#11 Ludicrous Feed (Tom Gan): EVs, V2G and the Future of Home Electrification

We sit down with Tom Gan — doctor by day, creator of Ludicrous Feed by night — one of Australia’s most trusted voices on electric vehicles and home energy.

Tom shares:

• What he saw inside China’s mind-blowing EV factories — and what it means for Australian drivers
• How his Tesla Model S still runs at 93% battery health after a decade
• Why most EVs in Australia are already vehicle-to-grid (V2G) compatible
• How his household earned $60 in one night with Amber Energy
• Why Tesla is facing serious competition from BYD, Zeekr, XPeng & MG

If you’re curious about EV charging, solar batteries, or how to future-proof your home energy, this conversation is packed with insights you won’t hear anywhere else.

Episode Transcript

SPEAKER_01 (00:00):
Welcome to Season 2 of the EV Charging Podcast.
We're back.
I'm Geoff.
And I'm Dan.
And as always, this podcast isbrought to you by Solar Choice,

(00:22):
Australia's only online quotecomparison tool for home
electrification.
So season two is going to be alittle bit different.
Dan, what's

SPEAKER_00 (00:31):
changed?
Well, we've got a few littletweaks and a lot of things are
staying the same.
We've still got EV charging as aNorth Star of the podcast, but
based on feedback and reviewsand chatting to our friends,
we've broadened our horizons alittle bit.
We're taking in a bit morecontent around the EV vehicle
side of things.
We'll be talking about homeelectrification, policy,

(00:52):
basically anything that touchesEV charging in some way.
And I think that's going tobring in a really interesting
range of guests as well.

SPEAKER_01 (01:00):
Sounds exciting.
I think we'll have some moreinteresting conversations and
possibly some more diverseconversations.
So who have we got to kick us

SPEAKER_00 (01:08):
off?
Well, we've got a special onetoday to kick off season two.
Our guest today is Tom Gann, whosome of you in our audience will
better know as the man behindLudicrous Feed.
Ludicrous Feed, of course, oneof Australia's most popular
channels for EV content.
You can find Ludicrous Feed onbasically any of the social
media networks.
Tom is really known, I think, byhis audiences for authentic,

(01:31):
genuine, straightforwardcontent.
He does great reviews of newvehicles.
He really digs into some of thetechnology behind things like
vehicle to grid and batteries.
And he shares his ownexperiences as a normal person
who's passionate about homeelectrification.
And I really think that's whyhis channel is building so much
momentum over the last fewyears.
And rather than talking allabout it in the intro, let's

(01:52):
just get straight into theconversation.
Here's our chat with Tom.

SPEAKER_01 (02:00):
to kick things off, it'd be good to learn a little
bit about you, Tom, in terms ofyour background before you got
into creating EV content.

SPEAKER_03 (02:08):
Yeah.
So, well, first of all, thanksfor having me on the show.
It's a real honor, actually.
So, yeah, I started this channelin 2018 and I'm actually still a
full-time doctor, believe it ornot.
So, I try to squeeze contentwhenever I can in my busy
schedule and look after thefamily as well.
So, I wish I had more hours inthe day, but yeah.
So, before the content started,I was a doctor and I still am.
So, yeah, trying to keepeveryone happy.

SPEAKER_01 (02:29):
So, Saving lives by day and creating EV content by
night.

SPEAKER_00 (02:35):
There's a lot of content coming out on the
channel for someone who's doingthese sorts of videos as a side
hustle.

SPEAKER_03 (02:41):
Yeah.
Yeah.
So there's no schedule as such.
A lot of people ask me, what'syour content schedule?
I just look at them like, well,whatever happens, I just cover
it, right?
Because as you know, the EVspace is very, very cutting edge
at the moment.
So much happening every singleday.
So there's no shortage ofcontent or things to cover,
which we're very fortunate withthe channel.

SPEAKER_00 (02:58):
Yeah.
You've got to be dynamic, right?
You've got to ready to get inthe studio hit record of a
weeknight because there's somebig news that's come out of
China and if you wait three daysthere's a good chance you've
missed some of your audience

SPEAKER_03 (03:08):
exactly yeah my wife Joy helps me a lot now so every
time someone's sort of breakingnews drops I'll just pull her
okay just come over here 10minutes quickly on the camera
and she's happy to do that aswell so because I do all the
editing so she just comes andhelps me out you're doing all
the editing generally yes allthe editing yeah so I try to
make my videos verystraightforward nothing too
fancy as you can see it's justvlogging and chatting and a

(03:30):
leave all the mistakes in so ithink people like watching that
just being honest and genuine onthe channel

SPEAKER_00 (03:35):
yeah and it also means that you have a reasonable
workload if you're doing highproduction values sharp cuts
lots of different bits of shootsit'd be up until midnight trying
to put everything together

SPEAKER_03 (03:45):
exactly i'll be there for hours no can't do that
and so just keep it simplestraightforward and um like i've
actually got the idea of what iwant in my head already when i
film a review or when i go to anevent so i just sort of film to
my storyboard in my head andthen that way when i go home And
I just go, okay, paste, paste,paste, paste, cut out, just sort
of transition a bit here andthere.
And then that's it.

(04:05):
That's an hour long video done.

SPEAKER_01 (04:06):
Yeah.
It's helpful that you have thatforesight.
Take us back to 2018.
Like what were you thinking whenyou started the channel?

SPEAKER_03 (04:15):
Yeah, so I entered this renewable space in 2013
when I bought a hot water heatpump because my electric heat
pump, when I first moved into myhouse, was sort of on the brink
of dying.
So I thought, let's getsomething more efficient.
And the heat pump was greatbecause it used 20% of like a
normal electric hot water systemwould.
So that started my wholejourney.

(04:36):
I thought, you know what, whatelse can I save around the
house?
So the next thing was solarpanels, obviously.
It's a no-brainer.
Then the battery came along backin 2013 2018, the Tesla
Powerwall 2.
And then, yeah, actually justbefore that, I bought the Tesla
Model S because my family at thetime was feeling very ill with
our diesel Hyundai Santa Fe.

(04:57):
Okay.
So that's what we had, believeit or not.
And the fumes just made everyonesick and cough and my kids had
asthma at the time.
So I thought either I buy a moreefficient petrol car or I change
to hybrid or electric.
I thought, you know what, let'sgo all out, just get an electric
car.
And at the time, only two brandsstood out, which was the Nissan
Leaf and the Tesla Model S.
So obviously, being a doctor,I've got a bit more income,

(05:18):
which is very fortunate.
So I thought, let's go out, allout and buy a Tesla Model S,
which was not cheap at the time.
And then on Australia Day, 26thof Jan in 2018, I got a GoPro
for my Christmas present fromsomeone the previous Christmas.
And I was bored that day.
I thought, you know what, I'mgoing to go out and just film
myself talking about the car.
So I stuck the GoPro on my dashpointing back at me.

(05:39):
And I was in Chatswood, wherethe Bunnings site is now.
And that's where the Tesla storeis now, actually.
But it wasn't back then.
And so I had the car sittingthere at the future Tesla site.
And I said, this is how youstart my Tesla Model S.
And I put the shift down todrive and I just drove off.
And that was a 20 second video.
That's how it started.
And

SPEAKER_00 (05:56):
when you did that, you didn't have a vision of what
was to come.
You were just having some funmaking a video?

SPEAKER_03 (06:00):
Not at all.
No way.
I wouldn't have projected orperceived what I'd be doing
right now.
No way.
So I just thought I'd just doone bit because I was kind of
answering the same questions toall my friends and family who
saw me in an EV and they alwaysasked, oh, what are you doing
with the EV?
How far can it go?
How long does it take to charge,et cetera, et cetera?
What happens if the batterydies?
So I thought, you know what, I'mgoing to put my thoughts to

(06:21):
camera and that way I can justpoint them to the channel.
So it was really intended forfamily and friends at the time,
but it's grown from there.

SPEAKER_01 (06:28):
Yeah.
And it's grown a long way.
I think you're probably one ofthe largest creators of EV
content, non-independently inAustralia.
So it's come a long way.
And in that time, have you putdifferent types of goals in
terms of what type of contentyou're trying to create?
Or is there a particular purposethat you now have for the

(06:49):
channel?
Or is it still kind of creatingthings that you like creating?

SPEAKER_03 (06:54):
Yeah, I guess I've never had any agenda or such, I
guess, apart from just showingpeople how easy it is to use an
EV in Australia.
That's just a regular guy, as aregular family guy.
And that was always the agenda,the goal, just to be honest and
open, and not be super positive,but always just show the reality
of it.
It's not perfect, it stillisn't.
And also to show that, yeah, youcan run a house without with

(07:16):
solar and batteries as well.
Basically try to be as netneutral, net zero as much as
possible.
And at the time, Tesla waspretty much the only dog in
town, sort of only EV worthbuying at the time.
I'm going to offend some Nissanowners here, but for me anyway,
Tesla was the car to buy.
And then from there, obviouslyMG came along, Polestar came
along.

(07:36):
And then as you know now,there's just so many brands now,
which is great.
So I can branch out and exploremore options.

SPEAKER_00 (07:42):
Yeah, it's good that there are models coming out.
So you've got more options, forcontent, otherwise you'd be
doing Tesla reviews till thecows come home.

SPEAKER_03 (07:49):
There's so much stuff to cover, honestly.
I couldn't do it all, but I tryto anyway, as much as I can.

SPEAKER_01 (07:54):
And what's the story behind the name, Ludicrous Feed?

SPEAKER_03 (07:57):
Okay, so the original Teslas had this mode
called Ludicrous Speed.
I think it's an homage to theSpaceballs movie.
Oh, okay.
I think Elon Musk was a bigSpaceballs fan.
So with Ludicrous Mode orLudicrous Speed, you could press
this button and then you couldlaunch like 0-100 in whatever,
3-4 seconds.
So I thought as a player that iwould say okay i would go all

(08:17):
right let's um let's call thechannel ludicrous feed because
obviously social media feed andevs were ludicrous at the time
and obviously some people stillthink it is and me being you
know having no journalisticskills no media skills no media
training is ludicrous that i adoctor can go on social media
and just do stuff like this docontent so i thought that was
ludicrous myself so that's howthe name stuck

SPEAKER_00 (08:38):
oh i like it i think a lot of creators say this
online but you're a real exampleof it working We often hear, all
you have to do is start, start abusiness, start making content.
And that's exactly what you did.
You just started making somevideos at first for fun.
And here we are seven yearslater, you've got a great
following and a channel that'sgrowing every month and

(09:01):
producing some content thatpeople really genuinely connect
with.
Was there a point along thatjourney where you started to see
it take off and you thought,wow, this is something I'm
really going to put more effortinto or take more seriously and
invest in?

SPEAKER_03 (09:14):
Yeah, I guess if I'm honest, It comes down to income,
really.
I think if I was to support myfamily with the income the
channel is producing at themoment, it's not feasible, not
viable.
So I have to keep doing my dayjob, which luckily pays fairly
well.
But, you know, if I reallywanted to take plunge, I
probably could give up my joband just go full on production
values and hire people andstuff.

(09:35):
But as you know, business is ahuge investment.
So I'm just not ready for thatyet.
My kids are still going throughschool, but I think I'm not
closing that door.
I think that time could come inthe next five years where, you
know, Someone could say, hey,why don't you do this
professionally and, yeah, do itfull-time and there's so much to
cover, as you know.
Yeah, I think that day couldpossibly come.

SPEAKER_01 (09:54):
Well, we're still at a point with less than 1% of the
vehicles in Australia areelectric.
So your audience may increase100-fold in the next 10, 20
years.
So you would think in that timethere would be space for, you
know, plenty of differentcreators of EV content to be,
you know, sort of making areasonable living out of the

(10:15):
space.
I hope so,

SPEAKER_03 (10:16):
yeah.
And I think YouTube is greatbecause you can be transparent
and the long format is greatbecause people have the time to
sit down and watch the content.
And I think they're furtheralong that decision-making
process as well with cars andpossibly solar and batteries
too, whereas maybe Instagram orTikTok, it's kind of a short
burst of awareness and thedemographic watching may not
have the disposable income yetto buy a vehicle.

(10:37):
Whereas with YouTube, you've gotolder folk who sit down and
watch it for 10, 15, 20 minutesbecause they're kind of wanting
to buy an EV.
They want to know everythingabout the car.
And I can't produce enoughdetail i'm always asked asked to
put more detail in my videos soyeah

SPEAKER_01 (10:50):
right okay people want to get right into the
nitty-gritty yep

SPEAKER_03 (10:54):
and they want to spend the money but they want to
know everything about the carbefore they buy the car so

SPEAKER_01 (10:57):
yeah well it's a big purchase even now you know even
you know obviously the thecheaper and there's some 20 30
grand uh evs which is insane butfor the most part you're still
talking about 60 grand plus forthe majority of the models that
are out there

SPEAKER_03 (11:12):
exactly i think the biggest segment is now the suv
segment and that's between 50 50and 60 grand.
So that's like the sweet spotfor value and choice.

SPEAKER_00 (11:20):
Yeah, that kind of mirrors Australia's ICE vehicle
trends as well.
Medium and large SUVs are thesecond biggest category after
the top selling heavilypolluting utes.
And I'm sure what we're going tosee soon, as we've already seen
with the BYD Shark, even thoughit's a hybrid, as soon as there
are full battery electric utesand work vehicles on the market,

(11:41):
they're very quickly going totake off, take a lot of market
share from those high sellingvehicles like the Ford Ranger
and the Toyota Hilux, and we'llbe seeing a lot of electric utes
on the road as soon as they areopen to the market and at a
reasonable cost.

SPEAKER_03 (11:55):
I think so.
I think, yeah, I've already gota few hybrid utes at the moment,
but yeah, look, it's gettingthere.
I haven't been to China a fewtimes.
I've seen electric utes.
It looks promising.
I think Geely's got one calledthe Radara.
They've obviously looked at theAustralian market.
It looks like any other ute inAustralia, but it's not yet in
the export markets yet.
But yeah, I think that's a veryexciting segment that could
certainly flourish in the nextfew years.

SPEAKER_00 (12:16):
So were you at the Shanghai Auto Show recently?
I

SPEAKER_03 (12:19):
was, yeah, yeah.
I was lucky enough to be flownby Geely.
My wife and I, we were there forfive days in Shanghai and in
Hangzhou, which is where Geelyis based.
So we saw the auto show for aday and then they brought us to
the HQ in Hangzhou to see alltheir developments and the R&D.
And the auto show, oh mygoodness, it's just insane,
honestly.
If you've ever been to any ofthe auto shows here, just think

(12:40):
the ICC in Sydney, that wasliterally one sixteenth of what
the Shanghai show was.
That was one...
upstairs wing of the ShanghaiExhibition Center.
We were just blown away when wewere driven there.

SPEAKER_01 (12:53):
And there must be a whole load of brands that we've
never even heard of or seenhere.
Is that right?
Absolutely,

SPEAKER_03 (12:58):
yeah.
I was at another event withXpeng, and they told us that
there's about 80 to 100 brandsin China, and they reckon in 10
years' time, it'll consolidateto about 10 at the most.

SPEAKER_01 (13:08):
Right, okay.
It'll

SPEAKER_03 (13:09):
just shrink and get gobbled up by the bigger
players, like the mobile phonemarket last decade.
So, yeah, it was incredible.
yeah

SPEAKER_00 (13:17):
yeah right so you think there'll be some companies
who just won't go the distancethere'll be others who are
bought out by the really bigplayers and i'm guessing those
big players are the ones whowe're already seeing in the
australian market the ones whohave the the capital and the
brand capital to make the earlyjump overseas

SPEAKER_03 (13:33):
yeah i think so i think there's a lot of you know
concerns about the chinesebrands making the like lasting
the distance in australia but ithink from what i've seen the
last year the brands that arehere in australia now are the
big players they're the onesthat will survive i think you
know byd is huge they'll aroundfor 20, 30 years already.
Geely's massive.
You've already got Deepal, whichis part of a big brand called
Chang'an.

(13:53):
Zika, which is part of Geely.
Zika Polestar.
MG is huge, of course.
I think the ones that are herewill probably stay.

SPEAKER_00 (14:00):
That's really interesting to hear and also
reassuring to hear, especiallygiven you have this insight, the
lay of the land over in China,certainly more than most people
do here in Australia.
I think there's a bit of aconcern amongst the general
population, but particularlyamongst those who are quite easy
focused and EV curious thatthere's a risk if you buy a

(14:20):
vehicle from one of thesemanufacturers who are brand new
in the Australian market,because there's a concern that
they won't be around in five or10 or 15 years to keep selling
vehicles and also to providesupport to people who were early
adopters of their brand.
But knowing that these are thebig brands in China gives us
some confidence that these arevery likely going to be the ones

(14:41):
who go the distance in Australiatoo.

SPEAKER_03 (14:43):
Yeah, for sure.
I mean, look, the tech willimprove, as you know, with any
tech You have to jump insomewhere, right?
Because if you keep waiting,it'll just keep progressing.
Obviously, with phones, we'restarting to see it plateau a
little bit.
But I think with battery tech,it's still a fair way to go.
And also with charginginfrastructure in Australia.
So there's this concern aboutrange anxiety still with
mainstream Australia that theywon't be able to charge a car

(15:04):
anywhere.
And to some degree, that's true.
The infrastructure on ourhighways is still quite nascent.
I think there's room to grow.
But you could easily drive fromSydney to Melbourne or Sydney to
the Gold Coast or Brisbane oreven to Adelaide now fairly
easily.
with a lot of the chargers.
I guess it's where the regionalcenters are where it could be
improved.
And then obviously the speed ofthe charging as well.
So now we're seeing cars thatcan charge between 15 and 20

(15:26):
minutes for the high speedchargers and high speed
vehicles.
But if we can get down to say10, equivalent to petrol, then I
think it could be quitecompelling.

SPEAKER_01 (15:34):
Yeah, I think I saw BYD were celebrating a thousand
kilowatt charger, which I thinkwith my BYD here, I don't think
I've charged it more than 80kilowatts.
So That's, yeah, more thantenfold increase in charge
speeds that's possible, youknow, with the newer technology
that's presumably on the way.
But like that must be like morelike a three or four minute

(15:57):
charge in theory.
So you're kind of almost gettingdown to, you know, a similar
time to pulling out a petrolnozzle, sticking it in your car,
going in and making a payment,grabbing something from the shop
and you're pretty much the sameround trip.

SPEAKER_03 (16:11):
Oh, exactly.
Now we talk about having a breakinside, you know, at the service
station or local cafe for 15,20, half an hour.
But if it's, yeah, 10 minutes,5, 10 minutes, there's no way
you can do that.
You have to wait in the car andpull out and go somewhere else.
Yeah, which is great.
I mean, we don't have to waithalf an hour.
I'm awful at that.

SPEAKER_00 (16:28):
Yeah.
Yeah, I think that's going to bea big inflection point in the
Australian market because thereis still a lot of range anxiety.
We're a big country and stillhave relatively low amount of
public charging infrastructure,certainly relative to some other
countries that have higher EVuptake.
And for those with rangeanxiety, I think a lot of people
will just be looking out forthat point in time where they

(16:50):
know that they can charge theirvehicle in five minutes to have
that same experience thatthey're used to having with an
ICE vehicle at a petrol station.
Even though for a lot of people,they'll be charging at home most
of the time, it's a real mentalshift thinking this is now as
convenient as what I've beenused to.

SPEAKER_03 (17:04):
Absolutely.
Yeah.
I mean, home charging is thepanacea, is the gold standard
really of EV ownership.
If you've got off-street parkingand charging then yeah you're
set you know why would you buy apetrol car in the city you just
charge it home and use it like95% of the time look I get the
people who need that range ifthey live in the country or live
on property where you need a utethat can tow and charge and all

(17:26):
that but that's very smallsegment of the market as you
know so but they seem to bequite vocal and putting a lot of
mainstream Australia off whichis disappointing I think because
the average Australian drives50k's they live in the city they
do one road trip a year why doyou need a range of 1000k's
really 400-500k's is enough andif you've got a decent and
charging network, whichadmittedly is coming, then

(17:46):
you're pretty much set for mostpeople.

SPEAKER_01 (17:49):
So you started your channel on the back of buying a
Tesla.
And for a lot of the reasons wejust mentioned, Tesla's facing
some serious challenges goingforward.
There's all these newcompetitors coming out of China.
There's also some problems atthe top of the ship in terms of
who's captaining the boat.

(18:10):
What's your thoughts on where'sTesla headed?
Are they still going to be thebig market shareholder in the
next two three years

SPEAKER_03 (18:16):
yeah that's a great question I mean yeah look that's
why I sort of was very pro-Teslaat the beginning of the channel
because they were doing greatthings you know in the renewable
space you know batteriesencouraging EV uptake obviously
but yeah something's obviouslyhappened in the last few years
without going too political it'skind of Elon's turn from more
left wing to now right wing andI guess it turned a lot of
people off and let's be honestwhether you're a pro Tesla fan

(18:39):
or anti-Tesla fan he'sdistracted the mission has been
distracted I think so that's oneissue and the other issue is
China China's the big disruptorat the moment they're just
bringing cars every single dayalmost and there's so many good
brands out there as we'vediscussed earlier and they're
cheap not cheap in a bad way butaffordable and really good value
I was at a launch yesterday abrand called I am presented by

(19:02):
MG which is MG's sort of luxurybrand it's like the Lexus of MG
and for you know for 60 grandthese prices are public 60 grand
for a starting price that car isphenomenal it's like a It's so
plush on the inside.
So, you know, that's the kind ofcompetition Tesla is facing at
the moment.
And look, obviously, they'vebeen around in the country
longer.
So the servicing is there.

(19:23):
The name is there now.
But yeah, I think in the nextfive years, they could have a
lot of competition on theirhands for sure.

SPEAKER_01 (19:28):
Yeah, my feeling was that certainly in the early
days, Tesla had created thisamazing brand loyalty through
just the uniqueness of it.
You know, they were sort ofgoing their own path.
They were sort of going in acompletely different direction
to all the other carmanufacturers.
You know, sitting in a Teslaeven now is a much different

(19:48):
experience to sitting in almostany other car that you could
think of.
But it feels like that was alltied to Elon in some way.
And yeah, you know, now he's amega rich billionaire and he's
got his political things goingon with Donald Trump.
It's just like, it's kind ofnoise that you don't really need
as a car manufacturer, right?

SPEAKER_03 (20:10):
I think so.
I think with that, thedistraction, you know, I think
Tesla was, would have beenreally good with Elon at the
helm.
Obviously, he's still doingother things like SpaceX and
politics now.
But yeah, I think there's a lotof distraction going on at the
moment, distracting from thegood work that Tesla is still
doing.
I think the big thing aboutTesla was the supercharging
network.
So prior to say two years ago,the network was locked to Tesla.

(20:33):
So you had to buy a Tesla to usetheir network.
But since I guess the governmentfunding came in two years ago, a
lot of the new supercharginglocations are now open access to
all cars.
So suddenly, if you don't wantto buy a Tesla, you don't have
to.
You can buy another EV that cancharge at a Tesla network.
And that has opened up a lot ofoptions for road tripping now,
which is great.

(20:53):
The other thing about Tesla isthe autonomy or the
self-driving.
So I think they're banking a lotof their future in that rather
than the cars themselves.
Like, sure, you've got the newModel Y, which looks okay.
It's an improvement, but it'sthe autonomy that you buy into
as a fan, as a shareholder, as aloyalist.
And I think that's what a lot ofTesla owners are looking forward
to.

SPEAKER_01 (21:13):
Yeah.
And do you have any thoughts orknowledge around when this kind
of self-driving autonomy islikely to come to Australia?
I know you can already get adriverless taxi in the States in
certain areas.
So, I mean, is that something wecan expect soon, do you think?

UNKNOWN (21:30):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 (21:30):
Yeah, there's a lot of hints towards that happening
pretty soon.
There's been two videos postedby Tesla online of full
self-driving demonstration inAustralia, one in Melbourne and
one in Sydney.
The Melbourne one was a monthago.
It demonstrated hook turn in theCBD and avoiding bicycles and
people.
And then the Sydney one droppedlast week and it was going
through the CBD and then upthrough the Harbour Bridge in

(21:52):
Sydney.
So it's possible.
Admittedly, it was fastforwarded.
It wasn't like sort ofauthentic.
You couldn't see what thereactions of the people or the
person in the car was.
And that was one take.
So I wonder how many takes theytook before that.
But clearly it can be done.
Whether it does happen, I don'tknow.
I know the country manager ofTesla, Tom Drew, has said

(22:13):
there's no regulatory block atthe moment in Australia.

SPEAKER_01 (22:16):
Right.
Is that right?
Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 (22:17):
So it's actually down to Tesla now to launch it
and release it to the owners.

SPEAKER_01 (22:21):
That's right.
So if the technology in theorywas there and good enough that
Tesla could launch a driverlessmodel.

SPEAKER_03 (22:29):
Absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 (22:30):
Yeah.
Wow.
Okay.

SPEAKER_03 (22:31):
And just without getting too technical, there's
hardware three, hardware foursystems in the cars now.
So they want to release it tothe, obviously the high spec
cars first, possibly to moreresponsible owners.
Obviously you don't want theproduct to be trashed by someone
who just wants to make it lookbad.
So maybe just select a fewowners, select a few journalists
first, and then maybe sort ofrelease it to everyone after
that.

SPEAKER_01 (22:51):
Hopefully you were right at the top of that list.
I'd love

SPEAKER_00 (22:53):
to try that

SPEAKER_03 (22:54):
actually.

SPEAKER_00 (22:55):
Although you may not be in the, in the good books
because you're no longerdriving.
I

SPEAKER_03 (22:59):
still got, my Model S, my 10-year-old Model S, still
going strong, but I woulddefinitely think about maybe
loaning or buying another newTesla to try the FSD product.
I think it'd be pretty cool.

SPEAKER_00 (23:10):
And how is the Model S going?
After 10 years of ownership, wecertainly see this coming up in
comment sections of content allthe time.
People concerned that in 10years' time, your battery will
be dead, your resale value willbe zero.
What's your experience been?

SPEAKER_03 (23:24):
Yeah, it's so funny.
When I bought the carsecondhand, it was six months
old when I got it.
Yeah, as you said, the same carwere like, oh, it's going to die
after two years.
Your phone dies after two years.
Your laptops die after twoyears.
Your car will die after twoyears.
So I thought, being stubborn, Ithought, I'm going to keep this
car as long as I can just toshow that it doesn't die.
And if you charge the NMCbattery, which is what it is, to

(23:44):
80% every day, which I did, thedegradation is pretty minimal.
It's 7% I checked last yearafter the warranty ran out.
So still going good for 93% ofthe original capacity.
Yeah.
So this year, at the 10-yearbirthday, I will get an
independent assessor to checkthe battery as well, just to
prove that it's still goinggood.

SPEAKER_01 (24:03):
Yeah.
So that's 10 years, is it?
10

SPEAKER_03 (24:05):
years in November this year.

SPEAKER_01 (24:06):
And the batteries 10 years ago would have been miles
off the quality of batteriesthat are going into EVs today.

SPEAKER_03 (24:12):
I think so.
Yeah, it's still NMC, but yeah,the efficiency wasn't as good,
but still gets theoreticallyabout 300 Ks at full charge.

SPEAKER_00 (24:20):
Okay.

SPEAKER_03 (24:20):
Yeah.
For a 70 kilowatt hour battery.
So it's not bad.

SPEAKER_00 (24:23):
Hopefully there's a lot more data that comes out
over the next few years as wellthat's similar to yours.
Because at the moment we've gota bit of a gap that just aren't
that many vehicles on the roadthat have been driving and
charging over and over for 10years to combat some of the
concerns and the misinformationabout the battery life and what
battery efficiency will be aftera certain period of time.

(24:44):
Obviously, we have data from thelab, but data from the labs is
not the same as real-world data,and it certainly won't please
the objectors.

SPEAKER_03 (24:51):
Correct.
As you know, you can cycle thebattery whatever X number of
times and show thattheoretically it can last this
long, but having that humanelement to it and showing that
someone's living with us for 10years, it's still good.
I think it will speak volumes.

SPEAKER_00 (25:05):
So if the Model S is no longer your primary car,
what's your daily driver now?

SPEAKER_03 (25:10):
Good question.
I actually just sold both ourcars the last month.
I sold our Tesla Model Y aftertwo years, and I sold my BYD
SEAL after 18 months.
I did this not because they werebad cars, but because we're
getting so many cars to reviewthat my SEAL was sitting in my
garage doing nothing, justdepreciating on its own.
So after 18 months, I had 10,000Ks on the clock, so barely

(25:32):
driven.
I thought, I'm just going tosell it because it's just a
waste otherwise.
So yeah, we've been carlessactually, apart from the Model
S, for the last month, justreviewing cars.
My wife, Joy, she was luckyenough to get an Xpeng G6 on a
long-term media loan, so she'sdriving that and giving her
thoughts on long-term ownershipof that vehicle.

(25:53):
Yeah, and then I'm justreviewing cars week to week,
which has been good.

SPEAKER_01 (25:56):
What's the lowdown on the Xpeng?
Yeah, how do you find it?
I

SPEAKER_03 (25:59):
think X-Plane is probably the closest brand to
Tesla in terms of its philosophyand its direction.
It's built very much forefficiency.
In fact, it's better than theTesla Model Y efficiency.
And it's also very tech-driven.
So the tech and the options andthe UI in the screen is probably
as good, if not better, thanTesla in some regards.

(26:20):
And it drives pretty well too.
Very comfortable.
The finishing's inside probablynicer than Tesla as well.
Wow, okay.
Yeah.
And price-wise, I think it's alittle bit cheaper than the
Model Y too.
So I think XPeng is probably onebrand to look out for.
And they've also got autonomydirection as well.
They've shown us the sort ofself-driving tech that they've
got set up in China and HongKong, which is pretty cool.

SPEAKER_00 (26:41):
Well, that's a pretty strong early review, but
we don't really know how wellthe XPeng is selling at the
moment, do we?

SPEAKER_03 (26:47):
Yeah.
So I'm just going to call itXPeng.
They should be reporting theirnumbers.
They're not officially reportingtheir data.
Right.
We just don't know, which is ashame.
So most cars report to eitherthe FCAI or the Electric Vehicle
Council.
XPeng just haven't been doingthat.
best guess I think we're talkingmaybe a thousand cars in the
country at the moment in thelast since January so in the
last sort of seven months whichis not bad for a new brand

(27:09):
they've had issues with shippingcars into the country and also
in China I call it China timebecause it just happened so
quickly China time dictates thatthere's a new Xpeng G6 already
that's been brought out in thedomestic market so obviously
people are like well why shouldI buy this one when the new
one's already in the country inChina so hopefully that'll
arrive next year early next yearI think the problem with a lot

(27:30):
of the Chinese brands is thatnot just Xpeng, but they're
bringing new cars in theircountry so quickly that we kind
of feel like, well, we'regetting leftovers.
We want the latest and greatestfrom China at the same time as
them.
Then we'll get excited.

SPEAKER_01 (27:43):
That's how you see it, that we're getting stuff
that's sort of six months ormaybe 12 months behind what's
domestically being driven aroundin China?

SPEAKER_03 (27:51):
Correct, yeah.
And some of the features aren'tpresent either.
So a lot of the AI features, alot of the things like zero
gravity chairs where the chairslean back, those kind of cool
kind of features we're notseeing in export markets i think
just because of regulatoryfactors

SPEAKER_01 (28:04):
what other features are there

SPEAKER_03 (28:06):
oh so there's one car from zika uh it's called the
zika mix it's like a small uhwhat can i call it it's like a
lifestyle vehicle it's like thesize of a bit smaller than the
model y and it's a five-seaterbut the front seats can rotate
uh so you're facing each otherso it's designed for like their
camping in china where you parkthe car and then have lunch

(28:28):
outdoors but you're facing eachother in this dining table in
the middle.
There's a fridge in there.

SPEAKER_00 (28:32):
And you can do that while it's driving or is that
only in parks?
It makes me think of some ofthose old RVs where the driver's
seat and the passenger seatcould swivel around and face the
dining table in the next sectionof the vehicle.

SPEAKER_03 (28:45):
Absolutely, yeah.
That's what I was thinking toowhen I saw it first.

SPEAKER_00 (28:48):
For those thinking, oh, that sounds pretty cool.
I'm going to wait until thatcomes out before I purchase my
first EV.
That's not a good reason towait.
There are much more compellingreasons to get one right now.

SPEAKER_03 (28:57):
Correct.
And there's so many...
cool cars in China too.
Xiaomi's got some very fast carsthat they're producing at very
good prices as well.
The Xiaomi SU7, pretty zippy,pretty good looking.
Looks like a Porsche basically,but a fraction of the price.

SPEAKER_00 (29:14):
Oh yeah, I remember I saw that video of the Xiaomi,
I don't remember the name of themodel, going around the
Nürburgring in record time forits class and you could tell
from the video it looked fast.
Do we know if they have anyplans to come to Australia?
I

SPEAKER_03 (29:28):
think they're having trouble filling their own
domestic demand in China.
Right.
So there's no reason to exportyet.
It's funny, they're exportingtheir cars for most brands.
They've told me that it's worththeir time.
They earn more money exportingto Australia, Europe, US maybe
one day, but then selling intotheir own people in China.
So that's why they're doing it.

SPEAKER_00 (29:48):
Is that because we're used to and happy to pay a
premium for premium cars?

SPEAKER_03 (29:52):
I think so.
Yeah.
I think also there's so manybrands in China now that have to
be competitive with theirpricing.
Whereas I guess, yeah, there's abit more leeway here Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 (30:00):
Do you have any sort of guide on, you know, you
mentioned the XPeng is maybearound 60 grand.
Like what is the Australianequivalent that that would be
sold at in the Chinese market?

SPEAKER_03 (30:10):
Oh, I would say we usually pay about 25 to 30%
markup, I

SPEAKER_01 (30:15):
think.
Okay.

SPEAKER_03 (30:16):
I should look at those figures, but yeah, it's
something crazy like

SPEAKER_01 (30:19):
that.
25 to 30.
And then, yeah, I mean, shippingthese days, China's pretty good
at doing that at scale.
So yeah, you'd think there'd beplenty of money to be made.
I think

SPEAKER_03 (30:27):
so.
Yeah.
And they can pump them outpretty quick.
to having visited some of theirfactories.
It's just insane how automatedthey are.
There's so many robots doingthings.
It looks like Iron Man'sworkshop, basically.
And the humans are justmonitoring the screens and doing
little fine tunings for theinterior.
But it's just phenomenal.

SPEAKER_00 (30:45):
It reminds me of a podcast I was listening to
recently, Planet Money from NPRin the US, where they were
talking about how manufacturingjobs still have this stigma
attached to them about manuallabor and repetitive tasks.
But actually, these days, that'snot what they industry looks
like.
People are monitoring robots andprogramming incredibly complex
machines.

SPEAKER_03 (31:05):
Absolutely.
Robotics is huge over there intheir factories.
The techs there, they'redefinitely very skilled.
It's not a manual laborworkforce.
Very highly trained.

SPEAKER_01 (31:15):
You've done some factory tours, I imagine.

SPEAKER_03 (31:18):
Yeah, we went with BYD, Zika or Geely, and also
Chang'an brought us around theirworkshops too.
They're all very similar intheir impressiveness and scale.
Most impressive parts areactually the battery sections
when they produce the batteries.
Everything has to be sort ofvery sanitized and hermetically
sealed because you don't wantany contaminants in the battery.

SPEAKER_01 (31:38):
Of course, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 (31:39):
Obviously, you don't want a fire to break out.
So they're very careful withcontaminants in the production.

SPEAKER_01 (31:43):
And from what I've seen, you know, mostly on
videos, you're talking aboutfootball field size warehouses.
And like, from what I see,there's very few actual human
beings on the floor.
It's almost entirely automated.

SPEAKER_03 (31:59):
Absolutely.
Yeah.
Yeah.
You've got massive robotic armsfrom, I think the brand's Kuba?
It's a German brand.
There's a lot of those robotsand a lot of Japanese robots
too, doing the hard work.
Yeah.
Lifting up massive chassis andshells and sticking tires on
cars and wheels.
And it's just, wow.
It's just so amazing.
Yeah, really.
And the scale that's, they'rebasically university campuses,

(32:21):
if not bigger.

SPEAKER_01 (32:22):
Right.

SPEAKER_03 (32:23):
People live there or like little housings for the
workers there too.
And we couldn't see it all inone hit.
We would driven around to sortof specialized parts, but they
were just the tip of theiceberg.

SPEAKER_01 (32:33):
Yeah, okay.
Yeah, fantastic.
So Dan and I were having a lookat your channel and we came
across a recent video you did onV2G and like a demo site that
you'd had a play with.
Can you give us a bit ofbackstory on that charger?

SPEAKER_03 (32:50):
Yeah, so I still am very desperate to see examples
of V2G.
I'm happy to talk about myinstallation soon, but I'll talk
about this one first.
So Infipower The guys invited meto visit one of their one and
only site in Melbourne when Iwas down there for the recent EV
show.
So I went there one morning tocheck out, I guess, the dummy or
the simulated V2G or V2H setup.

(33:11):
It was in a shed in one of theback streets in Melbourne.
So they set up a charger andthen an inverter and then power
going to their home.
It's like just a PowerPoint.
That was the home.
And then back to the building,which is the grid.
Okay.
And they showed me that the BYDseal that they had, which is
just a stock car, not modified,just a regular BYD seal, and

(33:33):
just plug the DC cable into thecar, and it just drew power from
the car straight away, which wasreally impressive.
So I always thought that you hadto modify the car or you had to
tweak the car somehow.
But from what I understand,having seen that demo and having
spoken to the guys from AMBA,that basically most of the EVs
in the country now are actuallyV2G compatible, which I'm really

(33:54):
impressed with.

SPEAKER_01 (33:55):
Yeah, I know Red Earth, who have a V2G charger, I
think may be available, or ifnot, very soon, did testing
across, I think, 40 differentvehicles.
And I think, yeah, almost all ofthem were able to perform V2G,
just the stock standard ones.
The few that weren't was BMW andTesla.

SPEAKER_00 (34:17):
Yeah, the Germans.
And the takeaway was that eventhough some of the German
vehicles are a little difficultto get started, the vehicles are
actually still compatible withV2G.
It's just a case of workingthrough the technical issues
with that initial hand.
handshake and then they're goodto go

SPEAKER_03 (34:31):
okay well that's very promising i guess my
understanding is the warrantyisn't it that the yeah that's
right about

SPEAKER_01 (34:37):
yeah i think the only as far as i know the only
car with a warranty that's 52gsafe or good is the ford
lightning so very obviously veryexpensive in terms of like the
entry level but as far as i knowall the other warranties don't
have those clauses in them

SPEAKER_03 (34:56):
interesting i'm very curious about um the tesla
vehicles i actually, becauseobviously, you know, just
logically, if you allow Tesla todo V2G, then it sort of cuts
into their battery profits,right?
I mean, I don't know.
Maybe you guys can fill me in onthat.

SPEAKER_00 (35:10):
Yeah, definitely.
And we've seen that with thehome battery market as well.
It kind of mirrors that drop offin product sales and market
share now that all the solarcompanies and lots of new
companies are bringing solarbatteries to market for homes.
The Tesla Powerwall that used tobe kind of a family name, it was
almost a synonym for a batterytheir sales have plummeted their

(35:31):
market share has gone down andit's pretty hard to imagine them
focusing on that product goingforward

SPEAKER_03 (35:37):
yeah i mean that's why i you know jeff recommended
i speak one of the installers inmy area so i've actually signed
up to a paid a deposit for a sigenergy battery which i'm very
excited about it's beinginstalled next month so excited
yeah

SPEAKER_01 (35:51):
lucky you got your hands on one they're hard to
come by at the moment the sigenergies are sold out for months

SPEAKER_03 (35:57):
and it's got a dc uh module to which I'm very, very
excited to install hopefully oneday.

SPEAKER_01 (36:01):
Yeah, yeah.
So are you getting the DC fastcharger from the beginning or
are you waiting until that'sgoing to be compatible?

SPEAKER_03 (36:08):
I might wait until the price comes down, actually.
Yeah.
Yeah, because there's no rebateon that module, obviously.
Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 (36:14):
Yeah, I think it's about six grand from memory.

SPEAKER_03 (36:16):
I haven't asked for a price.
So there you go, six grand.

SPEAKER_01 (36:18):
Yeah.
I mean, yeah, it's going to takea lot of charging back to the
grid to make that

SPEAKER_00 (36:23):
money back.
So you said you've got your ownsetup at home as well.
We were just talking about hadthe InfiPower video.
What's the setup you got athome?

SPEAKER_03 (36:32):
Yeah, well, the SIG energy battery, which is coming.
I've asked for a 40 kilowatthour SIG with, I think it's five
modules in the stack.
And then the sixth will be theDC inverter, a bi-directional
inverter, hopefully, not too faraway.
Yeah, so SIG, if you'rewatching, I'm happy to.

SPEAKER_01 (36:50):
No problem.
So give us an idea of some ofthe videos that you've got
either working on or that you'vegot in mind at the moment.

SPEAKER_03 (36:58):
Yeah, so just sort of weekly reviews and then yeah
once the battery is installedi'd love to just do ongoing
content because we're with amberat the moment um amber just
makes sense for us withbatteries and we just have fun
with the fluctuating wholesaleprice it's quite fun to watch so
yeah just showing viewers how itis in real life with the battery
setup and with amber whether itdoes actually save money and you

(37:20):
know just how it changesbehavior as well so

SPEAKER_00 (37:23):
well i mean saving money is one side but the other
side of the coin is making moneyand we have companies like Amber
and those who have an interestin pushing us to sell energy
from batteries back into thegrid.
They really like to use the edgecases as their case studies.
Look at this person who madethis huge amount of money in a
few hours one night.

(37:44):
So it'd be good to get some realworld data from someone who's
using their battery morefunctionally rather than just to
try to play energy arbitrage.

SPEAKER_03 (37:52):
Yeah.
I mean, until I joined Amber, Iwasn't actually myself across
how it worked.
It wasn't until I signed up andrealized, oh, okay, now I
understand and now I'm havingtrouble explaining to people
about Ambo persuading thembecause yeah it's not until you
sign up it's hard to fathom howit actually works so I've told
people I've gone from being aself-consumer to I guess an

(38:12):
energy trader where I'm buyingelectricity when it's cheap and
selling when it's high and Ithink people generally get that
concept so I'm not too concernedwhat the pricing is it's all
about relativity isn't it Isuppose if you've got a spike at
$20 per kilowatt hour then it'sa good time to chuck it all back
into the grid

SPEAKER_01 (38:28):
and is that all automated in your scenario or
are you turning things on andturning things off when the
wholesale market changes?

SPEAKER_03 (38:36):
Yeah, so on the Amber app, I've got it on energy
optimizer, also earningsoptimizer.
So I just try and make as muchas I can or save as much as I
can.
Got a low-ish reserve, 15, 20%,I think usually I set it on.
Obviously winter, it's adifferent story, but when the
weather was better, if you'regetting a lower price during the
day, if I'm lucky enough to behome, then I just charge the car
in the day as much as I can.

(38:57):
Joy, my wife, works from home,so she can charge their expo
during the day.
Winter is about 10 cents, maybe8, 9, 10 cents at best.
In summer or autumn, we wereseeing it sometimes 5 cents, 5,
6 cents per kilowatt hour duringthe day.

SPEAKER_01 (39:11):
And that's to buy energy?
Buy energy, yeah.
What about selling energy?
What's some of the rates thatyou see to sell energy back into
the grid?

SPEAKER_03 (39:20):
Yeah, so the spikes generally happen in the
evenings.
I think when the renewables runout in the grid and then the
coal fires starting to fire up.
So we've seen spikes of$18 to$20per kilowatt hour, lasting for
about half an hour.
Wow.

SPEAKER_01 (39:35):
Okay.
And so you've got the TeslaPowerwall, which presumably is
on full discharge mode at thatpoint.
And so, I mean, if, let's say,best case scenario,$18,$20, what
does that look like for a halfan hour period?

SPEAKER_03 (39:48):
Yeah, I think the best we've done is, how much did
we earn one day?
I think I saw about$60, maybemore.
I remember we were out fordinner one night with the family
and then the spike notified cashaccount on the phone and the
watch and was like, oh, quick,have a look.
And you could see it dischargingat five kilowatts from the Tesla
Powerwall 2 at full bore.
And then the next day, becausethe data comes back within 24

(40:09):
hours, you could see how muchyou've earned that day, which is
pretty phenomenal.
There was one scenario about twoweeks ago when the spike lasted
too long.

SPEAKER_01 (40:17):
Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_03 (40:18):
So if it's an hour, it's great because it's like
done and dusted and then you cango back to living your life.
But that day, the spike lastedfor like two, three hours.
It was still going at 10 o'clockat night.
And obviously the Powerwall 2capacity

SPEAKER_01 (40:28):
Oh, it's empty.
So then you're buying energy atthat high price.
Yeah.
We're like

SPEAKER_03 (40:32):
all the kids, go turn the lights off.
Turn the apron off.
Stop doing anything.

SPEAKER_00 (40:37):
So the double-edged sword there is automation, but
you have to have it set up in away that makes sense and works
for you.

SPEAKER_03 (40:43):
Correct.
And that's why we want the bigbattery now with SIG and then
V2G because then you can justkeep chucking it back into the
grid.
No problem.

SPEAKER_01 (40:50):
I've seen automations where people on
Amber Energy have set up lightsin the house to sort of signify
the events or or when the pricegoes over a certain point.
So if it goes red, you go runaround the house and unplug
everything.
That's

SPEAKER_03 (41:05):
hilarious.
That's a big flashing red.
Yeah, yeah.
That's so good.
Might do that.

SPEAKER_01 (41:10):
But it's crazy to see, you know, energy,
electricity for so long has beensomething that people are
generally being quite apatheticabout.
Like people don't really caretoo much about their electricity
provider or their bills.
And I don't think necessarilyAmber is for everyone, but the
fact that they've created siteshigh engagement with the types

(41:31):
of customers that really enjoytheir product is just quite
interesting to see and good tohear it first half from you as
well.

SPEAKER_03 (41:39):
Yeah, you're right though, Jeff.
It's not for everyone.
I think if you don't have abattery, I probably wouldn't go
Amber.
I know people can do it, but Ithink you probably need a
battery to safeguard those hoursin the evening when it's
spiking.

SPEAKER_01 (41:50):
And do you think the five kilowatt inverter that's
built into your Tesla Powerwall2 is a constraint?
Because I think a lot of peoplelooking at batteries to today
are looking at potentiallyreally big battery sizes, 30, 40
kilowatts, but it's limited bythe size of the inverter in
terms of how quickly it cancharge and discharge.

(42:10):
So if you've got a 40 kilowattbattery and it's got a five
kilowatt inverter, it's going totake eight hours to discharge.
So you're probably not going totake advantage of that amber 30
minute window if you're onlysort of limited by the inverter.

SPEAKER_03 (42:24):
Yeah.
I mean, that's not spoken a lotabout.
The storage is spoken a lotabout, but not the actual pipe
going out of the box as such,which is the inverter.
So like with my setup that I'mabout to install, I actually
increased the size of theinverter to 25 because I want to
take advantage of the DC chargerone day.
If I had a smaller inverter at15, then it's throttle to 15,
which is a waste really.

(42:45):
So yeah, you're right.
A five kilowatts for us.
Yeah, it has been a bit of aconstraint because we've tried
to electrify our whole home.
So the AC is now obviouslyelectric.
There's no more gas heating.
Even our stove is now inducted.
So when we put a few burners on,I still call it burner, but when
you put a few plates on, boilthe kettle, put the air fryer
on, it's already sevenkilowatts.

(43:07):
So that's over the limit of thefive kilowatt inverter.
So I know the new Powerwall 3is, I think, 10 kilowatts.
So that's something.
But I'm a bit annoyed that youcan't daisy chain a 3 with a 2,
which is a bit frustrating.
That's very Tesla, isn't it?
It is.

SPEAKER_01 (43:22):
Yeah, I think a lot of people were pretty frustrated
with the Powerwall 3, didn'tquite deliver to expect
expectations but yeah well atestament to that is that you've
now gone sig so

SPEAKER_03 (43:33):
yeah i like the fact that you can it's modular so you
can i'll just stack more in thefuture if i need to which is
great

SPEAKER_01 (43:39):
yeah yeah that's right we'll throw you some rapid
fire questions so you get somequick takes from you

SPEAKER_03 (43:45):
okay

SPEAKER_00 (43:48):
okay what is your favorite ev myth to bust

SPEAKER_03 (43:52):
that the battery will die after X number of
years.
I just bring out my Tesla ModelS.

SPEAKER_00 (44:00):
You've got the first-hand proof.
If you were going to buy a newEV next week, what would it be?
What's at the top of your list?

SPEAKER_03 (44:10):
Something that's not in Australia, potentially.
Okay.
So my favorite is the Zika 7 GT,which is this beautiful,
sleek-looking estate or wagonfrom Zika.
It's a beautiful car, and that'sthe one I want in Australia.

SPEAKER_00 (44:23):
Is that the one that looks like a first-class plane
seat in the back?

SPEAKER_03 (44:27):
Probably.
It's probably an option forthat.
But I love wagons.
I'm not a huge SUV fan.
I just like the aerodynamic lookof a wagon.
So the 7 GT is a wagon.

SPEAKER_00 (44:36):
Is that on the way?

SPEAKER_03 (44:37):
I keep asking Zika to bring it, so we'll see.
Yeah, I'd love to see it here.

SPEAKER_00 (44:41):
You need to go over to China, do a review of the
vehicle and share it with theAustralian audience so that you
won't be the only one banging ontheir door to bring it here.

SPEAKER_03 (44:50):
Correct.
Yep,

SPEAKER_00 (44:51):
yep.
What sort of EV technology thatyou've seen or know about are
you most excited to see arrivein Australia?
Oh,

SPEAKER_03 (44:58):
I think just the rapid charging.
Like Tesla's the best network atthe moment.
There's a lot of them andthere's a lot at each location.
So there's no waiting, veryminimal waiting time, which is
great.
But you're generally stilllimited to half whereas if you
we can get some faster chargeshere that are reliable like I
said earlier 1000 kilowatts or 1megawatt then you can bring that
charge down to 10 minutes andall you need is 4 at each

(45:21):
location because if everyone'sspending 10 minutes at each pump
or each charger then you don'tneed that many stalls and I'd
love to see a kind of what doyou call it, like service
centers or like four courts forEV charging.
So at the moment, some of thechargers are in some strange
locations.
You're sort of out the back of acar park or an afterthought of
the service station, but I wantto see some EV dedicated
chargers locations where there'sa really cool cafe or place you

(45:45):
can sit down for a bit, toilets,et cetera, shops, just a place
for the kids to run around.
That would be really cool.

SPEAKER_01 (45:51):
Cool.
We're getting a little bit closeto the end.
One parting question, we'vetalked a little bit about some
of the technology that's that'sprobably a couple of years away.
If we look a bit more distantlyinto the future, 10, 15, 20
years, what do you think thefuture could look like in
Australia?

SPEAKER_03 (46:09):
I think the future could look like China, actually.
The times I visited there, itfeels like I'm already visiting
the future.
If you walk around the streetsof Shanghai or Hangzhou, so 50%
of the new car sales are EVsover there.
And it reflects when you walkaround how quiet the streets
are.
There's almost no air pollutionin their major cities compared
to when I last visited 20 yearsago.
It was quite smoggy, but I justcouldn't believe how clear the

(46:32):
air was over the cities Ivisited.
And the EVs helped that causefor sure.
It's quiet.
All you hear is the tire noise.
But yeah, I think that's thekind of future we can hopefully
expect.
It's better for everyone'shealth, obviously being medical
myself.
I want people to breathe easieron our streets.
I don't like the noise pollutionwhen I walk around our streets.
So less noise pollution, lesssmog, less emissions.

(46:53):
I think that'd be, well, lesstailpipe emissions.
I think that'd be a good thingfor us.

SPEAKER_01 (46:56):
It'd be nice to not have to go to the country to be
able to see this in Sydney andhave a nice view right from the
city.
That's something I look forwardto.

SPEAKER_03 (47:03):
Exactly.
Hopefully in the next 15, 20.

SPEAKER_01 (47:07):
Well, great, Tom.
Look, thanks so much forspending some time with us.
All power to you and thechannel.
There's great content.
We'd encourage everyone from ouraudience to check out Ludica's
Fees and all the great contentthat you're making.
Yeah, and look forward tohopefully having you again on
the show in the future as thingshave progressed.

SPEAKER_00 (47:26):
And hopefully next time we have you on the show,
you'll be a retired medicalfull-time content creator

SPEAKER_03 (47:32):
but uh yeah thank you dan thank you jeff for uh
for the invite really appreciateit and i really enjoyed the chat
as well thank you

SPEAKER_00 (47:38):
all right That's it for today.
Thanks for listening.
And make sure you share anepisode with someone that you
think might enjoy it.
Leave us a review, leave us acomment.
It really does make a differencefor us.
And if you need a quote foranything related to home
electrification, solar,batteries, heat pumps, aircon,

(47:59):
and of course, EV charging, headto solarchoice.net.au to get
instant quotes from pre-vettedinstallers.
See you next month.