- 8 months ago
In this episode of Big Jim's Garage we talk about EV's in America. Can you make people buy them? What's good and bad with EV's (charging for example)
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00:00hey welcome to big jim's garage here in the bpod network
00:12i'm your host jim o'brien here because a big jim do a morning show up here in detroit michigan
00:19looking around all the cars and everything we try to keep you not only with racing and
00:24race driving and new cars but what's going on because it is happening so quick in the
00:28automotive industry right now so i wanted to jump on and do a quick podcast because i've been
00:33thinking a lot about this and how to shape this into a conversation with you guys it's the idea
00:37of push-pull when it comes to evs electric cars and not that you have to push it to the to charge
00:43it or pull it um all people in the day is right there um i've driven a lot of evs recently spent
00:51some time with the ford lightning the f-150 lightning it's fantastic platform currently
00:55driving a gv 70 that is the genesis suv and i'm getting about two it's about 280 miles range
01:03that's on a full charge and if you don't know a couple things about an ev which is what i want
01:09to get into you will notice that when you get to 80 when you charge one of these things the charge
01:14rate slows down a lot that's because the way the batteries are and it tends to trickle even if you
01:20go to a high speed one which you can do with the gv 70 from genesis um you can get up to 250 i think
01:27it is either 250 kilowatts or 300 but the charge rate it's pretty quick now this is what i want to
01:34talk about i have when every time i drive an ev i have friends who love them but they ask questions
01:39and it's interesting to listen so many people in the automotive industry in the automotive media
01:44when they then they talk about evs they talk about discounts is the government making me buy an ev
01:51charging networks all that stuff they're all valid concerns but sit down and just talk with a friend
01:56of yours who isn't in the industry who doesn't write about it or podcast about it or blog about it
02:01and ask them about their concerns a friend of mine kim she said well what happens if in the middle of
02:08the night something happens to my mom and i've got to drive three hours to go to her and i don't have
02:13that range in the in the ev what do i do well you know what you have to do you have to stop and charge
02:18the car do you want to do that when you want to be somewhere in a hurry do you in the back of your
02:25mind it's called range anxiety and it's really a thing and i've heard from people time and time
02:30again in various forms well what if i take the freeway to work every day you know and i got to charge
02:35the car two or three times a week it's an honest concern i met a gentleman here who had an f-150
02:41lightning and i was talking to him he was at one of the charging stations which is a whole nother
02:45story we'll get into and i said do you like it and he goes yeah but i'm a contractor and i drive all
02:51over detroit if you don't know detroit's pretty spread out like most major cities and he's having
02:55to charge a couple times every week he goes i can't waste an hour sitting at a charging station
03:00just so i can i can charge this thing up so in some ways evs are a step back for some people
03:09and it's a valid concern when you go out and charge if you've never charged an ev the frustrating part
03:17is and i'm not alone in this the most frustrating part is when you go to a station and you plug in
03:22you don't know what you're getting so like that gv 70 i was expecting up to 250 i plugged into an ev go
03:30and i was getting 140 and then i was getting 110 and i was getting 80 and i was getting 140
03:35so you're sitting there looking at the time going all right well this is 20 minutes 25 minutes
03:40you feel like you've taken a step back i can go to a gas station put gas in a car
03:46five minutes i'm gone i'm out out of there that's an honest concern when it comes to evs
03:52and it's everywhere and you would think in detroit obviously with with with the big three here and
03:59and uh you know everyone talking about it fort blue and and gm you know plant ones and all all
04:05the technology and our friends at stalantis doing this that there would be more charging stations
04:09around here it's really not the case uh general motors their headquarters down at the renaissance
04:14center here the big three cylinders you see there's maybe four charging stations in front of it i
04:20remember used to go down there a couple years ago and there were two and people that worked in the
04:24building would fight over them they'd get there early just to charge the ford folks when you go
04:28to the henry ford you got to drive around the side for charging stations the people that drive evs that
04:32plug in there work at ford so if you're visiting the henry ford museum odds are you're not getting a
04:37place to charge when you plug in you go to a mall and that's where i have to go i go to a meyer here
04:43in a parking lot it's just in the middle of the parking lot and you plug in there's no cover
04:48but you're not close to anything it's just sitting out in the middle it's an afterthought
04:53or you go to a shopping mall same thing it's in the middle of a parking lot there's no awning there's
04:59no cover there's no real explanation for it you don't know what you get when you plug in i'm not
05:05even sure if half these things are certified and then you sit there and stare at it going well
05:09what am i going to get and you may budget out your time and go all right let me give myself a half
05:14hour to charge this or an hour and then you look and the rate changes and this is not an isolated
05:20thing people have frustration a lot of frustration with evs well charge it at home okay it's a great
05:27idea but you can't get the dc fast charger installed at your home you can only do like up to a level
05:32two which is like the 220 240 that you've got at home if you can get electrician to install it
05:38and then are you willing to spend another five six thousand dollars to get this system put in
05:42and if you go through some of the automotive companies who claim they offer that they do
05:46but you can't even book one that's a fact i'm not bagging on evs themselves i'm sure 100 years ago
05:55when we had the same issue with cars that people like i got to go somewhere and put gas in this
06:00if i feed my horse and water it i can go wherever i want and you're you're laughing going well you're
06:04being silly not really it was the same thing but here's the bigger concern for me that that it comes
06:11to and i i thought a lot about this as americans it's a push-pull economy in a lot of ways what i
06:18mean by that is when you're pushed to do something when they make you do something they being the
06:24government people the private industry we don't like that as americans that's not the way this
06:30company's this company excuse me this country's built we don't like this we push back now the
06:37pull economy is simply you want to get your hands on it and you pull it towards you i want this
06:41you go to the store and you grab something off the shelf you pull it towards you
06:44people want evs i think they'll pull them in but it's really hard to sell this to people
06:53when you're pushing them into it when you threaten them that you have to do this in the next 10 years
06:57and then you go well i can't i can't afford it i can't i don't know how much it's going to cost
07:02to charge and that's a whole nother thing we can get into when you go to charge in an ev you don't
07:06know what you're spending if i'm driving a car that has a 15 gallon tank and it's 389 a gallon i know
07:11how much i'm spending on gas they got to fix that but that push-pull economy thing i really think
07:18there's some validity to it i think that when when we push americans into doing something
07:22we haven't thought this all the way through it's you know the whole seems like a good idea at the
07:28time evs are great they're fun to drive they're fast they're quiet they handle that that lightning
07:34and the snow was unbelievable to drive the gv 70 is stunning it's stunning it's so comfortable to
07:40drive kia and them have some amazing platforms um i can't get my hands on anything from chevrolet right
07:45now i've tried i really have tried for you guys to review some chevys i can't get any
07:49but i keep living back to the same thing we're just not there we're just not there
07:56and it's tough for americans to hear that when people say you got to have an ev you got to do that
08:02okay take control of the infrastructure i i need to know how much it's going to cost me to charge an
08:11ev what's the annual operating cost am i really saving money off one of these things are you going
08:16to help me when i go out and interest rates are eight and a half percent you're making me buy
08:19a fifty thousand dollar car i can't afford a fifty thousand dollar car how long do they last there's
08:24so many questions right now we're not at a point where we can push people into evs should it be part
08:30of the landscape of the automotive world in the united states absolutely are more and more people
08:35going to drive evs absolutely should hybrids be a thing absolutely don't get me started on that
08:42but we're not there where we can just push people into you've got to drive an ev you can't make people
08:49do that right now you just can't that vehicle i'm driving is seventy thousand dollars you've seen how
08:55much ford lightnings are it's everywhere and i've seen general motors and some other car companies
09:01around the world are working on more affordable evs thirty thousand dollar rate that's great whether you
09:09like it or not not everybody can afford a thirty thousand dollar car i know lots of men and women
09:13who are starting out or maybe life has thrown some curveballs they don't have 20 grand to spend on a
09:18car they're driving a used car a beater a clunker whatever you want to call it what the hell do you do
09:23for them it is a much bigger issue than just this evs fun to drive and it looks cool the infrastructure
09:31is is systematic or symptomatic of a bigger problem we're a push-pull economy americans aren't there
09:40yet with evs not all of them you can't make people drive an ev you can't you just can't do it now when
09:47we decide we want them and we see more and more better things i'll tell you about a company here in
09:51novi michigan look them up it's called our next energy one last year they drove almost set well over
09:58700 miles on one charge in a tesla they currently have a deal with bmw it's a gemini battery system
10:05600 miles range this company is going to take off and i i'm really interested i've been following them
10:12if you listen to some of our previous podcasts you'll actually hear us talking to them after they did that
10:17so maybe that's another thing the future's changing and it's going to happen in leaps and bounds
10:23not in little steps just like it did 100 years ago with the automotive industry
10:28i don't think anybody understood look at the aircraft industry it's the running joke if you
10:32told the wright brothers what was going to happen with airplanes they'd have laughed at you but look
10:36where we're at now you're flying 24 000 feet 30 000 feet in the air in a tube with a couple hundred
10:41people going 500 miles an hour and you don't even think twice about it they could barely get two guys
10:45on a plane to go two feet off the ground we are not there yet with evs the vehicles are great
10:51they're reliable they're fun to drive they're beautiful everything about them but we're not there
10:56you cannot push americans to do this again that's my opinion and i understand the economic ramifications
11:03of it and as far as the environment there are bigger bigger discussions than on a podcast with some
11:08guy in detroit but it is something to think about when americans embrace something we really embrace
11:14it and we grab them like we did with cars 100 years ago we pull them in you can't push people to do
11:19this right now we're not there and every time i get an ev and every time i drive one and i have to go
11:2510 miles out of my way to charge it and i'm not sure what kind of charging i'm going to get when i
11:29get there that just reminds me we are a push-pull economy you cannot push us into doing things
11:34eventually americans will pull and want evs in mass we're just not there yet anyway there you go my
11:42little deep thought when it comes to evs that being said damn that gv70 is nice genesis if you haven't
11:49looked at some of their platforms some of the best stuff out there right now genesis um and absolutely
11:54amazing and the f-150 lightning loved it loved driving it
11:59again my thoughts when it comes to an ev
12:03there are so many smart people to follow on social media as well that will give you some great thoughts
12:09on it for example let me find my friend alex i was thinking about him it is it is so amazing when
12:20you look at the people that are out there that you can learn from alex roy alex roy 144 on twitter
12:28he's the founder of the autocast the drive did a cannonball run he was with argo ai
12:34alex will give you perspective from a guy who's been inside the industry and has had the money to
12:41step away and look at it as well those are the people that i think you should listen to automotive
12:46execs are wonderful people they're going to tell you the the story the line the company line guys
12:51like alex i cannot recommend them enough it's an interesting time in the world of automotive
12:56culture it's beyond just cars and trucks it's culture you're trying to pivot something that's huge
13:02anyway thanks for joining you can always follow us on twitter also on threads at big jim's house
13:07you can email me bigjim at wcsx.com i'd love to hear your thoughts about evs
13:13it is an interesting time in america right now and worldwide as well
13:17we'll get back into racing next formula one will andretti get a team probably get my buddy chris
13:23medlin on again i want to talk about this that's a big story too man what's going on i'm all fired up
13:29now now i'm gonna go drive that ev and see if i can find a place to charge a damn thing
13:32have a great day you've earned it
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