035 | Are EVs Failing? ⚡ Automakers Pull Back, Tesla Flood Test SHOCKS Drivers

[00:00:00] Hey, what's happening? How are you doing today? Thank you so much for being here. I am Chris and this is the world famous Cool Cars with Chris. Check that out. And on today's fantastic episode, we're going full on EV mode. Yes, EV talk today and especially I remember a time a few years ago, a Tesla did something crazy right here in San Diego. You'll hear about that on this episode. Plus, you know, major companies like the American car companies, German car companies,

[00:00:30] Well, they're pulling back on their EV projects. Why are they doing that? At the same time, China is ramping up their EV projects. You hear about that. And of course, topping it off, we're talking the reality of range anxiety. You know, gas is crazy high as I record this episode right now. And people maybe want to buy electric cars, but sometimes people want to feel the thrill and the excitement of having a gas powered cars. So, you know, car companies like BMW are making EV cars.

[00:01:00] That sound and feel a little bit like an actual gas powered car. Huh? Check that out. And today's fantastic episode is brought to you by my company, Podtastic Audio. Hey, look, I make this look easy. Podcasting is fun. It can be for everyone. If you're thinking about starting a show for yourself or your business, well, check this out. I can help you out. I'll handle all the production for you. All you have to do is show up and do the easy part. I'll do the hard part and take care of everything else. End to end.

[00:01:30] Podcasting made easy, made for you. Simple, easy. Let's do this. If you're serious about starting a show down below in the show notes of this episode, there's a special link. Click that link. It'll get you started. And that way I can know how to best serve you for your show.

[00:01:47] And just because you decided to fill out the form and actually are thinking about doing a podcast as my gift to you, I'm giving you a copy of my book, the Podtastic Playbook, just for filling out the form. Whether you work with me or not, I think podcasting should be for everybody. And that way I'm here to help you. And with that, let's go.

[00:02:17] All right. We are back with the world famous Cool Cars with Chris. Of course, the world famous Courage himself. How are you doing, anybody? Good, man. I'm doing good. Back in the situation here. I know we had a chance to catch up today as well. And so always good to talk about some cars. Man, seeing face to face, man. Cool Cars with Chris is live.

[00:02:38] Live, man. During the rain of all places, man. You know, being in the rain, it's one thing. If you had a cool car with like low profile tires, especially like summer tires, you do not want to take that car out in the rain. Especially if it's low, there's puddles and it floods. Forget it. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it was definitely, it was cool to be out. It was cool to see the type of folks that were still braving it in the rain.

[00:03:01] But, you know, yeah, if you're, you're on any situation of, I just think about the fact of those tires that I just got for the, those performance or those drag radial tires that I got. Like they're, they specifically say, you know, with their wet rating to not use them, you know, really with any type of rain. And so in a safe environment, it'd be, I'd be curious to see just how bad it really would be.

[00:03:24] But it's definitely, we got a pretty big downpour today. So, you know, if you were on anything that's low tread wear, you definitely wanted to make sure you stayed home. Yeah. And I wonder if your car sits really low to the ground. Cause some places I've seen a lot of flooding and I know you obviously should never ever go into a, you know, across a, like a lake. You think it's like shallow enough because I think if you get like, well, how many inches above like your door, your car is dead.

[00:03:52] There's like a certain level where your car is like six inches of water or something like that where your car is above your door line. Yeah. I think if, I think if, especially if it's lowered car, forget it, you're done, you're dead in the water. Although I did see that cool Tesla video years ago with a big flooding here in San Diego. Do you see the one where the Tesla like full on submarine mode and it went through this big giant puddle and the wave of the water like went over the car. The car was literally underwater for like, you know, a second or whatever. And then it came out the other side.

[00:04:22] I never saw that. No, it happened. It was filmed in downtown San Diego, big flooding. I forget how many years ago it was big, massive floods. This is probably the year when the cars were like in the sewers and getting pushed down the drain, like flooding crazy, you know, like San Diego's on the map for being like flooded out. It was during that storm that somebody was in a high rise in San Diego downtown, flooded streets in a Tesla went, I think it was a model three. It might've been.

[00:04:49] And it went into the puddle where it says like flooded. Don't do not enter. He went there anyways. And it went through the water and it just pushed and pushed. And it was like full on, like, you know, almost like a dolphin, like going into the water, like their head kind of skimming the water kind of look, you know? Like all you saw was like the roof line pretty much. Yeah, and the water kind of sheening off the back for a second, you know, as it went over the hood and over the roof. And then it came out the other side and kept on going. That's, yeah, that's pretty crazy.

[00:05:17] I mean, I wonder if that guy driving for sure or whoever was driving was like, you know, if he knew or if he'd done this before or this was his first experiment. But that's, that would have been an interesting thing to see in person. I got to get my Uber delivered, you know? Yeah, yeah, I got, I got stuff to do. And this rainstorm is not going to hinder me. Well, I wonder though, too, is you've hit the puddle like that. Because I've hit in big puddles before in different vehicles. And the water just like, you know, flashes over your hood and your windshield. You can't see nothing.

[00:05:47] So, so when you're going through like that, you can't see anything. Because you were literally just a wall of water just like right in front of your windshield. And you're just cruising along, hoping to God there's nothing on the other side of you as you're driving. Jesus take the wheel moment. Because literally you will slam right into somebody. Because you don't even know, unless, I mean, I'm sure Tesla has these cool features where they have like, you know, different sensors and things like that. I wonder how they would react. Yeah. How they would be reacting when you have, when you're surrounded by water.

[00:06:15] Because there's, they are like, you know, things that'll probably pick up like just reflections and things in the water that might make it seem like there's, there's things in a way when they're not. But that'd be an interesting thing to see. Like how, how those sensors and things will be. Like, I wonder if he was just in the car and all you heard were just beeps and all kinds of alerts. Oh, I'm sure it was like alarms going off left to right. And he just like, screw it. I'm going for it.

[00:06:38] Now, the question I have is, does it have some kind of like override, like a brake assist or almost the way kind of how like, you know, traction control works where it kicks into brakes? Does it do something like that? Well, you're, you're saying, screw it. I'm going through this right now. Does Tesla sound like it? And you're just like fighting it. Yeah. It sounds like they're hitting the brakes right now because if you hit the brakes and you're literally underwater or at least up to your door in water. I think, I think it must've been up to like a handle, door handle-ish somewhere on there. They get that kind of water, got hit over the thing.

[00:07:08] I wonder about that. But speaking of EVs, you know, Courage's EV Take, what you got today, buddy? Yeah. So I was listening to a couple of different, different pods and some different things. There are other podcasts out there? Get out of here. There are other podcasts. No way. Every once in a while, indulge in other podcasts. How dare you, man? Traitor. I do indulge in this one every Monday though. Okay, there we go. But nonetheless, it was, it was something I thought was interesting that I, you know, want to obviously get your take on too,

[00:07:38] is, you know, we, we talk about EVs and, you know, how they kind of have their place in the market. They, you know, they do some things very great. You know, I feel like that's undeniable. They, they have room for improvement in a lot of areas. And there's things that you. Yeah. Yeah. I can't, well, we have the solution for them to, to help it out. But, but, you know, I, I think that at the end of the day, like there's a consumer market forum and there's, there's people that swear by their EVs.

[00:08:04] And one thing that really is stood out is that a lot of American companies are, and not even just American companies, you know, there's some German companies as well. And things like that, that have started to shelve their EV projects that they seem pretty, pretty, you know, into the last, you know, probably the last two years prior to this. Well, just wait until, I mean, gas is pretty high right now.

[00:08:27] I would think that people would want to, would want to buy an EV right now with gas being, you know, six bucks, eight bucks, whatever it is where you're at, you know? Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I, not to derail on that, but I was filling up the, my, my wife's car, the M, the M35. And I have, I think that car has about a 17, 16, 17 gallon tank or something like that. And, you know, I, I was at my usual pump that I go to right down the street and I went in to go grab something in the store and just let it pump.

[00:08:56] Cause it was, you know, she pretty much like had it all the way down. So it was, it needed a full tank and I came back and it was, it was being pretty slow. It only had gotten up to 10 gallons, but it was at, I think $75 or something at 10 gallons. And I was like, this is about to be close to a hundred dollar fill up right now. And it's already taken it this long to get to this point. I was like, forget it. I'm just, I just don't even feel like paying the extra 25, 30 bucks right now. It was on E right. It was on EE, right? Like low.

[00:09:25] No, it was a, it was a little bit above the quarter tank. So a little bit below quarter tank. Well, that's a first because I've never seen any woman ever. Hey, fill my car up. It's never been above quarter tank. It's never been. Yeah. Yeah. Well, luckily for we really don't drive this. It's like really just city driving like around here, like five to 10 mile stretches. And so, you know, that's, but it got to a point where I was like, okay, we got to go get some gas.

[00:09:50] And, and yeah, you know, gas, gas prices are, you know, they're one of the things where it's like, we're going to get it regardless. But you do start to kind of realize, especially when you have a larger tank in a, in a car, like the ends tank is so small. It really like filling it up really doesn't hurt regardless. It seems like a 10 gallon or something. 12. 12. Wow. That's like a couple of gas cans right there. Yeah. Yeah. You don't even just carry things around with you. Yeah.

[00:10:13] I even have a, I have a five gallon little gas can, like that I actually use the, to fill up the mini bike, which still, still got some things to work on, on that old, that old Frankenstein thing. But, but yeah, I mean, just, you know, gas is a factor right now. People are, you know, like you said, potentially looking to make that decision to maybe have like an EV, just if they're commuting a lot and they don't want to have to deal with it.

[00:10:38] But, you know, really just curious to your take on, you know, does it make sense? Does it, does it feel sort of short sighted in your opinion? If, you know, companies are saying, well, even though there might be a slight uptick right now in EVs, we don't see the long term in it right now because a lot of people are not really buying the EVs that we've invested all this money into. So we're not going to, we're going to shelve the projects we were already going to build.

[00:11:07] While on the other hand, you have a lot of these Chinese companies and other companies that are literally taking EVs to the next level. And, you know, do we put ourselves in a situation where we're just not going to be ready when we do start to have these switchovers? And now we're just caught just kind of hanging out while all of our lunch is getting eaten by all of these companies that are saying, hey, we know it's coming down the road. Like we're going to invest in it and make it happen now and then be ready for the future.

[00:11:35] I'm just curious if you feel like it's the right move for companies to say if we're not getting the immediate benefit right now, we're not going to invest in it. Well, here's the problem, I think. How long have like the general population, like general consumers, how long do you think the EV car itself has kind of been basically in the current form it is today? Like how many years has it been on the market for people to buy?

[00:12:05] You had some early examples, like probably, I mean, you've had like one-offs here. Well, Tesla was like 2010 or something like that. That was, yeah, I would say like late, you know, really like early 2010. But that was still a one-off. I would say it's still a one-off because the Tesla, the model, the Model S or model, what's the one? Well, they had the Roadster initially. What's their generic flagship car? Is that like the- That was the S. Okay. Yeah, Model S. I think that was like 2010, 2012, something like that. It must have been a long time, but I think after that, they're not the only ones in town anymore.

[00:12:34] There are other companies and even Tesla themselves have got like cheaper versions. So I would say when I'm saying like general public kind of car, I would say probably in the, you know, not the rich person's electric car version, but like more of like a regular person's electric car. When those cars kind of hit the market, was that like probably, was that 2020 before 2020? Well, because you did have, yeah, you did have the Model S that came out in 2012. I'm just reading up here.

[00:13:00] The Model S initially was available to trans-based model, which was 60 grand, but in 2012 money. And then you had like the performance variance that kind of went up from there. And so- So quite a hundred grand probably. Yeah. Like, you know, with inflation and things, yeah, you're probably, you're looking at, you know, 70, 80 grand car and to the general populace, like, yeah, that's not just a car that you're just jumping into. So, yeah, I mean, I guess really your benchmark really, I think would be when you were getting

[00:13:29] things like the Model 3. And I'm curious. That's still Tesla. I'm saying like other car companies that are, because Tesla's never going to, Tesla's never going to not do EVs. So they don't, I don't think it really count. We're talking about car companies here that, that make car like regular gas powered cars. And now they, you know, jumped into the EV game. At what point did that happen? I'm curious. Like, cause what my mind goes to the Nissan Leaf actually. I'm curious. Probably around the same time. Yeah. But that was like a total one-off thing. They didn't make a bunch of those.

[00:13:58] Like it was only one car. I don't think it was like they had a bunch of EV cars, you know, they like have today. That's, I think we have today. That was a bit more of an experiment for them. Right. I mean, if you want to buy it great, if you don't want to buy it great, other cars to buy too. But I think today almost every car company has got like EV versions in their lineup. Some have more than others. I don't think, I don't think other than Tesla and like Rivian and what's the other Lucid, you know, you know, companies like that.

[00:14:28] I don't think they count. I'm thinking companies that originally were, you know, gas powered companies. They brought in some EVs to their fleet. How many EVs do they bring in? And those EVs probably, they did okay. When gas is crazy high, people buy them. But when it's like, you know, coming back down, you know, maybe people like switch back over to gas power. And maybe, you know, there's a lot of variables. Cause I think, like I said, it's all about that.

[00:14:53] What I call it, it was the, you couldn't go so far on an EV car because you're stressed out because you couldn't, you're worried about, you know, the range anxiety. That's what I call it. Range anxiety. That's a big fear too, I think. But I was kind of wondering how many years have we had like all these other car companies hit the market with their EVs? Like you got Kia, you got Hyundai's got some, Ford's got some, I think they all have got them. I don't, I don't think there's a company out there that does not like not have any EVs in their lineup.

[00:15:23] Yeah. And yeah, that, that point is, is, you know, I, I see the, the conclusion you're getting to. And yeah, like that, that point of where it was like, I don't want to say critical mass, but where it was more commonplace to have all these brands was definitely probably a little closer to like 2015. And like, you know, I'm even, I'm even looking at like the two years, maybe. Yeah. The last 10 years or so. Cause I was looking like the, a couple of like more of like, again, the experimental

[00:15:48] card, like the leaf, the, uh, I don't know if you remember the original I three, the I three and the I eight, like both of those were like around 2012, 2013 timeframe. And so that was when it was like, you know, we knew that the companies were diving into it, but it wasn't as if like, you know, every manufacturer had something in their fleet where it'd like fit this kind of niche of EV cars. But yeah, I mean, to that point, like I said, I think you're right around like a decade or

[00:16:15] so is probably like the timeframe where EVs were regular space amongst all of the other gas powered cars for sure. And so that being said, you're saying now that some of these car companies are actually pulling back their EV production. Probably. It's probably, it's probably the numbers. If you look at how many, okay. First off, if you're a car manufacturer, how long it takes to like retool a factory to

[00:16:43] pump out a particular type of car and especially, especially EV car, they don't use, I don't think they use the same frame and chassis as it may look to say, maybe the same body maybe, but I don't think that the frame is gotta be different. The chassis gotta be different. I don't think, I don't think you're whatever. Like, did you, is there, first off, is there a electric version of your car, the Elantra? There is a hybrid version, but not a full EV Elantra. Okay. So full EV would be like the frame is battery and it's like motors and every wheel kind

[00:17:11] of deal or at least two motors or however they do it. But I think the body itself, it just slapped on, you know, like that's why. Yeah. And that's, that's to that point. Like the, uh, the Kona, the Kona has like a full EV version of the Kona, but then they have the different Kona versions that aren't EV and, and yeah, to your point, like you're usually supporting like, you know, the weight of like these massive battery panels that have to go in. And so there's, there's for sure different chassis construction to accommodate for the

[00:17:40] fact of, you know, this car weighs so much more because of his batteries versus like a gasoline car and just distribution of weight and all of that too. So yeah. You know, I don't think they come out the same factory. They got these different factories, right? Maybe. No, I agree. Yeah. Maybe the body does maybe, maybe like the, you know, the radio knobs and that kind of crap. But I think like the, the actual, like the part that matters, you know, the battery, the frame and all that stuff, it's gotta be either in a different factory built somewhere else, shipped over. Maybe, maybe, maybe it's made somewhere else.

[00:18:08] And then, well, a lot of times the batteries themselves are manufactured by somebody like totally different. Like Tesla, Tesla did start to manufacture their own batteries, but I, I'm air quoting over here because there's, there's still like big players in the battery space, like CATL and Samsung and different things like that. Like, you know, they, they still kind of, because of just their expertise in batteries, like they, they probably still have some hand or a role in like in, in those batteries that are said made by Tesla now.

[00:18:37] But a lot of times earlier on, at least, you know, those batteries were really coming from other manufacturers and just getting adopted to whatever platform they were going in. So to your point though, that's like, you know, again, that's, that's a totally different construction method to, you know, to a gas powered car. And you do have to completely retool a factory to be able to, to build a different car than you would be building. You know, we do know about it all the time where they, they say like, you know, certain

[00:19:05] cars and, you know, in Michigan and Detroit, you know, were built at certain factories and like, they actually shipped certain cars actually overseas or well now overseas, but they, they were built in Canada and certain factories, like you certain factories are tooled to build certain cars, even in like a say in the same manufacturer's lineup. So you're talking like two different technologies of car, you know, gasoline power versus EV, that's going to be a complete changeover for sure. And I'm sure it's not cheap.

[00:19:35] And I'm sure if they're looking at their books and they're seeing, I mean, the sales has got to be like, maybe it's like one EV for every five or four, five or four, maybe gas powered cars of equivalent price range, you know? And then, and then maybe look at the bean counters or looking at that and they're like, well, gosh, I don't know if we, you know, I don't know. Maybe we should, maybe we shouldn't, you know, hold back or whatever. And I think too, is that they could, they can do that because a company like Tesla or Lucid or Rivian, they can't do that.

[00:20:04] They can't say, well, it's just leading to our gas cars because they don't have any. Where American car companies and other car companies do kind of both. They can, they can pull back because they have other means of transportation they sell you, you know? So it's not just one flavor. They got other things they can sell you. But I don't know, man. You know, I mean, EVs, EVs are fun. They're fine. They're great. They're, they're, I listen, they're fast. They're fun. Although for some reason, I don't know what this is. I don't know if you noticed this too or not. On the freeway.

[00:20:34] Every time I get on the freeway, I'm driving behind a slow Tesla. Now, why is that? You either get a very slow Tesla or, or a very, you know, aggressive Tesla. Like there's, there's like no real like in between. I don't know, man. Lately, there've been a lot of slow Tesla. Now, is this thing going to like lip mode on the freeway or something like that? Is it going like battery saving mode or something? No, they've got range anxiety and they're trying to. I guess so. That must be what it is because every time, even in my work truck, which is supposed to go 55, wink, wink. Yeah. 55.

[00:21:04] I'm passing them. You're, you're, you're having to go around. That's what I'm saying. Like what is going on with these guys? With, and those mean Teslas. I mean, not so much on the other EVs. Probably because I don't really notice. The other ones kind of look like cars. It could be either or. So I can't really tell. But with a Tesla, you know it's an EV. You know? And so, but I've noticed they've been going really slow lately. I don't know what's going on with that. The ones that, the, what I really commend is the Germans and their cars, like the BMWs and the, and the Audis, even Mercedes.

[00:21:32] Like, I mean, Mercedes is doing some interesting things with like their EQ line, which is, you know, they, that's, that's definitely more of like their futuristic EVs where you can pretty much tell that those are EVs. But BMW particularly is interesting because like they've, they've really, and one actually thing that's kind of, kind of related to this is that they, they teased a new i3. We were talking about the, the original i3, but they, they teased a new, new version of

[00:22:00] the i3 that basically is going to kind of serve as like the, the, the three series lineup of the car. So it's, it's no longer kind of like this weird hatchback-y kind of thing. Like it's, it's going to really just be like, you know, like a regular three series, but, and the, you know, an EV version of that. And then they might potentially use that to build off of for like a gas powered three series. But BMW has always is found a really good way to make their EVs just feel like regular

[00:22:29] cars, you know, like they even. Oh, with the gas pedal and like actual like tachometer that makes noise and things like that? No, I just mean like their design, like, you know, just their design in general. Oh, okay. They, you know, they have like small cues that their EVs, but they, they never really like made them like this has to stand out as to show everybody that I'm an EV. They kind of just took their basic like design of a sedan and just made it into an EV.

[00:22:56] You know, that was, I feel like why a lot of people liked the Ford Lightning a lot because That's why I liked it. It just looked like a regular truck. That's why I was considering buying one when it first got announced. I was like, listen, I'm not a big EV guy, but this would be the EV I'd buy because it virtually is the same truck I have just electric, you know, or whatever. But I heard a lot of bad things about that truck. I heard, I heard the towing was like not what it said it was going to do. I heard range anxiety was like by half or whatever.

[00:23:24] Dude, one thing on towing though, this, this isn't related to these. I was, I was on a drive up to Reno a couple of weekends ago. Guess what? I saw towing a toy hauler RV going up, up into the mountains. Okay. Let me guess. Was it a truck or SUV? It was a truck. Was it like a Toyota Tacoma? No, it was an EV. I'll give you a bigger hand. Nope. The, the cyber truck.

[00:23:50] I saw a cyber truck hauling a big toy hauler EV up going up to, towards like. I think they, they can haul tow. I think they are rated for like, I don't know how many pounds. Oh yeah. They a hundred percent are. It's just that I have never seen anybody do it. Like outside of like, you know, kind of demonstrating that they were towing stuff. But like, just to see like a regular, like an, an ironic situation of somebody towing. Like that was the first time I've ever seen that.

[00:24:17] Like both me and my wife were like, like taking a back. Cause like, we've just never, I've never seen anybody doing it. It'd make you feel like, it'd make you feel like the first time you saw one in person. Yeah. It was like, wow. Look at that thing. It was like, yeah, it was like in a new light. Like, Oh yeah. I'm actually seeing like, you know, an EV truck do what an EV truck, I guess it's supposed to do is like towing something like it was, it was an interesting experience. The question is how much range he got towing. Yeah. He had just left from, from charging probably.

[00:24:47] And, and he's planning out like his next charging truck. I'm sure. I'm sure the Tesla is in that truck too. I'm sure it tells you like, Hey idiot, we got to get juice real soon here. Like pull over the next, whatever. I'm sure it tells a short map. I'm sure it kind of maps it. Like auto maps it. It's what I've, yeah. What I've rented a couple of model threes, which I, that was a feature that I really liked. You know, I rented a couple of model threes and drove out to like Palm desert.

[00:25:14] And like, actually I think I went all the way out to Arizona in one of them. And there was, you know, again, range anxiety was still a thing because there's certain areas going towards like, yeah, Arizona and Palm desert where you have long stretches. Yeah. Long stretches of no EV charging. And so one of the places I was going to was I basically had to charge fully in, in the

[00:25:38] city as I was coming into Palm desert because I would need the juice to get to where I was going and get back to Palm desert to charge again. And if I was at like, say half percentage and I tried to do it, like I would get, I would get stuck somewhere in between and there was nowhere, there was no charging station. So, but the map will tell you when you put in your destination, it plans your route around where you'll need to charge to make sure you, you have, you have the range you need. And it does that like automatically.

[00:26:07] You have to like program that. And I'm at, Hey, this is the route you got to go. Yeah. It'll let you know, like if, you know, if your percentages is going to drop below, you know, a certain percentage, like it'll say like, you need to charge here and then continue on to like your, your, either your next destination or your next charge to keep you like in the flow. Like it, it wouldn't let you, it basically the navigation would say like, if you were going to try and navigate here without charging, it would show you the negative percentage.

[00:26:35] If you were going to be like depleting your battery, which obviously you don't want to do. So I'm sure like the other UVs do it, but I did really like that feature and both the model threes that I drove, you know, recently for sure. I say recently, it was like two years ago, but you know, that, that was a real thought out feature that I was glad that they had because it's sort of alleviates the range anxiety, except for the fact that you now have to plan for an extra say 15, 20, maybe even 30 minutes to charge the car for that dude. I got to go, man.

[00:27:05] I got a place to be. My gosh, I was running all around town today. Imagine if I had range anxiety, but my gosh, I'm late for this, I'm late for that. So, I mean, I think, I think EVs are fine. They're fine for somebody that doesn't want to ride the bus or take an Uber. They're like a step above that. That's a, come talking about some low hanging fruit. I mean, I mean, it's literally a step above riding the bus. Do we have a solution for you?

[00:27:35] They should really put EV ads in back of like bus seats. Like that's a brochure. You could be doing something better than this right now. You hate riding this bus right now? Guess what we have for you? And it charges your phone for you while you ride. And you're just like the bus here. You can put an autopilot and let it drive for you. Right. Yeah. You know, like I said, EV, people buy EVs literally. Okay. First off, I think EVs are really popular here in Southern California. And I'll tell you why. It's because we're so spread out. We are very spread out here.

[00:28:04] And you need a car. Like people like in New York City, for example, I was in New York City and people all take the subway. They call it the train, but subway, same damn thing. And they take it all over the place and they ride all over the place. That's all they do. Maybe taxi here and there, but it's all like that kind of stuff. Yeah. And so here, we don't have the, I mean, there's kind of public transportation, the buses, kind of, but it's a big pain. It's not the same. It's not the same as riding the train in New York City. And so it's a challenge.

[00:28:33] To have something to just jump in, like, you know, to go, you know, a little short distance here and there. Yeah. But yeah, in New York City, it goes everywhere. And when I went to New York City, you pay a certain fee. You get into the network, like the subway network, and you can take the train anywhere. As long as you don't leave the subway network, like get out to the street, you can ride it anywhere you want, anywhere it goes. We're talking up north, down south, everywhere. And people do it all the time. And it's always running, I think, 24-7, I think. And so they're pretty fast.

[00:29:03] You get, don't stand close to them. I don't think it'll kill you. It's like going like 80 miles an hour flying through there. But here, I don't think we have the San Diego Trolley, and we got a few things here and there. Yeah, the Trolley. But if you live in Mexico. The Bay Area's network is, you know, up north. Yeah. It's, you know, pretty fleshed out. Like BART, you know, I took that a lot in high school and everything. Oh, so you figured it out, though. So it was pretty easy to figure out the system and that kind of stuff. Yeah. And it's definitely, yeah.

[00:29:29] You know, Trolley is kind of, the San Diego Trolley is kind of starting to get there. Because there was a lot of sections of San Diego that you couldn't make it to because the trolley just didn't go to. Or you could take a bus. You could jump from one to the other. Yeah. Which. Which sucks. And then you got to know the schedule of the bus. And you got to know the different lines. Like the blue line, the green line, whatever line it is. Yeah. Where does it go? Different kind of things. And then you're, like, range anxiety. You're talking, spending your whole morning figuring out, like, how many hours does it take to get to work?

[00:29:55] Like, when I had to get to work and I couldn't use my truck because of the parking situation here, I was taking an Uber to work or get Uber back or ride back and that kind of stuff. It did get expensive, let me tell you. Because you, don't you, aren't you, you said you're, like, near, like, Coronado area. For anybody who knows, like, San Diego. Well, yeah. So, to downtown every day. I think it was, like, 50 bucks a ride. Maybe 40 bucks a ride one way. And then doing that every day for work. And then, you know, that's like a car payment right there. Yeah. Whatever.

[00:30:25] So, but I definitely can see when people get used to that. Just getting, ordering an Uber and just, like, being on your phone all the way to work and just, you know, doing nothing. Or maybe talking to the guy or whatever kind of stuff. It gets very addictive. I can see it. It does get very expensive. But that being said, like, I think that having an EV gives you the luxury of having transportation. That's really what it is. It's just transportation. Bare minimum. Like, what's your benefit of this? It's like you have transportation of your own.

[00:30:54] And you get cool, you know, features like all the cool gadgets and bells and whistles and all the cool electronic stuff and sensors and the cameras. You get all that cool stuff. Right? But, you know, I don't think, I mean, okay, I guess you get the throttle of response and it does have a rocket ship feel to it. You step on the gas. I get that. The party trick of an EV. Super cool. I get it. I get it. But I just think that, like, you know, I don't know.

[00:31:20] If you get any type of more enjoyment than just getting you from point A to point B, a lot of times you need something more than what an EV can offer. Like, sometimes it can do that. Like, you know, again, the acceleration party trick is fun sometimes.

[00:31:39] Like, and to be totally honest as well, like, I mean, I feel like in the off-road space, like EV, I've said it before that I do actually kind of see the appeal of, you know, EV trucks and EV SUVs from that perspective. But if you're going in the middle of nowhere, if you're going out in the middle of nowhere going hunting or whatever, you know, like you're going to the hills, like, right? Yeah. You know, in the middle of nowhere, like range anxiety becomes another level. That is it. It's a good point. It becomes like a rage heart attack. Yeah.

[00:32:09] Because you're going to, like, some of these places people go camping and hiking and, like, it's a whole thing. Jeep's whole thing is, like, you know, we can go anywhere kind of deal, you know? And you can't even, like, with a Jeep, like, you can be one of those guys that carry, like, the terry can gas tanks. Oh, yeah, you have to. It's, like, along your frame. It's, like, you can't carry an EV charger on the back. Carry a generator or whatever. But I don't know. Does this even work? If you took, like, a regular, like, camping generator and you, like, ran gas, can you even charge your car off it?

[00:32:37] No, like, just imagine if, you know, that little battery-powered thing that I brought when we went out to Willow Springs. Yeah, just, you just, you know, plug that. Plug your, obviously you can't because there's, like, you need this whole, like, extension that you would have to put onto that. And the charging amperage, like, you can't even get anywhere close to that. So, yeah, like, that's the part of it where, yeah, like, if you're in, you know, yeah, you can do, like, some light camping at, like, a campground that's maybe, like, you know, say an hour outside of the city or something of that sort.

[00:33:06] Or maybe, I mean, maybe that's even a stretch. But, you know, if you're really in, like, a remote, remote area and you just so happen to miscalculate things with your range, like, that could be a pretty bad situation. Well, a lot of them now are doing those range extenders, which is, like, a little gas-powered motor on the car. It just powers the generator. It doesn't even, like, run a motor motor for the car. It just runs a generator to charge the battery, which is really what you need.

[00:33:32] Which was, and that was kind of how the Prius, like, you know, and I think it probably is still how the Prius is, is that, like, the battery is, like, or the engine is just a generator. And it uses that to, you know, generate the battery power. But the drive is still from EVs. And, you know, I guess really just at the end of the day, yeah, I think I agree that, like, there's just, there's so much that needs to still improve to really kind of make EVs, you know, really a dominant, I guess,

[00:34:02] transportation method. But also, like, you know, you just don't get the same passion that you get from, you know, if you're into that. Like, if you really just don't care, like, you know, about driving, and again, you just want to go point A to point B, like, yeah, EVs do it. But there's other elements that they can't fulfill.

[00:34:16] But I think, too, though, is that it's going to be an interesting situation, like, to that original point, is if the companies themselves are not looking to innovate the way that they already have planned to innovate before, if these American companies and some of these other companies are deciding not to innovate, even though the sales aren't there, we're probably going to be driving BYDs and Zekers around. I think you were talking about that.

[00:34:45] I think those cars look amazing in the Chinese EV market. They've got some really cool tech cars coming out, or actually are out right now. The problem is we can't get them. You can't get them in the United States. I don't know how you get them. There's got to be, like, tariff. There's so much tariffs on that. That might as well buy, like, a Ferrari or something. You know what I'm saying? Like, it's ridiculous. So. It's going to be a real niche type thing. Yeah, almost like trying to get, like, a special GTR from Japan over here.

[00:35:15] If you're filling within the window of whatever, I mean, 25 years or whatever it is. Yeah. And I think that I've seen some of those, the Zeker or whatever it was. I saw that thing. It looks amazing. Features that are probably 10 years ahead of anything here. You know, like, crazy features. Like, no way. And it's, like, price. Like, I was looking at the price of the thing. It was, like, 50 grand, which is, like, crazy. Because something like that here would cost, like, 150 grand. Yeah. Well, that was, that's one thing that comes to mind. And not to belabor this, but you saying that just kind of made me think of something where,

[00:35:45] and I think it's just, like, our human nature where it's, like, when we see, when we see an opportunity or we see, like, you know, maybe somebody else that might succeed in something, we're, like, oh, we got to figure out how to do the same thing. But maybe we just let them have it. Like, if the Chinese companies are gonna, like, if, I mean, as far ahead as they probably already are with a lot of these technologies in EV. And, you know, not to say that we just don't do anything.

[00:36:13] But, I mean, maybe let them, like, just run that race. And we do whatever it is that we're doing. But, I mean, maybe we don't necessarily have to be in a direct competition. Oh, we got to catch up to what they're doing over there in the EV space. Like, I mean, they're building some cool stuff. But BYD's got cars to jump now. Knight Rider, huh? Yeah, like, you know, all these, yeah, like, all these, like, Knight Rider, James Bond type features with these EVs.

[00:36:40] And, you know, to be honest, like, they kind of need that. Because other than that, what else do they got going for them in the automotive space? Yeah, but like I said, I don't know how you get them here. You know, it sounds great about how you even get them here to us. The American companies are like, well, who cares? They can't get them here. So what do we care, you know? That's their, yeah, that's their gating item right now. I was like, yeah, they can do whatever they want. They can't get them over here anyway. Until the market, like, shifts where they're seeing the results in their bottom line, they probably don't even care.

[00:37:10] They're like, eh, whatever. That's cool. That's fun. But if they can't, I mean, like I said, if their EV sales are down and they're in the bean counters saying, wait a second, you know, like, our EVs aren't selling that great, but the other cars are. Why are we doing wasting time with EVs? I mean, they're in the business to make money. You know, they're in the business to make cool cars. Is that why Nissan is like, okay, Nissan's trying to get back into making some cool cars, but still like for a while there, they kind of ditched a lot of the cool stuff and then went straight to like boring SUVs.

[00:37:39] A lot of companies did, you know, like that whole small SUV, you know, club is like a really popular niche of car. Like every manufacturer, especially like Kia, Hyundai, you know, Ford, Chevy, they all have them. You know how these like midsize small SUVs, because you know why? Even the big companies do. Lamborghini, Audi. Well, I don't know if I would consider a Lamborghini like their SUV. Yeah. That Urus though. That is fast. I'm sure it's great. But Urus is fast.

[00:38:07] Like it's, I mean, it's literally like the choice of anybody that's like in that bracket or that world where they're like, I need an SUV, but you know, I want the badge of a Lamborghini. It is the cheapest Lambo you can buy though. It is. Yeah, it is. So if you want to get the Lambo badge, but you don't want to spend like Lambo Lambo money, you want to get your foot in the door? That's probably what people do. They get into that. And I heard their handle gray. I'm sure the greatest of these, but I'm saying like, I don't think a Lamborghini Urus compares

[00:38:36] to like a Kona of a Hyundai. Oh no. And I think that mid crossover is like that, that like, you know, compact crossover, you know, kind of realm is, it's such a, it's, it's so close to just being just a hatchback at the end of the day that my mind was going to something bigger. Like, you know, like the, say like the Santa Fe or like the, you know, even like, you know, the, the Cayenne, like the Cayennes and the, you know, something that's like a little bit

[00:39:03] more of like that step up of like, you know, not compact SUVs, but like midsize SUVs, you know, that, that my mind kind of goes there a little bit where again, like, you know, the, the Q, the Q7 or the, I don't quite remember Audi's like terminology and everything, but they, they have a lot of like, a lot of companies have that midsize range of SUVs just like plotted out. And it's been like that for a while. Well, because they sell, man. They sell. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:39:32] I mean, people, man, I mean, companies are gonna make stuff that sells and if EVs are not selling, they're probably gonna pull back and that's gotta be what it is. I mean, they got some cool stuff coming out there from China, but you know, I mean, maybe they're like, well, we'll see what happens, you know, maybe they'll see, we'll see what happens and then they'll just steal their technology and make their own. We'll do what they, what we, what we claim that they do all the time. We'll just do that. Or we'll say they stole our idea first. They made them, you know, whatever.

[00:40:01] I don't know how this stuff point fingers for everybody's pointing fingers to everybody. Well, courage, man. This has been so fantastic. Talk about EVs. It encourages EV hot takes tonight, man. Yeah. I haven't had, I haven't had my EV soapbox for a little while. So I figured I'd throw that in the mix. I'm gonna get you a cool little plugged in like juice sound effect, like electric sound effects. But they have you, uh, encourages, uh, EV takes on the show. So, Hey, uh, where can everybody find out all about you and your cool stuff, man? Yeah. Feel free. Absolutely. Check out, uh, the driven dad 22 on Instagram and YouTube.

[00:40:31] I don't have a lot of EV content, so you'd probably be pretty surprised about that. But nonetheless, feel free to check it out. If you guys are interested. Fantastic. You can find out everything about this show, all the links, all the cool stuff right there at cool cars with Chris.com links to everything will be in the show notes down below. And we will see you on the very next episode.