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Win a Ford F-150 Lightning!
134 Plays1 year ago
Welcome to the Plug In For More podcast! Mike, Tom, and Bryant are here to help you on your journey to an Electric vehicle future. Each episode we discuss current events, trends, and a specific topic of education related to EV's. We bring together a diverse experience set, and pair it with guests who are experts in the field. For even more information on EV's, check out www.EVUniverse.com.
In this episode Mike shares a road trip experience with his Rivian. The guys talk about the continued adoption of the NACS charging standard. We also meet Shakaya Copper with Generation 180. She shares the organizations mission and how you can sign up to win an F-150 Lightning. Visit www.generation180.org to sign the going electric pledge, and enter for your chance to win the F-150 Lightning!
Be sure to follow PIFM on our various social media platforms, for more exciting content on EV’s
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Transcript
Introduction and Announcements
00:00:00
Speaker
Welcome back to the plugin for more podcasts Mike and I here to talk to you because you're gonna be surprised Bryant is on vacation again Again, he never he never is home. It must be nice No, no, no, I don't yeah. I got nothing else to say about him I think what we do need to talk about though is we have a very special guest that's coming on later and There's a big giveaway
00:00:25
Speaker
Welcome to Plug In For More, brought to you by evuniverse.com.
Educating on Electric Vehicles
00:00:31
Speaker
EV Universe is your one-stop shop for all things related to the electric vehicle. Here on this podcast, our goal is to educate, inspire, and hopefully make your transition into the electric vehicle marketplace a lot less intimidating. And now, here are your hosts, Mike, Tom, and Bryant.
00:00:53
Speaker
I mean, we don't need to be super secretive about it because it is within the podcast mic, but Shakia Cooper, who is a program associate with Generation 180.
00:01:02
Speaker
Generation 180 is a nonprofit national organization that's really geared towards trying to foster a mindset towards sustainable energy. And part of it is EV adoption. So they spend a lot of time working with a different group of stakeholders, trying to educate and inform and following a lot of the same message that we need to do here at the podcast as well. Yeah.
00:01:27
Speaker
I mean, it's, it's a great conversation. Can't wait for everyone to listen to it.
Rivian vs. Tesla: EV Performance Discussion
00:01:30
Speaker
So Mike, you just took a trip in your ribbing recently and it did really well on range. Can you tell me about it? Yeah. So we took a trip that was about two hours and 30 minutes away from our house. Um, it was normally 55 mile an hour road, so it wasn't, you know, highway, you know, true like expressway driving, but more just highways. Um, and they got to our destination, took another.
00:01:55
Speaker
hour and a half, just driving around town and doing different errands and that sort of thing. And then came back another two and a half hours. Um, that whole trip is about, um, 340 miles or so as far as what we drove. And, um, before the trip and we're used to Teslas and Teslas typically will overstate their range a little bit. You'll get in and then it'll say, you know, you've got X number of miles left. And then as you start going and you
00:02:24
Speaker
you drive normally, you'll see that starts dropping a little bit until it gets to a steady state, but it's really never going to give you the full amount that you expect it to. Um, and that's really something that's frustrated my wife and I over the years with the Rivian. However, um, we put it in conserve mode, which is the, the eco friendly, get the most range mode for that vehicle.
00:02:45
Speaker
If I could, is that synonymous with the Kia EV6 and Old Man mode? Is that the same thing? Not necessarily. Oh, OK. So a little bit. But it's still two-wheel drive versus four-wheel drive, and it's still almost 400 horsepower. So no, it's not really Old Man mode, but. OK, well, Brian's not here to defend himself, so he's not here to defend himself. I know. So let's just, yeah, it's definitely better than Old Man mode. However, what I will say with this trip is we put it in Conserve mode.
00:03:14
Speaker
And the vehicle showed about 345 miles of range when, uh, when, when leaving our house, we got a 345 miles of range. As we rolled into the driveway, I still had another 30 miles or so. Um, and so it did really, really well. We were a little bit worried that with all that driving, we were going to have to find a place to charge. We wouldn't make it back in time just because we, we were a little bit short on the time for the afternoon, but that thing over performed really, really well.
00:03:44
Speaker
Um, I, you know, I was careful in how I was driving and, but it wasn't anything out of the norm. Um, I wasn't just sticking exactly, you know, um, at the speed limit every moment of, of my day. And I wasn't taking off from, um, stoplights very, very slowly. So again, just very, very impressed with that car. And I already got a truck and, um, the headlights that they looked awesome the whole time, Tom, I know you're a big fan, so I want to make sure you are.
00:04:11
Speaker
aware of. They looked good the whole trip. I am skeptical of that, but I'm happy for you. Well, I appreciate that.
The Future of EV Charging Infrastructure
00:04:20
Speaker
So thank you. Other big news is the continued NACS adoption. It's huge news. More and more
00:04:30
Speaker
manufacturers have signed on. So originally we'd looked at Ford and GM and now it's just gone to Polestar Volvo, which is a parent company, kind of a parent company. It's just gone on and on and on. And so now even Electrify America as of yesterday, as of this recording, has said that they are going to have the NACS adapter
00:04:55
Speaker
or plug on their chargers. And so that's not only new, but also existing. And so that's a big deal. And so for the folks out there with Teslas that can use CCS chargers right now, looks like that's going to open up to you without even having to have an adapter, which is cool. Because those adapters are pretty heavy. There's another thing to carry in your car, one extra thing to break. And frankly, the way
00:05:23
Speaker
Those things hang off the car. It doesn't give me a ton of confidence that someone's not going to try to rip them off or something. So yeah, I think it's a really, really good thing. It just opens up the whole network for more and more people. I'm excited. One thing I will say, and Tom, I'm curious on what your thoughts are on this and what the manufacturers are going to do, but with the charge ports being in different locations on all these different vehicles.
00:05:48
Speaker
that's going to get kind of messy unless there's longer cables for these chargers, because you've got Tesla, which is on the driver's rear quarter, and then other vehicles, like the Rivians on the driver's front corner. And to make that work, you're going to either be blocking a lot of these charging stalls, how they're currently configured, and making some people angry, especially as more and more people use these superchargers. So I think
00:06:17
Speaker
That's going to get kind of interesting over the next little bit here. Once this actually gets rolled out, most of these manufacturers are saying not until the spring of 2024 will they have that. And it looks like there's going to be adapters that come out that gets sold. And my, I'm betting these adapters are going to have a long cable that will allow it to do work. If not, it's going to be a weird traffic jam at these chargers.
00:06:45
Speaker
And I'm not sure how big of a difference it makes because I imagine pulling into say a supercharger with my Mach-E where my charging port is on the front driver quarter panel. So I'm just going to pull in those first as opposed to the Tesla that's backing in.
00:07:03
Speaker
Well, if yours is on the front corner, the driver's front corner, which that's like the same thing as Audi e-tron and some others, because on the current superchargers, the cables are so short, you would actually have to pull in to the right stall, and you'd be blocking another stall. Oh, OK. I see what you're saying. Yeah, so unfortunately, this is the same thing with the Rivian.
00:07:33
Speaker
where that thing is at, you'll be blocking, you'll be charging, not just taking up one stall, but you're taking up two because you'll have the one that you're plugged into. And of course blocking another one. So yeah, it'll get interesting. And I guess maybe that changes with time too, where they give a little bit more length of cord and maybe there's just a little bit wider areas. Kind of like you think a gas station, you've got plenty of cars that the gas filling is on the driver's side. Someone's on the passenger side. Like it's all.
00:08:03
Speaker
people figure it out. Yeah. I think like from a process standpoint, the only way I can see it really working in a short term by the spring of 24 is that they do a longer adapter because they, to change 12,000 supercharging cables in six months or eight months, that's going to be tough to do just logistically. So, um, yeah, big, big news. I mean, I think that should make a lot of people really, really happy.
00:08:31
Speaker
You're listening to the plugin for more podcast. If you're looking for information on electric vehicles, electric vehicles, components, or information on how to reduce your carbon footprint, look no further than evuniverse.com. evuniverse.com is your one stop shop for all things related to electric vehicle.
Generation 180's Mission and Initiatives
00:08:52
Speaker
Shakia, welcome to the show. Can you tell us about your role with generation 180 and what exactly you're doing?
00:09:01
Speaker
Yes, thank you for having me, Tom. So I have been with Generation 180 for about a year now. I work closely with our program director, Stuart Gardner, and we really focus on ED adoption and accelerating that.
00:09:17
Speaker
And so we do it in many ways. We work with an EV ambassador network group, which can make up EV owners, EV curious individuals, EV advocates. We really focus on that consumer education and so adding those real life human element stories to the conversation.
00:09:34
Speaker
It gives that opportunity for individuals that may be in the market to transition to EVs, may not be in the market just yet kind of on the fence. It gives them that opportunity to kind of sit down with individuals and really ask questions that you may not get to ask at a dealership or you may not get to ask of a car manufacturer. And so we are really pushing that narrative and working on getting everyone to make that transition to EVs, especially individuals that drive.
00:10:02
Speaker
Cool. Now, Generation 180 is a nonprofit organization. And as a whole, what is their mission and their goal?
00:10:11
Speaker
Yes, so we are actually a national nonprofit and our mission is to inspire and equip individuals to take action on clean energy. And we definitely lean into working on shifting the current climate narrative, right? So generally that's doom and gloom and we move away from that doom and gloom to one of those like clean energy actions by helping give people tools and information to take actions in their homes and communities. And so those can look different for everyone.
00:10:42
Speaker
across the board. So Shakia, what type of things is Generation 180 trying to do to achieve these goals that they have?
00:10:49
Speaker
Yes, so we lead two national education campaigns that focus on accelerating electric transportation and solar to help address the biggest sources of climate harm and emissions. And so our work is really rooted in myth busting and positive storytelling and equipped individuals as clean energy ambassadors.
00:11:14
Speaker
And so, for example, I know I spoke about my Electrify Your Ride campaign. And so that's really working to speed up the EV adoption by educating people about the benefits of driving electric. And so we do definitely believe in the power of people. And we also empower EV owners to become ambassadors in their communities. And so, for example, this past spring, we had a comedian that works with our
00:11:41
Speaker
Climate Comedy Cohort Group, which is with our comms team.
00:11:48
Speaker
did a fun kind of real type of video and it's called breaking up with your mechanic. And the example that it's pushing is that once you transition to an EV, you no longer have to do those oil changes or you no longer have to go in as often for repairs on the car because it's very minimal moving parts in the car once you have transitioned to
00:12:11
Speaker
an electric vehicle and it was really funny because he's like on the phone and talking to his mechanic and he's saying like you know this has been a great relationship for 20 plus years but you know I'm never I'm no longer gonna see you as often and the mechanics like I'll see you next month for your oil change and he's like no you won't see me for oil change um because it's just things like that or instances like that you just no longer have to do once you transition um to an EV
00:12:41
Speaker
Okay. And what kind of feedback are you guys getting? We hear a lot of positive feedback about our campaigns, especially because we're spreading the news about climate and focusing on incredible opportunities and really pushing that momentum around clean energy. I think that it's the most inspiring thing is that
00:13:01
Speaker
we offer the angle that everyone plays a part, no matter how big or small it is, right? And so it can be things as big as transitioning to an EV or things as big or not as small or as big, but things of like
00:13:18
Speaker
Well, I made this change inside my home, right? I changed the light bulbs that I use or updated my water heater, or I bought an induction stove. So it doesn't have to be clean energy actions as big as transitioning to an EV, which is great, but you can have these other workup actions in the meantime. And there's so much excitement around clean energy right now. And so we find that more and more people are switching to electric vehicles or they're switching to solar.
00:13:47
Speaker
or they're making those clean energy upgrades at home. And so we get a lot of questions about EVs, and we spend a lot of time helping people understand those facts, and especially equally with solar questions around our Solar for Schools campaign. And then we're definitely kind of spreading into being able to answer more of those questions around the clean energy upgrades at home and what that means for your everyday American.
00:14:16
Speaker
Good stuff, Shakia. Now, can you tell me about your journey towards EV ownership and where you're at in the process?
Personal EV Goals and Going Electric Pledge
00:14:23
Speaker
Yes, definitely. So I don't currently own an EV just yet. But once I'm in the market to purchase a new car, my next car will be an EV. So I actually have signed our going electric pledge, which is super exciting. And I can tell you a little bit more about that. It's a national pledge. And essentially, it's for individuals
00:14:44
Speaker
that are pledging that their next car or truck will be an EV. And you don't have to buy it tomorrow. You don't have to buy it two months from now or even five years from now. Just whenever you're in that market to purchase an EV, in that market to purchase a car, your next car will be an EV. And so that's kind of where I am in my journey is I see a lot of brands out there that I am super interested in. And so when I'm in the market,
00:15:09
Speaker
Um, to buy one, I'm kind of got, I got a little wish list, right? Like this is my top car and then this is a backup and this is another backup if that doesn't work out. So I'm definitely excited and even more excited to see even more brands come out in 2024. Cool. Well, what is your top car? I kind of like the Range Rover that's supposed to come out in 2024. Yeah.
00:15:33
Speaker
Yeah, that's a good one. I was worried we were going to say Rivian with those goofy headlights. I don't know if you listen to our podcast at all, but I always make fun of Mike and his Rivian as goofy headlights. And he's not here to defend himself for this. So I just want to throw that in there real quick. But no, they're all good trucks. Cool. And then one thing I'm aware of that
00:15:53
Speaker
I've entered for it, but there's a F-150 Lightning giveaway coming soon. Tell us about that. Yes. The National Gorn Electric Pledge overall is exciting, but the most exciting component is that when you sign the Gorn Electric Pledge, you are entered into a sweepstakes for a chance to enter and win a Ford Electric F-150 Lightning.
00:16:16
Speaker
And one of the things that's been really exciting this summer since we launched it in May was that we partnered with Reverb and the Dave Matthews Band. And so we've been able to take this concept on a summer tour with them and really just share information and encourage people to sign the National Born Electric Pledge, especially because the Dave Matthews Band is doing 42 concerts across the country.
00:16:41
Speaker
So since it is national, we're being able to hit a lot of those states that we may not otherwise hit before. And so really just getting that word out there about the pledge. Great. So now if someone wants to enter to win the F-150 Lightning and go and do your pledge, where can they find you guys at? The website is goingelectricpledge.org. And that's how they can get there and sign the pledge. There is opportunities to get additional entry, so once you
00:17:11
Speaker
Once you sign the pledge, that initial entry, then you can do things like share it on social media, share it with your family and friends, and those get you additional entries. So definitely sign the pledge. It's happening now until September 30th.
00:17:25
Speaker
Perfect. And for our listener, I'll make sure that we've got that link in the show notes of this episode. So it'll all be there and it'll be on our socials as well to share. I really appreciate you taking the time to sit down with us or sit down with me and talk about generation one 80 and the vision you guys are bringing. And I think it's something that aligns nicely with the podcast and wish you guys the best of luck with what you're doing. Um, thank you. I'd like to give you a chance to
00:17:51
Speaker
Plug Generation 180 one more time with socials, website, make sure that the listener is getting all the info they need to find you. Yes, definitely. Thank you. Our website is generation180.org. Before we go, just one more reminder, sign that National Born Electric Pledge. You have until September 30th, and that website is going to electricpledge.org as well.
00:18:16
Speaker
So definitely check us out and learn about other programs we have and other fun things that we're going to have in the works for the summer and into the fall. Great. It was so nice to meet you and thank you for joining. Thank you. Thank you for listening to Plug In For More. Make sure you subscribe so you don't miss any future episodes. In the meantime, check out the one-stop EV Marketplace, evuniverse.com. Until next time.