June 4, 2024 • 35 mins
Peter Nelson has the perfect job for a car enthusiast, that of an automotive writer. He's been a staff writer for TheDrive.com, Hotcars.com, Donut Media and much more. His love to drive, learn, and explore the automotive world is contagious.
Learn more about Peter at; Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/16vpete/ Muckrack: https://muckrack.com/peterjnelson LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/petenelson/ Fuel for the Future is driven by America's Automotive Trust, presented by State Farm Insurance, and hosted by Michael May. Learn more about americasautomotivetrust.org.Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:02):
Then when I started doing Car review,
I was reaching out to places, pitchingwhatever, because my boss
Tom was just like, Well,you know, if you want to do
I'm going to do thismore regularly. I'm like the editor.
I'll give you a slight pay raiseand you can actually like do car review
and like you can kind of take overWinding Road Icon, which is so cool
because I mean, I'd alwayswanted to get press cars and do that
and, you know, just driveall kind of different cars.
(00:23):
That is Peter Nilsson, an automotivewriter based in Southern California.
His passion and knowledge for cars hashelped him become a respected contributor
to many publications and projects,including the drive icon
Hunt, Cars.com, donut Media, car Bibles,and so much more.
This is fuel for the futurepresented by State Farm
(00:44):
Insurance and driven by America'sAutomotive trust.
I'm Michael me.
Do you
mind giving us a little bit of backgroundabout who you are and what you do?
So I am a at the momentfreelance automotive writer.
(01:04):
And yeah, I write.
I write all forms of content fromI do script
writing and research for donut media.
I do freelance automotive review.
Freelance blogging, just, you know,fun stories in the automotive realm.
And at the moment, freelance,but in general, just automotive writer.
Yeah.
And you've worked with some really fun,at least from the outside.
(01:27):
It seems like fun companies, fun content,fun media and donut media specifically,
they've I feel like they've influenceda lot of potentially
even like younger lovers of carsthat are getting into it.
Would you agree with that?
Yeah, well, I'd say it's kind of,
you know, growing up
in our generation, I think we're probablyaround the same age.
(01:48):
You know, we had like motortrend TVcar driver, TV, we had TNN and,
you know, Spike TV, you know, on onSaturday mornings and stuff like that.
I think nowadays and that was kind oflike our window into a lot of it.
In addition to reading the actual physicalmagazines, too.
Right.
But I think younger generationthat's so Internet
based and gets so much of their mediafrom everything from, you know,
(02:12):
TikTok, YouTube, Instagram, whatever,whatever media company that has a
a good hold on all of that is kind ofwhat pulls them in and don't A media
is one of them for sure.
Yeah. Yeah.
They've been doing fun stuffand not just them,
but I do think a lot of the funreally captivating
automotive content is just found onlineand in.
People do great stuff out there.
(02:34):
And and you've been part of some of thatwhich is fantastic in terms
of getting into writingabout the automotive world.
How did you get started in that?
So I've always loved cars.
I mean, you know, typical, typical childgrowing up and like having,
you know, my parents
buying me certain toys and, you know,having the posters and stuff like that.
(02:56):
And just having a havinga, you know, a loving car as a kid.
And then I you know,I read Car Driver, Motortrend, etc.,
you know, for gosh,as long as I can remember.
And then into high school,I got into autocross and then I got, you
know, I started reading like grassrootsmotorsports and stuff like that.
And I was really intothe Volkswagen community.
So I read Performance, VW and all that.
(03:17):
So I always saw I gradually, like,you know, built up a
especially like in high school
college like built upa, you know, a love of automotive media,
but was always,always kind of one of those things
where it's like, yeah,but I mean, I'll never be able to do that.
Like, I don't I don't study creativewriting or journalism, you know, it's cool
and it'd be cool to work in automotivesomehow, someway, someday.
(03:38):
But that's I don't thinkthat'll be in the cards for me.
And then, you know, for cash, fast forwardquite a few years.
Fast forward to my early thirties.
I actually, yeah, my when I was 30
I got a job working for winding roadracing, doing motor sports equipment,
motor sports equipment, retail,
(03:59):
so selling fire suits,
helmets, hands, devices,all all that, all the, all the stuff
you need to go racing and racingor track days.
Autocross, of course.
And I started through that.
I started writing some productreview and stuff and
my boss at the timeand just owner of all at the time
all Winding Road properties, Tom,he was just like, you do this pretty well.
(04:23):
Like you're going to ever do more of this,you know, By all means, Well,
you know, we'll look at your writing.
We could certainly,you know, use, use your help.
And I had actually it didn't really havemuch of a grasp of what winding road was.
Before that.
I knew it was onlineand I read it occasionally here and there,
but I never knew that it was this was likekind of like one of the first
(04:43):
formsof online media for car review and stuff.
They were pretty early in the gameand they had like an actual physical
like magazine that you downloadas a PDF and stuff, which is pretty cool.
Then sure enough, over time Ithen I just started doing Car review
and then when I started doing car review,
I was reaching out to places, pitchingwhatever because my boss
Tom was just like, Well,if you know, if you want to do
(05:04):
you want to do thismore regularly? I'm like the editor.
I'll give you a slight pay raiseand you know, you can actually like do car
review and like you can kind of take overwinding road dot com, which is so cool
because I mean I'd always wanted to docar review always want to get press cars
and do that and you know just driveall kinds of different cars etc.
And sure enough like I took that onand then just reaching out
(05:24):
to different OEMs, trying to get tryingto get press loans and everything.
And over time,yeah, people started to say yes.
And also some people were just like, mygosh, when he wrote Where have you been?
Because they were in the gameso much for so long.
Yeah. And then
yeah, so it just kind of grew fromthere was doing car review and stuff
and then kind of alongside that,
(05:45):
a friend of mine was doing productionwork for Donut Media
and she isn'tshe wasn't in the automotive realm,
but she was just in like the,
you know, the Southern Californiaproduction realm, right?
She texted me one day and she's like, Hey,I'm working for this YouTube channel.
I don't know if you've heard of them.
They're called Donut Mediaand they're always looking for writers.
And I know you've donea little bit of writing,
so if you ever want to, like, you know,
(06:06):
possibly get a little bit of sideincome, like, you know, send me some,
send me some links and I'm just like,my God, that's holy cow, that's awesome.
Yeah, I'd love to.So I sent them some links.
You know, they brought mein for kind of like, I don't want to say
like an interview, but just like aget to know you type of type of meeting.
And we talked about, you know, my interestin cars and really hit it off.
(06:27):
It was really cool.
They dug what I wrote about.
I wrote a just wrote a reviewon a friend's blog,
the Jaguar F-type,like summer before or something like that.
And yeah,so they gave me like a spec script.
I wrote a spec script. They loved it.
It was Porsche up to speed, okay,Which was like the best.
That was kind of like the best spec to getbecause I'm just like, my God, I know.
(06:47):
I already knowlike a decent amount about this.
And Roof is so cool.
Yeah, so yeah, yeah.
So I wrote that they loved it.
Then they just, you know, they started
sending me more scriptsand it kind of built up from there.
And then, yeah, that was really cool.
And then I was on a little bit of a delay
because like I startedwriting for other places.
So I left Winding Road and I went to writefor Car Bibles, which is a recurrent
or rather was a recurrent media propertykind of sister site to the drive dot.
(07:11):
Right. Then recurrence just moved us.
They were going to shut down the editorialaspect of car bibles and move us
just over to the drivebecause they're just like editorials
and doing so long car bibles will moveyou over to the drive and we're like,
okay, So we just moved to the drive.
And then so I was laid offfrom the drive last fall.
So fall 20, 20, well, fall earlywinter 2023.
(07:34):
And I reached out to Don't It againand I was just like,
Hey, if you're looking for writers.
And then sure enough, like, you know, the
one of the head writers, Jo Jo Webber,it was just like, Hey, Peter.
Yeah, good to hear you. Yeah, we'lldefinitely send you some stuff. Cool.
It seems like everyone's got their own,like very custom
way of getting into automotive media,you know?
So. And I guess they do mine 100%.
(07:55):
Everybody has their own unique pathinto automotive media.
Automotive general.
It's really always fascinatingand I love hearing how people got into it.
So thank you for sharing that.
As somebodythat has reviewed a lot of cars
and also has a very broad interestand a lot of different kind
of automobiles, perfect for what you do.
Has there ever been a car, a bike,anything like that?
(08:16):
You've donea review of that you loved before
you did the review,you were like, man, I'm so excited.
I've this is going to beone of my favorite cars.
And then it just kind of goes,
like something something that, you know,possibly didn't meet my expectations
or something, or I'm just like,this isn't as good as I was hoping to be.
Yeah,
honestly,I really can't think of something.
(08:37):
There have been a few cars where I'm justlike, my God, I can't wait to drive this.
And sure enough,it turns out to be awesome, you know?
Okay, good.
But something that I had,nothing's really that like, I'm
really excited to drive itand then I drive it
and it's actually it's not greator whatever.
I mean, there might be a situation where,like, the infotainment is annoying or,
I don't know, like, like shiftingfrom doing a three point turn and shifting
(09:00):
between like reverseand drive takes a while
and is a little slowto do something like there will be like
this is sometimes with cars like biggestexample for that is when I first drove
the actually the one time I only the timeI drove the BMW M to see us.
Okay.
I had the DCT versionand that was my first time experiencing a
like a BMW DCT and it's like it took.
(09:21):
I am glad they went with the ZF eightspeed automatic because that DCT it wasn't
necessarily clunkywhen you're like driving around but
pulling a three point turn on like thetight streets of Long Beach and whatnot.
It just it felt like it took forever.
So it's kind of annoying to be in thislike really fun, fast car that's like,
I would still own one in a heartbeatif I could nowadays.
But just I remember
the DCT being like, my God, shiftfor crying out loud.
(09:44):
It was. It was.
Yeah, yeah.
Okay, so opposite question then.
Have you ever been your expectationskind of mediocre or low for a car
and then you drive it and you're like,Yeah, yeah, this is actually really cool.
Yeah, there have been a few.
They've actually been a few,especially you kind of.
I mean, obviously you have to look atdifferent cars through different lenses.
Exactly.
(10:04):
You can't drive Toyota Corolla crossand have expectations
that's going to be like a guy orsomething.
Exactly.
But, you know, Toyota Corolla Cross,I drove the Toyota Corolla Cross hybrid.
Gosh, I think a year or two ago,I was surprised by how fun that thing
was to just, like, throw aroundand like and drive on like a like,
on, on a on alike a damp like around the around town
(10:27):
or like damp roadsand then like up on a canyon road.
One I was actually kind of surprisedby how fun that car was to drive,
which you think you hear a Toyota Corollacross hybrid and it's just like,
okay, it's a hybrid, which, you know,
hybrids are torquey,which a lot of people forget.
But a lot of people think, it's a hybrid.
People who drive drive very slowly.
But actually, anyway, it was torqueythe chassis was like very good
(10:47):
for what it was and it was just so funto like toss around and have fun with.
And it was very playfuland yeah, I don't know that.
But yeah, of all cars and yeah.
that's what I, I'd say like the ToyotaCorolla Cross hybrid is actually
like a lot of fun to drive and like, yeah,it was of course, of course.
And that makes perfectsense to me to hear that.
But no, I love those kind of taleswhen people just
(11:10):
their expectation is just off from
what the reality is of driving.
And I'm a believer in drivingshould be fun.
And even in your everyday driver,you should have a car that you enjoy
and that can be whateverit means to you. Yeah, absolutely.
Always, always wanting to find the alwayswant to find like the positive aspects,
you know I'm yeah,
I always kind of
(11:30):
I go into review always with an openmind to be like okay like, you know,
is there something about this carthat will surprise me
or is there something that is funor does it do what it's intended for?
Well, of course, yeah.
And yeah, I mean, I've actually I've beensurprised by how many cars are just like,
this is like a like, yeah,this car is fun to drive or, you know,
it has something about it whereyou weren't necessarily expecting and,
(11:50):
you know, yeah, it's a good time.
So, so what vehicles
are you looking forwardto coming out in the near future?
Well,
so the Aston Martin, the new AstonMartin vantage just debuted.
Yeah, a bunch of bunch of journalists
just did the first drivein, I believe it was Spain.
I'm really hoping I canI can get behind the wheel of that
(12:13):
when it comes to the fleet,
when it comes to the So Cal Press fleet,because I loved the previous one.
Yeah.
You know, it had a couple of thingsthat that, you know, could have
could be improved upon.
But otherwise I'd really want to find outwhat this newest version is and with a
lot more horsepower from this very,very potent twin turbo.
Excuse me, as far as
(12:33):
Mercedes, AMGpulls it by turbo four liter V8.
Yeah, I really want to drivethe new vantage that is like
top of the list for sure.
And then in terms of new cars coming out,
then, no, I don't know.
There's not a whole lot where it's, it's
kind of like on the horizonand I'm just like, that's really cool.
I can't wait.
You know, there's, there's like technologythat's like on the horizon and whatnot.
(12:54):
That's that's cool, too.
That's kind of coolto keep an eye out for.
I drove Ioniq five n on the launch
last month and holy cow,that car is incredibly fun.
And of course, you know,when it was first unveiled
that it's going to be making these noisesand that it's kind of it's a crossover.
I mean, it's a large hatchback,small crossover, but it's also very heavy.
(13:17):
You know, everyone,
you know, kind of looking by the numbersand also based on this this thing, this
this situationwhere it makes like fake engine noise
and whatnot,Everyone was skeptical for sure.
I've always I've always kept an open mindwith any kind of new technology.
I'm just like, well, you know,yeah, on paper it might seem weird or
I love that you brought that upbecause it's I want I've never been in it.
(13:40):
I've never driven in it, but I want oneand I know I want one.
And that'stalking about expectations of cars.
I hopefully I don't get inone and absolutely hate it,
but I'm really excited about that car.
It's it's so cool.
Well, so, you know, again, likeI always get the mindset of, well, yeah,
there are noises,
you know, anything that someone can doto make an EV fun to drive.
(14:03):
I'm all about trying outand seeing what it's like.
Like I'm happyto give everybody a chance, of course.
And I mean so many conversationson Instagram
and Facebook about this car beforeand drove it and then I go and drive it.
I'm just like, my gosh.
Like they really pulled it off.
And not only that,but just like the the kind of feedback and
and just how it feels likean internal combustion engine,
(14:26):
how it feels like you've got a drivetrain shifting gears and you've got in
the car shakes when it bounces bounces offthe quote unquote rev limiter.
It's so funand it's also incredibly fast too.
So, yeah, no,that car is insanely good for what it is.
And by
and what I brought up originally,
I can't wait to seewhat other brands do to either.
(14:49):
I mean, if everyone copies Hyundai,that's cool.
I'm totally game for that, you know,in terms of like feedback and fake noise
and everythingbecause of how they can pull that off.
Like,
you know, Honda'sgoing to put everyone notice
where it's just like if you come upwith an enthusiast, if you better make it
to where it's engaging to drive like this,you know, 100%.
And speaking of future technologies,I'd love to talk to you about that
(15:11):
because you are surroundedboth professionally
and personally by automobilesall the time.
I feel like automotive writerscan sometimes get
a better perspective of the fieldand the business as a whole
than some executives and peoplethat work for individual car companies.
So I do want to talk to youabout the future of cars.
(15:32):
And it could be the near term,it could be the long term,
and not just about alternativefuels or engines
like EVs, but other technologiesthat may be coming up.
So you mentioned the Ioniq.
But yeah, what else is on the horizonthat is just of interest to you, whether
good or bad? Well,
(15:53):
kind of focusingon EVs and making them fun to drive.
And I mean, I saw it was also on the AudiQ8 launched last fall
and that's Audi Q8 againbig EV but performance EV
but it has like twin twin motorson the back that can facilitate adrift.
You know, you can slide it aroundand so I'm excited for a technology
(16:16):
that can mirror
some things you find in conventionalinternal combustion
engine cars with conventional drivetrains.
I'm really interested to seebecause when think about it,
a conventional drive train, it respondsto, you know, it responds to the torque
that it's getting from the engine.
And obviously there are sensors at play
operating the ABS systemand all that kind of stuff.
(16:37):
But I mean, motors with the right,
you know, quote unquote tuning, you know,with the right inputs, motors can respond
so much faster and can can really likeyou can tune electric motors
to mirror a lot of things that we loveabout performance driving so quickly.
So I'm really I'm really excited for
(17:00):
just where we go
with with with mirroringconventional drive, train
and powertrain type stuffwith electric motors because yeah,
I mean, when you can make it so easy rightnow, or rather,
you know, it's maybe a lot of,maybe a lot of stuff is on the horizon,
but it just seems like it's so easyand makes so much sense.
It's like, of course, you can have likea very drift of all ev because, you know,
(17:21):
if you just put twin motors on the backand then they can kind of, they can
they get what's the word I'm looking for,
they can operate in the senseof like a limited slip differential would.
Yes. And,and then not only that, but with EVs
and just having easier space
and easier allowance of space,I mean, you can make cars so balanced
(17:41):
between putting the battery packin the middle, situating the motors
and you know, over,you know, kind of directly over or even
more in inside the wheelbasetype situation.
So I mean where where we go with chassistuning in relation to EVs as well.
I mean we're already quite,we're already quite there.
I mean some of these,the chances are very good.
(18:02):
So I mean it seems likeit'll only get better and we'll only have
amazing chassis tuning because of the,you know, just the space alliance.
You'll have to have to accountfor a large transmission, large drive,
train components and large engine,you know. Yeah.
And you know, I'ma, I'm a supporter of EVs, I'm
a supporter of basically anything.
I think in order for technologyto evolve and improve,
(18:25):
you have to be open to new ideas.
And I do feel like there's a component of
of people that want to hang onto internal combustion engines.
Part of me does as well,and I do think they will be there.
I don't think they'rejust going to disappear one day.
Yeah, but I do think we have to be opento these alternatives as well.
And I do think there's great things thatcan happen from these new technologies.
(18:49):
I mean, a lot of people get kind of doomand gloom about it, about, well,
you know, gasoline, it's going to be gonein like, no, it's never going to be gone.
Like the world is not, you know, one day,
one day the app is just goingto show up at your door with a tow truck.
And like Holloway, your e46 M3, likewe're going to have fuel and all that.
But fossil fuel industry is quite largeand, you know, quite a mammoth.
(19:11):
So it's not going to go away in the nextten anyway.
People are super doom glue.
Yeah, I'll stop rambling about that,but people are super doom gloom about it.
But we're always going to haveinternal combustion in some regard.
Yes. It's just it's just cool to likebe able to offset some of that with easy.
And of course,
and if we can, you know, if we can havea more environmentally friendly future
(19:32):
by having more e-visa around but also haveinternal combustion around to enjoy.
Yeah.
What makes internal combustionso fun then?
Yeah, I mean, we can totally havethe best of both worlds.
So absolutely.
There'sand there's no reason you shouldn't
and even even alternatives to that.
And I don't even know what they would be,
but someone may inventanother type of engine.
They can propel an automobile forwardand use some other sort of fuel.
So synthetic fuels and I mean, I'm sure,you know, because E85 is you know, that's
(19:56):
that's an alternative fuel.
And I'm if I recall correctly,it does indeed burn cleaner.
So I mean, it does there are some issues,but nothing's perfect.
You know, there's no issues with that.There's issues with everything.
But yeah, because E85,what higher consumption, you know,
you burn more of itto achieve the same amount of power.
But still, I mean, who knows,We may be in a situation in the future.
(20:16):
We have E85 thatnot only has the same efficiency
as gasoline,but also like burns super clean cleaner.
Yeah, yeah.
There's we just have to kind of,you know, just be open to progress
and just I mean, yeah, I don't know.
So doom and gloom,you know, and also just, you know, change.
Everybody's afraid of changeand change can be very good.
(20:38):
And, and also there can just be differenttypes of vehicles
and you can love them for what they are.
You know, you canyou can love the positives
about each and every one of them.
And that's kind of like what I'm enjoyingabout hearing you talk about EVs
and and what they're designingand doing with it.
And I do think there's more opportunitieswith electric vehicles
(20:59):
to tinker around with all the thingsyou're talking about, like drifting.
And because of the way computers work,obviously you lose the mechanical
aspect of those carsand it becomes more computer oriented.
But I do think there's some really coolthings that can happen in the future
with automobiles.
Yeah, well, it's wild toI mean, then again, going back to like,
you know, electric motoris kind of mimicking differentials, like,
(21:22):
yeah, driving the Ioniq five and on LagunaSeca and kind of feeling it like
feeling a kind of hook up,you know, feeling it.
I forget what the traction troublesset out.
It was. It was on.
So I mean, I was able to like,slide it through corners and whatnot.
Yeah, but you kind of feelit gave me a little bit.
So it was almost it felt like, you know,coming in to a corner too hot and exiting
(21:43):
and it kind of and you feel itkind of hook up after that.
It gives you just the little tinybit of slip.
So the fact that they can remedyI'm sorry, not remedy, but they can mimic
that experience of,you know, a little bit of slip
and then you feel it hook up where
it's like a limited slip differential,like a like a clutch type, limited slip
differential, even.
(22:04):
That's so cool, you know.
And so in terms of inputs and feeland the experience
and the drama, you know, in a good sense,yeah.
No, I mean, there'sthere's a lot to look forward to.
And just and, you know,
and there's a lot of passionate peopleat auto and automotive companies, too.
Like there's a lot of people who indeedwant a cater and make cars fun. Yes.
(22:24):
Not to put you on the spotand hopefully this doesn't
put you in any sort of bad placeas a as an automotive writer.
But do you think that there'sany companies
that you've see from your perspectivehave a little bit better
foresight or more open foresight to wherethe industry is going than others?
(22:45):
I think everyone has some
I'm not I'm not trying to I'mnot trying to protect my my, my,
my future relationships with, you know, or
my current and future relationshipswith automakers by saying this.
But generally or genuinely,
I think, you know, a lot of manufacturershave some form of like progress
with EVs and alternative alternativefuels, whatever in mind,
(23:08):
or everyone has their own version of it,
if it makes sense.
But anyway, yeah, yeah.
I mean there's there is I mean some someof course seem a little bit more forward
thinking than others.I mean, gosh, just look at Hyundai.
Like again,we'll just stay on the subject, honey.
They have several EVs on the marketright now and they have for a while.
But yeah,
even even the ones that haven'treally had much of an EV parents
(23:30):
or like kind of future technologytype situation
and like they're starting to come outwith their version of like Honda.
Yeah,they've, they've been in the hybrid game
but they really haven't been the gameuntil just now.
And then also you've
got Sony Honda mobility going on right nowwith their Ophelia concept.
So I mean there's yeah everyone'severyone's got their own version
(23:51):
just Yeah yeah some are a little off,
some are slightly more just in the gamenow more than than others.
But I think, you know,
they're all kind of going up their paceand they all have some thing in mind.
Yeah.
And on thatthat even No, not to stick on EVs too much
but you did writean article about myths about EVs.
I'd love to hear some of those.
Like what are commonmyths behind owning or driving
(24:14):
electric vehiclesthat people may misinterpret?
yeah, Well,
gosh, I'm trying to think like what I put
in the article too, because it doesn'teven have to be the same thing.
But I'm sure you just come across peopleall the time.
They're like, I don't want to.
TV takes too long to charge as an example.
yeah, You know, for sure.
Yeah.
People, I mean charge times,
(24:35):
which is not, not totally unfairbecause they're in charge.
Times are still they're not greatunless you have a Tesla or.
Well of course you knowthey've opened up to where you can
you know other cars with convertercan charge at Tesla stations now.
Yeah.
Well I think I can't remember if that's anow thing or a near future thing
but anyway, but no charge times.
(24:56):
It's like, well one is
my gosh, I'll spend so much time chargingor my gosh, I need all this range.
It's like, well honestly,a lot of people have this mindset of like,
my gosh, I need 300 miles of availableto me at all times.
I never know what am I have to drivethis very long distance?
Is that truly realistic?
You know, so that's I think that's likethe biggest myth is people think like,
(25:17):
my God, I need as much range as possibleright now, all the time.
And it's just
it's, you know, I'm one to talk.
I work from home for the most part, but
it's still like,you know, depending upon where you live,
your commute every day may be pretty waylower than than an EV's maximum range.
And not only that, but, you know, just
(25:38):
if you if you happen to have the abilityto charge overnight somewhere.
Yeah, that's great.
Although on the flip side,that's kind of a
I mean, that's
kind of a myth itself too,because with just charging infrastructure,
I mean, a lot of people may thinkit's like,
well, I can just charge at my apartmentor I can just,
you know, I'll be able to public charge,no problem.
That's I don't want to say it's a myth,but I will say that that's just like a
(25:58):
like it's tough.We don't quite have the interest.
I still think we're lagging behindquite a bit with charging infrastructure.
Yeah, well, for
just putting it in new developments
of some kind, especially for for folkswho don't live in single family homes
and also just publicand like actual public infrastructure,
like, you know, city of Los Angelespublic charging, you know,
(26:21):
which may become a thing someday.
And also just, you know, doing,you know, dealing with charging stations
where there's a line and two ofthe charges are working is seriously
one of the the well, one of the leastleast enjoyable experiences on earth.
Yeah.
And so a lot
so that's the know the thing where it'sjust like yeah
you won't always have a charging stationavailable like you kind of have to.
Unfortunately we're still in thisthis period of early adoption
(26:44):
where you really have to, you know,I don't know, figure out
what to figure out what the situation iswith your local charging stations.
And you know, when it when there'sI mean I mean, the app will tell you
you can download various chargingcompanies apps and they'll tell you
what's occupied whatnotbut you might get there.
And two of those,
you know, two of those chargers thatthat they said were open are not anymore.
(27:05):
So anyway yeah yeah no and look
I own an EV and that was my wife
and I were like let's,let's just get one and see what we like.
How does it affect our lives?
So I got the cheapest leaseI could find last year.
It's a Hyundai, Hyundai, Kona EV. Okay.
And that was the cheapest leaseI could find for a TV and we
(27:28):
I was a little concerned about thecharging time and where am I going to go.
And it's been the easiest not big dealsaying ever and it's now when I fill up
because we still have good old fashionedinternal combustion engine car as well.
Whenever I have to fill that thing up withgas, I'm like, got to go buy their gas.
It's like the office.
But now it's it's swapped
(27:49):
because I'm so used to the EV scenariowhere I never have to worry about it.
And, and it's been super easy for me.
But everybody's different, you know,and not it depends on where you live
and what your lifestyle is,what your commute is like
and all that kind of stuffyou have to take into account.
But for us, it'sbeen the greatest thing ever.
So I do want to keep I want to updateand get something better next time.
(28:11):
But having an TV has been great for us.
Yeah.
Speaking of cheap leases, there have beena bunch of cheap leases recently.
my gosh.
And I mean because some of it's based onthey kind of a lot of automakers
kind of puta lot of put put their put a lot of
investment in justlike throwing a lot of these out there.
And now they're saying like, crap,they're not selling them.
(28:33):
But there's a lot of greatlease deals at the moment.
I mean, gosh, I was I was looking atI was like pricing out would have to lease
a Polestar two at the moment,like just based Polestar two.
It's way cheaper than you think it'd be.
I mean obviously,you know, the charging and the,
the inconvenience would be to me
becauseI'd have to go to a charging station,
I wouldn't be able to have chargingat home for it.
Right, Right.
But otherwise just looking at likethe cost is just like, wow, it's
(28:55):
actually incredibly inexpensive to drive.
And even if you have the rightinfrastructure around you
at the moment, it's cool, like Starbuckseven or all the various Hyundais.
So yeah, it's it'snow, now is the time where it's just like
if someone wants to try itout and it's only a lease to
some of
us to try it out, there's,there's good deals to be had.
So on a on a similar topicof like the future of of vehicles
(29:19):
but tying it in now with the pastand a big part of this podcast
and America's automotive trustis preserving this knowledge and love
and education around automobilesand automobile education.
How can people learn more about cars?
Why should they learn more aboutthe history of vehicles, not just, Hey,
(29:41):
what can I get? You know,I need a new car.
Which should I be looking at?
But yeah, What are your thoughts
about the importance of preserving thisthis history of automotive?
Yeah, I think just the history of mediaitself, consuming media,
how we doon, you know, various YouTube channels and
all the
traditional networks that come outwith programing for
(30:02):
for automotive of content,
you know, in general reading,reading all the various publications,
you know, finding your mix,finding your niche as well.
But also just, I don't know, there'syou know, it's it's it's really easy
to kind of get mixed up injust Google driven stuff.
Like if you if you were to search, like,how do I change a spare tire?
(30:23):
Like,you'll come up with so many sites that
just give you a very SEO driven thingthat may not
I mean, it may be helpful and maybe not,but if someone wants to dig more into it.
So just go and read,you know, go do, you know, get,
you know, develop like a mix of of intakeand just a mix of media intake
and just kind of like, you know, dig in
(30:43):
because a lot of sites, you know,regardless of of what its main focus
may be,a lot of sites will have a lot of stuff
that kind of digs more into like featuretype stuff where you gain more insight
about a certain industryhistory, whatever.
And of course, certain sites,they they lean more on motorsports,
so they lean more on technologyor there may be a site like the drive
where they dolots of news reviews and and culture
(31:05):
where they appealto like different different areas.
So yeah, it's just a matterof kind of figuring out what,
what interestsyou and kind of digging in from there.
And then, you know,if you want to be more resourceful
and save some money and get, you know,you know, learn more about cars
because you want to potentiallydo your own
do it yourself maintenance,
you know, search for search for sitesthat have good coverage of that or indeed
(31:25):
watching YouTube channels.
That's gosh, that's so crucialwhere you can
it seems like there'san instructional video on how to do
whatever job on whatever caryou know, somebody on YouTube
that you know, some aren't as wellproduced as others, of course.
But, you know, you may you may find,
you know, a certain way of learningsomething on one channel,
whether it has a million subscribers
or 20 subscribers,that could be incredibly helpful to you.
(31:47):
So, yeah,
it's just a matter ofjust getting out there
and just consuming media and,you know, seeing where it goes, I guess.
Yeah, but also, yeah, I mean,luckily we're living in an era where
we've got such good mixture of media.So it is.
And also a lot of websiteswhere, you know, you've got so much
you can consume,you can learn so much cool stuff.
I mean, you know,
automotive history dot org.
I wrote a story for for themon, you know, the history of the B
(32:12):
five generation Audi S4 and worldchallenge back in the early 2000s
like I was so stoked to write thatbecause that was like a form of
that was like
a chapter of motorsports historyI always want to write about and yeah,
and then just like reading morethrough that site,
everything,there's also lots of cool stuff.
So I mean, yeah,you just want to like dig into
some subject.
(32:32):
Luckily because we have so many siteslike there's so much coverage
and you can really learna lot of cool things.
You can,you can and you're talking to someone
who gets stuck in rabbit holes of websiteslike history now.
And just likeI start clicking on everything
and next thing you know, 2hours have passed and I'm like, shoot,
yeah, I normally I'm not the typeof person to like have a million tabs
(32:52):
open unless I'm on like a rabbit hole of,like, cool automotive knowledge.
Yeah, I'll have like 50 to 50,but like 20 tabs open or something.
And I'm just like going through eachand every one on
like a Saturday morning, just,you know, learning something new,
learning something new.
That's what you can do.
And I think it's great to do whatever
anybody's passionor topic of interest is to to do that.
(33:13):
I love curiosity and researchand and cars are a big part of our lives.
So if listeners outthere are not super into cars,
I think you're still going to findamazing stories in history
and therethat it will appeal to everybody.
So before we go, is there anything elseyou want to talk about?
Anythingyou want to let people know about?
What do you have on the horizon?
Where can people find you?
(33:34):
I'm going to think of 12 other questionsthroughout.
You know,
I just asked you a lot, really quick.
Well, you know what?
To drive your point homea little bit further about finding,
you know, even if you're not into cars,
even if you don't reallyyou know, it's not really a thing.
I mean, there could be somethingor there could be something
helpful, useful, resourceful to youabout learning more about cars.
And it does you don't you don't have.
(33:55):
And not only that,but like never think that there is
that there is a barrier to entry eitherlike everyone should be welcome everyone
everyone.
You know, it'syou know, anyone can be a quote unquote
car person, anyone,anyone can dig into it.
Whatever your degree is,the more the merrier.
Of course, like carculture is definitely something
to be savoredand shared and mass by everybody.
(34:16):
And then anyway, but
with with my own with what's goingon, with my own career and my own
with my own, I don't know.
Appearance OnlineA 16 VP meet on Instagram and YouTube.
What else?
I think.
Yeah, those are kind of my only socialat the moment. Yeah. 1660.
Like as in like 16 vows,but 16 I've had several several cars
(34:39):
and inline four in V8 configurationthat were 16 valve.
So that just made sense.
What else?
Yeah what's don't the mediaI mean I've done I've done a few stuff
a few things for them recently
that should be publishing soonthat I'm really stoked about. Nice
check out I I'm on my crackalthough I forgot my
my crack is but that kind of likethat has, you know just where bylines
(35:03):
are published and everything but yeahI mean I have I've been doing some writing
for Ars Technica so the drive Rob report.
Gosh who else?
U.S. News and World Reports.
Yeah I mean I'm
and usually also I'll writeabout all the stuff on on LinkedIn and
and post about on my story on site rightso and we'll we'll put some links
(35:23):
in the show notes as this as wellso if people thank you
I appreciate they can and yeah that'sI think that's our time.
PetersThank you so much. I really enjoyed this.
I got to talk to you a lot longer.
thank you so much.I really appreciate being on.
Yeah, this is cool.
Thank you for listening to Fuelfor the Future, presented by State Farm
Insurance and driven by America'sAutomotive Trust.
(35:44):
Learnmore at America's Automotive Trust for.
Then when I started doing Car review,
I was reaching out to places, pitchingwhatever, because my boss
Tom was just like, Well,you know, if you want to do
I'm going to do thismore regularly. I'm like the editor.
I'll give you a slight pay raiseand you can actually like do car review
and like you can kind of take overWinding Road Icon, which is so cool
because I mean, I'd alwayswanted to get press cars and do that
and, you know, just driveall kind of different cars.
(00:23):
That is Peter Nilsson, an automotivewriter based in Southern California.
His passion and knowledge for cars hashelped him become a respected contributor
to many publications and projects,including the drive icon
Hunt, Cars.com, donut Media, car Bibles,and so much more.
This is fuel for the futurepresented by State Farm
(00:44):
Insurance and driven by America'sAutomotive trust.
I'm Michael me.
Do you
mind giving us a little bit of backgroundabout who you are and what you do?
So I am a at the momentfreelance automotive writer.
(01:04):
And yeah, I write.
I write all forms of content fromI do script
writing and research for donut media.
I do freelance automotive review.
Freelance blogging, just, you know,fun stories in the automotive realm.
And at the moment, freelance,but in general, just automotive writer.
Yeah.
And you've worked with some really fun,at least from the outside.
(01:27):
It seems like fun companies, fun content,fun media and donut media specifically,
they've I feel like they've influenceda lot of potentially
even like younger lovers of carsthat are getting into it.
Would you agree with that?
Yeah, well, I'd say it's kind of,
you know, growing up
in our generation, I think we're probablyaround the same age.
(01:48):
You know, we had like motortrend TVcar driver, TV, we had TNN and,
you know, Spike TV, you know, on onSaturday mornings and stuff like that.
I think nowadays and that was kind oflike our window into a lot of it.
In addition to reading the actual physicalmagazines, too.
Right.
But I think younger generationthat's so Internet
based and gets so much of their mediafrom everything from, you know,
(02:12):
TikTok, YouTube, Instagram, whatever,whatever media company that has a
a good hold on all of that is kind ofwhat pulls them in and don't A media
is one of them for sure.
Yeah. Yeah.
They've been doing fun stuffand not just them,
but I do think a lot of the funreally captivating
automotive content is just found onlineand in.
People do great stuff out there.
(02:34):
And and you've been part of some of thatwhich is fantastic in terms
of getting into writingabout the automotive world.
How did you get started in that?
So I've always loved cars.
I mean, you know, typical, typical childgrowing up and like having,
you know, my parents
buying me certain toys and, you know,having the posters and stuff like that.
(02:56):
And just having a havinga, you know, a loving car as a kid.
And then I you know,I read Car Driver, Motortrend, etc.,
you know, for gosh,as long as I can remember.
And then into high school,I got into autocross and then I got, you
know, I started reading like grassrootsmotorsports and stuff like that.
And I was really intothe Volkswagen community.
So I read Performance, VW and all that.
(03:17):
So I always saw I gradually, like,you know, built up a
especially like in high school
college like built upa, you know, a love of automotive media,
but was always,always kind of one of those things
where it's like, yeah,but I mean, I'll never be able to do that.
Like, I don't I don't study creativewriting or journalism, you know, it's cool
and it'd be cool to work in automotivesomehow, someway, someday.
(03:38):
But that's I don't thinkthat'll be in the cards for me.
And then, you know, for cash, fast forwardquite a few years.
Fast forward to my early thirties.
I actually, yeah, my when I was 30
I got a job working for winding roadracing, doing motor sports equipment,
motor sports equipment, retail,
(03:59):
so selling fire suits,
helmets, hands, devices,all all that, all the, all the stuff
you need to go racing and racingor track days.
Autocross, of course.
And I started through that.
I started writing some productreview and stuff and
my boss at the timeand just owner of all at the time
all Winding Road properties, Tom,he was just like, you do this pretty well.
(04:23):
Like you're going to ever do more of this,you know, By all means, Well,
you know, we'll look at your writing.
We could certainly,you know, use, use your help.
And I had actually it didn't really havemuch of a grasp of what winding road was.
Before that.
I knew it was onlineand I read it occasionally here and there,
but I never knew that it was this was likekind of like one of the first
(04:43):
formsof online media for car review and stuff.
They were pretty early in the gameand they had like an actual physical
like magazine that you downloadas a PDF and stuff, which is pretty cool.
Then sure enough, over time Ithen I just started doing Car review
and then when I started doing car review,
I was reaching out to places, pitchingwhatever because my boss
Tom was just like, Well,if you know, if you want to do
(05:04):
you want to do thismore regularly? I'm like the editor.
I'll give you a slight pay raiseand you know, you can actually like do car
review and like you can kind of take overwinding road dot com, which is so cool
because I mean I'd always wanted to docar review always want to get press cars
and do that and you know just driveall kinds of different cars etc.
And sure enough like I took that onand then just reaching out
(05:24):
to different OEMs, trying to get tryingto get press loans and everything.
And over time,yeah, people started to say yes.
And also some people were just like, mygosh, when he wrote Where have you been?
Because they were in the gameso much for so long.
Yeah. And then
yeah, so it just kind of grew fromthere was doing car review and stuff
and then kind of alongside that,
(05:45):
a friend of mine was doing productionwork for Donut Media
and she isn'tshe wasn't in the automotive realm,
but she was just in like the,
you know, the Southern Californiaproduction realm, right?
She texted me one day and she's like, Hey,I'm working for this YouTube channel.
I don't know if you've heard of them.
They're called Donut Mediaand they're always looking for writers.
And I know you've donea little bit of writing,
so if you ever want to, like, you know,
(06:06):
possibly get a little bit of sideincome, like, you know, send me some,
send me some links and I'm just like,my God, that's holy cow, that's awesome.
Yeah, I'd love to.So I sent them some links.
You know, they brought mein for kind of like, I don't want to say
like an interview, but just like aget to know you type of type of meeting.
And we talked about, you know, my interestin cars and really hit it off.
(06:27):
It was really cool.
They dug what I wrote about.
I wrote a just wrote a reviewon a friend's blog,
the Jaguar F-type,like summer before or something like that.
And yeah,so they gave me like a spec script.
I wrote a spec script. They loved it.
It was Porsche up to speed, okay,Which was like the best.
That was kind of like the best spec to getbecause I'm just like, my God, I know.
(06:47):
I already knowlike a decent amount about this.
And Roof is so cool.
Yeah, so yeah, yeah.
So I wrote that they loved it.
Then they just, you know, they started
sending me more scriptsand it kind of built up from there.
And then, yeah, that was really cool.
And then I was on a little bit of a delay
because like I startedwriting for other places.
So I left Winding Road and I went to writefor Car Bibles, which is a recurrent
or rather was a recurrent media propertykind of sister site to the drive dot.
(07:11):
Right. Then recurrence just moved us.
They were going to shut down the editorialaspect of car bibles and move us
just over to the drivebecause they're just like editorials
and doing so long car bibles will moveyou over to the drive and we're like,
okay, So we just moved to the drive.
And then so I was laid offfrom the drive last fall.
So fall 20, 20, well, fall earlywinter 2023.
(07:34):
And I reached out to Don't It againand I was just like,
Hey, if you're looking for writers.
And then sure enough, like, you know, the
one of the head writers, Jo Jo Webber,it was just like, Hey, Peter.
Yeah, good to hear you. Yeah, we'lldefinitely send you some stuff. Cool.
It seems like everyone's got their own,like very custom
way of getting into automotive media,you know?
So. And I guess they do mine 100%.
(07:55):
Everybody has their own unique pathinto automotive media.
Automotive general.
It's really always fascinatingand I love hearing how people got into it.
So thank you for sharing that.
As somebodythat has reviewed a lot of cars
and also has a very broad interestand a lot of different kind
of automobiles, perfect for what you do.
Has there ever been a car, a bike,anything like that?
(08:16):
You've donea review of that you loved before
you did the review,you were like, man, I'm so excited.
I've this is going to beone of my favorite cars.
And then it just kind of goes,
like something something that, you know,possibly didn't meet my expectations
or something, or I'm just like,this isn't as good as I was hoping to be.
Yeah,
honestly,I really can't think of something.
(08:37):
There have been a few cars where I'm justlike, my God, I can't wait to drive this.
And sure enough,it turns out to be awesome, you know?
Okay, good.
But something that I had,nothing's really that like, I'm
really excited to drive itand then I drive it
and it's actually it's not greator whatever.
I mean, there might be a situation where,like, the infotainment is annoying or,
I don't know, like, like shiftingfrom doing a three point turn and shifting
(09:00):
between like reverseand drive takes a while
and is a little slowto do something like there will be like
this is sometimes with cars like biggestexample for that is when I first drove
the actually the one time I only the timeI drove the BMW M to see us.
Okay.
I had the DCT versionand that was my first time experiencing a
like a BMW DCT and it's like it took.
(09:21):
I am glad they went with the ZF eightspeed automatic because that DCT it wasn't
necessarily clunkywhen you're like driving around but
pulling a three point turn on like thetight streets of Long Beach and whatnot.
It just it felt like it took forever.
So it's kind of annoying to be in thislike really fun, fast car that's like,
I would still own one in a heartbeatif I could nowadays.
But just I remember
the DCT being like, my God, shiftfor crying out loud.
(09:44):
It was. It was.
Yeah, yeah.
Okay, so opposite question then.
Have you ever been your expectationskind of mediocre or low for a car
and then you drive it and you're like,Yeah, yeah, this is actually really cool.
Yeah, there have been a few.
They've actually been a few,especially you kind of.
I mean, obviously you have to look atdifferent cars through different lenses.
Exactly.
(10:04):
You can't drive Toyota Corolla crossand have expectations
that's going to be like a guy orsomething.
Exactly.
But, you know, Toyota Corolla Cross,I drove the Toyota Corolla Cross hybrid.
Gosh, I think a year or two ago,I was surprised by how fun that thing
was to just, like, throw aroundand like and drive on like a like,
on, on a on alike a damp like around the around town
(10:27):
or like damp roadsand then like up on a canyon road.
One I was actually kind of surprisedby how fun that car was to drive,
which you think you hear a Toyota Corollacross hybrid and it's just like,
okay, it's a hybrid, which, you know,
hybrids are torquey,which a lot of people forget.
But a lot of people think, it's a hybrid.
People who drive drive very slowly.
But actually, anyway, it was torqueythe chassis was like very good
(10:47):
for what it was and it was just so funto like toss around and have fun with.
And it was very playfuland yeah, I don't know that.
But yeah, of all cars and yeah.
that's what I, I'd say like the ToyotaCorolla Cross hybrid is actually
like a lot of fun to drive and like, yeah,it was of course, of course.
And that makes perfectsense to me to hear that.
But no, I love those kind of taleswhen people just
(11:10):
their expectation is just off from
what the reality is of driving.
And I'm a believer in drivingshould be fun.
And even in your everyday driver,you should have a car that you enjoy
and that can be whateverit means to you. Yeah, absolutely.
Always, always wanting to find the alwayswant to find like the positive aspects,
you know I'm yeah,
I always kind of
(11:30):
I go into review always with an openmind to be like okay like, you know,
is there something about this carthat will surprise me
or is there something that is funor does it do what it's intended for?
Well, of course, yeah.
And yeah, I mean, I've actually I've beensurprised by how many cars are just like,
this is like a like, yeah,this car is fun to drive or, you know,
it has something about it whereyou weren't necessarily expecting and,
(11:50):
you know, yeah, it's a good time.
So, so what vehicles
are you looking forwardto coming out in the near future?
Well,
so the Aston Martin, the new AstonMartin vantage just debuted.
Yeah, a bunch of bunch of journalists
just did the first drivein, I believe it was Spain.
I'm really hoping I canI can get behind the wheel of that
(12:13):
when it comes to the fleet,
when it comes to the So Cal Press fleet,because I loved the previous one.
Yeah.
You know, it had a couple of thingsthat that, you know, could have
could be improved upon.
But otherwise I'd really want to find outwhat this newest version is and with a
lot more horsepower from this very,very potent twin turbo.
Excuse me, as far as
(12:33):
Mercedes, AMGpulls it by turbo four liter V8.
Yeah, I really want to drivethe new vantage that is like
top of the list for sure.
And then in terms of new cars coming out,
then, no, I don't know.
There's not a whole lot where it's, it's
kind of like on the horizonand I'm just like, that's really cool.
I can't wait.
You know, there's, there's like technologythat's like on the horizon and whatnot.
(12:54):
That's that's cool, too.
That's kind of coolto keep an eye out for.
I drove Ioniq five n on the launch
last month and holy cow,that car is incredibly fun.
And of course, you know,when it was first unveiled
that it's going to be making these noisesand that it's kind of it's a crossover.
I mean, it's a large hatchback,small crossover, but it's also very heavy.
(13:17):
You know, everyone,
you know, kind of looking by the numbersand also based on this this thing, this
this situationwhere it makes like fake engine noise
and whatnot,Everyone was skeptical for sure.
I've always I've always kept an open mindwith any kind of new technology.
I'm just like, well, you know,yeah, on paper it might seem weird or
I love that you brought that upbecause it's I want I've never been in it.
(13:40):
I've never driven in it, but I want oneand I know I want one.
And that'stalking about expectations of cars.
I hopefully I don't get inone and absolutely hate it,
but I'm really excited about that car.
It's it's so cool.
Well, so, you know, again, likeI always get the mindset of, well, yeah,
there are noises,
you know, anything that someone can doto make an EV fun to drive.
(14:03):
I'm all about trying outand seeing what it's like.
Like I'm happyto give everybody a chance, of course.
And I mean so many conversationson Instagram
and Facebook about this car beforeand drove it and then I go and drive it.
I'm just like, my gosh.
Like they really pulled it off.
And not only that,but just like the the kind of feedback and
and just how it feels likean internal combustion engine,
(14:26):
how it feels like you've got a drivetrain shifting gears and you've got in
the car shakes when it bounces bounces offthe quote unquote rev limiter.
It's so funand it's also incredibly fast too.
So, yeah, no,that car is insanely good for what it is.
And by
and what I brought up originally,
I can't wait to seewhat other brands do to either.
(14:49):
I mean, if everyone copies Hyundai,that's cool.
I'm totally game for that, you know,in terms of like feedback and fake noise
and everythingbecause of how they can pull that off.
Like,
you know, Honda'sgoing to put everyone notice
where it's just like if you come upwith an enthusiast, if you better make it
to where it's engaging to drive like this,you know, 100%.
And speaking of future technologies,I'd love to talk to you about that
(15:11):
because you are surroundedboth professionally
and personally by automobilesall the time.
I feel like automotive writerscan sometimes get
a better perspective of the fieldand the business as a whole
than some executives and peoplethat work for individual car companies.
So I do want to talk to youabout the future of cars.
(15:32):
And it could be the near term,it could be the long term,
and not just about alternativefuels or engines
like EVs, but other technologiesthat may be coming up.
So you mentioned the Ioniq.
But yeah, what else is on the horizonthat is just of interest to you, whether
good or bad? Well,
(15:53):
kind of focusingon EVs and making them fun to drive.
And I mean, I saw it was also on the AudiQ8 launched last fall
and that's Audi Q8 againbig EV but performance EV
but it has like twin twin motorson the back that can facilitate adrift.
You know, you can slide it aroundand so I'm excited for a technology
(16:16):
that can mirror
some things you find in conventionalinternal combustion
engine cars with conventional drivetrains.
I'm really interested to seebecause when think about it,
a conventional drive train, it respondsto, you know, it responds to the torque
that it's getting from the engine.
And obviously there are sensors at play
operating the ABS systemand all that kind of stuff.
(16:37):
But I mean, motors with the right,
you know, quote unquote tuning, you know,with the right inputs, motors can respond
so much faster and can can really likeyou can tune electric motors
to mirror a lot of things that we loveabout performance driving so quickly.
So I'm really I'm really excited for
(17:00):
just where we go
with with with mirroringconventional drive, train
and powertrain type stuffwith electric motors because yeah,
I mean, when you can make it so easy rightnow, or rather,
you know, it's maybe a lot of,maybe a lot of stuff is on the horizon,
but it just seems like it's so easyand makes so much sense.
It's like, of course, you can have likea very drift of all ev because, you know,
(17:21):
if you just put twin motors on the backand then they can kind of, they can
they get what's the word I'm looking for,
they can operate in the senseof like a limited slip differential would.
Yes. And,and then not only that, but with EVs
and just having easier space
and easier allowance of space,I mean, you can make cars so balanced
(17:41):
between putting the battery packin the middle, situating the motors
and you know, over,you know, kind of directly over or even
more in inside the wheelbasetype situation.
So I mean where where we go with chassistuning in relation to EVs as well.
I mean we're already quite,we're already quite there.
I mean some of these,the chances are very good.
(18:02):
So I mean it seems likeit'll only get better and we'll only have
amazing chassis tuning because of the,you know, just the space alliance.
You'll have to have to accountfor a large transmission, large drive,
train components and large engine,you know. Yeah.
And you know, I'ma, I'm a supporter of EVs, I'm
a supporter of basically anything.
I think in order for technologyto evolve and improve,
(18:25):
you have to be open to new ideas.
And I do feel like there's a component of
of people that want to hang onto internal combustion engines.
Part of me does as well,and I do think they will be there.
I don't think they'rejust going to disappear one day.
Yeah, but I do think we have to be opento these alternatives as well.
And I do think there's great things thatcan happen from these new technologies.
(18:49):
I mean, a lot of people get kind of doomand gloom about it, about, well,
you know, gasoline, it's going to be gonein like, no, it's never going to be gone.
Like the world is not, you know, one day,
one day the app is just goingto show up at your door with a tow truck.
And like Holloway, your e46 M3, likewe're going to have fuel and all that.
But fossil fuel industry is quite largeand, you know, quite a mammoth.
(19:11):
So it's not going to go away in the nextten anyway.
People are super doom glue.
Yeah, I'll stop rambling about that,but people are super doom gloom about it.
But we're always going to haveinternal combustion in some regard.
Yes. It's just it's just cool to likebe able to offset some of that with easy.
And of course,
and if we can, you know, if we can havea more environmentally friendly future
(19:32):
by having more e-visa around but also haveinternal combustion around to enjoy.
Yeah.
What makes internal combustionso fun then?
Yeah, I mean, we can totally havethe best of both worlds.
So absolutely.
There'sand there's no reason you shouldn't
and even even alternatives to that.
And I don't even know what they would be,
but someone may inventanother type of engine.
They can propel an automobile forwardand use some other sort of fuel.
So synthetic fuels and I mean, I'm sure,you know, because E85 is you know, that's
(19:56):
that's an alternative fuel.
And I'm if I recall correctly,it does indeed burn cleaner.
So I mean, it does there are some issues,but nothing's perfect.
You know, there's no issues with that.There's issues with everything.
But yeah, because E85,what higher consumption, you know,
you burn more of itto achieve the same amount of power.
But still, I mean, who knows,We may be in a situation in the future.
(20:16):
We have E85 thatnot only has the same efficiency
as gasoline,but also like burns super clean cleaner.
Yeah, yeah.
There's we just have to kind of,you know, just be open to progress
and just I mean, yeah, I don't know.
So doom and gloom,you know, and also just, you know, change.
Everybody's afraid of changeand change can be very good.
(20:38):
And, and also there can just be differenttypes of vehicles
and you can love them for what they are.
You know, you canyou can love the positives
about each and every one of them.
And that's kind of like what I'm enjoyingabout hearing you talk about EVs
and and what they're designingand doing with it.
And I do think there's more opportunitieswith electric vehicles
(20:59):
to tinker around with all the thingsyou're talking about, like drifting.
And because of the way computers work,obviously you lose the mechanical
aspect of those carsand it becomes more computer oriented.
But I do think there's some really coolthings that can happen in the future
with automobiles.
Yeah, well, it's wild toI mean, then again, going back to like,
you know, electric motoris kind of mimicking differentials, like,
(21:22):
yeah, driving the Ioniq five and on LagunaSeca and kind of feeling it like
feeling a kind of hook up,you know, feeling it.
I forget what the traction troublesset out.
It was. It was on.
So I mean, I was able to like,slide it through corners and whatnot.
Yeah, but you kind of feelit gave me a little bit.
So it was almost it felt like, you know,coming in to a corner too hot and exiting
(21:43):
and it kind of and you feel itkind of hook up after that.
It gives you just the little tinybit of slip.
So the fact that they can remedyI'm sorry, not remedy, but they can mimic
that experience of,you know, a little bit of slip
and then you feel it hook up where
it's like a limited slip differential,like a like a clutch type, limited slip
differential, even.
(22:04):
That's so cool, you know.
And so in terms of inputs and feeland the experience
and the drama, you know, in a good sense,yeah.
No, I mean, there'sthere's a lot to look forward to.
And just and, you know,
and there's a lot of passionate peopleat auto and automotive companies, too.
Like there's a lot of people who indeedwant a cater and make cars fun. Yes.
(22:24):
Not to put you on the spotand hopefully this doesn't
put you in any sort of bad placeas a as an automotive writer.
But do you think that there'sany companies
that you've see from your perspectivehave a little bit better
foresight or more open foresight to wherethe industry is going than others?
(22:45):
I think everyone has some
I'm not I'm not trying to I'mnot trying to protect my my, my,
my future relationships with, you know, or
my current and future relationshipswith automakers by saying this.
But generally or genuinely,
I think, you know, a lot of manufacturershave some form of like progress
with EVs and alternative alternativefuels, whatever in mind,
(23:08):
or everyone has their own version of it,
if it makes sense.
But anyway, yeah, yeah.
I mean there's there is I mean some someof course seem a little bit more forward
thinking than others.I mean, gosh, just look at Hyundai.
Like again,we'll just stay on the subject, honey.
They have several EVs on the marketright now and they have for a while.
But yeah,
even even the ones that haven'treally had much of an EV parents
(23:30):
or like kind of future technologytype situation
and like they're starting to come outwith their version of like Honda.
Yeah,they've, they've been in the hybrid game
but they really haven't been the gameuntil just now.
And then also you've
got Sony Honda mobility going on right nowwith their Ophelia concept.
So I mean there's yeah everyone'severyone's got their own version
(23:51):
just Yeah yeah some are a little off,
some are slightly more just in the gamenow more than than others.
But I think, you know,
they're all kind of going up their paceand they all have some thing in mind.
Yeah.
And on thatthat even No, not to stick on EVs too much
but you did writean article about myths about EVs.
I'd love to hear some of those.
Like what are commonmyths behind owning or driving
(24:14):
electric vehiclesthat people may misinterpret?
yeah, Well,
gosh, I'm trying to think like what I put
in the article too, because it doesn'teven have to be the same thing.
But I'm sure you just come across peopleall the time.
They're like, I don't want to.
TV takes too long to charge as an example.
yeah, You know, for sure.
Yeah.
People, I mean charge times,
(24:35):
which is not, not totally unfairbecause they're in charge.
Times are still they're not greatunless you have a Tesla or.
Well of course you knowthey've opened up to where you can
you know other cars with convertercan charge at Tesla stations now.
Yeah.
Well I think I can't remember if that's anow thing or a near future thing
but anyway, but no charge times.
(24:56):
It's like, well one is
my gosh, I'll spend so much time chargingor my gosh, I need all this range.
It's like, well honestly,a lot of people have this mindset of like,
my gosh, I need 300 miles of availableto me at all times.
I never know what am I have to drivethis very long distance?
Is that truly realistic?
You know, so that's I think that's likethe biggest myth is people think like,
(25:17):
my God, I need as much range as possibleright now, all the time.
And it's just
it's, you know, I'm one to talk.
I work from home for the most part, but
it's still like,you know, depending upon where you live,
your commute every day may be pretty waylower than than an EV's maximum range.
And not only that, but, you know, just
(25:38):
if you if you happen to have the abilityto charge overnight somewhere.
Yeah, that's great.
Although on the flip side,that's kind of a
I mean, that's
kind of a myth itself too,because with just charging infrastructure,
I mean, a lot of people may thinkit's like,
well, I can just charge at my apartmentor I can just,
you know, I'll be able to public charge,no problem.
That's I don't want to say it's a myth,but I will say that that's just like a
(25:58):
like it's tough.We don't quite have the interest.
I still think we're lagging behindquite a bit with charging infrastructure.
Yeah, well, for
just putting it in new developments
of some kind, especially for for folkswho don't live in single family homes
and also just publicand like actual public infrastructure,
like, you know, city of Los Angelespublic charging, you know,
(26:21):
which may become a thing someday.
And also just, you know, doing,you know, dealing with charging stations
where there's a line and two ofthe charges are working is seriously
one of the the well, one of the leastleast enjoyable experiences on earth.
Yeah.
And so a lot
so that's the know the thing where it'sjust like yeah
you won't always have a charging stationavailable like you kind of have to.
Unfortunately we're still in thisthis period of early adoption
(26:44):
where you really have to, you know,I don't know, figure out
what to figure out what the situation iswith your local charging stations.
And you know, when it when there'sI mean I mean, the app will tell you
you can download various chargingcompanies apps and they'll tell you
what's occupied whatnotbut you might get there.
And two of those,
you know, two of those chargers thatthat they said were open are not anymore.
(27:05):
So anyway yeah yeah no and look
I own an EV and that was my wife
and I were like let's,let's just get one and see what we like.
How does it affect our lives?
So I got the cheapest leaseI could find last year.
It's a Hyundai, Hyundai, Kona EV. Okay.
And that was the cheapest leaseI could find for a TV and we
(27:28):
I was a little concerned about thecharging time and where am I going to go.
And it's been the easiest not big dealsaying ever and it's now when I fill up
because we still have good old fashionedinternal combustion engine car as well.
Whenever I have to fill that thing up withgas, I'm like, got to go buy their gas.
It's like the office.
But now it's it's swapped
(27:49):
because I'm so used to the EV scenariowhere I never have to worry about it.
And, and it's been super easy for me.
But everybody's different, you know,and not it depends on where you live
and what your lifestyle is,what your commute is like
and all that kind of stuffyou have to take into account.
But for us, it'sbeen the greatest thing ever.
So I do want to keep I want to updateand get something better next time.
(28:11):
But having an TV has been great for us.
Yeah.
Speaking of cheap leases, there have beena bunch of cheap leases recently.
my gosh.
And I mean because some of it's based onthey kind of a lot of automakers
kind of puta lot of put put their put a lot of
investment in justlike throwing a lot of these out there.
And now they're saying like, crap,they're not selling them.
(28:33):
But there's a lot of greatlease deals at the moment.
I mean, gosh, I was I was looking atI was like pricing out would have to lease
a Polestar two at the moment,like just based Polestar two.
It's way cheaper than you think it'd be.
I mean obviously,you know, the charging and the,
the inconvenience would be to me
becauseI'd have to go to a charging station,
I wouldn't be able to have chargingat home for it.
Right, Right.
But otherwise just looking at likethe cost is just like, wow, it's
(28:55):
actually incredibly inexpensive to drive.
And even if you have the rightinfrastructure around you
at the moment, it's cool, like Starbuckseven or all the various Hyundais.
So yeah, it's it'snow, now is the time where it's just like
if someone wants to try itout and it's only a lease to
some of
us to try it out, there's,there's good deals to be had.
So on a on a similar topicof like the future of of vehicles
(29:19):
but tying it in now with the pastand a big part of this podcast
and America's automotive trustis preserving this knowledge and love
and education around automobilesand automobile education.
How can people learn more about cars?
Why should they learn more aboutthe history of vehicles, not just, Hey,
(29:41):
what can I get? You know,I need a new car.
Which should I be looking at?
But yeah, What are your thoughts
about the importance of preserving thisthis history of automotive?
Yeah, I think just the history of mediaitself, consuming media,
how we doon, you know, various YouTube channels and
all the
traditional networks that come outwith programing for
(30:02):
for automotive of content,
you know, in general reading,reading all the various publications,
you know, finding your mix,finding your niche as well.
But also just, I don't know, there'syou know, it's it's it's really easy
to kind of get mixed up injust Google driven stuff.
Like if you if you were to search, like,how do I change a spare tire?
(30:23):
Like,you'll come up with so many sites that
just give you a very SEO driven thingthat may not
I mean, it may be helpful and maybe not,but if someone wants to dig more into it.
So just go and read,you know, go do, you know, get,
you know, develop like a mix of of intakeand just a mix of media intake
and just kind of like, you know, dig in
(30:43):
because a lot of sites, you know,regardless of of what its main focus
may be,a lot of sites will have a lot of stuff
that kind of digs more into like featuretype stuff where you gain more insight
about a certain industryhistory, whatever.
And of course, certain sites,they they lean more on motorsports,
so they lean more on technologyor there may be a site like the drive
where they dolots of news reviews and and culture
(31:05):
where they appealto like different different areas.
So yeah, it's just a matterof kind of figuring out what,
what interestsyou and kind of digging in from there.
And then, you know,if you want to be more resourceful
and save some money and get, you know,you know, learn more about cars
because you want to potentiallydo your own
do it yourself maintenance,
you know, search for search for sitesthat have good coverage of that or indeed
(31:25):
watching YouTube channels.
That's gosh, that's so crucialwhere you can
it seems like there'san instructional video on how to do
whatever job on whatever caryou know, somebody on YouTube
that you know, some aren't as wellproduced as others, of course.
But, you know, you may you may find,
you know, a certain way of learningsomething on one channel,
whether it has a million subscribers
or 20 subscribers,that could be incredibly helpful to you.
(31:47):
So, yeah,
it's just a matter ofjust getting out there
and just consuming media and,you know, seeing where it goes, I guess.
Yeah, but also, yeah, I mean,luckily we're living in an era where
we've got such good mixture of media.So it is.
And also a lot of websiteswhere, you know, you've got so much
you can consume,you can learn so much cool stuff.
I mean, you know,
automotive history dot org.
I wrote a story for for themon, you know, the history of the B
(32:12):
five generation Audi S4 and worldchallenge back in the early 2000s
like I was so stoked to write thatbecause that was like a form of
that was like
a chapter of motorsports historyI always want to write about and yeah,
and then just like reading morethrough that site,
everything,there's also lots of cool stuff.
So I mean, yeah,you just want to like dig into
some subject.
(32:32):
Luckily because we have so many siteslike there's so much coverage
and you can really learna lot of cool things.
You can,you can and you're talking to someone
who gets stuck in rabbit holes of websiteslike history now.
And just likeI start clicking on everything
and next thing you know, 2hours have passed and I'm like, shoot,
yeah, I normally I'm not the typeof person to like have a million tabs
(32:52):
open unless I'm on like a rabbit hole of,like, cool automotive knowledge.
Yeah, I'll have like 50 to 50,but like 20 tabs open or something.
And I'm just like going through eachand every one on
like a Saturday morning, just,you know, learning something new,
learning something new.
That's what you can do.
And I think it's great to do whatever
anybody's passionor topic of interest is to to do that.
(33:13):
I love curiosity and researchand and cars are a big part of our lives.
So if listeners outthere are not super into cars,
I think you're still going to findamazing stories in history
and therethat it will appeal to everybody.
So before we go, is there anything elseyou want to talk about?
Anythingyou want to let people know about?
What do you have on the horizon?
Where can people find you?
(33:34):
I'm going to think of 12 other questionsthroughout.
You know,
I just asked you a lot, really quick.
Well, you know what?
To drive your point homea little bit further about finding,
you know, even if you're not into cars,
even if you don't reallyyou know, it's not really a thing.
I mean, there could be somethingor there could be something
helpful, useful, resourceful to youabout learning more about cars.
And it does you don't you don't have.
(33:55):
And not only that,but like never think that there is
that there is a barrier to entry eitherlike everyone should be welcome everyone
everyone.
You know, it'syou know, anyone can be a quote unquote
car person, anyone,anyone can dig into it.
Whatever your degree is,the more the merrier.
Of course, like carculture is definitely something
to be savoredand shared and mass by everybody.
(34:16):
And then anyway, but
with with my own with what's goingon, with my own career and my own
with my own, I don't know.
Appearance OnlineA 16 VP meet on Instagram and YouTube.
What else?
I think.
Yeah, those are kind of my only socialat the moment. Yeah. 1660.
Like as in like 16 vows,but 16 I've had several several cars
(34:39):
and inline four in V8 configurationthat were 16 valve.
So that just made sense.
What else?
Yeah what's don't the mediaI mean I've done I've done a few stuff
a few things for them recently
that should be publishing soonthat I'm really stoked about. Nice
check out I I'm on my crackalthough I forgot my
my crack is but that kind of likethat has, you know just where bylines
(35:03):
are published and everything but yeahI mean I have I've been doing some writing
for Ars Technica so the drive Rob report.
Gosh who else?
U.S. News and World Reports.
Yeah I mean I'm
and usually also I'll writeabout all the stuff on on LinkedIn and
and post about on my story on site rightso and we'll we'll put some links
(35:23):
in the show notes as this as wellso if people thank you
I appreciate they can and yeah that'sI think that's our time.
PetersThank you so much. I really enjoyed this.
I got to talk to you a lot longer.
thank you so much.I really appreciate being on.
Yeah, this is cool.
Thank you for listening to Fuelfor the Future, presented by State Farm
Insurance and driven by America'sAutomotive Trust.
(35:44):
Learnmore at America's Automotive Trust for.
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