeah, but plus the servicing. Plus servicing, that’s the real catch.

[00:34:37] Stephen Fenech: Yeah. Yeah.

[00:34:40] Trevor Long: Yeah, that’s the catch as in saving?

[00:34:42] Anthony: There’s no question. Much lower maintenance, brakes, everything.

[00:34:46] Stephen Fenech: I was sick of the service costs.

[00:34:47] Trevor Long: Just on your journey, I know a lot of people, they don’t live in Sydney or capital city, they’ve gotta come in and out. They’ve often got you’ve got to book overnight accommodation. My recommendation is if wherever you’re looking to stay, ask if they’ve got a charger. So if you are traveling to Sydney or wherever and you’re staying the night, plug the car in there if they’ve got a charger. I recently went up to visit my daughter in Newcastle and we stayed the night and there was a— and I checked the hotel we stayed at, had a free charger for me to use.

[00:35:19] Stephen Fenech: Also, you can just ask the question, is there a power point? You could take your granny charger and —because your car’s going to be in the driveway or in the car park of the hotel for probably 8 to 10 hours. So even that is going to be 30 to 40% of the charge. So sometimes it’s just about being a little bit, a little bit forward thinking and smart about that stuff. But the other interesting thing about listening to your journey into Sydney before we let you go was, you know, you kind of were in Sydney needing a charge on the way home, whereas I would argue that charging in a metropolitan area is actually actually the hardest thing because there isn’t a lot of chargers. There’s more chargers on the roads than there are in a major— there’s probably some good ones popping up around Sydney now, but actually whenever I’m doing the Canberra trip, I’m charging at Pheasants Nest or Goulburn, never in Canberra or Sydney. Do you know what I mean? So sometimes you’re charging on the way. Yeah, on— yeah, as a part of the journey. Um, that can make a difference too.

[00:36:12] Anthony: That’s how I was just trying to work it all out, but, um, I was getting a little bit nervous on range and what if something happens with raining and everything. I just wanted to make sure I had comfortable range to visit. I ended up getting home with 10% left, so I worked it all out. So I didn’t have to unnecessarily—

[00:36:27] Trevor Long: See, I’d find that to be uncomfortable. People said to us the Better Route Planner has this thing where you can say, you know, you want to be on 10% or 20% and how fast you go. I’ve put my settings on a Better Route Planner to say I’m going to drive at 110% of the speed because I want it to know that I’m going to use more juice. I want to arrive and leave with 20%. I never want to I see less than 20%. Just because I know that if it does get there, I’ll be okay. But I just would prefer to have a much simpler plan. And I think, Anthony, that’s what you’ve discovered through that. Just quickly before we let you go, what do you like the car? You’re loving it? Good decision overall? The physical car, the choice of the DePal?

[00:37:07] Anthony: Yeah, look, fantastic. I said incredible, incredible value for what you get. It’s just, you know, and I jumped on all the forums on Facebook and everything like that. And it’s really good. And 99% of people, people love the car, love the car. And then this one person said, oh my God, the seats were so uncomfortable. And then that stuck in my head. Yeah. Now every time I hop in the car, is this seat uncomfortable or whatever? And no, it’s okay. But that’s the only sort of complaint. My wife loves the seats. They’re fantastic, she said. And but I’ve never, ever, ever, ever sat and I’ve never said so. I decided to sit in the back seat. I said, oh my God, this is like a lounge chair. It’s beautiful. So comfortable. And I was so excited. To take relatives up to this funeral and they could all go in the back seat and everything. Then someone said on a Facebook page, do not sit in the middle seat. And I thought, I’ve never done that. I’ve never trialed a middle seat out in the car. Oh my God, it’s like sitting on timber because I never ever would think about sitting in the middle seat or what that means in the car. Yeah, true. So yeah, but other than that, the car, like I said, it’s 99% fantastic. And the only concern is why is it so cheap? And, you know, you’ve got a good deal.

[00:38:15] Trevor Long: Well, that’s the brand. That’s, that’s, that’s the position in the market, really.

[00:38:19] Anthony: Yeah. And I came from a Volvo and, you know, and every time I slip back in that Volvo, I think that, oh my God, I’m driving a sports car. It’s just fantastic European quality, blah, blah, blah. So my only regret is with that, I always wanted to get a European electric car because, yes, I’ve always had European cars. Cars. So that is my only nagging thought always in the back of my head. But there’s nothing wrong with this car.

[00:38:43] Trevor Long: Every time I drive it, practicality and value, mate, you got a great deal. And your next car, your second EV, or the, the, when you’re— if you’re ever replaced the Deepal, maybe that’ll be a European car, mate. But, uh, a lot of learnings.

[00:38:56] Anthony: And yeah, say one other thing about the electric charging. So what I discovered, it’s electric cars are definitely not for everyone. Yeah, there is no way way my— well, I’m 60, all right? There’s no way that my father would ever know how to manage electric cars.

[00:39:14] Trevor Long: And I wouldn’t bother trying to convince my mum to go electric, there’s no doubt about that.

[00:39:17] Anthony: But also, I don’t think this country’s infrastructure is up to it because if more and more people go electric cars, we need more and more electric charging. Right, true. And this is the oxymoron that we’re going to have more electric demand on the grid and so forth, and the grid can’t handle it as it is. Oh yeah, we’ve— Houses are only wired up for enough. So they’re going to have to increase the grid and they go and pass the costs on to the consumer.

[00:39:42] Anthony: And so the electric costs—

[00:39:43] Stephen Fenech: that’s a whole other conversation right there.

[00:39:45] Trevor Long: Exactly. A very different conversation, Anthony. I’ll say this. It’s— I don’t believe the story that people say, and you kind of alluded to there, that houses aren’t— there’s no issue with providing power to homes to power, to charge electric cars. The only issue we have as a country is the infrastructure infrastructure out of home on the highways, and that’s scaling up to be ready for the public to have many, many more electric cars. We’ve got to move on, Anthony. We’ve run out of time, mate. Thank you so much for sharing your experience with us, mate. Love it. Good on you, buddy. Thanks so much. Good to hear from you. Cheers. Yeah, I mean, I hear it.

[00:40:22] Stephen Fenech: I know you echo the feelings of a lot of people. Yeah, A, it’s not for everyone. We know that for a fact, right? It is a learning curve. As well, number 2. And yeah, there is public infrastructure, as he said, the more people buy cars, the more demand there is for public charging. And so where does that go?

[00:40:42] Trevor Long: And look, I don’t think there’s any issue. If you see someone on Sky News complaining about how the Australian homes won’t be able to cope with the number of cars parked in driveways, not an issue. Like there’s no issue with the number of air conditioners in homes currently and they drag down the electric. So, you know what I mean? It’s not about what’s in the home, it’s about how much power is being generated. So is there enough power being generated by our grid for Australia? That’s a question for the government about their electricity infrastructure at a generation level, not at a grid distribution level. Very, very different.

[00:41:14] Stephen Fenech: How many of our callers say to us in the first sentence, I’ve got solar, I’ve got a battery.

[00:41:20] Trevor Long: Australia has more rooftop solar than any country in the world.

[00:41:24] Stephen Fenech: I think there’s a lot of people assume that buying an EV means you probably need to have solar. I think they come sort of hand in hand. You don’t actually have to have solar. It’s handy if you do, but I think there’s a lot of people who I think want to have that, that peace of mind, that backup of saying, okay, I’m generating my own energy if I do need to charge at home. Yeah, for sure.

[00:41:44] Trevor Long: Well, we’d love to hear from you wherever you’re at in the EV journey, whatever you’ve got on your roof, doesn’t matter what’s in your driveway. Or what are you thinking about putting in the driveway? We’d love to hear from you. 0477 657 657. We’ll do it all again next week here on Two Blokes Talking Electric Cars. See you then, Stephen.

[00:41:59] Stephen Fenech: I’ll be right here. Will you? Right there? Definitely will. Right here. All right.