InsideEVs Podcast episodes

An active and informative discussion today. I like how the show led off with the biggest news.

 

It will be interesting if the Hyundai/Kia EGMP group follow suit next.

 

I very much enjoy your podcast. I have a strong social conscience and wonder how you guys are influenced by your own principles when it comes to your positions or reporting? Example: some companies are benefitting by corporate espionage. I have not seen you guys take a principled position that carries on from one episode to the next.

I will be open and honest. A half decade ago I was a Musk and Tesla fan. This faded when he kowtowed to China (CCP). The human rights atrocities committed by the CCP just cannot be swept aside. I respect a principled person even when we have political differences - I can't see Mr. Musk as a principled man. But really the example I was alluding to in my previous paragraph is based on Geely and their support of corporate espionage.

 

As long as they report facts and data, no problem with me. I had been worried by a period of time when it looked like they were down playing Tesla for everyone else. But in the past month, more balance has returned.

Bob Wilson

 

I was not getting anything from Twitter and even tried the $8/mo fee. But after three months and no improvement in content, I turned Twitter off. BTW, I'm OK with supporting InsideEV with my former Twitter fee. Your team provides value even if not perfectly aligned with my engineering sense.

As for Elon's politics, I have and had blood kin who make him seem harmless. The calls for a 'wealth tax' to be much worse than any of Elon's malformed musings.

Bob Wilson

 

In regards to Geely, they have funded a separate company that supports Weibao Wang, the Apple engineer that stole Apple tech and has set up a business in China.

 

My 50 year career of Operating System programming and software development taught that maintenance and extension of 'stolen' code takes exceptionally rare skills. It is hard enough to debug someone else's software that trying to build on a stolen software base is very hard ... and I once contributed a device driver fix to the Linux base.

Usually people bright enough to do such things have a sense of personal preservation and ethics to find a better job.

Bob Wilson

 

It looks like we agree that there is injustice here. You are in a position where you cannot take a specific position on a public stage whereas I can act on what is systemic injustice. Whether Geely is specifically guilty in this case or not the evidence of intellectual property theft can allow me to assign blanket guilt to the CCP. This frees me to act (with my pocketbook) against the CCP. We all know that it is impossible to totally decouple but I do act to minimize my dollars going to companies beholden to the CCP. And it is not just China, I will and do act against any injustices I see (its just China's issues that are so visible).

 

I agree with your personal feelings about Musk, and further agree that it's best to leave politics out of the EV discussions entirely.

That said, it would take Musk no longer being associated with Tesla, for me to purchase a new Tesla (used wouldn't bother me at all) and I'm definitely his target demographic.

I'm not nearly as optimistic in general as I once was on EV's and feel that plug in Hybrids are going to be much more relevant for a long time to come. For several reasons not the least of which is the lack of charging infrastructure combined with the reality that most Americans can't set up L2 charging simply because they are not in a long-term residence that they own with their own dedicated parking space. And public charging isn't even cheaper than just buying gasoline, so there is no point in losing all that flexibility to not even save $. Then you have trucks, towing, cold weather, the dangerous weight of EVs, etc. Now we are getting increased registration fees on EVs. It's a lot going against them quite frankly. Of course, the Hybrid space just isn't very exciting.

Hopefully we'll see some plug in Hybrid coverage moving forward.

The best-selling vehicle in the US is the F150 and Ford is planning to release a plug in Hybrid engine option for 2024. That would be a good one to start with.

 

16 months ago I bought a 530e because my wife trusts gas and it was available (on warm days I get 30 miles electric). I still want full electric but my wife still likes gas (insert teenage joke here). I have never owned two cars at once but I am tempted to make her 'be careful what you wish for' on future car purchases. My dream is a Z4 and maybe an EV6 but that is years away.

Thank you Dom for your thoughts. We do think along many of the same lines.

 

Please ask new EV car makers,”What is your plan for either a Supercharger adapter or socket?”

Let them know this Tesla owner says, ‘No Supercharger, no interest.’

Bon Wilson

 

Enjoyed the Podcast as always (haven't yet listened to in its entirety) but for me the VW ID Buzz underscores the impracticality of EV's in general.

Tom pointed out that it should be an ideal 'road trip' vehicle, however its range limited. He's not wrong about the range being too limited, not to mention public charging options, particularly in rural areas where one might go are very limited. So essentially, it's an around town vehicle.

I agree about the ideal applications for the ID Buzz as I'd want it specifically for secure mountain bike storage and sleeping quarters while traveling to remote riding spots.

But it's the proposed solution of more batteries, that is just wrong headed. Basically, we now all acknowledge that we need way more battery range in EV trucks, SUVs & vans due to weather, locations & loads. Although most days the typical user doesn't need more than 100 miles of daily range, people buy their vehicles for multiple purposes, not just the daily commute, as most cannot afford multiple vehicles or just don't want to be so limited.

The proposed solution, which is to Mine additional limited and environmentally damaging battery raw materials, in vastly higher quantities, so that most vehicles (most US vehicles in the USA are NOT sedans) on the road can double their range, is simply impractical. First and foremost, high range EV's simply provide way too much range most days, but still not really enough when you are towing the camper, traveling or whatever. Large battery packs result in vastly increased, and dangerous for other road users, weight increases. Not to mention real road damage and even difficulties when they ignite. Large, mostly unused battery packs, result in efficiency loses and worse handling as you are dragging around a bunch of extra weight, that isn't utilized most of the time. It further limits the ability to provide battery packs, cost effectively, for more cars. Are you even aware that the Particulates that are emitted from EV tires alone, can be more PM than is emitted from an ICE tailpipe AND tires? These weights are no joke!

There are 2 reasonable solutions to these obvious problems.

Really only 1 good one, but I'll start with the poor idea and then move to the commonsense solution:

1) sell small battery pack vehicles but make the addition of a large battery subpack for road tripping, as in battery rental, a very easy process. Sounds like a PITA to me.

2) The correct solution for Trucks/ SUVs/ Vans is the great advancement of Hybrid technology. Imagine this: A Ford Lightning that still utilizes the highly efficient EV drivetrain with a LIFFEPO4 battery pack in the 50 kwh range. Enough to a) charge quickly, even on Level 1 charging which is all that many renters have access to, b) get through a typical commute day, c) a cheaper battery pack that can be discharged 100% daily with no damage effectively giving you the range of a 60+ kwh pack while saving money. d) cheaper to replace which founded or not, is a major concern of potential secondhand EV purchasers.
Then this Ford Lightning should have an ICE generator motor on board. A generator that operates at a fixed RPM for optimum efficiency and is only used to charge the battery pack. It can be driver controlled, allowing the driver to activate the generator when the truck is driving (to reduce the battery discharge rate) and even while parked to recharge the battery pack. Think how much time when you travel, is spent with the vehicle shut off? You could be regaining charge the entire time you are eating, at a rest stop, at the river, camping, etc...
Stay at your partners place on date night, or once a week, and have to park on the street? No problem, run the generator so you can travel the next day. For many drivers, that ICE generator motor would only operate a few hours a month. Meaning a driver gets all the advantage of an EV, high efficiency, quiet smooth motoring, but without all the range limited downsides.
Think about the advantages to society and the planet. So many more people can move into an EV Hybrid and fuel usage would drop like a rock.
Furthermore, every owner has a home generator. Suffering through a blackout can essentially become a thing of the past for homeowners. Boondocking with your camper, no problem. Charge your electric dirt bike or electric watercraft, no problem.

I firmly believe that the above is the way forward and that we are already hitting the limits of EV saturation, with current battery densities. EV's have really became the toys of the privileged, urban lifestyles, multiple vehicle having, always same parking spot having, long term housing owners. This situation, however, does not describe most Americans, and it's quite entitled to think that it does.

 

There has been a lot of news from the automotive OEMs lately on new cars. I would love to hear more news about the Charging Network Operators:
1. Shell Recharge - Volta purchase. What can we expect from Volta stations in the near future? A year ago Volta made news by partnering with Kroger to install chargers. Is Shell Recharge planning to continue this partnership? What is the progress on this project?
2. EVgo/GM/Pilot - What is the status of the Pilot Gas Station project?
3. EVgo Recharge - How is the Recharge project progressing?
4. EA - How is the roll out of their new hardware going? How are they balancing replacing old with new site installs? How is the progress on the IKEA partnership?
5. ChargePoint - Any updates on the MB partnership?
6. Would like to hear more about the regional operators, and if there are more plans for roaming agreements.
>>All the above, reactions to the recent NACS adoption news?