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Using Tesla destinations chargers in a non-Tesla
140 Plays2 years 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 the guys highlight the importance of the Tesla destination chargers, and how to utilize them with a non-tesla. Also they hit on important updates in the EV auto industry including the Chevrolet Bolt, Kia EV9, and the Lotus Eletre.
Looking for your own adapter for the Tesla destination charger for your J1772? Look no further!!
https://www.evuniverse.com/product/lectron-only-for-j1772-evs-tesla-to-j1772-charging-adapter-max-48-amp-250v-compatible-with-tesla-high-powered-connectors-destination-chargers-and-mobile-connectors-white/
Also, as mentioned in the show, the EV Universe preview video of the Kia EV9; https://youtu.be/Pycb1Po91zc
Be sure to follow PIFM on our various social media platforms, for more exciting content on EV’s
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Transcript
Introduction to 'Plug In for More'
00:00:00
Speaker
Welcome back to the plugin for more podcasts today. We're going to be talking primarily about the Tesla destination chargers, how to use them, when to use them. Brian's had a little bit of experience with it here now in the last few months. Uh, we got some road trip stories. Mike sold his mom a Tesla model Y and we were going to look at the new Kia Evie nine.
00:00:20
Speaker
Welcome to plug in for more, brought to you by evuniverse.com. 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.
Mike Sells Tesla Model Y to Mom
00:00:47
Speaker
Mike, how was it selling the car?
00:00:50
Speaker
So my mom loves it. At least that's what she's telling me. I think she's being nice in some ways. So my mom, I guess, backs around this is I had a 2015 Tesla Model S P85D, which I think on a previous episode, we talked about how there was a small car accident regarding that car. And at that time, every time you say accident, it implies that it was unavoidable. The reality is it was a crash and that somebody was at fault.
00:01:18
Speaker
Well, I wouldn't say it was a massive crisis, more like a fender bender, very small one. Yeah. Yes. I was at fault. Okay. All right. Yeah. Yeah. But we're talking on five miles an hour or so. But anyway, so long story short, at that particular time, getting parts was very difficult. And so it was actually easier for me to get a new model Y than, um, I mean, I still got the model S repaired, but I would be without a car for awhile. So I picked up a model Y, um, brand new, got really lucky cause I got it within like three days.
00:01:48
Speaker
That's another story. However, when I got the car, it wasn't the color, it wasn't the performance, like I won, that sort of thing. So long story short, that got sold. I moved into this Model Y, the one that I end up selling my mother, which was a white on white performance. Beautiful car, loved it. Started getting a little bit too small for our family, though.
Tesla Model Y Road Trip
00:02:08
Speaker
And at the same time, I came up with my Rivian reservation. So I jumped on that. And so don't need the Model Y.
00:02:17
Speaker
My mom has always wanted to get a Tesla. She wasn't sure about not having a screen right in front of her, just having the one, um, major interface and that sort of thing. But she saw this white one and she, she wanted it. So ended up selling it to her. Now, my mom is in Traverse city, Michigan, right where you guys are at. Um, but I am in North Carolina. So she flew down with my dad and they picked it up. We gave him a.
00:02:43
Speaker
Small tutorial over a couple days and then send them on their way back home. And, uh, so she drove just about a thousand miles, her and my father with that. And they're really the first day driving the thing. And they did, they did great. Um, a couple little things, but I was kind of doing the big brother, um,
00:03:02
Speaker
Thing watching them with the Tesla app the whole ride to see how they were doing if they had you know Not put the charger all the way and that kind of stuff which happened, you know just once but overall it was seemed like a pretty seamless trip for so Really excited for my mother be driving a Model Y performance. Your mom's not used to that type of performance. I Don't think most people are I mean she's driven some my mom's been to the BMW like driving school. So don't get me wrong I mean she knows how to drive but I think
00:03:31
Speaker
She was a little, um, a little surprised by actually how fast that vehicle is. And I tried to warn her that it's, you know, in the realm of like a C seven Corvette, I mean, zero to 16. I mean, it's not quite as fast, but it's getting pretty darn close.
Tesla vs. Non-Tesla Charging Networks
00:03:46
Speaker
And you just got to be pretty close to what your dad's driving with his Corvette. And they raised each other yet.
00:03:51
Speaker
No, but you know, that's, that's always for another episode of this trip of this, uh, podcast. We can discuss what that's going to look like. And maybe we should do that. Let's go get them to race and then we'll just mic them up in the car and just have them swearing at each other where they race. I think that'd be great. I think, I think we have a plan. I love that. I might call your dad.
00:04:14
Speaker
Mike, do they have any problems? Uh, do they have any problems? Cause I know Tesla charges are everywhere. Uh, not as much, you know, in West Virginia, but there's like a desert in West Virginia. But how, how is that compared to if you're going to drive, you know, your Rivian, how's the Tesla network in West Virginia? Oh, that's a great question. So, um, yeah, going from North Carolina to Michigan, the West Virginia is kind of the, that's the one gap. So in,
00:04:38
Speaker
Um, Charleston, there's a supercharger and that works out great. And there's, I've had no issues and I've made that trip plenty of times. Um, but if you're looking at doing it in something that's not a Tesla, um, it does provide some challenges. So to make that same path, you actually have to go further East and adds about two and a half, three hours just cause of, you know, rerouting if you're going to do it in a non Tesla. So, um,
00:05:07
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, that's definitely one downside for them. It was super easy. I mean, she just followed the path that's in the car and she had no issues whatsoever. But again, if we're going to do the same drive in the Rivian, I think that, you know, we're going to have to plan that out a little bit differently than what they did for sure.
Ford Mach-E Road Trip Challenges
00:05:27
Speaker
Yeah. I know, I know a bunch of listeners have been commenting on.
00:05:30
Speaker
on different groups that we're part of or our groups around West Virginia being a desert. So there's anyone from West Virginia legislature here. It's some, it's some chargers. It's some chargers. You're hurting people's road trips. Yup. Exactly.
00:05:45
Speaker
Well, Tom, speaking of road trips, I think you took a, you recently took a road trip. How was the mock you doing? Uh, good. You know, I've done a couple with it now. I went to Grand Rapids for one trip back in March. It was pretty cold. And then I just did one recently to Gaylord and just for perspective for people out in Michigan for Grand Rapids is about a two hour drive from Traverse City and Gaylord is about an hour and a half from where I'm at.
00:06:10
Speaker
But the temperature makes a big difference for your range and longevity of the car. And, um, obviously having adequate chargers is important. There is a fast charger in Gaylord, which was really nice to be able to top off at, um, one of the electrify America's. I don't give me the one 50 kilowatt hours that we need for the Mustang. Um, but between Trevor city and grand rapids, there's really very little, there's a fast charger and Cadillac, which is great, but it's not quite far enough away to be worthwhile.
00:06:40
Speaker
And once you get to Grand Rapids, the fastest I found down there was 120 kilowatt hour, and it wasn't even labeled that on any of the apps. The trip was fine, but I think with the Mach-E that I have with the standard range battery, I am handicapped a little bit with that range. And maybe if I was going to be planning on doing more road trips consistently, a bigger battery would be better.
00:07:05
Speaker
Uh, getting up to that 300 mile range mark instead of the 224, but the car wasn't bought for road trips. And so I really have no complaints about that, but somebody else looking at it might. So if you're thinking about a vehicle you want to do road trips in.
00:07:21
Speaker
probably steer away from a standard range battery. Yeah, that makes sense. You have to tell me where that two, one 20 is in Grand Rapids because yeah, I haven't found any fast ones. The ones I usually use in Grand Rapids are like 50. So one 20 is massively faster. Yeah, it's 96 in Plainfield. There's a like a BP station there that has a charge point. Nice. Nice. Yeah.
00:07:44
Speaker
Awesome. So Brian, so you've been doing a lot of road
EV6 Road Trip and Tesla Charger Adapter
00:07:47
Speaker
trips. I think the most recently out of, out of the group here, um, especially when you having the EV six for a while now, now, I know you've been looking at some, you know, using the Tesla destination chargers, which is obviously slower than a supercharger, but what's been, you know, how's the adapter working? How is, uh, how's that whole process working for you right now?
00:08:08
Speaker
Yeah, Mike. So in probably the next month or two, I'm going to put probably 5,000 or 10,000 miles on my car doing a lot of road trips. So the EV6 to Tom's point, all winter is below 30 degrees. I was getting around 200 miles fully charged in range. Now it's nice. Spring is sprung. It's nice to see the 280, even 300 mile range back on the EV6, depending obviously on how fast you drive.
00:08:32
Speaker
But what I was, um, what I've really felt comfortable with is all the, you know, chargers, like Tom was talking about the fast chargers, but I think a game changer for me is on my road trips. I'm, um, spending a lot of time in hotels and a lot of the hotels that I've been visiting have charge point.
00:08:48
Speaker
but they're very, very commonly not working or they charge very slow. So you're talking like three kilowatt hours, super slow. It's going to take 24, 36 hours to charge. So something I was able to get recently was Electron Tesla 2J1772 adapter. And that has been life changing because a lot of hotels have destination charges for Teslas.
00:09:13
Speaker
And now I can charge up, I'm getting approximately 11 kilowatts, 11 kilowatt hours, which is pretty fast. It'll go from 20, 30% to a hundred percent in maybe three or four hours. So what I've been doing is plugging in at night and the hotel.
00:09:27
Speaker
with that adapter. And I think it's game changer. And on our website, evuniverse.com, it's really easy. I just ordered it just a few months ago. Go into our website and take a look at, go over and select on parts and just type in Tesla adapter, Electron J1772 adapter is really what you're looking for. And it's totally worth it, Mike. It's a game changer on road trips. And even locally here,
00:09:56
Speaker
I do some workouts at our local gym. They have a destination charger. It's free. And so every time I go work out, I get a free charge. It, you know, replaces maybe 20, 30% of the battery as I get a quick workout in. So it's, it's paid for itself. It's, you know, 150 bucks, 200 bucks for the adapter. And it's, it's amazing. I highly, highly recommend it. It opens up to so many more spots for me to charge overnight when I'm
EV6 Tax Credit Benefits
00:10:22
Speaker
traveling.
00:10:22
Speaker
And I'll make sure that if you check in on the show notes for this episode, we'll have a link to that charger on our website. Thanks, Tom. Yeah. I think a lot of people get confused on superchargers versus destination. And as we kind of talked about in a previous episode, supercharger is not quite open yet to everyone in the country. They're starting to open them and
00:10:42
Speaker
But destination chargers, that is open to everybody right now. So you're not talking super fast. You're talking three or four hours, but an overnight charge makes, makes it so much better and super reliable. I will give the test. I've never been to a test destination charger that hasn't worked yet. And so maybe I'm jinxing myself on my next trip, but you just plug it in. You plug it into your car. I think the only difference on the EV six, you have to start the charge from your app. It doesn't start automatically, but.
00:11:10
Speaker
It's literally, you click it in, you click start charge, and 10 seconds later, it's charging. Yeah, and we use that adapter at our house too, just because we have a Tesla wall connector, and then I've used it for the Rivian, and my wife's Jeep four by E as well, and it's a stout piece of equipment. That adapter, I feel like I could
00:11:34
Speaker
almost run it over and it'd be fine. I actually don't do that, but, uh, you know, it's, it's, it's been, uh, it's been really good for us. We've had ours for quite some time as well. Yeah, I would agree. Even yesterday I was charging.
00:11:47
Speaker
the local gym like I talked about in this pouring rain. And I was just wondering because it's a connector and it's an adapter. So I was just wondering how I was gonna do and no problems in the rain. Not that I would expect it to have a problem, but just that was one more thing. I'm like, okay, it's not gonna have a problem. So highly recommended. So another fun thing I've got for my car is about a month ago, I got the 3D Max Spider floor mats off our website. Again, go to EV Universe. You can type in the type of vehicle you have and it will show what floor mats fit.
00:12:18
Speaker
These ones specifically I like because I ordered some cheap Amazon ones this fall. And if you live in a northern climate like we do, they get really disgusting over the winter. And taking these other Amazon cheapos out was torture. It literally will make your hands feel like they're about to fall off in a torture chamber. So these ones are super easy to take out. I've taken them out multiple times and super clean, everything underneath.
00:12:42
Speaker
is amazing and they look really good. I've got some compliments from people actually. I had some work folks in last week and they really liked my floor mats. So as much as I'm geeking out into floor mats, they make a big deal. They make a big difference. Yeah, I know what you mean on like the cheaper ones. Like we had some of those in our Model X and the back of them were these like spikes and it's almost like what you'd have for like a track spike on the track on track shoes. They are super pointy and they just tear your hands up.
00:13:12
Speaker
And yeah, I mean, I agree with the 3D Mac Spider ones. They're very easy to clean and they look nice. And they actually, I feel like they give some sound editing as well. Um, you know, I'm not sure how much of a difference I'd make, but to me, they just, um, they fit really well with the vehicle. Yeah. I put the same ones in my car for the front seat and then the, actually all, all rows. Um, I haven't cleaned them yet and I probably should. Cause we went through an entire winter with them and they're getting to look pretty dirty.
00:13:38
Speaker
But I've been avoiding it because I just am lazy. That's how you are. But I'm curious to see how well they clean up. And then guys, my last update, kind of funny, but you know, two weekends ago was tax weekend and my EV six tax credit was the easiest thing I've ever done in my life. And it was pretty nice to see, you know, I was probably going to get maybe a hundred dollar refund maybe roughly around that.
00:14:03
Speaker
before, um, the tax credit, but it was pretty nice to get the full tax credit. Um, so if you're still thinking on the fence of an EV, obviously we'll probably have to do another tax credit podcast. You know, there's been several changes since we've done our previous one. We have a couple updated articles probably out there as well, but long story short, um, if you're on the fence about, well, I'm not really sure, like how do I do this tax credit? It took me like 30 seconds using TurboTax. Um, you just put in the type of vehicle you put in the VIN number.
00:14:33
Speaker
And boom, you get the money back. It's pretty nice. And Mike, I know you've done a bunch of them. Yeah, my addiction problem to vehicles. Um, yeah, so it's, yeah, it's very easy to do it on your tax return, of course. Um, and, uh, you know, it's nice to reap that benefit. Um, you know, there's, there's a whole bunch of politicalness that can get into that and that's something we're not going to do today on this podcast, but, uh, yeah, it's definitely nice to, uh, you know, get a little bit of that money back at the end of the year.
00:15:03
Speaker
Funny story though, I was texting Mike and I was like, hey man, I'm so excited. I got this tax credit and I just have to share. Mike was like, remember when we were young and cool and we're talking about cool stuff and now we're talking about tax credits and we're really excited about it. Yeah, that officially put us in the old boat right there. You're excited about your tax credit folks. Yeah, you are no longer cool.
00:15:28
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.
Anticipation for Kia EV9
00:15:47
Speaker
So speaking of vehicle addictions, uh, I want to, I want to shift gears here because we put out on a YouTube channel, um,
00:15:55
Speaker
We have a partnership with Tom Volk and he did a nice preview of the Kia EV9. And, um, I'm sure Mike or, um, Tom will share out the show notes as well, but it's, it's a pretty quick video to watch, but it got me super excited around what might be my next car when the EV9 comes out. But, uh, Tom and Mike, I know you guys have watched the video as well and read up like, what are your thoughts on the Kia EV9? I guess my first thought is your next EV is going to be the Hummer.
00:16:23
Speaker
I'm not sure why we're talking about the EV9. Your wife made it very clear what is going to happen, and I don't know why you're fighting this. That's good, Brian's wife.
00:16:33
Speaker
The EV9's sharp. I'm not surprised by it. It's, I think, on brand for what Kia's been doing. It's got all the things you'd expect from it. I've been impressed with the EV6, and I know that the platform that it's built on is going to be pretty robust with Hyundai and Genesis and Kia, and it's going to be the platform for a lot of vehicles. They've invested in it, and I think it's impressive.
00:16:59
Speaker
Yeah, the biggest thing for me, I think it looks super sharp and almost all the new Kia's do. At least for me, they're one of the better looking car companies out right now. I mean, their styling is top notch. But when I look at
00:17:16
Speaker
the different large SUVs that are coming out for EVs. There's one that's really not that many. A lot of them are smaller cars because obviously battery factors in on that. You have the Rivian R1S, you have the Tesla Model X, but you don't really have too many
00:17:32
Speaker
large SUV. So this is one that's going to be out there, so that's a really good benefit. But the other cool thing is how fast these things charge. We've already seen it with the Kia EV6, IONIQ 5. This is going to be the same. And when you have a larger battery, which is what these things are going to need, that speed of charge is a huge benefit for these road trips. So I think that in and of itself
00:17:55
Speaker
I think it's going to sell a lot of these things, but I mean, it looks darn cool. And the phone is a key feature, which is really cool. Does your EV6 have that, Brian? So my phone works as a key. I can open the car and do a bunch of things, but I can't drive it. So I believe with the EV9, you can use it to drive it as well, which would become in handy. And the Mach-E has that.
00:18:19
Speaker
I think most of the new ones do, most of the new car. I mean, the Rivian has it, Tesla's have it, Mikey's got it. Yeah. It's like, there's been a couple of times where I've had to put in my passcode into the car in order to get the car to start. And that's like the backup. If you're like phone or to die or you lost your phone or your key, but, um, it's really pretty reliable.
00:18:40
Speaker
Yeah, I love that. You know, obviously I already said it's a car I like. It might be my next car when I'm done with the EV6 in a couple of years. What I love about it though, guys, is it's got light show headlights. You can like do a light show with them. I mean, it's a little gimmicky. We talked about the, you know, DeLorean giving you a hug. Like the light show is kind of cool. You know, it's got this second row center console. So the center console like goes all the way back to the second row, which is cool.
00:19:07
Speaker
We talked about the styling. I think it looks like the Telluride, but cooler. And then it's got kind of like more advanced. I would say my EV6, pretty good highway cruise driving system. I would say not super awesome, but I think this one has a more advanced software, which is more similar, like Super Cruise. And it's still zero to 60 in five seconds. So not bad. I don't have anything I don't like about it yet. Yeah. I mean, I think they have got another hit on their hands, frankly. I think they'll do really, really well.
00:19:36
Speaker
But with the Telluride, can they make enough of them? I mean, the Telluride is done really, really well. And, uh, you know, always winning some award. I think this is probably going to be in the same boat is my guess. Yeah. Yep.
Chevy Bolt Discontinuation Surprise
00:19:51
Speaker
Well, so Mike, you hit on something, you hit on the bigger, you know, SUVs and the EV market, you know, guys, I'm shocked to read that the Chevy Bolt is being discontinued at the end of the year because
00:20:02
Speaker
That currently is the cheapest EV in the marketplace and are one of the cheapest. If you look at the Chevy Bolt EUV, so the better, higher range premium option, the base price is $27,000. You throw in a tax credit and you're talking about a 250 mile range EV for $21,000.
00:20:26
Speaker
very surprised or discontinuing it. And especially in Q1, they sold 19,000 units. But from everything we're hearing from GM, they are switching the production factory to go towards bigger EVs. So the Silverado EV and the GMC all Sierra electric pickup trucks will be there made at this factory. And then also later this year, GM is also pushing out
00:20:52
Speaker
the new Trailblazer EV, I believe, from the same factory. So what are you guys' reactions to the demise of the Bolt? I think it's disappointing in a lot of ways because that is something that I think the EV market needs to move into. And I know Tesla's dropping their prices. A lot of people are upset about that, especially people just bought their cars. But
00:21:15
Speaker
There's a huge need for lower priced EVs. There's really not many on the market and that one is a really good option for a lot of people. I got a lot of questions about that car, where it fit, where it didn't.
00:21:32
Speaker
And frankly, the fact that they're getting rid of it kind of stinks. I mean, it's, you know, it's a smaller vehicle, lighter vehicle that has decent range. It's going to be more efficient. Typically, I mean, everything else being equal. So the fact that you get rid of it and you're moving towards, you know, the pickups and that sort of thing. Now, granted, I think you should do it across the board, but just to get rid of it.
00:21:55
Speaker
I'm sure there's other things going on on that production line that we're not privy to. But yeah, again, I was disappointed with the number that they sold and how well people like driving that car. I wish they would have kept it around, but maybe they've got something behind the scenes going that they're going to surprise us with. Who knows? Right. And you've got the Blazer EV coming, the Equinox EV coming, the Silverado. I know those aren't the same size.
00:22:23
Speaker
I think you're going to see a wider range of people being interested in those larger vehicles. Even if they're five or 10 grand more, it's going to, I think, hit a larger population than the Bolt. Like you said, we don't know the master plan here. We were just speculating at this point. Yeah. I mean, we'll see. We'll see how it all turns out. But I mean, they're not dummies over there, so I'm sure they've got... They've obviously done their market research and what's going to sell and what's not.
00:22:50
Speaker
They're moving most, if not all their, uh, production over to EVs anyways, over time. So, you know, let's see how it all pans out for them.
00:23:00
Speaker
Yeah. My guess is the bigger, just like SUVs, the bigger trucks and SUVs that GM's switching to will probably have a nice, you know, a better profit margin for
EV Fire Incident and Hybrid Controversy
00:23:10
Speaker
GM. I mean, it's pretty, I can't imagine them. They're making a ton of money on the bolt just because it's, I mean, it's a nice car for $20,000. Really. It's a really nice car for $20,000. Right. And the Silverado is going to be what? 75, 70, somewhere around that. I mean,
00:23:28
Speaker
They like the markup. The margin is going to be a lot bigger. So Tom, you and I were talking the other day and you were responding to an EV fire. At least you were told it was an EV fire. Tell us about this massive EV fire that you responded to.
00:23:45
Speaker
Yeah. So whenever like a 911 call comes in, like we get, sometimes we get really good information from the people calling. Sometimes you get garbage information, but this call gets put in as a, an electric vehicle fire. And it's just along the side of the road. Um, I was the closest car to it. So I went, I'm curious, obviously with what we're doing here at the podcast and my other job, I.
00:24:06
Speaker
This is right in my wheelhouse. And we know from our own research that EV fires are very rare and that they actually do happen. It's probably something to be seen. So I go. I wish I could say that I was surprised when I showed up on scene and it was a 2013 Lincoln MKZ hybrid. And the fire was emanating from the trunk area, probably from the contents of the truck.
00:24:30
Speaker
But nowhere near being anywhere in proximity to the hybrid battery, which would be under the back seat of the car. So the fire department was there, and they put out what was on fire, which was probably just some, honestly, some junk that was in the trunk. Forgive me for that. And. Nope.
00:24:54
Speaker
And that was the end of it. Like it gets put out of this EV fire, stays in an EV fire, and no one really knows anything to differ from it. But it was because people that were calling 911 for whatever reason knew it was a hybrid and they panicked. And oh my God, my electric vehicle is on fire. Like, no, no, not really. But the reality is a gas car is about 50 times more likely to catch on fire than an electric vehicle, which kind of reminds me of a story that we're looking into about the National Corvette Club.
00:25:20
Speaker
that was banning e-rays, the new e-ray from its competition events, solely, apparently, because of fire risks posed by vehicles that have lithium ion batteries? Yeah, Tom, this one's surprising to me. I think it's like your EV fire, quote unquote, EV fire. I think this one is grounded in fear and misunderstanding of lithium ion batteries, because not only is this Corvette e-ray banned from club events,
00:25:49
Speaker
They have it, they state that it must be parked 30 feet from all structures and other vehicles. I mean, you're talking about this thing being treated as if it's got leprosy or some sort of disease that's going to go on to people, right? Honestly, you're not that far away. 30 feet from everyone?
00:26:15
Speaker
I mean, you better watch out for your Costco parking lot because like they're just going to light you on fire. Apparently, um, this is, I mean, that's ridiculous. And if that's the case, my garage is toast.
00:26:27
Speaker
It's just kind of, I don't wanna call it fear monitoring necessarily, but it's just this idea, like I think it's change and it's probably scary. And we maybe cut this out, but I just view it as a bunch of old guys that are really setting their ways and like their front engine Corvettes and anything that deviates from this heritage that they think is the absolute truth.
00:26:53
Speaker
is not okay with them and it needs to be distanced. Yeah. I mean, so like here's, here's just some rough math. I'm not, I'm not great at math, but I looked up some stats for this last year. There was approximately 117,000 vehicle fires or sorry, not last year, the last five years, approximately 117,000 vehicle fires per year.
00:27:15
Speaker
We don't know how many of those exactly were hybrids and EVs, but if you stay with me on this train of thought here, there's approximately 250 million registered vehicles in the United States. About 6 million of those are hybrids or EVs, so 2%. So just doing rough math, if you take 117,000 vehicle fires per year and you say 2% of those are EVs or hybrids, you're talking about a tiny percentage.
00:27:43
Speaker
So I think you talked about it, Tom, like vehicle fires are 50 times more likely in gas powered vehicles than EVs, but people are scared of them. I cannot see that people are scared of change and new things. And it's probably really embarrassing to have your fancy Corvette gets spanked by a five door sedan. I think that's not a Y coupe. I think that's, you might be onto something. Yeah.
00:28:07
Speaker
My guess on these things is they, yeah, they do not want a hybrid going in there. Cause I think that, um, you raise kind of just spank them, especially in the corners. I mean, if you instant, the instant torque, there's a reason why, if you look at the, um, like a model three, if they've just had some suspension components updated on them or doing really, really well on a lot of those road courses.
00:28:31
Speaker
And I think if you throw a hybrid in there with a Corvette and you take some of the small downsides of that setup, I mean.
00:28:42
Speaker
they're going to lose a lot of races. But looking back on some of the updates to it, some of the members apparently reached out, because I think this was a Motor Trend article saying that it was the local fire department showed up to a battery fire at a similar event, and they refused to put it out and just let it burn, which caused the event to be canceled. And so apparently that organization would like to avoid future scenarios like that.
00:29:11
Speaker
You know, so maybe there's more to the story than, you know, we're, we're, you know, making fun of, fun of them for anyways, like anything else. There's always two sides to your story and you got to dig in to find out what the real
Lotus SUV Prototype Specs
00:29:21
Speaker
answer is. Lotus has a new SUV prototype out the Lotus Electra. I don't know. Has I always say it? Electra, Electra. Electra. There's no C in there. There's no C. How do you get Electra? There is no Electra. Electra.
00:29:39
Speaker
In any case Lotus has a new SUV that we don't under pronounce his model name But I don't love the looks of it But I think if it has all of the hardware underneath the skin that's gonna make it perform like a lotus I'm all about it. I mean, I think it looks a little bit like How do I say this nicely a cheap version of the new Ferrari SUV Maybe that's
00:30:07
Speaker
That's not, I think it'll be a cool car. I mean, it definitely has the power to mine. My gosh. I mean, the, it's got 600 horsepower in the standard version and over 900 in the, uh, there are version, which is going to be their sport version. Um, that's anytime you're talking six to 900 horsepower. Yeah. It's pretty substantial. I mean, it's not quite as much as in a model X plaid, which is over a thousand, but
00:30:35
Speaker
So Mike, you're talking the horsepower, 900 horsepower. That's, that's fast. Um, you know, they're promising zero to 60 around 2.9 seconds. Uh, you were just talking about the, uh, the Tesla model X, you know, plaid zero to 62.5. That's, that's very similar and close. And, uh, the other thing that Lotus is talking about is a level three, which I know we haven't talked a lot about in a podcast, but it's very similar, uh, autonomous driving full autonomous driving. So.
00:31:03
Speaker
Really, really an impressive vehicle from just the stats. I will agree with what you guys are talking about. The styling doesn't get me super excited. Not like the EV9 got me super excited. This thing could be ugly in my opinion, but we'll see. We'll have to see. I mean, photos don't do it justice. Yeah. I mean, it looks like it's got a, uh, like the rear wing is active.
00:31:29
Speaker
I don't know if you see that but that's like the back end of the car looks a little bit like the key EV6 as far as how it's sloped but then it has like an active rear spoiler and I don't know I don't know how I feel about that it seems like it's got some interesting colors too which may make you know make everything a lot better I guess we'll see
00:31:56
Speaker
Yeah, the front has a weird overbite too. I'm not a big fan of the overbite front. We'll see.
00:32:02
Speaker
I'm excited guys.
Episode Wrap-Up and Future Topics
00:32:04
Speaker
We got a chance to down and catch up and go over some of our news here and get a fresh episode out for people. And we're going to be continuing to get fresh episodes as we go forward into the spring and the summer. Um, one of the ones we really want to get up and running here, hopefully sooner than later is going to be an update to the tax credits. There have been changes since our last episode on that, which we published back in September. So we're hoping to be able to get that out here in the near future. And of course, we're going to bring you all the other.
00:32:30
Speaker
current news and happenings in the EV space as we move forward as well. Gentlemen, I appreciate you being here. Good seeing you guys. Thanks, guys. 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.