It's Good To Torque - The WhichEV Podcast
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It's Good To Torque - The WhichEV Podcast
Are EVs the Answer to Rising Fuel Costs? It's Good To Torque, Episode 3
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In this episode of It’s Good to Torque, James Morris and co-host Tim Barnes-Clay dive into the latest shifts in the automotive world as EV adoption continues to accelerate.
With UK battery electric vehicles now accounting for over 24% of new car sales and fuel prices climbing, the duo explore whether electric vehicles are finally becoming the practical—and financial—alternative to petrol and diesel. They break down the real barriers still holding drivers back, from upfront cost and charging infrastructure to the ever-persistent “range anxiety.”
The conversation also covers:
- The resurgence of plug-in hybrids and whether they still have a long-term role
- The rise of affordable EVs like the Renault 5 and a wave of new models from China
- Advances in battery technology, including the promise of solid-state batteries
- The reality of public charging costs versus home charging savings
- Whether 500-mile EVs could mark a true tipping point for mass adoption
Along the way, expect plenty of humour, industry insight, and a few nostalgic detours into motoring past—from fuel gauge roulette to classic hot hatches.
Is the UK on the brink of an electric revolution, or are there still hurdles to overcome? Tune in to find out.
00:00:14 James Morris
Hello and welcome to another episode of the Renewed podcast from WhichEV.
00:00:18 James Morris
It's good to talk, just to remind you that's a clever play on words.
00:00:22 James Morris
I'm James Morris, editor of Which UV, and this episode I have back my co-host, the seasoned automotive journalist, Mr Tim Barnes Clay.
00:00:31 James Morris
He's much more experienced than me and has been driving cars since the 19th century.
00:00:35 James Morris
His first review was a traction engine for Watt Steam magazine in 1887.
00:00:41 James Morris
Speaking of different types of fuel, on that note, we're recording this episode on the day that the UK's car sales figures have been released and yesterday the European ones came out.
00:00:50 James Morris
In Europe, sales went up a little bit, but internal combustion went down, while plug-ins had a bonanza.
00:00:57 James Morris
In the UK, the market grew a bit more than Europe in general, but BVs, or battery electric vehicles, are now over 24% of sales volume, up from nearly 23% this time last year.
00:01:08 James Morris
Plug-in hybrids are also having a resurgence.
00:01:12 James Morris
So we don't want to talk too much about things going on in the Middle East right now, because this is a car podcast, not the rest is politics.
00:01:19 James Morris
But however, the effects of what's going on there has been petrol and particularly diesel prices absolutely soaring.
00:01:25 James Morris
So the question is, are EVs the antidote to expensive fossil fuel?
00:01:29 James Morris
What do you think, Tim?
00:01:32 Tim Barnes-Clay
Well, I mean, it's difficult to speak without mentioning what's going on in the Middle East, really, when it comes to this topic, because clearly the outbreak of the conflict means that
00:01:45 Tim Barnes-Clay
fuel prices have jumped significantly here in the UK.
00:01:51 Tim Barnes-Clay
So I do think that people who maybe had never even considered any kind of electrified transport are now looking and thinking maybe a hybrid, maybe a BEV could be something to research.
00:02:07 Tim Barnes-Clay
So I suspect that this is behind a few of the sales figures, people have pulled the trigger.
00:02:15 Tim Barnes-Clay
And I also think there's a growing kind of learning experience going on.
00:02:21 Tim Barnes-Clay
Some people's concern about range is being kicked to the curb because we're seeing more and more cars that are capable of real world, not just claims, but real world ranges of north of 300 miles, which in, you know, a small country like the United Kingdom is
00:02:41 Tim Barnes-Clay
you can live with that, can't you?
00:02:43 Tim Barnes-Clay
So there has to be, there has to be, you know, those two areas, I think are well behind these figures.
00:02:51 Tim Barnes-Clay
But I do believe that when it comes to hybrid technology, for instance, I was over in Frankfurt, you were as well at the MG Tech Day, and we were talking, weren't we, regarding not just batteries, but we were talking about
00:03:06 Tim Barnes-Clay
hybrid technology.
00:03:08 Tim Barnes-Clay
And one of the experts there was just convinced that hybrids weren't going anywhere anytime soon.
00:03:14 Tim Barnes-Clay
And in fact, they were going to be around for not just years, but decades to come.
00:03:18 James Morris
Yeah, I mean, we'll talk, I think, about the resurgence of the plug-in hybrid, or FEV, as they were called.
00:03:27 James Morris
I'll do that bit again, because my computer just went and did a bong in the background there.
00:03:32 James Morris
Give me a second.
00:03:34 James Morris
Just going to...
00:03:36 James Morris
You can still hear me okay, right?
00:03:38 Tim Barnes-Clay
Yeah.
00:03:38 James Morris
Great.
00:03:39 James Morris
I've got some other speakers attached to this system.
00:03:41 James Morris
Right, I'll go back to there.
00:03:44 James Morris
Yeah, so we'll talk about the rise of the plugin hybrid or the FEV a bit later in today's episode.
00:03:51 James Morris
But, you know, because this is something that has, you know, come back again and a lot of them are coming from China, you know, so you mentioned MG, but I think if you think about the things that are, what are the main impediments that people cite for
00:04:06 James Morris
not wanting to go for battery electric vehicles apart from the usual, oh, I hate them, they're milk floats kind of stuff, which I think we can just really ignore because there's nothing you can really do to change people who have a kind of built-in endemic hatred of a technology for no apparent reason.
00:04:22 James Morris
But price is 1, range is another, and where do you charge them?
00:04:27 James Morris
Those are probably three of the major ones.
00:04:31 James Morris
And I would argue that actually the
00:04:35 James Morris
The cheaper aspects of Bevs is really, you know, it's coming of age.
00:04:40 James Morris
I mean, you've driven the Renault 5, right?
00:04:42 James Morris
I don't know if you've actually borrowed one.
00:04:44 James Morris
I mean, I've got, I've got the, it's equivalent, the Nissan Micra sitting right outside my house right now, which I've been reviewing, which is basically the Renault 5 in a actually quite attractive Nissan dress.
00:04:58 James Morris
And that car, you know, that's also 21,000 pounds for a car with 200 miles of range.
00:05:04 James Morris
So what do you think of, you've also, I think, driven the Alpine version of that, right?
00:05:09 James Morris
So what do you think of that car?
00:05:11 Tim Barnes-Clay
What, the Alpine?
00:05:13 Tim Barnes-Clay
Well, I think when it comes down to certainly the Renault 5, the Alpine, I mean, they're A, they're very, very good looking cars.
00:05:19 Tim Barnes-Clay
You don't have to be into cars to appreciate their good looks.
00:05:23 Tim Barnes-Clay
I think the range is bang on.
00:05:24 Tim Barnes-Clay
But I do think what you've said earlier, I'll just address that.
00:05:27 Tim Barnes-Clay
I think those that don't want to go down the EV route, it all boils down to one thing.
00:05:33 Tim Barnes-Clay
Fear.
00:05:34 Tim Barnes-Clay
People that go on about, oh, I don't want to do this, I want to do that, I don't want to do the other, you know, technophobes.
00:05:39 Tim Barnes-Clay
They used to be bored, but still are.
00:05:42 Tim Barnes-Clay
They don't know how to do it.
00:05:43 Tim Barnes-Clay
They've always done something a certain way and they're not prepared to try something new.
00:05:49 Tim Barnes-Clay
So if you look at cars like the 105, like the Alpine, you know, it's madness to ignore.
00:05:58 Tim Barnes-Clay
such good value.
00:06:00 Tim Barnes-Clay
Madness to assume.
00:06:02 Tim Barnes-Clay
I mean, what's the biggest worry?
00:06:03 Tim Barnes-Clay
You're going to run out of electricity.
00:06:06 Tim Barnes-Clay
You're going to run out of juice.
00:06:07 Tim Barnes-Clay
It's the same with it's the same with fossil fuel cars.
00:06:12 Tim Barnes-Clay
When was the last time you were absolutely paranoid about your tank running dry?
00:06:17 Tim Barnes-Clay
Yeah, nowhere.
00:06:18 James Morris
You're still talking about cars, right?
00:06:20 Tim Barnes-Clay
Yeah, I certainly am.
00:06:22 Tim Barnes-Clay
Unless you are literally in the wilds of, I don't know, what, Norfolk or Scotland or wherever.
00:06:28 Tim Barnes-Clay
Most people will go, actually, I haven't got that much left in the tank.
00:06:32 Tim Barnes-Clay
I'd better go and fill up before.
00:06:33 James Morris
I did have an incident in the wilds of kind of North London actually.
00:06:37 Tim Barnes-Clay
Oh, Finchley, the wilds of Finchley on or somewhere within the borough of Barney.
00:06:43 James Morris
People aren't supposed to know where I live.
00:06:45 James Morris
No, I was driving back my, this is a bit of a brag, driving my Porsche back from somewhere and
00:06:54 James Morris
I thought, well, I'm on by about 5% fuel, I better go and fill up.
00:06:58 James Morris
I used the sat nav to find a petrol station, got to the petrol station and found that actually, instead of a petrol station, there was a massive hole in the ground because it had actually been totally dug up and removed from, and then I was a little bit worried.
00:07:16 Tim Barnes-Clay
Yeah, well, I'm not surprised, you know, that anxiety would kick in with most people there.
00:07:21 Tim Barnes-Clay
Okay, so you remember your,
00:07:23 Tim Barnes-Clay
Old enough, so am I actually, to have driven?
00:07:26 James Morris
Well, I haven't done the steam engines that you did, so.
00:07:28 Tim Barnes-Clay
No, Well, yeah, okay, you know.
00:07:31 James Morris
What did you think of that tractor engine after all?
00:07:34 James Morris
I mean, I mean, presumably, when fossil fuels cars came out, you were like, oh, they're not going to be anywhere near as good as these steam engines, those smelly things, like a nice bit of steam, it's like a sauna, basically.
00:07:47 Tim Barnes-Clay
True, it took me a while before my anxiety was delayed, but
00:07:52 Tim Barnes-Clay
I did move on with the times and finally I got to drive cars that didn't even tell you how much mileage you had left.
00:07:58 Tim Barnes-Clay
Do you remember all those days where you literally had just a little needle to float around and you'd think, oh, maybe I should fill up, maybe I shouldn't?
00:08:06 James Morris
Did you ever play that game where you'd get it to the bottom and think, so how much further can I go?
00:08:11 James Morris
Do you ever play that game?
00:08:12 Tim Barnes-Clay
Oh, yeah.
00:08:13 Tim Barnes-Clay
Oh, yeah.
00:08:13 Tim Barnes-Clay
And it got a couple of times.
00:08:15 James Morris
Oh, I did.
00:08:16 James Morris
There's an episode of Seinfeld that had to talk over you there, which is horrible for our listeners, but there's an episode of Seinfeld where they did that.
00:08:23 James Morris
They encouraged me to try that.
00:08:24 James Morris
And yes, I must admit, my wife wasn't too impressed with that game that I was playing.
00:08:30 Tim Barnes-Clay
It's a weird game.
00:08:31 Tim Barnes-Clay
And when you're on a motorbike, because I did run out of fuel on a motorbike, but luckily the older bikes used to have a little lever.
00:08:36 Tim Barnes-Clay
You could reach down under the tank.
00:08:37 Tim Barnes-Clay
It was a reserve tank.
00:08:38 Tim Barnes-Clay
You just used to feel the bike suddenly going stuttering and you just move the lever onto reserve and you'd have a little bit left.
00:08:46 Tim Barnes-Clay
in that tank to get to the fuel station.
00:08:49 Tim Barnes-Clay
Older cars, you would just get to that kind of E for empty and then kind of hope and pray that you could maybe go on vapour to the next petrol station.
00:08:57 Tim Barnes-Clay
These cars of today sort of give you that false sense of security.
00:09:00 Tim Barnes-Clay
And we're still talking combustion engine here.
00:09:02 Tim Barnes-Clay
Oh, you've got 30 miles of range, 15, 10, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, nothing.
00:09:08 Tim Barnes-Clay
And you think, actually, I'm still driving on nothing.
00:09:10 Tim Barnes-Clay
It's great.
00:09:12 Tim Barnes-Clay
But you can get caught out if you...
00:09:14 James Morris
The thing about petrol car is you can take a can.
00:09:17 James Morris
I mean, I had a can in the back of my Porsche, but I mean, just to kind of put a case in point, like if I drove it gingerly, I could get 350 miles out of that car.
00:09:27 James Morris
And if I drove it...
00:09:28 James Morris
with enjoyment, which is, why would you buy a car?
00:09:31 James Morris
It got about 300, slightly over 300 miles, and that had a big tank, it was like 75 litres or something, and it wasn't a particularly like a number cool car for that kind of that kind of vehicle, but that kind of shows you that actually, and that was perfectly fine.
00:09:45 James Morris
I mean, I went all the way up to Wales, you know, did the Black Mountains, you know, did all kinds of stuff in that car, and it wasn't a problem that it only had 300 miles of range.
00:09:55 James Morris
So, I mean, I think
00:09:56 James Morris
I mean, the point to make about these new cheaper cars, if you think about, cheap EVs, I mean, I mean, the kind of the first one that came out that really said these prices are, now you can buy an EV for parity or even less was the Data Spring.
00:10:14 James Morris
And then I think, you know, you reviewed the Leapmotor T03 for us at which EV, which?
00:10:20 Tim Barnes-Clay
Indeed, indeed.
00:10:22 Tim Barnes-Clay
And
00:10:24 Tim Barnes-Clay
we've we've done quite a few EVs, haven't we?
00:10:26 Tim Barnes-Clay
With yourself presenting.
00:10:28 James Morris
I mean, it is which EV, so you know it's that's not a big surprise.
00:10:32 James Morris
It's not a steam engine, you know, like the magazine used to work for.
00:10:38 Tim Barnes-Clay
We might get more views or listeners if it was which steam engine.
00:10:40 Tim Barnes-Clay
You just don't know.
00:10:42 Tim Barnes-Clay
There are people out there, I mean, only fans.
00:10:45 Tim Barnes-Clay
That's that.
00:10:46 James Morris
Yeah, well, okay.
00:10:47 James Morris
Well, I told you, you're not allowed to plug your only fans.
00:10:51 Tim Barnes-Clay
Oh, yes.
00:10:52 James Morris
On the podcast.
00:10:54 Tim Barnes-Clay
Let me quickly plug while we're talking about plugs.
00:10:57 Tim Barnes-Clay
I must I must talk about Kicking Tyres, which is a serious podcast with the unlike this one.
00:11:07 Tim Barnes-Clay
with the esteemed Adam Gray, another motoring journalist that I believe you know.
00:11:12 James Morris
Anyway, moving swiftly on, talking about these EVs, so we talked about a couple of, it's interesting because I don't think the Elite Motor T03 has done particularly well in the UK, but that's actually been one of the best selling vehicles in Europe.
00:11:25 James Morris
You know, the Renault 5 has been a standout hit.
00:11:28 James Morris
You know, the
00:11:29 James Morris
The Tesla Model Y is doing well as always.
00:11:32 James Morris
The Renault 5 was, really a big hit.
00:11:36 James Morris
But what's great about, I mean, okay, the Data Spring and the Leapmotor T03, you know, you are sacrificing range with those.
00:11:45 James Morris
But the nice thing about the Renault 5 and the Nissan Micra and the other car that we reviewed together, the BYG Dolphin Surf and the new Kia EV2 that's coming, that's got quite a reasonable price, or the Hyundai Insta, is that all of those cars, you can
00:11:59 James Morris
get them with WLTP ranges about 250 miles, which is actually, you know, still for kind of around the 25 grand mark, you know, and frankly, you know, that is, that's enough for if you, you know, if you've got a 20 mile commute, you could do, you know, almost a full week of commuting with that without having to charge.
00:12:22 Tim Barnes-Clay
Easily.
00:12:23 Tim Barnes-Clay
And I can't remember now, but we also
00:12:26 Tim Barnes-Clay
reviewed the Amoda E5, didn't we?
00:12:29 James Morris
Yeah.
00:12:31 Tim Barnes-Clay
What's the range on that?
00:12:32 James Morris
But you mean the JQ E5?
00:12:38 Tim Barnes-Clay
Yes, of course.
00:12:39 Tim Barnes-Clay
How could I have made such a mistake?
00:12:41 Tim Barnes-Clay
Let's pick that up again.
00:12:43 James Morris
No, let's leave it the way it is.
00:12:48 James Morris
I think, because it makes you look bad and me look good, and that's what this podcast is all about.
00:12:52 Tim Barnes-Clay
The Jaiku.
00:12:53 James Morris
Or Jaiku, as I sometimes try and call it, which is.
00:12:56 Tim Barnes-Clay
You keep calling it Jaiku.
00:12:58 James Morris
I tell you why, it's because it reminds me of an ex-girlfriend, which is a good thing that my wife doesn't actually listen to this podcast.
00:13:04 Tim Barnes-Clay
Or watch.
00:13:05 James Morris
Or watch his podcast.
00:13:06 Tim Barnes-Clay
Why was she called Jaiku by any chance, was she your girlfriend?
00:13:09 James Morris
Let's not go there.
00:13:13 Tim Barnes-Clay
So, anyway, I'm saying it now, J Coupe E5.
00:13:17 Tim Barnes-Clay
What was the what was the range on that officially?
00:13:19 Tim Barnes-Clay
Two 100 or something.
00:13:21 James Morris
Yeah, I think it was owned well north of 200, and again, we our video of that is being quite popular on YouTube, and it's being viewed quite a lot.
00:13:33 James Morris
I think it's one of the most popular videos we've done in the last year or so, and there's obviously a lot of interest in that car.
00:13:40 James Morris
I mean, I mean, actually, one of the probably the standard
00:13:43 James Morris
Now, it's not an EV related stat, but the standout success story of March and the year in terms of car sales in the UK has been the JQ7, which is the best, was the best selling car last month and the second best selling car so far this year.
00:14:06 James Morris
So if it carries on like that, I mean, you see tons of those on the roads now.
00:14:11 James Morris
the success of that is almost certainly because it kind of looks like a Range Rover, which isn't surprising because they have a joint venture with JLR in China.
00:14:23 James Morris
So that's less of a surprise when you realize that they've got some access to the kind of the JLR DNA.
00:14:30 James Morris
But you know, it's a good looking car.
00:14:31 James Morris
But I have actually driven the seven.
00:14:34 James Morris
You've driven it, right.
00:14:35 Tim Barnes-Clay
Yeah, I've driven it.
00:14:36 Tim Barnes-Clay
And it's a really, yeah, you're right.
00:14:38 Tim Barnes-Clay
A, it's a really good looking car being shallow for a second.
00:14:41 Tim Barnes-Clay
But yes, it is.
00:14:43 Tim Barnes-Clay
The price is great.
00:14:44 Tim Barnes-Clay
It drives really well.
00:14:46 Tim Barnes-Clay
And let's face it, most people aren't driving these cars to be racing drivers.
00:14:49 Tim Barnes-Clay
They're good family cars.
00:14:51 Tim Barnes-Clay
They do what they say on the tin.
00:14:54 Tim Barnes-Clay
As I keep saying, this is effectively a small island.
00:14:56 Tim Barnes-Clay
People keep thinking, oh, I'm going to run out of rail, I'm going to run out.
00:14:59 Tim Barnes-Clay
What am I going to do?
00:15:00 Tim Barnes-Clay
You're never that far from a charging station these days.
00:15:03 Tim Barnes-Clay
Actually, more and more people are getting...
00:15:06 Tim Barnes-Clay
Wall boxes, yes, there's the issues when it comes to terraced housing and flats, but that's a whole new topic we can chat about at another time.
00:15:12 Tim Barnes-Clay
But ultimately, that is a great example of a car that is very affordable.
00:15:17 Tim Barnes-Clay
And yeah, you can live with it on a daily basis, no problem.
00:15:23 James Morris
I think you bring up a good point.
00:15:24 James Morris
I don't think it's shallow to look at appearance because yes, the Renault 5 and now the Nissan Micra, which is based on the same platform,
00:15:34 James Morris
are, they've got, you can get, there's a 200 mile version, there's a 250 mile version of those cars.
00:15:41 James Morris
They're not, they're super quick, but they are pretty fun to drive.
00:15:43 James Morris
But the key thing is that both those cars look pretty cool as well.
00:15:48 James Morris
I mean, I think the Renault 5, I think even Jeremy Clarkson actually said nice things about the Renault 5, the way it looks, because it looks like, I think the Nissan Micro is slightly different because it's not carking back to this kind of quite such a classic era.
00:16:04 James Morris
Although a lot of people quite like the way the Nissan Micra, certain versions of it, have looked in the past.
00:16:09 James Morris
It wasn't a favour of mine.
00:16:11 James Morris
I actually think this new version is way better looking than any previous version of the Micra that has existed.
00:16:18 James Morris
But I think the Renault 5, I did like the Renault 5, you know, like you remember the Renault 5 Turbo, Gordini, all those things.
00:16:25 Tim Barnes-Clay
Do I remember it?
00:16:26 Tim Barnes-Clay
I had a Renault 5, one of my, yeah, it was one of my first cars.
00:16:30 James Morris
Was that the first steam version when it came out?
00:16:32 Tim Barnes-Clay
It was, it ran on steam.
00:16:34 Tim Barnes-Clay
Actually, no, mine was, it almost ran on steam.
00:16:36 Tim Barnes-Clay
1975, and it had been rebuilt to look like a Renault 5 Gordini Turbo.
00:16:44 Tim Barnes-Clay
I was, what, 17, 18 when I had it, so I absolutely loved the fact it looked like it.
00:16:50 Tim Barnes-Clay
Anyone that knew anything about cars could tell it wasn't, but it looked really good.
00:16:54 Tim Barnes-Clay
I ended up rolling that in a field, though, three times, wrecked it, had loads of fiberglass.
00:16:58 James Morris
Why'd you do it the second and third times?
00:17:00 James Morris
It wasn't the first time.
00:17:01 Tim Barnes-Clay
Well, yeah.
00:17:02 Tim Barnes-Clay
The first one wasn't dramatic enough, so I had to go over again and again.
00:17:06 Tim Barnes-Clay
Great looking car, and I think it's great.
00:17:07 James Morris
Did you survive?
00:17:08 Tim Barnes-Clay
Kind of.
00:17:09 Tim Barnes-Clay
I mean, I've still got that plug in me to keep going, but yeah, almost.
00:17:14 Tim Barnes-Clay
I'd say something about that car, though.
00:17:17 Tim Barnes-Clay
Let's face it, a lot of the designers are your age now, and my age.
00:17:22 James Morris
21, very young you've been.
00:17:24 Tim Barnes-Clay
They're appealing to us, aren't they?
00:17:26 Tim Barnes-Clay
They're appealing to the younger versions of ourselves.
00:17:28 Tim Barnes-Clay
Yeah.
00:17:29 Tim Barnes-Clay
And people like you and me will be buying them or leasing them.
00:17:33 Tim Barnes-Clay
But equally, goes to show, a good shape never goes out of fashion because there are younger people buying this.
00:17:40 James Morris
Just look at my body.
00:17:40 James Morris
No, I don't look at my body.
00:17:41 Tim Barnes-Clay
Well, yeah, you've got hair.
00:17:44 Tim Barnes-Clay
I've got a dark beard, but you've got grey hair, but we're kind of a similar age-ish, aren't we?
00:17:49 James Morris
Yeah, 21.
00:17:49 James Morris
I said that before.
00:17:50 James Morris
I mean, the thing about this retro thing is really interesting, actually.
00:17:53 James Morris
I mean, it's a bit of a digression with what I want to talk about, but I think, you know, I've mentioned the Hyundai Insta and the Kia EV2, you know, and I think what that, the Hyundai Motor Group, because basically Hyundai and Kia are part of the same kind of
00:18:09 James Morris
HMG kind of owns both of them.
00:18:11 James Morris
I'm not exactly sure about the whole corporate arrangement, but they share platforms anyway.
00:18:16 James Morris
But they've gone in quite different directions in terms of design.
00:18:20 James Morris
You know, Hyundai's gone in a more retro direction and Kia has gone in a more futuristic direction.
00:18:26 James Morris
And so I'm, you know, the Hyundai Insta has got a sort of
00:18:33 James Morris
funky retro look about it, whereas the EV2 continues this kind of futuristic family look that we've had and I guess, I don't know what was the first one to have that maybe the EV6 and then you've got the EV5 that you reviewed, EV4, EV3.
00:18:48 James Morris
I mean, these are all fantastic cars.
00:18:50 James Morris
I mean, they're, you know, they're super popular.
00:18:52 James Morris
You see quite a lot of these different cars on the road now.
00:18:55 Tim Barnes-Clay
So do you think that
00:19:01 Tim Barnes-Clay
Kia, for instance, should come up with more imaginative names.
00:19:05 Tim Barnes-Clay
I suppose it never did BMW any harm, did it, with things like the 316, the 320.
00:19:12 Tim Barnes-Clay
But also, going back to what you said, Reginald or something, the Kia Reginald.
00:19:19 Tim Barnes-Clay
Well, going back to what you said about the Micra, for instance, I remember, this is how old I am, 1996, I had a press car and it was a Micra and it looked like one of those.
00:19:30 Tim Barnes-Clay
Mr.
00:19:30 Tim Barnes-Clay
Men cars, you know, little round, and it was quite unusual at the time.
00:19:34 Tim Barnes-Clay
I remember a neighbour saying to me, what is that thing?
00:19:37 Tim Barnes-Clay
So it kind of broke the mould then, Nissan did with the Micra, but I would agree that the Micra of today looks better.
00:19:43 Tim Barnes-Clay
And when it comes to Kia and Hyundai, I still say that word, I've been to South Korea where they're based twice.
00:19:49 Tim Barnes-Clay
And actually, if you look at, there's a, there are twin towers and you've got Hyundai ever so slightly higher than the Kia tower.
00:19:59 James Morris
Is that feng shui, which I know is a Chinese thing, not a Korean thing, but.
00:20:02 Tim Barnes-Clay
Not quite sure, pretty deliberate though.
00:20:04 Tim Barnes-Clay
But I would argue that Hyundai, especially with its Instaroid, have you seen that concept car?
00:20:09 Tim Barnes-Clay
The Instaroid.
00:20:11 James Morris
I have, yeah, yeah.
00:20:12 Tim Barnes-Clay
That's pretty awesome, isn't it?
00:20:14 Tim Barnes-Clay
Based on clearly the Insta, where they've just let some students go wild on saying, Imagine what you could do with it.
00:20:20 Tim Barnes-Clay
And that looks really cool.
00:20:21 Tim Barnes-Clay
And I don't think that Kia or Hyundai are frightened about going forward with,
00:20:27 Tim Barnes-Clay
know futuristic looking cars but I would agree that the the present road cars that Hyundai have got are are looking more conservative than the than Kias yeah.
00:20:36 James Morris
Yeah I mean I I love what what the Korean those two Korean companies are doing I think they've you know they I'm going to you you kind of look at this in
00:20:46 James Morris
If you think about what the Japanese did, they came along, they built these kind of, they were cool Japanese cars for going back to decades.
00:20:54 James Morris
And if you remember the 2000 sports car that was in a Bond movie, but most of their cars were quite generic.
00:21:02 James Morris
And then they kind of reached a point where they got confident and they started to build their own, get their own style, their own.
00:21:09 James Morris
And I think Hyundai and Kia have been through that transition as well.
00:21:13 James Morris
But the problem that they've got is that,
00:21:16 James Morris
They have, they're going to have problem competing with the Chinese, basically, and I think, and I think, especially in the era of battery electric vehicles, I think that kind of brings us back to another thing I wanted to talk about, which was, the rise of the
00:21:31 James Morris
the resurgence of the plug-in hybrid and also kind of new battery technology.
00:21:35 James Morris
Because we were both, you mentioned it already, we were both on that MG trip where they launched the semi-solid battery, which was a phrase of much hilarity for us while we're on the trip, particularly after a couple of beers.
00:21:50 James Morris
I've done a semi-solid, that kind of thing.
00:21:51 James Morris
Is that, can I say that or do I have to get a special rating?
00:21:54 James Morris
You've already said it.
00:21:55 James Morris
Yeah, what did I say?
00:21:56 James Morris
I don't know.
00:21:57 James Morris
I didn't say anything.
00:21:58 James Morris
But you know, that battery, you know,
00:22:01 James Morris
solid-state batteries have been the holy grail of, they're a bit like almost as bad as hydrogen as being like 10, it's only in 10 years time we'll have these things and they've been saying that for at least 10 years.
00:22:14 James Morris
But actually MG is going to be launching a car this year.
00:22:20 James Morris
It's going to be the version of the MG
00:22:22 James Morris
for urban that's going to have this solid-state battery.
00:22:25 James Morris
At the moment, the benefits are that this is kind of a slightly better equivalent of an LFP battery, I think, from what we can see.
00:22:34 James Morris
So, you know, it's got better endurance, better cold weather capabilities, but, you know, and better, much, much less chance of having
00:22:47 James Morris
If it gets punctured or in an accident, you know, people are still worried about fires, even though they really don't happen very often with battery electric vehicles.
00:22:55 James Morris
But, you know, solid-state is, it really is just around the corner and that promises huge range.
00:23:00 James Morris
You know, there's, you know, much more range than we've currently got.
00:23:05 James Morris
But that does kind of bring me to another topic, you know, because people still are worried about range.
00:23:11 James Morris
The plug-in hybrid is one way around that, because that gives you, these new models from China, and again, I'm over the JQ, did I get that right?
00:23:21 James Morris
Have, they've brought out these long-range plug-in hybrids that do like...
00:23:30 James Morris
50 or 80, some cases even, I think there are some in China that do like 150 miles of electric range, but they've also got a petrol motor in there.
00:23:39 James Morris
So you don't ever have to worry about range anxiety because you just, it's basically an electric car.
00:23:44 James Morris
But actually, there's a
00:23:47 James Morris
I think, despite what that guy said at the MG thing, I think their days could be numbered because, we're, I think the big news of this year is the rise of the 500 mile EV.
00:23:58 James Morris
I've reviewed the BMW iX3.
00:24:03 James Morris
Have you driven that?
00:24:04 Tim Barnes-Clay
No, I had an NFI to that launch car.
00:24:07 James Morris
Yeah, sorry, I shouldn't have mentioned it.
00:24:09 James Morris
I didn't realise that it would.
00:24:13 James Morris
And then, of course, there's the there's the sorry to cut you off, but I do it deliberately.
00:24:17 James Morris
The Volvo EX60, which is, you know, which does a couple of miles further of the WLTP, which is going to be launched in Europe in a few weeks' time, hopefully before I get round to
00:24:29 James Morris
putting this podcast out.
00:24:31 James Morris
And you know, these cars are, they're around about 60 grand, which is, I know is not a cheap car, but it's not hideously expensive either.
00:24:39 James Morris
These are the kinds of cars that somebody in a reasonably well paid job could get through salary sacrifice or as a company car.
00:24:47 James Morris
You know, they're not like, like super hired, like a, I don't know, like a Bentley or something.
00:24:53 James Morris
They're, they're, they're, they're, you know, the kinds of cars
00:24:58 James Morris
that people will buy as an average family car.
00:25:01 James Morris
And I think those cars are going to sell like absolute hot cakes because both of them do really fast charging as well.
00:25:06 James Morris
they've got like 400 kilowatt charging.
00:25:08 James Morris
I think both of those cars do.
00:25:09 James Morris
So you were going to say something before I actually cut you off there, Tim.
00:25:14 James Morris
What were you going to say?
00:25:15 James Morris
Do you even remember?
00:25:16 Tim Barnes-Clay
Yes, no, I was going to say, but I have got that BMW coming in.
00:25:20 Tim Barnes-Clay
BMW felt guilty, I think, for not advising me.
00:25:22 Tim Barnes-Clay
So I've got that coming.
00:25:24 Tim Barnes-Clay
So I can
00:25:24 Tim Barnes-Clay
I can test it.
00:25:25 Tim Barnes-Clay
And the next time we speak, I can either agree or not agree regarding the range.
00:25:30 Tim Barnes-Clay
But you know what?
00:25:31 Tim Barnes-Clay
The whole thing, I mean, this is the debate because 60 grand, I mean, no one actually looks at a car now and goes, I've got to spend 60 grand.
00:25:39 Tim Barnes-Clay
It's obviously on the monthly one, obviously, but a lot of people now just look at the monthly payments, don't they?
00:25:44 Tim Barnes-Clay
Or if you're lucky enough to have a company car, look at what that's going to cost you in the long run.
00:25:52 Tim Barnes-Clay
Well, I don't know.
00:25:53 Tim Barnes-Clay
I mean, MG seemed absolutely convinced, didn't they, about the about hybrids continuing?
00:26:00 James Morris
Well, that one guy MG did.
00:26:02 Tim Barnes-Clay
Yeah, I mean, comes as no surprise because he's a doctor and spent a lot of his career looking into hybrid technology.
00:26:11 Tim Barnes-Clay
But I don't know.
00:26:12 Tim Barnes-Clay
Is there going to be a time where everybody on this island known as the UK that is a motorist
00:26:19 Tim Barnes-Clay
drives EVs, or do you think they'll always be those that hang out and go, no, never am I going to go down that road?
00:26:25 James Morris
Well, I mean, I've got a future episode planned where I'm going to talk to the founder of a company called Yasa who make electric motors.
00:26:35 James Morris
And they make the electric motors that are in a lot of these hybrid supercars, you know, the Lamborghini, Tamarari, and Revelto out there.
00:26:44 James Morris
I'm not sure about the new Bugatti, but they also do like the Ferrari SF90, I think.
00:26:49 James Morris
the motors in that.
00:26:51 James Morris
So, and those cars, all those cars I've mentioned, all have petrol engines as well.
00:26:57 James Morris
And so, I'll probably leave the discussions about the continued existence of petrol motors, because, you have, I think all of the companies, with the exception of, I don't know, Tesla probably, have a slight ambivalence towards electric
00:27:14 James Morris
cars.
00:27:14 James Morris
I mean, even BMW is probably in Europe is, they've got a pure battery electric platform.
00:27:22 James Morris
they've kind of, they have put a lot of their eggs in the electrification basket with the Neuerklasse.
00:27:28 James Morris
But on the other hand, Oliver Zipse, their chairman, has been one of the leading forces
00:27:34 James Morris
softening the ban on electric vehicles in Europe at the same time, you know, and I always thought Stellantis's attitude was super weird because, you know, they did have maybe not decent initially, but certainly some reasonably okay and kind of perfectly usable electric cars.
00:27:56 James Morris
I think their latest generation, you know, are much better.
00:27:59 James Morris
You know, they've got their kind of stellar medium platforms and if you've driven
00:28:03 James Morris
The well, we've we've done the grand land, which is based on that platform, Peugeot E 3008, which is pretty good.
00:28:12 James Morris
5008 also pretty good.
00:28:14 James Morris
You know, they are producing some quite good.
00:28:16 James Morris
I think they're a bit overpriced and they're going to be challenged by I mean, I mean, the thing is that they're they're all going to have a massive problem.
00:28:25 James Morris
We talked about this last time with the rise of the Chinese.
00:28:28 James Morris
You know, I think we've just.
00:28:31 James Morris
reviewed the Changan Deepel S05.
00:28:35 Tim Barnes-Clay
Can you remember the range on that one?
00:28:38 Tim Barnes-Clay
I think it was late 200s, wasn't it?
00:28:40 James Morris
Yeah, like depending on which version, I think it was.
00:28:42 James Morris
I think the rear wheel drive was 303 and the, I believe, correct me if I'm wrong, but I think the dual motor is 278.
00:28:51 James Morris
Not that I memorise all these things like something.
00:28:54 James Morris
I think you're right.
00:28:55 Tim Barnes-Clay
Along those lines, but just to prove that EVs
00:28:58 Tim Barnes-Clay
aren't boring.
00:28:58 Tim Barnes-Clay
In fact, they're quite the opposite if anyone's ever driven one.
00:29:02 Tim Barnes-Clay
They took us onto an airfield, didn't they?
00:29:04 Tim Barnes-Clay
To test the handling and you were a bit kind of, oh, do I want to do this?
00:29:07 Tim Barnes-Clay
Because all you see are like cones and it's a bit kind of...
00:29:11 James Morris
It's a bit like driving on most British roads.
00:29:13 James Morris
All you ever see is cones.
00:29:14 Tim Barnes-Clay
Yeah, minus the potholes.
00:29:16 James Morris
Yeah.
00:29:17 Tim Barnes-Clay
Well, the airfield had less potholes than the actual roads we were on.
00:29:20 Tim Barnes-Clay
But yeah, I mean, I really like that car.
00:29:22 Tim Barnes-Clay
I mean, I don't know what you thought of it.
00:29:24 Tim Barnes-Clay
Let's not go into a review too much about it.
00:29:26 Tim Barnes-Clay
But again, it's a really.
00:29:28 James Morris
If people want the review of it, they can watch and read the review that you did of that car on which EV, which will be available by the time you hear this podcast.
00:29:41 Tim Barnes-Clay
Absolutely.
00:29:42 James Morris
I mean, the thing is that there are, there are some great, I mean, I sometimes I must admit I get a bit kind of, trying to think of the right, I'm just going to say it, bored of the fact that there are so many mid-sized electric SUVs from China.
00:29:56 James Morris
arriving on the British market.
00:29:58 James Morris
But frankly, those are the cars that people buy.
00:30:00 James Morris
They do want that.
00:30:01 James Morris
That is the size and format that most people find convenient.
00:30:04 James Morris
They like the high driving position.
00:30:06 James Morris
They like they have.
00:30:07 James Morris
There's a perception of safety in a car that's a little bit bigger like that as well.
00:30:12 James Morris
I want the practicality of the boot size.
00:30:15 James Morris
They want the rear pit rear seat passengers.
00:30:17 James Morris
I mean, I love estate cars, but you have to admit that you get a bit more headroom and knee room in the equivalent SUV.
00:30:24 James Morris
of that size.
00:30:26 James Morris
So, you know, you've got the, we talked about the Jaiku E5.
00:30:30 Tim Barnes-Clay
Jaiku.
00:30:32 James Morris
Jaiku, remember?
00:30:32 James Morris
Yeah, I did it.
00:30:33 James Morris
Oh, damn it.
00:30:34 James Morris
Jaiku G, the E5 from that company.
00:30:39 James Morris
And, you know, Geely EX5, you know, the MG S5 and S6, you know, S6, strangely enough, bigger than the S5.
00:30:48 James Morris
It's funny that, you know, the,
00:30:51 James Morris
you know, they're kind of generic looking cars, but, you know, they they do fit the bill.
00:30:55 James Morris
I mean, you know, I mean, let's face it, the first really successful mainstream EV after that kind of initial, you know, after Leaf was probably the MGZS EV.
00:31:06 James Morris
You know, that was that you still see a lot of those on the roads.
00:31:09 James Morris
And that was the big you know, certainly there was a lot of interest in the various versions of that car on which EV in the early days because because it was an EV that people thought they could
00:31:21 James Morris
actually afford.
00:31:24 James Morris
So, I think, and those cars, I think almost all of them have 250, around 300 miles of range.
00:31:32 James Morris
And I think we're going to see in a couple of years time that the cars like that are going to be like 400 plus miles of range.
00:31:38 James Morris
Although the question is, do you really need it?
00:31:40 James Morris
I mean, I mean, you mentioned, particularly the UK, I mean, what's the longest distance you could drive in the UK?
00:31:48 James Morris
Land's End to John O'Groats, right, which is about 850 miles.
00:31:52 Tim Barnes-Clay
And interestingly, that journey, I don't think would be as difficult as going east to west or west to east in this country.
00:32:00 Tim Barnes-Clay
And the reason I say that is having grown up as a kid in Norfolk, where you don't have a lot going on anyway, necessarily, although you get some lovely places like Norwich.
00:32:10 James Morris
Especially after you left.
00:32:11 Tim Barnes-Clay
Especially after I left, yeah, it's nothing happened.
00:32:13 Tim Barnes-Clay
Norwich is great, got the University of East Anglia and what have you, and of course they're well big on EVs because of
00:32:18 Tim Barnes-Clay
they study environmental sciences there and what have you.
00:32:20 Tim Barnes-Clay
But if you go east to west, it can be tricky.
00:32:24 Tim Barnes-Clay
But I do think if you're used to driving, then you're going to keep an eye.
00:32:29 Tim Barnes-Clay
If you've been like we were driving old knackers when you were sort of 17, 18, always keeping an eye on that.
00:32:36 Tim Barnes-Clay
I had a Rolls Royce, mate.
00:32:39 Tim Barnes-Clay
Of course you did, in your dreams with a jerry can in the back.
00:32:42 Tim Barnes-Clay
Although, by the way, carrying jerry cans was also meant to be a no-go.
00:32:46 Tim Barnes-Clay
It's not good to do that kind of stuff.
00:32:48 Tim Barnes-Clay
Not for, yeah, you're not, you weren't meant to.
00:32:51 James Morris
Yeah, but you also weren't supposed to drive drunk or drive over the speed limit or all these kinds of stupid things that we did when we were kids.
00:32:59 Tim Barnes-Clay
In the 70s.
00:33:00 James Morris
When your case, the 80s, 70s.
00:33:03 Tim Barnes-Clay
The 80s.
00:33:04 Tim Barnes-Clay
You were driving your.
00:33:04 James Morris
Steam car while hopped up on mead or whatever it was.
00:33:09 Tim Barnes-Clay
My pretend steam car.
00:33:11 Tim Barnes-Clay
So yeah, there are lots of excuses, but there are people that have gone to EVs and become advocates of EVs who now perceive any car, any combustion car as the devil.
00:33:24 Tim Barnes-Clay
So they're going to naturally hate hybrids.
00:33:28 Tim Barnes-Clay
And then you get people, as we've been talking about, that absolutely don't want to touch EVs.
00:33:32 Tim Barnes-Clay
They think they're the devil.
00:33:33 Tim Barnes-Clay
It's terrible, this new technology.
00:33:35 Tim Barnes-Clay
It's not a car.
00:33:35 Tim Barnes-Clay
And one of the biggest reasons I've heard for this
00:33:38 Tim Barnes-Clay
It's the, oh, you can't hear it.
00:33:39 Tim Barnes-Clay
You can't feel it.
00:33:41 Tim Barnes-Clay
Oh, I like to hear the noise.
00:33:42 Tim Barnes-Clay
It feels like a beast.
00:33:43 Tim Barnes-Clay
It feels alive.
00:33:44 Tim Barnes-Clay
But actually, after a while, like my kids and what have you, eventually are going to go into EVs.
00:33:51 Tim Barnes-Clay
They're not going to know what these noisy beasts like cars were like anyway, so they won't miss it.
00:33:58 Tim Barnes-Clay
It's a bit like people, like you say, steam engines, people still have, you know, still long.
00:34:03 Tim Barnes-Clay
Remember over the engine?
00:34:05 Tim Barnes-Clay
Over the engine, yes, absolutely.
00:34:07 Tim Barnes-Clay
So I think that will go.
00:34:10 James Morris
Yeah, I mean, I think there are certain areas where it's going to be harder to get rid of than others.
00:34:14 James Morris
I mean, certainly, I think I'm definitely a petrol head.
00:34:18 James Morris
I think you must be as a car journalist, man and boy since the 19th century.
00:34:23 James Morris
The, and, noise was part of that.
00:34:27 James Morris
I've, as I say, I owned my best car that I owned was that Porsche I talked about.
00:34:34 James Morris
It wasn't, I have to admit, Porsches aren't
00:34:37 James Morris
the most kind of noisy of cars.
00:34:39 James Morris
They have quite a clinical, mine was the inline 4.
00:34:42 James Morris
So it was particularly very, it sounded like a tractor when you started up as well, because it had four cylinders and a three, three litre engine.
00:34:49 James Morris
So it wasn't, but it did make a, still made quite a exciting noise.
00:34:55 James Morris
But, and you know, people talk about V8 noises, but you know, you do, I think you kind of start to find that you're willing to
00:35:04 James Morris
swap that for things like immediacy, being able to, I absolutely love the fact that in an EV, if you press the accelerator, things happen.
00:35:14 James Morris
You don't have to kind of press the accelerator a second ahead if you want it to happen because you've got to anticipate.
00:35:20 James Morris
I don't know, various things like power delivery or in an auto, the kick down, or if you're in an auto with turbocharged.
00:35:26 James Morris
I remember this with when driving a Bentley Continental quite a long time ago was the thing was frankly an express train, but there was a massive delayed reaction because basically you'd hit the accelerator, you have a kick down and then there comes a twin turbo.
00:35:40 James Morris
So then the twin turbos will kick in, so you don't like a double whammy of like, oh my FG as the power kicked in and suddenly
00:35:49 James Morris
I've realised I'm doing 95 miles an hour on a British air road, which is probably not what I should be doing.
00:35:55 James Morris
So I better stop that kind of situation.
00:35:57 James Morris
But the fact that you could have it immediate is really important.
00:36:03 Tim Barnes-Clay
Oh, yeah.
00:36:03 James Morris
Motor racing is the thing, though.
00:36:04 James Morris
I think I was going to come back to is, I think I was having a debate with somebody on, I don't know, I think it was LinkedIn just a few days today even about F1s that people, I don't know if you remember when the first hybrids came out
00:36:19 James Morris
going, oh, it sounds like a lawnmower.
00:36:20 James Morris
And people then people got used to it.
00:36:22 James Morris
It did sound a bit like a lawnmower.
00:36:24 James Morris
You know, and yeah, I've covered a lot of motor racing, you know, that has electrified, you know, rally, world rally, they have a problem with them because they have, they basically drive between stages in rally.
00:36:39 James Morris
So, and they actually fill up at sometimes at regular petrol stations.
00:36:45 James Morris
So that's a problem for electrification for that.
00:36:49 James Morris
But also people want to hear that sound through the forests and rallycross has had that problem as well.
00:36:55 James Morris
There's a lot of kickback from fans in rallycross.
00:36:58 James Morris
They want the noise to kind of make it to give a show.
00:37:02 James Morris
But the flip side of it, if it's F1, you know, there's been some kind of talk about F1 going back to like V10s or V8s or something.
00:37:10 James Morris
The problem then is that they're basically
00:37:12 James Morris
the difference.
00:37:13 James Morris
We don't have F1 will be like horse racing.
00:37:15 James Morris
It'll be a vehicle that nobody ever uses in the real world for all in the everyday world.
00:37:21 James Morris
And it's fine.
00:37:21 James Morris
That's that could be absolutely fine.
00:37:23 James Morris
You know, many people watch horse racing, people watch powerboat racing.
00:37:28 James Morris
And I mean, you know, people don't really buy power boats like the ones that are raced.
00:37:34 James Morris
at all.
00:37:34 James Morris
So I don't think it's necessarily a problem.
00:37:36 James Morris
But there's one more thing I wanted to talk about, actually, just to kind of before we before we sign off today.
00:37:42 James Morris
And that is actually this whole thing about so we've talked about price, we talked about rain, but charging, I think, is still a roadblock.
00:37:48 James Morris
And, you know, we started off talking about, you know, the fuel crisis and the cost.
00:37:53 James Morris
And, you know, I think if you have home charging, you're absolutely laughing, because, you know, ironically, I don't know.
00:38:02 James Morris
Those of us who have one of these overnight rates have had a letter of a week or so ago telling us our overnight rate had actually gone down.
00:38:09 James Morris
Mine went down from 7 to 5.2p and some people have had like 3 1/2p a kilowatt hour, which means that they're driving a car probably for about 1p a mile.
00:38:20 James Morris
It won't last because, you know, it's going to go back up again, I think, in the next.
00:38:24 James Morris
the next change.
00:38:25 James Morris
But, you know, then if you ever do have to, you know, I think I charged at on a destination charger at an event recently.
00:38:36 James Morris
It was we were both at that event, actually the ES90 event and the Volvo ES90.
00:38:42 James Morris
And the destination charge was like 70p a kilowatt hour, you know, which was 10 times the price.
00:38:48 James Morris
And that's a big problem.
00:38:49 James Morris
It's like that is a real divide.
00:38:52 James Morris
You know, I think there are, you
00:38:54 James Morris
know, one problem is that electricity is pinned to gas prices in this country.
00:39:00 James Morris
So that's an issue.
00:39:02 James Morris
And, you know, I think this overnight thing, you know, because of the that that's why they incentivize people to charge overnight because, you know, you have the wind and solar obviously isn't available overnight, but wind could well be
00:39:18 James Morris
pumping full on overnight, but you need to actually get people to use that supply because they're all asleep, they're not using other types of electricity.
00:39:26 James Morris
So, I mean, what do you think about the charging situation?
00:39:31 Tim Barnes-Clay
Well, quite frankly, I think the public charging is taking the ****.
00:39:35 Tim Barnes-Clay
It's just so expensive.
00:39:37 Tim Barnes-Clay
When I've got a press car, when you've got a press car, I'll go over to Norfolk to see my parents and it's quite a long way from where I am in the Midlands.
00:39:44 Tim Barnes-Clay
Yeah, it's not that far, I suppose, really, but as the crow flies about 100 miles,
00:39:48 Tim Barnes-Clay
And, you know, I'll charge it up here.
00:39:51 Tim Barnes-Clay
I'm lucky enough to have a wall box, get over towards Norfolk and yeah, I'm forced to pretty much use the public charger with some of the press cars that I've had delivered.
00:40:03 Tim Barnes-Clay
And that's a big first world problem really, but I could easily spend 45, 50 quid charging up at some of them.
00:40:13 Tim Barnes-Clay
And you're fairly restricted, you know,
00:40:16 Tim Barnes-Clay
In the parts of Norfolk I have to go to, you could argue that I need to plan perhaps a little bit more carefully and charge on the way.
00:40:24 James Morris
You do, Jim.
00:40:25 Tim Barnes-Clay
Yeah, I do.
00:40:26 Tim Barnes-Clay
But equally, I'm just one of these people, I want to get to my destination.
00:40:30 Tim Barnes-Clay
I want to see the people I plan to see.
00:40:33 Tim Barnes-Clay
And then I get caught up in the fun or whatever I'm doing or the chat.
00:40:36 James Morris
Can't you get your mum to charge your car for you?
00:40:38 Tim Barnes-Clay
Well, I should, actually, no, joking aside, I did in the early days of doing this job, plug it in.
00:40:45 Tim Barnes-Clay
just literally to her home plug.
00:40:48 Tim Barnes-Clay
And, you know, hours later I'd have like, you know, four miles of extra range or whatever.
00:40:55 Tim Barnes-Clay
But now I will just consider it a ball like, quite frankly, going, God, not only have I got to spend 40 or 50 quid, but I've got to hang around for 20 minutes, 30 minutes, whatever it is I've decided to do while I do it.
00:41:06 Tim Barnes-Clay
And there needs to be, this conversation's been had and there are some great facilities to charge out where you can entertain yourself.
00:41:14 Tim Barnes-Clay
Tesla are great, but they're supercharging network.
00:41:16 Tim Barnes-Clay
You can go in, have free.
00:41:17 James Morris
But you can entertain yourself.
00:41:18 James Morris
What are you?
00:41:19 James Morris
What are you even talking about there, Tim?
00:41:23 James Morris
It's about your only fans again.
00:41:24 Tim Barnes-Clay
And it depends on where you are.
00:41:28 Tim Barnes-Clay
But yeah, there are some places where you charge publicly and there's absolutely nothing to do.
00:41:32 Tim Barnes-Clay
You just hang out in the car.
00:41:33 Tim Barnes-Clay
It might be a dark, cold, windy night.
00:41:35 Tim Barnes-Clay
There are some places that are well dodgy and you just think, I really don't want to be.
00:41:39 James Morris
Yeah, I did a I did a piece with which actually wrote
00:41:44 James Morris
with with Jill Nowell.
00:41:45 James Morris
No, I'm now probably mispronounce her.
00:41:47 James Morris
So now Noel, who is, you know, a big advocate of women's women and EVs, you know, and the you know, the fact that, you know, 14, I think it was 49% of of drivers are women.
00:41:59 James Morris
So, you know, and they're actually quite, quite in favour of EVs because, you know, they're really nice to drive and the ease of the ease of driving potentially makes them really, really popular with with with late drivers.
00:42:14 James Morris
But some of these remote locations with no security and no nobody around at all, there haven't actually been any cases of that I know of either one of us could recall of anything bad happening.
00:42:27 James Morris
But there is potential there.
00:42:29 James Morris
And that's a that's an issue.
00:42:31 James Morris
But honestly, I mean, just to kind of, you know, I think we're we're
00:42:36 James Morris
almost a time here, but just to kind of wrap things up, I think that is, we've got the pricing, we've got the range things sorted.
00:42:42 James Morris
I think, getting charging sorted and I think there needs to be, I mean, when I started doing this stuff about six years ago, I foresaw a possibility of, having your local supermarket having like a full bank of destination chargers, 7 kilowatt, maybe 11 or 22 if you're lucky, but not, it doesn't have to be super fast because if you're spending
00:43:05 James Morris
two hours there, you know, you could just top up and most of your everyday stuff only on long journeys, you then need to use expensive
00:43:16 James Morris
DC charging, even if you didn't have home charging.
00:43:19 James Morris
But that hasn't really happened quite as much as I'd hoped.
00:43:22 James Morris
And also the pricing, you know, I think is being a bit gouged, frankly, on that respect.
00:43:27 James Morris
And it wasn't before, because I think initially, I remember, you know, they put a bunch of these things in at my local swimming pool and gym that I used to go to, and they were only about 25 per kilowatt hour, you know, where, you know, which was about 50% more than an everyday thing was about 14
00:43:46 James Morris
a kilowatt hour back then.
00:43:47 James Morris
So I think there's a lot to be done there.
00:43:50 James Morris
But I think, there's, I do think that this year is going to be, in terms of the cars, is going to be a tipping point.
00:43:57 James Morris
You know, the Renault 5 has been a smash hit.
00:44:00 James Morris
The Nestle Micro is basically the same car.
00:44:02 James Morris
And you know, what the offer for 21K is great.
00:44:04 James Morris
And you know, they're just the beginning.
00:44:06 James Morris
You know, there's these 500 mile cars coming and again, that's just the beginning.
00:44:10 James Morris
Once it's out there for 60K, in a couple of years, that's going to hit the second hand market.
00:44:16 James Morris
And then they're going to get cheaper and there's new battery technologies.
00:44:18 James Morris
And we could, I think we should probably come back and talk about battery technologies in a future episode because all these things like sodium, iron and all these stuff coming along.
00:44:28 James Morris
The thing is, you know, Rome wasn't built in a day, particularly with European labour laws, you know, all those compulsory breaks that the workers have taken.
00:44:39 James Morris
So, you know, it's not going to be overnight.
00:44:43 James Morris
So yeah, any final words on that yourself?
00:44:47 Tim Barnes-Clay
I totally agree.
00:44:47 Tim Barnes-Clay
It won't be overnight.
00:44:48 Tim Barnes-Clay
I mean, all I know is that the first of my offspring is driving a combustion engine car purely because I know you've said they're coming down, they are, but still second hand EV is still out of my daughter's price range.
00:45:01 Tim Barnes-Clay
So she's driving an old knackered 1000 pound box.
00:45:05 Tim Barnes-Clay
But it works.
00:45:06 Tim Barnes-Clay
It gets her around.
00:45:07 Tim Barnes-Clay
And then there was the debate.
00:45:08 Tim Barnes-Clay
And I think something else we should talk about is, it's been in the news recently,
00:45:13 Tim Barnes-Clay
Manual gearboxes.
00:45:15 James Morris
Yeah.
00:45:15 Tim Barnes-Clay
They're going to go, aren't they?
00:45:17 Tim Barnes-Clay
Clearly with EVs.
00:45:19 James Morris
That's definitely something to talk about, and all the kind of noises that people are faking on, if you see those Genesis ads with the...
00:45:25 James Morris
But anyway, that's a topic for another.
00:45:27 James Morris
I think the second hand EVs have kind of hit like a four or five grand space and it's hard to find anything that's gone below that just yet.
00:45:36 James Morris
But I'm sure they're coming.
00:45:38 James Morris
I mean, let's face it, the Leaf has only
00:45:41 James Morris
very first Leafs and I3s like 15 years ago, top.
00:45:44 James Morris
So, and that is the, there are a lot of petrol cars that are quite a bit older than that out there.
00:45:51 James Morris
So anyway, so let's call it a day.
00:45:53 James Morris
Say goodbye to our lovely audience.
00:45:55 James Morris
That's it for today, today's podcast.
00:45:57 James Morris
We've been James Morris and Tim Barnes Clay.
00:46:00 James Morris
And you, as always, have been a great audience.
00:46:02 James Morris
Please subscribe to our podcast if you haven't already.
00:46:04 James Morris
Please do.
00:46:06 James Morris
Please, do.
00:46:07 James Morris
And tune in next time for more chat and analysis of the latest EV stories.
00:46:11 James Morris
Follow us on Facebook, X, if you're still on that platform, LinkedIn, Instagram, and of course, please come back to our website, whichEV.
00:46:22 James Morris
Please, for the most recent news, reviews and features on everything electric vehicle.
00:46:27 James Morris
We'll sign off with a bit more of our theme tune, which is called Gun It to the Red Light by Three Colour Dessert, a local London band.
00:46:33 James Morris
Keep an eye out for their forthcoming gigs.
00:46:36 James Morris
They've even got a new album coming out soon.
00:46:38 James Morris
We'll talk to you next episode.
