[SPEAKER_01]: This is episode 439 of wheel bearings.
[SPEAKER_01]: I am Sam of Bowel Samad from Telemetry.
[SPEAKER_03]: And I'm Nicole Waceland from Test Miles and many other places.
[SPEAKER_01]: And Robbie this weekend is taken a weekend off with his wife and dogs hanging out at a cabin somewhere in Sonoma and enjoying
[SPEAKER_01]: what is at least definitely much warmer weather than we either you or I are experiencing right now.
[SPEAKER_03]: It is so cold.
[SPEAKER_03]: So we had like that, you know, the warning, don't go outside, do your god people, you're all going to die.
[SPEAKER_03]: Cold warning because there was a wind show combined with a fact that when I left the house at 630, it was 2 degrees.
[SPEAKER_03]: And when I hope in the garage stars, the wind hit me.
[SPEAKER_03]: Oh my gosh.
[SPEAKER_03]: I'm dying.
[SPEAKER_01]: It was so cold this morning.
[SPEAKER_01]: When I went to walk the dogs about 830, it was about 5 and it's up to about 17 now.
[SPEAKER_03]: Let's see, I think we're supposed to get decently what was seen in the episode.
[SPEAKER_01]: It took us up to 33 on yesterday.
[SPEAKER_03]: So you know, it's winter when you're when, hey, it's, oh, it's 12 right here now.
[SPEAKER_03]: I mean, downright balmy, right?
[SPEAKER_03]: Geez, it's a thing, and when it, in New England, or in, you know, Michigan, when it's super, super cold, and you've been dealing with single digits or low teens, and all of a sudden it's 30, you're like, wow.
[SPEAKER_03]: It's like it's only 30.
[SPEAKER_03]: It's still cold, but jacket back on.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yes, yeah, I mean I I wear when I walk the dogs.
[SPEAKER_01]: I wear multiple layers because like where we live on to the to the west of our house is a golf course So it's you know pretty wide open and we often get winds blowing across the golf course So it's fairly windy so I wear multiple layers when it's this cold Because otherwise, you know, it's just the wind just slices through and once I get around the block on the other side of the block
[SPEAKER_01]: That's blocked by the houses.
[SPEAKER_01]: Then it's not quite so bad.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, it's just freezing in general because it's it's just it's two and it's windy.
[SPEAKER_03]: No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no,
[SPEAKER_01]: But my dog goes with their sick double coats, they don't mind that they don't care.
[SPEAKER_01]: They're fine with the cold it's the only the only thing I mean when it gets below zero, then you know then they might get in the saying okay I've had enough of this nonsense, but the main thing that you know bothers them is just you know making sure they avoid the salt when they get salt on their paws That's
[SPEAKER_03]: But it's been it's been so cold that they you know, they've plowed the roads in the neighborhood, but they've only a couple times put down a salt and everything looks white like the pavement is white and when you have a lot of cars in the highway right now it's this little cloud of salt and which is really gross.
[SPEAKER_03]: You think about how hard that is on your car right because it's not just like.
[SPEAKER_03]: Salt, shaker, salt, it's this like special salt that they put on the highways and it's and I every time I see the cloud I'm like oh my god It's just like I feel like it's just a little like monsters eating away at your car.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm like look at the cloud It's like I'm driving into like a noxious view and it's like just gonna degrade the metal Let's go through well the other thing you got to remember to you know, I mean, you know the just less daylight now So you're gonna be relying on your headlights more because this is more chance you're gonna be driving in the dark
[SPEAKER_01]: And when they're salt on the road, that salt is also going to end up on your headlights.
[SPEAKER_01]: And so before you go out, if you live somewhere, where it's cold like this, you know, just take, you know, have a rag in the garage or wherever.
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, or next to where you have your keys, you know, and just go out.
[SPEAKER_01]: When you go out, wipe off your headlights.
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, because you're going to have a cross the salt on your headlights.
[SPEAKER_03]: It's that weather where it's, you don't realize how compromised your vision is between the salt and the air and the short daylight and the garbage that is on your headlights, you know, take up taking extra seconds so you can see we're going.
[SPEAKER_03]: I've had now two weeks in a row vehicles that have had problems.
[SPEAKER_03]: It's so, the windshield wester fluid is not.
[SPEAKER_03]: squirting out of the washers.
[SPEAKER_03]: It was now it's not, and I had that all week last week, I had it happen today, and I was like, crud, because there was some salt stock like dried on the, I'm like, I can't see it.
[SPEAKER_03]: Really, I'm grabbing a handful of powdery snow from this snowbank before I drove away.
[SPEAKER_03]: Like, threw it at my car windshield and another handful of, threw it at my car windshield and then I used my wife for just like, well, that's got a
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, um, what was it?
[SPEAKER_01]: I think last week, um, I think it was, I think, I had the, um, the master CX70, which I'll talk about in a little bit, um, you know, I hadn't put the, um,
[SPEAKER_01]: I have a cover and and this is another thing if you park a car outside and it's kind of weather It's not a bad idea you can get these covers that drape over your windshield You can put your your wipers up.
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, that's the thing on a lot of newer cars Because you know for aerodynamic reasons that the railing edge of the hood kind of comes up over the wiper blades And so you can't lift your wiper arms up near any more like you used to or and you still can on a lot of cars But you
[SPEAKER_01]: Not all of them.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: Newer cars.
[SPEAKER_01]: But even if you can't lift your web for blades up, you can get these covers.
[SPEAKER_01]: They're pretty cheap and it hooks onto your mirrors and your side doors.
[SPEAKER_01]: Just to keep the snow and ice off the windshield.
[SPEAKER_01]: And then when it's time to go, if it's snowed overnight, just take that off.
[SPEAKER_01]: give it a shake, throw it in the back of the car, and your windshield is nice and clear, and you're also less likely to get that salt and our snow and ice build up on your wiper blades, or rather on your washer nozzles.
[SPEAKER_01]: So that'll help as well.
[SPEAKER_03]: I currently have on this side the driver's side of my window because there was so much
[SPEAKER_03]: Muck yesterday when I was driving and I was driving at night.
[SPEAKER_03]: I was using the wash of food like crazy because it was so, I got up this morning and it's blue.
[SPEAKER_03]: Like the bit of ice is now like blue.
[SPEAKER_03]: So it's like, why was using a lot of blue?
[SPEAKER_03]: Literally it looks like you can put blue ice up there.
[SPEAKER_03]: It's like a little seen from breaking bad.
[SPEAKER_03]: What is that that is stuck to the side of my windshield?
[SPEAKER_01]: So what have you been driving?
[SPEAKER_03]: I have been driving.
[SPEAKER_03]: It's kind of cool that I was driving this.
[SPEAKER_03]: I have the Palisade last week, and this week I have the Ionic Nine, which I think is kind of neat because I sort of went from me the second gen Palisade where I was in the second gen on the Palisade, and it's their gas vehicle to the first gen of their three row electric vehicle.
[SPEAKER_03]: I like the ionic 9.
[SPEAKER_03]: It's, you know, the styling of it is sort of a leveter-headed thing.
[SPEAKER_03]: It's very bulbous from the back, and it's very flat in the front as he's massive lights.
[SPEAKER_03]: Right now, it's funny.
[SPEAKER_03]: You don't realize how much just in general.
[SPEAKER_03]: This is in a Hyundai thing.
[SPEAKER_03]: The...
[SPEAKER_03]: excuse me safety systems and all of the things that it sees the road and does all that nothing works right now because there's so much snow on the car and salt on the car like you're talking about this isn't specific to this vehicle anything runs into this this is not a
[SPEAKER_03]: My I went to back up and my backup camera just was brown like I couldn't see it.
[SPEAKER_03]: So I'm like throwing my arm over the rear seats looking backing up my daughters like go mom like I did this for years before we had a camera.
[SPEAKER_01]: Well even even the even the radar sensor on the front well you know I've had it get crusted up you know driving it might be clear when you leave.
[SPEAKER_01]: But as you're driving you know the slush and stuff from from the other vehicles.
[SPEAKER_01]: build up on there and you'll get this crust of ice.
[SPEAKER_03]: It just doesn't take much.
[SPEAKER_03]: It's, you know, you get the dirt.
[SPEAKER_03]: You get the market takes out those sensors.
[SPEAKER_03]: It covers them up.
[SPEAKER_03]: You could be at a gas station and clean them all off.
[SPEAKER_03]: And then five miles down the road, you get all the warnings again.
[SPEAKER_03]: And the good thing is it doesn't give you the warnings.
[SPEAKER_03]: So you get the warning saying, hey, some of your systems are disabled because the sensor is blocked.
[SPEAKER_03]: It was all the sensors.
[SPEAKER_03]: I think this Hyundai warns me for every single sensor.
[SPEAKER_03]: We were laughing this morning.
[SPEAKER_03]: It was like, this is working.
[SPEAKER_03]: That is working.
[SPEAKER_03]: And again, not a Hyundai.
[SPEAKER_03]: It's just technology in general does not like this kind of weather on cars.
[SPEAKER_03]: It really, really doesn't like it.
[SPEAKER_03]: But really nice to drive.
[SPEAKER_03]: Actually, it's been a crummy week.
[SPEAKER_03]: We've had probably,
[SPEAKER_03]: In the last week, probably half a foot of snow all together, a couple of decent little storms.
[SPEAKER_03]: The roads have never really cleared up, kind of like it was for the Palisade the week before.
[SPEAKER_03]: So it's slushy and messy.
[SPEAKER_03]: Now what's interesting is I put it in, they have a terrain button.
[SPEAKER_03]: There's drive modes that are just regular drive modes and terrain if you're like in mud or snow and I put it into snow mode.
[SPEAKER_03]: because snow and noticeably better traction everything gets everything gets better because it automatically flips back to the regular mode whether you have eco sport and I think it's normal they have for settings.
[SPEAKER_03]: If you have whatever you have it set to in there every time you turn the car off and on it goes back to that.
[SPEAKER_03]: So I was getting another car in the snow and then I'd start to pull out and like why?
[SPEAKER_03]: Why is this having trouble awaiting it?
[SPEAKER_03]: click that terrain snow mode now we're good.
[SPEAKER_03]: So it actually truly did make a difference because I noticed it every time that it turned itself off when I got out of the car.
[SPEAKER_03]: So it was fine driving.
[SPEAKER_03]: You know, even in that, I always feel like the sketchiest thing is not when you're driving in the middle of a really big storm because we all try and avoid that right when there's a foot and half snow actively falling.
[SPEAKER_03]: It's right after the storm or when you're trying to drive out of a driveway or from like a parking lot into traffic and there's just a little bit of slush and snow still left on the road and if you're not careful, you think you have plenty of time to pull in front of the car and you don't because your wheels spin a little bit, you lose traction a little bit and suddenly you're doing that like, ah, because you're cutting it much closer than you intended to.
[SPEAKER_03]: This did a really good job of avoiding that.
[SPEAKER_03]: Um, it really was good at pulling out.
[SPEAKER_03]: It was, it was, I, I could see people getting stuck.
[SPEAKER_03]: I could see people like having that moment of panic.
[SPEAKER_03]: Is it to come in extra two seconds to get out?
[SPEAKER_03]: I didn't have that happen.
[SPEAKER_03]: When I put it in snow mode, this thing was fabulous.
[SPEAKER_03]: So I really did enjoy driving it.
[SPEAKER_03]: And I am driving.
[SPEAKER_03]: the all will drive performance calligraphy.
[SPEAKER_03]: So this is pretty much the top trim.
[SPEAKER_03]: There's a calligraphy.
[SPEAKER_03]: There's think there's one other special trim calligraphy design or something above this.
[SPEAKER_03]: But this is the this is basically a top trim.
[SPEAKER_03]: It is all told 77,540 dollars.
[SPEAKER_03]: Do you want to take a guess on destination on this?
[SPEAKER_03]: Okay, this says, gosh, and my thing is blurred.
[SPEAKER_03]: It looks like it says 1200 week.
[SPEAKER_03]: I got a jima, four, five, six, seven.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, I, 74, 75, 76, 77.
[SPEAKER_03]: It looks like maybe it's 1800.
[SPEAKER_04]: Oh.
[SPEAKER_03]: Either way, it's more than what you thought.
[SPEAKER_03]: But you wouldn't get zombies out of here.
[SPEAKER_03]: So this has everything, the cheapest version of this that you can get is about 59,000.
[SPEAKER_03]: The most expensive is 76, five.
[SPEAKER_03]: So there's a pretty good spread that cheapest one, though, the least expensive is rural drive.
[SPEAKER_03]: Once you get out of that ass, you're in a all-wheel drive all the way up, and it takes a jump to 62, seven.
[SPEAKER_03]: So
[SPEAKER_03]: not an inexpensive car but this is a three row.
[SPEAKER_03]: This is an EV.
[SPEAKER_03]: It has, you know, plenty of power.
[SPEAKER_03]: It's got 303 horsepower in some of the trims.
[SPEAKER_03]: It's got 422 in what I am driving right now.
[SPEAKER_03]: So it is more than capable of getting out of its own way.
[SPEAKER_03]: plenty powerful, you know, that quiet EV thing, the instant acceleration you get from an EV charging times.
[SPEAKER_03]: They say like 10 to 80 percent is about 24 minute, a 350 kilowatt charger, 10 to 80 percent in about 40 minutes.
[SPEAKER_03]: if you're using a supercharger because it has the next built in the Tesla charging port is built in.
[SPEAKER_03]: I have an adapter, so I didn't charge it at a Tesla.
[SPEAKER_03]: I just use a little adapter, charge it at the house super easy.
[SPEAKER_03]: It does say, and I keep on, you might be able to turn this off when you plug it in, it's like, takes a second and it's like, vehicle is now charging.
[SPEAKER_01]: I think there is a setting to turn that off to
[SPEAKER_03]: It's a little bit like voice of God, you're halfway in the house and you're like, okay, thanks.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, it's quite loud because we know everything on our EV6, they have it on all the Hyundai Kia Genesis vehicles and I'm pretty sure there's a setting where you can turn it on.
[SPEAKER_03]: I'm sure you can turn it off, I just didn't play with it.
[SPEAKER_03]: But I guess it is good too because then if you somehow haven't, maybe you didn't really plug it in and click all the way or something.
[SPEAKER_03]: You don't even, you would notice that it didn't say that.
[SPEAKER_03]: I think when I'm in, I'm really charging my car.
[SPEAKER_03]: Um, three rows, it has six or seven seats, depending on the setup that you have a plenty roomy.
[SPEAKER_03]: We have these lovely little captain's chairs and ours, my daughter loved them.
[SPEAKER_03]: She said it was nice and roomy, um, plenty of cargo room and has a great big infotainment screen.
[SPEAKER_03]: There's like a 12 point three inch infotainment screen and a 12 point three inch digital instrument cluster, but they're in that one display.
[SPEAKER_03]: So it has that illusion of being one giant screen, which I think is such a nice clean look.
[SPEAKER_03]: I like it when they do that.
[SPEAKER_03]: It's like one nice thing across the dashboard.
[SPEAKER_03]: So I like it overall.
[SPEAKER_03]: I mean, it was really comfortable.
[SPEAKER_03]: Has heated seats, my mind.
[SPEAKER_03]: Like heated seats, heated steering wheel, they've got second row heating controls.
[SPEAKER_03]: You've got heat for them.
[SPEAKER_03]: Like it's got all of the things that you could possibly want.
[SPEAKER_03]: It also has that same that Ergo motion driver seat, the kitchen, when you've been driving for so much time.
[SPEAKER_03]: I love that.
[SPEAKER_03]: I've just said like now two weeks in a row, I've had a vehicle with that, like dang.
[SPEAKER_03]: I thought this was silly, but now I'm fine, and I love this, like it's just so nice.
[SPEAKER_03]: You don't realize I think sometimes you've been sitting and your body gets tired of sitting and then I was like, oh, that was so nice.
[SPEAKER_03]: I thought I was like, massage, thank you.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's kind of kind of get your spine moving around a little bit.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, kind of just like, that's nice and I didn't have to, you know, go schedule a point from a massage, cars just like, I feel like you need this and it does that, which is kind of cool.
[SPEAKER_03]: So I liked it.
[SPEAKER_03]: We were talking about
[SPEAKER_03]: because this is something interesting, it's freezing cold, right?
[SPEAKER_03]: It was literally two when I left the house this morning because I took people to the airport and it was five when I got back.
[SPEAKER_03]: So it was watching the miles per kilowatt hour, my saying that, right?
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_03]: And it was about 1.7.
[SPEAKER_03]: And I was asking Sam because he is engineering man.
[SPEAKER_03]: It's freezing cold weather.
[SPEAKER_03]: It's going, it used almost half the battery going back and forth to Boston.
[SPEAKER_03]: But is that 1.7?
[SPEAKER_03]: Do you think that's good in the conditions that we're having right now?
[SPEAKER_01]: Under the current conditions, yeah, I think, you know, for a big vehicle like the Ionic 9, I think that's especially, you know, with the calligraphy, which has the bigger wheels and tires and everything, you know, so it's more rolling resistance.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's not an unreasonable number to expect.
[SPEAKER_01]: So I'm just pulling it up here, let's see.
[SPEAKER_01]: So, the official rating, EPA rating for the IATIC 9, all-wheel drive performance, which has the same tires on the calligraphy, is it's 40 kilowatt hours per 100 miles.
[SPEAKER_01]: So that's about two and a half miles per kilowatt hour.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's the official EPA rating.
[SPEAKER_01]: I think, in real world driving, you can actually do a little better than that, you can get closer to three, which is fairly typical for a large three-row vehicle like this, but, you know, it's cold, you're going to have the heater on, you've got more warm rolling resistance, you know, on the, you know, with the slush and everything on the road, you know, that,
[SPEAKER_01]: The air temperature actually, you know, the air is more dense.
[SPEAKER_01]: It does make a difference.
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, not a huge difference, but it makes, you know, has an impact.
[SPEAKER_01]: So all these things add up.
[SPEAKER_01]: And, you know, even if you're driving a gas car, you are going to notice that your fuel economy is significantly worse.
[SPEAKER_02]: Well, I think that's really important.
[SPEAKER_02]: Say that again, even with a gas car.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, any vehicle.
[SPEAKER_01]: Your fuel economy is going to be probably, you know, in these same conditions, your fuel economy is probably going to be about 25 to 30% worse than normal.
[SPEAKER_01]: And that's just, you know, it's physics.
[SPEAKER_01]: There's, there's the way around it.
[SPEAKER_03]: It's not exclusive to the EVs.
[SPEAKER_03]: I think when we notice it, and like it's talked about so much on EVs, is I'm going to bet that most people might don't know exactly the miles, like how big their gas tank is and how many miles they necessarily get per tank of gas.
[SPEAKER_03]: You don't worry about it the same way.
[SPEAKER_03]: People get nervous in EVs.
[SPEAKER_03]: So you look and you suddenly say, well, you see it saying instead of having 200 miles a range, you have 150 panic.
[SPEAKER_03]: You don't see it so vividly in the gas vehicle.
[SPEAKER_03]: And I don't think you notice it, but the same thing happens, same thing happens.
[SPEAKER_01]: Right.
[SPEAKER_01]: And people are still, you know, so used to, you know, okay, your fuel gauge gets low, pop into a gas station, fill it up your way again.
[SPEAKER_01]: And if you're driving an EV if you're charging at home, if you just plug it in every night, you're going to start today with a full battery.
[SPEAKER_01]: Anyway, it's not going to be an issue.
[SPEAKER_01]: You are going to use more fuel, or more energy, you know, regardless of whether it's a liquid fuel or electrons, you're going to use more.
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, as an example we were talking just before the show started before we started recording, you know, we've got a Kia EV6, which is same basic architecture as the Ionic 9.
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, same, same type of motors and same battery architecture, just not a little smaller.
[SPEAKER_01]: And when the weather was warm in the fall, you know, we were, you know, my wife who mainly drives it was getting about 3.7 miles per kilowatt hour with it.
[SPEAKER_01]: Right now, you know, she likes to have the car nice and warm and toasty when she gets in the car.
[SPEAKER_01]: She doesn't like to get into a cold car and, you know, in the past, you know, when we had our civic, you know, it had a remote start, but, you know, she'd have to open the garage door, you know, reach out, hit the button to open the outside garage door and then remote start the car to warm it up.
[SPEAKER_01]: And then it's sitting there burning gas for 10 minutes, you know, until it gets warmed up with the,
[SPEAKER_01]: Now she doesn't even open the garage door because it's electric.
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, just hit the button You know, she has the temperature set where she wants it.
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, hit the remote start and after a few minutes It's nice and toasty warm, but you know, it's and you know when she goes to the gym or whatever every day You know, she does that when it's when it's cold like this
[SPEAKER_01]: And so, you know, she's been averaging, you know, because sometimes the car might be sitting there for 10 minutes, warming up, and when it calculates that energy consumption, it's, it's doing it based on the total amount of energy used since it's, you know, since you started, you know, regardless of the number of miles, and she's not driving a huge number of miles.
[SPEAKER_01]: So right now her, she's averaging about 2.1, 2.2.
[SPEAKER_01]: because she's she's using the heater and and she uh it's only um you know she only plugs it in once or twice a week anyway so a lot of times when she's doing that because she knows she's gonna she's got plenty of battery available and so she just starts it you know remote starts it and it's using up the energy from the battery that doesn't matter
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, it really does, so it's, it's so, you know, it was still good, it's freezing cold.
[SPEAKER_03]: I still got back and forth's Boston had just over half the battery left in this.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_03]: I plugged it in.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's probably about an hour or so to.
[SPEAKER_03]: It's about an hour each way, not quite an hour each way.
[SPEAKER_03]: So, so the morning on the Sunday, when it's freezing cold on Super Bowl Sunday, everyone's getting ready for their party, no one was on the road.
[SPEAKER_03]: So, this is it was, maybe like 45 minutes each way.
[SPEAKER_03]: So, yeah, so it was perfectly fine.
[SPEAKER_01]: So, I want to have for driving, you know, what the heat line you used to have to battery.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, and, you know, if it was,
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, if it was warmer weather, you know, you would be using a lot less than that.
[SPEAKER_00]: Exactly.
[SPEAKER_01]: Even if you were taking a road trip, you know, in this kind of weather, you got three hours of driving range.
[SPEAKER_01]: And for most people, three hours, you know, it's about the time when you need to...
[SPEAKER_01]: Get out stretch your legs, string your water, and you know, maybe grab a cup of coffee, you can stop at a charging station, plug in, you know, in this thing, the ionic nine, you can be charged up in 24 minutes or so, and you know, that's enough time to like you say, you know, to hit the restroom, grab a cup of coffee, you know, stretch your legs, and then be back on the road again.
[SPEAKER_03]: exactly.
[SPEAKER_03]: So it's it was very easy to live with for the week, you know, and it was interesting to have having just had the palisade and having this, the differences between the two, like the similarities, they look different, but it still feels like a Hyundai, both of them.
[SPEAKER_03]: But it's basically what's changing is what's underneath between the gas and the and the EV.
[SPEAKER_03]: And they drive differently.
[SPEAKER_03]: It was sort of just a perfect comparison.
[SPEAKER_03]: It's like
[SPEAKER_03]: or do you want that cast driving experience?
[SPEAKER_03]: So two very different experiences, and I don't know that one is better.
[SPEAKER_03]: It's just different.
[SPEAKER_03]: If like, do you want an SUV?
[SPEAKER_03]: Or do you want a sports car?
[SPEAKER_03]: Well, some of the one is better than the other.
[SPEAKER_03]: One suits your life better.
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, sports cars are absolutely better.
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, you're wrong there.
[SPEAKER_03]: Okay, fine.
[SPEAKER_03]: But you know what I mean?
[SPEAKER_03]: So it was great driving this.
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, of course, you have to haul a bunch of people.
[SPEAKER_01]: And then, you know,
[SPEAKER_03]: then the sports car is not going to work but and this is also great because I had my daughter was home so there were three of us and one of our friends was with us quite a bit so there were three or four of us and it was a nice comfortable easy card to put people in driving around and had their luggage on the way to the airport this morning so yeah so I enjoyed driving it even though it was an EV in freezing cold weather yes and best part is it started
[SPEAKER_03]: every single time I got in, just push a little bit of, oh, well, that's weird, okay, can I call that out?
[SPEAKER_03]: So they start button on this poor rust gun and he had to move it out of the way when he was snow blowing the driveway and he comes from the house.
[SPEAKER_03]: What do I just do?
[SPEAKER_03]: Like this, this is stupid.
[SPEAKER_03]: It's on the stock, the gear shift.
[SPEAKER_03]: And the start button are on the same thing.
[SPEAKER_03]: So when you look at the stock that the gear shift is, maybe three inches down from the edge, there's a rectangular square button, and you push that button and that starts the car.
[SPEAKER_01]: And if you don't, you don't get in behind the steering wheel.
[SPEAKER_03]: Exactly, if you don't know it's there, you sit down, especially depending on how you sat down, how you have everything adjusted, and you look like we're,
[SPEAKER_03]: Where is it?
[SPEAKER_03]: That's what Rust did.
[SPEAKER_03]: He's like, who does that?
[SPEAKER_03]: I'm like, Hyundai.
[SPEAKER_01]: Thank you.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, can't you start it with the EV nine?
[SPEAKER_01]: They were the first ones or that's right.
[SPEAKER_01]: EV nine was the first one to use that arrangement.
[SPEAKER_01]: And then Hyundai copied it on the Ionic nine.
[SPEAKER_03]: And I think it's a little odd.
[SPEAKER_03]: It's a story.
[SPEAKER_03]: I mean, it's not like a problem, but it's an odd placement.
[SPEAKER_03]: And it is one of those things that you can't, you really have to kind of look.
[SPEAKER_03]: Like, even when I know where it is, and I'm still tipping my head a little bit like,
[SPEAKER_03]: play around to make the car add a gear or whatever.
[SPEAKER_03]: So yeah, so that was the one thing I didn't really wasn't keen on that.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, go back to the price for a moment.
[SPEAKER_01]: You mentioned prices about 77ish thousand for this one.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I'll fully loaded one.
[SPEAKER_01]: Everything.
[SPEAKER_01]: for comparison of all vote eX90, which I think is really a pretty comparable vehicle, you know, it's similar in size, similar in range.
[SPEAKER_01]: I think it's got less third row room than the Iock nine does.
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay.
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, similar performance.
[SPEAKER_01]: It starts at 81,290 bucks.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, so there you go, yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yes, the ionic nine is not inexpensive, especially in a collier free trim, but you can also get lower trims that are in the low 60s that are quite nicely equipped for that price point.
[SPEAKER_01]: And that's even fully loaded, you're still several thousand dollars less than the entry point for an EX90.
[SPEAKER_03]: Mm-hmm.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, so it's, you know, when you're looking at the price, like there's an element of like, oh my gosh, it seems so much, but it's not in the grand scheme.
[SPEAKER_03]: And I think that's part of the thing to remember, you know?
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: And, you know, there are more, three-row electric SUVs coming to market.
[SPEAKER_01]: And that's all I'm gonna say about that for the moment.
[SPEAKER_01]: They're more coming.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yes, there is more competition.
[SPEAKER_03]: It'll be interesting to see how things roll over the coming months and years.
[SPEAKER_01]: So, all right, well, I had a car that started off as a three row gas or plug-in hybrid, actually mild hybrid or plug-in hybrid SUV.
[SPEAKER_01]: And then Mazda decided to make a version of it that simply discarded the third row.
[SPEAKER_01]: um and uh rebranded it from the CX90 to the CX70.
[SPEAKER_01]: Literally the only difference between a CX70 and a CX90 is there is no third role in the CX70.
[SPEAKER_01]: They just they got rid of those parts.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's it.
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean pull them out.
[SPEAKER_01]: That all the sheep metal is exactly the same.
[SPEAKER_01]: Everything else about these vehicles the CX70 and the CX90 exactly the same.
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, same power trains, same, same, same everything.
[SPEAKER_01]: From the driver seat, you literally cannot tell which one of these you're driving in.
[SPEAKER_01]: But when you open the tailgate,
[SPEAKER_01]: you can definitely tell because there's a huge cargo area in the back of the CX70.
[SPEAKER_01]: Now, granted, if you had bought a CX90, you could get the exact same cargo space, but simply folding down the third row.
[SPEAKER_01]: And then you still have that third row available in case you ever need it.
[SPEAKER_01]: But if you absolutely know that you're never ever going to want to carry more than
[SPEAKER_01]: So I had the CX70 Premium Plus, which has the standard power train, which is a 3.3 liter turbocharged inline 6 cylinder engine, which is an absolutely lovely engine.
[SPEAKER_01]: I am a
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm a huge fan of in-line 6-cylinder engine, so I always happen because they're so smooth.
[SPEAKER_01]: I love the Hurricane 6-cylinder and Solantis products.
[SPEAKER_01]: I love this thing.
[SPEAKER_01]: I love BMW in-line 6's.
[SPEAKER_01]: This particular one is what they call the East Guy Active G. So, Sky Active G is their Sky Active Engine family with gas as the fuel.
[SPEAKER_01]: East guy active means that this one is a mild hybrid so it's got a 48 volt mild hybrid system on it So it's a belted starter generator and 48 volt battery when when you come to a stop or you know There's certain conditions even when you're when you're driving it, you know could be coasting
[SPEAKER_01]: It can turn the engine off when you, you know, for the auto stop start because it's a 48 volt system, it can keep the engine off longer because a lot of times with 12 volt systems with auto stop start.
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, once the battery level starts to get to gets down to a certain voltage, they have to restart the engine, even if your foot is still on the brake pedal.
[SPEAKER_01]: And that's when you feel at the most, the restart is when your foot is still on the accelerator pedal, because you kind of got a load on everything, and then you might feel a shutter.
[SPEAKER_01]: In this case, the 48 volt motor restarted very quickly, very, with a lot of power.
[SPEAKER_01]: and it can keep the engine off typically throughout an entire traffic light cycle.
[SPEAKER_01]: So, you know, from the time you stop until the light turns green again, it can keep the motor off, and keep the engine off because it's got enough power in that 48-volt battery to power all the other systems in the car without running out of juice.
[SPEAKER_01]: So, the premium plus rides on 21-inch alloy wheels,
[SPEAKER_01]: Really?
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, we had some a few days of, you know, it was very nice and sunny out.
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, against the snow, that this color looks fantastic.
[SPEAKER_01]: Personally, I think I would still go with sole crystal red, but it must, must has got it when it comes to colors.
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, I mean, yes, they have some boring colors.
[SPEAKER_01]: They have some white, some black, some stuff.
[SPEAKER_01]: You have to release a couple points for the colors when they do colors, they do them so well.
[SPEAKER_01]: And the melting copper just looks fantastic, especially in the sunlight.
[SPEAKER_03]: Would you get melting copper or would you get the red?
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, I don't, I think, you know, maybe for something like the CX 70, I might go for the the melting copper.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, if I was getting a CX 30 or CX 5, I'd probably go with Soul Crystal Red.
[SPEAKER_01]: And absolutely, you know, for me, I'd have absolutely Soul Crystal Red.
[SPEAKER_01]: They're acquired.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: But you know, either way, they're both great colors, you won't, you won't be disappointed, you won't, you won't be bored looking at it.
[SPEAKER_01]: And, you know, so this one, the premium plus you get things like,
[SPEAKER_01]: has a display.
[SPEAKER_01]: There's eight-way power driver seat, Lumbar support, memory for the driver seat, heated front seats, leather steering wheel.
[SPEAKER_01]: This one does still, it's got two 12.3-inch displays.
[SPEAKER_01]: It still has the central control knob, which I know you hate in a call.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm okay with it, but that's going away on new models, starting with the new CX5, the new X65, just goes straight up touch screen, it's got Alexa built in, this one's got Mazda's infotainment system that they've had for a little more than a decade now, which you may remember not like it, if you use CarPlay or Android Auto, the screen actually does
[SPEAKER_01]: And so when you're using Android Auto or CarPlay, you can't touch the screen control it instead of using the central controller, although in the very cold weather, the screen in the car I was driving was acting a little finicky, it didn't always respond correctly.
[SPEAKER_01]: But,
[SPEAKER_01]: It's got, you know, all the usual array of driver-sist features that you expect blind spot monitoring, lane departure warning, adaptive cruise control, all that sort of stuff, via co-exit warning so that if the corner radar, you know, if there's somebody in the back seat, corner radar detects a car coming up in the,
[SPEAKER_01]: And the lane to your left, somebody might be getting out, you'll get an alert before opening the door.
[SPEAKER_01]: So if you don't open the door and somebody's path, the mild hybrid system was pretty transparent.
[SPEAKER_01]: Didn't really cause any issues, you know, never felt, you know, the start and stop was pretty seamless.
[SPEAKER_01]: You didn't really, you don't really notice it at all.
[SPEAKER_01]: The CX70 with this engine has got 5,000 pound towing capacity.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's got their sport, it's got their drive modes with sport, off-road and towing.
[SPEAKER_01]: This is not a card to be taking off-road.
[SPEAKER_01]: you know it's got you know it's running on all season tires yeah it's like yeah it's fine on a you know on a gravel road or something like that this is not going to handle any trails of any significant of any notable difficulty so it's an off road mode but you're probably not ever going to actually use it on this thing
[SPEAKER_01]: I genuinely enjoyed driving this, you know, as typical of Mazda, you know, it's even for a larger crossover vehicle, SUV, it's got, you know, quite good driving dynamics, I mean, to the extent that I could explore them in these kinds of winter weather conditions, but I have driven it before in dry weather and, you know, it's, it's really nice to drive.
[SPEAKER_01]: good balance of ride quality and handling and responsiveness, plenty of performance.
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, the 280 horsepower for 3.3 liter doesn't sound like a lot, especially when you compare it to the hurricane.
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, hurricanes 420 or 550 horsepower depending on which variant you get from 3 liters.
[SPEAKER_01]: But, you know, you are not going to be disappointed with the performance of a
[SPEAKER_01]: And basically, everything I'm saying here applies equally to the CX90, because as I said, third row seat is literally the only difference.
[SPEAKER_01]: The grand total on this one came to $51,945, guess at the delivery charge?
[SPEAKER_03]: I'm going to go 14.95.
[SPEAKER_01]: Uh, you are very, very close.
[SPEAKER_01]: You're off by, um, $35, uh, $50, $50, $30.
[SPEAKER_03]: Okay.
[SPEAKER_01]: Which is kind of good.
[SPEAKER_01]: Kind of an odd number.
[SPEAKER_01]: 1530.
[SPEAKER_03]: That is a weird number.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's where they came up with that one.
[SPEAKER_01]: But whatever.
[SPEAKER_03]: whatever.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, not a lot of options on this one and said, you know, it's the premium pluses is the highest trim level.
[SPEAKER_01]: So, you know, all whether floor mats, cargo organizer, and for $150 and $100 each, and then $5.95 for the melting copper paint.
[SPEAKER_01]: And then everything else is included standard on the premium plus.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's rated at 24 city 28 highway 25 combined again in this whole weather conditions.
[SPEAKER_01]: I averaged about 23, which is actually pretty good, better than I was expecting.
[SPEAKER_01]: So this is a, if you're looking, you know, and like, you know, all recent monsters.
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, it's got a very surprisingly premium feeling interior to it.
[SPEAKER_01]: The materials, the colors, you know, the fit and finish is really outstanding.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I think, you know, when you, you know, for $50,000 or, you know, $52,000 in this case, you know, including destination.
[SPEAKER_01]: When you look at some of the other products that are out there at that price point, you know, in a similar type of vehicle, this feels way more premium than most of the competitors.
[SPEAKER_01]: It, you know, to get something comparable from a lot of other competitors you are going to pay.
[SPEAKER_01]: many thousands more, you know, if you compare this to, say, a Toyota Highlander, you know, this feels way more upmarket than those, than that vehicle, or, um,
[SPEAKER_01]: I think, you know, even trying to remember how much, how much was the, uh, uh, the palacid calligraphy.
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, that was close to 60 grand, right?
[SPEAKER_03]: I think that was close to 60.
[SPEAKER_03]: Let me see.
[SPEAKER_03]: I look, yeah, it's, the thing is, honey, it's interesting to compare the two because honey puts a lot in a vehicle, but it doesn't have the, I don't think they get the premium feel as well done as Mazda, like,
[SPEAKER_03]: It's sort of like every monster feels nice, every monster looks a little bit upscale, every monster has a pretty, if you step down really low in Hyundai's trim lineup, you start to feel that they're not as premium.
[SPEAKER_01]: You monsters just a fantastic job at making their cars just look like, oh yeah, even if you get the base models, like our daughter, she has a CX30.
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, which I think she got not the base S trim, but like one level up, but even even in the base, you know, CX 30, it feels like a much Sitting inside it feels like a much more expensive car than it is and it starts under $30,000.
[SPEAKER_03]: which is kind of amazing.
[SPEAKER_03]: And that's something that I'm driving me, was it CX5, they're doing a first drive of this week?
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_03]: And I can't wait to see it because it has a new screen.
[SPEAKER_03]: Woo hoo.
[SPEAKER_03]: But also, I just, like, I love their cars.
[SPEAKER_03]: I always am excited when I get to the drive them because they do such a nice job.
[SPEAKER_03]: Like, I genuinely like Mazda's the thing that helped me back was that infotainment set up that I really didn't like.
[SPEAKER_03]: That would have made me stabby during the day.
[SPEAKER_03]: But the fact that they're changing that,
[SPEAKER_01]: That makes Mazda's far more appealing to me and I already like them a lot so yeah I'll be talking to interviewing Tom Donnelly who's the head of Mazda North America on Tuesday afternoon after after I land elsewhere in California for a different program.
[SPEAKER_01]: I will be having a chat with him we'll have that I'll have that conversation with him on the show next week.
[SPEAKER_03]: Cool, excellent.
[SPEAKER_01]: So that is the 2026 Mazda CX70 3.3 turbo premium plus.
[SPEAKER_03]: Oh, that's mouthful.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: All right.
[SPEAKER_01]: Let's move on.
[SPEAKER_01]: OK.
[SPEAKER_01]: So let's go back to Hyundai for a minute.
[SPEAKER_01]: I think it was the Brussels Motor Show this week.
[SPEAKER_01]: Hyundai unveiled a new model there that we are not going to see here in North America any time in the foreseeable future likely.
[SPEAKER_01]: Although, you never know because Hyundai has this partnership that they did with GM for some vehicles, which I think includes like Vans, and Hyundai has a really interesting van called the Staria, which you've been to Korea.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm sure you've seen lots of these things on the road in Korea.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, they're everywhere.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's a really uniquely designed fan, which I think actually looks really cool.
[SPEAKER_01]: I think it's a cool-looking fan.
[SPEAKER_03]: It's a cool-looking fan if you're a fan person.
[SPEAKER_03]: If you don't like the engine like, whoa, what's this?
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, actually, sorry, it was in Stuttgart that they showed it, not it, not Brussels, and Stuttgart.
[SPEAKER_01]: So they unveiled the Staria camper concept in Stuttgart.
[SPEAKER_01]: And this is a new, they're doing an electric version of the Staria.
[SPEAKER_01]: So up until now, it's had just a total combustion power train, but they've launched an electric version of the Staria.
[SPEAKER_01]: and it created a camper version of it.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's right now it's concept.
[SPEAKER_01]: But my guess is that Hyundai usually builds these sorts of things.
[SPEAKER_01]: It was at the Caravan Motor and Touristic Trade Fair in Stuttgart.
[SPEAKER_01]: and that's CMT and you know, the story is a pretty good size to vehicle.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's a big, you know, fairly, I would say like a mid-sized, you know, it's not, it's not as big as something like say a transit van, but it's bigger than, you know, the older compacts like the transit conduct and, you know, some of those types of vehicles.
[SPEAKER_01]: So it's more of them,
[SPEAKER_01]: mid-sized, but it's three-row.
[SPEAKER_01]: I guess it's probably similar in size to an ID buzz.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, I would think it looks like it, and it has, it has sort of ID buzz vibes in a certain way.
[SPEAKER_03]: Not the cute fun retro thing, but just installing the shape of it.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I mean, it's got the camper pop top, like you would find on older VW bus campers.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I'm trying to remember, I think, let's see.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's got export power that can put out 2.6 kilowatts of electricity, 2.6 kilowatt hours of electricity per day.
[SPEAKER_01]: Let's see, let's remember the range.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's got the same EGMP architecture as the rest of the Hyundai Kia Genesis EVs, so it's an 800 volt architecture.
[SPEAKER_01]: It'll charge from 10 to 80 percent in 20 minutes.
[SPEAKER_01]: The standard version is 218 horsepower, which is adequate.
[SPEAKER_01]: I've driven the EV-9 with that same power train.
[SPEAKER_01]: But it's front wheel drive rather than rear wheel drive.
[SPEAKER_01]: But again, for a van, that's fine.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: And, oh, they've got an estimated WLTP range of 400 kilometers, which is about 280ish 190 miles.
[SPEAKER_01]: So, you know, EPA is probably going to be, you know, real world is probably going to be around 260 or so.
[SPEAKER_01]: And, you know, that's, that's probably adequate.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's better than what you get out of the ID bus, but this is something that Volkswagen hasn't built yet with the ID bus, they haven't built a camper version of it, and there's a lot of people who've been waiting for VW to build a camper version of the ID bus.
[SPEAKER_01]: Hyundai has done it with the Staria, with the electric Staria.
[SPEAKER_03]: And this looks fabulous, like I'm clicking through the pictures of how the interior morphs to give you basically a huge area that's a nice flat bed inside.
[SPEAKER_03]: You've got a little kitchen inside, it has that pop top, so you have all that light.
[SPEAKER_03]: It's really a cool design, little table thing that pops out slides out in the back.
[SPEAKER_03]: There's a thing for a shower, where you can have it have a shower, like,
[SPEAKER_03]: It's really cool.
[SPEAKER_03]: I like this.
[SPEAKER_03]: I can get neat.
[SPEAKER_03]: If you didn't want, it's a great idea.
[SPEAKER_03]: I would love to see it end up here.
[SPEAKER_03]: I would love to see it just be made.
[SPEAKER_03]: Forget here.
[SPEAKER_03]: I'd love to just see them make it.
[SPEAKER_03]: But it's always, you know, you never know what the concept is.
[SPEAKER_03]: It's just an experiment to see people what people think, and if people like it, well, they come back and say, Yeah, we're going to build it, guys.
[SPEAKER_03]: Like I didn't say, okay, you guys love this, but we can't build this.
[SPEAKER_03]: I know if we're quite know what they're going to do.
[SPEAKER_03]: I hope they build it.
[SPEAKER_03]: It looks...
[SPEAKER_01]: it looks cool I think they probably will you think at the very least have it here in have it in the US well it depends depends on what comes out of this partnership with GM because you know they've talked about having you know working on vans together so I could definitely see GM possibly offering you know a version of the staria
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, Brandon is, you know, a Chevy, you know, whether they would do the camper here.
[SPEAKER_01]: I think, you know, what might happen is they might end up working with a third party up fitter, which, you know, to be fair is what Volkswagen always did.
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, they worked with Carmen to build the bus, the micro bus campers.
[SPEAKER_01]: So, I think, you could see Hyundai partnering with somebody to, you know, they would ship them, the fans, and then have them upfitted with all of the gear, you know, put the pop top on there and various other things on there.
[SPEAKER_01]: So, I hope that they build something like this.
[SPEAKER_01]: It'd be cool to have an option for something like this, especially in North America.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, it would really be great.
[SPEAKER_03]: I think it would be cool.
[SPEAKER_03]: Fingers crossed because I want to see this one happen.
[SPEAKER_01]: OK. We have previously talked about China and their ban on hidden door handles.
[SPEAKER_01]: And this past week, they made it official.
[SPEAKER_01]: They published some regulations.
[SPEAKER_01]: Where is that tab here?
[SPEAKER_01]: So, the page that I've got linked is in Chinese, but if you use Google Translate, it gives you a pretty good translation of it, and there's some...
[SPEAKER_01]: I haven't been able to find the full regulation anywhere yet.
[SPEAKER_01]: I was trying to get a hold of it somewhere, but there are some
[SPEAKER_01]: But let's see, some of the things that they mentioned in the regulation.
[SPEAKER_01]: So the system has to be designed to ensure that in the event of an irreversible restraint service, there's a strength device deployment, so that would be like an airbag or a power battery thermal event while the locking device is in a locked state, so the locking device being the door handle.
[SPEAKER_01]: the non-collision side door can be opened without the aid of tools via the outside door handle.
[SPEAKER_01]: So, you know, if you, you know, if you get hit on the passenger side, the driver's side doors have to be able to be opened, or vice versa, without using any special tools.
[SPEAKER_01]: And then in addition, each door handle except for the tailgate has to, and there has to be equipped with an interior door handle with a mechanical release function.
[SPEAKER_01]: So no electromechanical switches on the door handle, there has to be a, you know, some sort of mechanical release function there and it has to be, you know, in proximity and readily visible to the vehicle occupants.
[SPEAKER_01]: So you're not searching around and we've talked about this before.
[SPEAKER_01]: like on the the Tesla are the Rivian R1's there's a panel on the in the rear seats on the front seats they have the mechanical latch literally two inches from the button which is just ridiculous you know why bother with the button and then in the back there's actually a panel that you have to pop off so it's it's not even visible there's a panel on the door
[SPEAKER_01]: that the rear seat passenger would have to pop off, and then pull on a cable to get the door open if the door loses power.
[SPEAKER_01]: So that has to be readily visible, not hidden.
[SPEAKER_01]: And then one thing that's not clear from the information I have been able to find, they give some dimensions, so there's some minimum dimensions for the door handle,
[SPEAKER_01]: Somebody from the outside of the vehicle has, you know, you have to, so you can't make it too small.
[SPEAKER_01]: It has to be minimum, certain minimum size that you grab to open the door without any tools.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's 60 millimeters by 20 millimeters by 25 millimeters, so about two and a half by about three quarters by an inch dimensions.
[SPEAKER_01]: So, you know, reasonable sized door handles so you can grab it with your hand.
[SPEAKER_01]: The one thing that is not clear, you know, they want to get rid of, you know, the electrically actuated door handles that have to pop that you need power for them to pop up.
[SPEAKER_03]: Oh, the pop out thing.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: Right.
[SPEAKER_01]: But like, for example, on our EV6, you know, it's got the door handles are flush.
[SPEAKER_01]: If you get the top trim levels like a GT or GT line, and the same is true on the ionic five.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's got the same door handles.
[SPEAKER_01]: GM's got this on the Cadillacs, so it's a pivoting door handle.
[SPEAKER_01]: So normally it sits flush with the door panel around it.
[SPEAKER_01]: and it's pivoted at one end and on the lower and mid trim levels of the Hyundai's and Kia's it's not electrically actuated it's a mechanical handle on the top trim levels when you walk up to it with the key in your pocket the handles will automatically pop up but you can also do it manually just push on the one side where the hinge is and the other side pops out and you grab the handle it's a little finicky
[SPEAKER_01]: It's more so than just a traditional door handle, but you can get it open fully mechanically.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's not clear from what I've been able to find if that type of handle would actually be allowed.
[SPEAKER_03]: Oh, okay.
[SPEAKER_01]: The the Tesla Model 3 and Model Y also have the same type of door handle where you push it in on one side and the handle pops out and again, not clear if that's allowed.
[SPEAKER_01]: I was talking to was I talking to I think Dana Hall from Bloomberg the other day about this.
[SPEAKER_01]: She was doing a story on this and just, you know, it's like any any chats of, you know,
[SPEAKER_01]: In the current environment, the current political environment, almost zero chance of having similar regulations here.
[SPEAKER_01]: However, they saw 27 million vehicles a year in China and 16 million in the US last couple of years.
[SPEAKER_01]: China is the by far the biggest market in the world, and anybody who wants to sell cars in China is going to have to design their door handles to meet those Chinese regulations.
[SPEAKER_01]: And the other thing is this goes in effect January 1st, 2027 for any new vehicles.
[SPEAKER_01]: And so anything that's already in market, they've got a couple of years leeway before they have to redesign.
[SPEAKER_01]: But anything new launching from January 1st next year has to comply with these regulations.
[SPEAKER_01]: So basically, because China's doing this, the rest of the world is going to have to follow suit.
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, the automakers are going to follow suit because they're not going to design to completely different door handle systems for China and everybody else.
[SPEAKER_03]: It makes no sense.
[SPEAKER_03]: So they're going to design to the biggest market out there, which would be China.
[SPEAKER_03]: So yeah, so we're going to see whether we mandated it or not, we're going to see some of this.
[SPEAKER_01]: We're going to get better door handles.
[SPEAKER_03]: We're going to get better door handles.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'll be curious to see what Rivian does with the R2 and the R3, how they change those.
[SPEAKER_03]: And it seems like a, you know, it's, it's funny because it's 27 that it takes a fact, which is a year away, but that's not really that far.
[SPEAKER_01]: Less than 11 months.
[SPEAKER_03]: Right.
[SPEAKER_03]: And that's, that's not like it.
[SPEAKER_03]: Like, oh, that's a long time.
[SPEAKER_03]: That's funny time not when you have that's actually short about it in China.
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, you know, they have to be fair.
[SPEAKER_01]: You're right.
[SPEAKER_01]: Short products like her in China.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_03]: They have really short product cycles, but still that's a lot.
[SPEAKER_03]: It's, it's a big change.
[SPEAKER_03]: It seems like door handles should be so easy, but they're not.
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, it's, it's, it's, it's part of the safety system.
[SPEAKER_01]: There's so, there's a lot of work you have to do to validate it.
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, you know, because door handles get used a lot.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: So it's got to serve, the mechanism has to be able to survive a lot of usage cycles.
[SPEAKER_03]: And yeah, exactly.
[SPEAKER_03]: So I think it's a good thing.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_03]: I find that I find a pop out door handles and electronic door handles to be
[SPEAKER_03]: finicky at times.
[SPEAKER_03]: Actually, I hate the pop out door handles in the winter.
[SPEAKER_03]: Hate them all of them.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, well, I mean, you know, you and I have both experienced ice storms and the car gets encased in, you know, 8th or a quarter inch or more of ice and at least with traditional door handles, you can grab that and pull it and you know, crack the ice open.
[SPEAKER_01]: And you know, and get the door open with some of these, you know, with the flush handles and that, you know, fortunately, you know, our cars parked in the garage when it's not used.
[SPEAKER_01]: So it's, you know, unless a nice storm happens while we're out and about somewhere.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's not going to be as much of a problem, but yeah, it's, you know, even even with a mechanical one if it's flush, you can still have problems.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_03]: And I also don't like them in the sounds like the soliciting the ones that are in an angle when they pop out, you know, that you're just grabbing like they don't pop out.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, well, that's what, that's what, I mean, that's what the T is and on days.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, that's what they drive me crazy because if they're wet, even in the summer, you go to grab them and your hands slips off and it's, sometimes just like you catch, it's just, I don't know.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, no, they're, they're, they're too finicky.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, they're a little bit finicky for something that you have to use all the time.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yep.
[SPEAKER_01]: All right.
[SPEAKER_01]: So next up, Jaguar.
[SPEAKER_01]: We saw last year the concept version of the Type 00 Jaguar's new electric GT, 4-door GT Carr.
[SPEAKER_01]: And now Auto Carr got invited to Northern Sweden to drive a prototype of this thing.
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't know if you had a chance to watch the video or look through this.
[SPEAKER_03]: I did not have a chance to watch the video, but I did have a chance to look through and I've seen a couple of different people talking about driving this.
[SPEAKER_03]: It was a small crew that they brought out there and it's interesting because the feedback is everyone was afraid it wouldn't feel like a Jaguar, but apparently does.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, the way they described it, the subhead here was, let's see, rides like an XJ drifts like an F type.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, so the XJ was their old big sedan, and one of the things about the XJ was, it was always renowned for having fantastic ride quality and decent handling.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: And so this, you know, they say it rides like an XJ, and there's a video where he see them drifting around on the frozen lake in this thing.
[SPEAKER_01]: The, at least the, the launch addition is going to have three motors and a thousand horsepower.
[SPEAKER_01]: And depending on the mode and the driving conditions, you know, it's going to have different power bias.
[SPEAKER_01]: So it's, it's a 350 horsepower motor on the front and two motors on the rear axle combining to nine hundred and fifty.
[SPEAKER_01]: So you get a total.
[SPEAKER_01]: at any given time, total of about 1,000 horsepower, which is absurd, like it's a good way.
[SPEAKER_03]: That's a lot of absurd.
[SPEAKER_03]: It's, it's a lot of horsepower.
[SPEAKER_03]: And you know, Mercedes Jaguar has said that like with their new reinvented Jaguar, it was not going to be the
[SPEAKER_03]: sort of mass market luxury that it was before, you know, the things that they it wasn't they the easy sort of more attainable luxury that they were going to go super super super high-end exclusive.
[SPEAKER_03]: And when you look at numbers like that and you see the car, you're like, oh yeah, this is going to fit that.
[SPEAKER_03]: It's not going to be, it's not going to be affordable at all.
[SPEAKER_03]: It'll be worth it because it'll be a thousand horsepower, but it's not going to be something it's not going to be like that.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I mean, it's not traditional probably be in the neighborhood of 200 grand.
[SPEAKER_01]: Right, exactly.
[SPEAKER_03]: This is a really, it's going to be really pricey.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, they say that in rain, ice or snow, it'll vary between 50 to 75% rear bias for the power.
[SPEAKER_01]: Comfort mode will be 54 to 80% and then in dynamic mode it'll be 65 to 98% rear bias.
[SPEAKER_01]: So you could, you're basically going to get almost a thousand horsepower at the rear wheels with this thing in dynamic mode, but you know, it'll, it'll vary based on the conditions.
[SPEAKER_01]: So they, they wanted it to feel more like a rear wheel drive car.
[SPEAKER_01]: But still have the benefits of all-wheel drive, you know, for better traction, better launch, you know, a little more controllability.
[SPEAKER_01]: This, I mean, it looks like it's, it's going to be pretty impressive.
[SPEAKER_01]: Say 120 kilowatt-hour battery, a range of about 400 miles on the EPA cycle for 130 miles on WLTP.
[SPEAKER_01]: And it's, I'm looking forward, hopefully you get to drive this thing sometime in the next year or two.
[SPEAKER_03]: It looks really amazing.
[SPEAKER_03]: I mean, it really does.
[SPEAKER_03]: I think everyone was very skeptical about what Jaguar was doing.
[SPEAKER_03]: The original ad campaign that came out when they were announcing the new Jaguar was,
[SPEAKER_03]: So, somewhat less than we'll receive.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_03]: So, to see them coming through, like, okay, here's an example of what we're actually building.
[SPEAKER_03]: Here it is.
[SPEAKER_03]: Put it get inside, take it out, drive it.
[SPEAKER_03]: It's like, okay, well, wait.
[SPEAKER_03]: So, I think we're going to all have to rethink a little bit.
[SPEAKER_03]: Now that we've kind of seen the actual product happening.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, you know, and when you look at, I mean, the car they were driving was still wrapped in camo, but you can see that it still, it has, it's basically the design we saw on the concept, you know, same, same proportions of the concept.
[SPEAKER_01]: There will be some details that are different, but, you know, overall it looks like that concept.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I would agree, you can see a lot of the
[SPEAKER_01]: Yep, so, you know, other automakers have had challenges when it comes to EVs, particularly our friends at Stalantis, as you are well aware of the goal.
[SPEAKER_01]: Anyway, still I have to this week, made a couple of announcements.
[SPEAKER_01]: They are doing a reset of their business.
[SPEAKER_01]: We already know they canceled some programs to the late other programs, but for North America they put priority on putting a Hamid or a Hellcat and almost everything that they can.
[SPEAKER_01]: And then once they do that, then they'll start watching other stuff.
[SPEAKER_01]: And one of the things in this announcement, you know, that talk about, you know, we've kind of known about for a while is, you know, under the prior leadership of Carlos Tavaras, you know, the planning, the product planning and everything was much more centralized in Europe, you know, basically, you know, Tavaras and his team decided what was going to be built.
[SPEAKER_01]: And now they are giving more.
[SPEAKER_01]: uh... more autonomy back to the various regions where they operate uh... and see what we're seeing right now here in North America uh... under uh... tim caniscus uh... you know where they you know they're they're using the knowledge that they have in the various regions where they operate you know of their their customers what their customers want to need uh... or at least what they seem to want uh... not necessarily what they need
[SPEAKER_01]: to try and get products that are going to be more appealing to their customers.
[SPEAKER_01]: And as a result of this reset, they are taking a charges of 22.2 billion euros or about $26 billion.
[SPEAKER_01]: That is a lot.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, and it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's
[SPEAKER_03]: I think they're all struggling every company like you know Ford took a big, big right off.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, the order was 19 and a half billion.
[SPEAKER_03]: 19 and a half billion, which also billions with B, it's a lot of money.
[SPEAKER_03]: And I think they're all kind of struggling with that.
[SPEAKER_03]: It comes down to a significant shift.
[SPEAKER_03]: And in some ways, a reality check about what they can and can't do with EVs.
[SPEAKER_03]: And what consumers are interested and willing to buy right now, not in five years or 10 years or 15 years.
[SPEAKER_03]: Regulatory changes.
[SPEAKER_03]: got all sorts of changes with just the winds of the United States at the moment and how things change.
[SPEAKER_03]: So I feel bad.
[SPEAKER_03]: It's sad because you're like, man, that's tons of money.
[SPEAKER_03]: And companies it are struggling more with it.
[SPEAKER_03]: I think like Stylantis, I would feel like they're struggling more overall.
[SPEAKER_03]: And their quality perceptions.
[SPEAKER_03]: It's like, oh, goodness, guys.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, well, I mean, they actually provided a breakdown of this 22 billion euros of something where some of these charges are for, so 14.7 billion was for realigning product plans with customer preferences and new emissions and regulations in the US.
[SPEAKER_01]: So, you know, that's reducing the EVs, you know, bring back hemies and health cats, that's, you know, that's a big chunk of that.
[SPEAKER_01]: And then 2.1 billion was related to resizing of the EV supply chain.
[SPEAKER_01]: So here are the EVs, including total approximately 700 million euros in cash payments expected to be paid over the next four years.
[SPEAKER_01]: So this is about when automakers do deals with their suppliers, they get pricing based on expected volumes and if they don't meet those volumes, they will often end up going back and renegotiating those deals.
[SPEAKER_01]: So the more you sell, the better piece price you get from your suppliers.
[SPEAKER_01]: And this happened back in 2009 or 10 with Toyota when they launched the previous generation Tundra.
[SPEAKER_01]: It did not sell as well as expected.
[SPEAKER_01]: They had done their pricing, parts pricing with their suppliers, based on expected volumes of 250,000 units a year.
[SPEAKER_01]: They were selling closer to about 100,000 at the time.
[SPEAKER_01]: And so they went back and reprised everything and ended up costing Toyota quite a bit of money.
[SPEAKER_01]: So, you know, in this case, you know, with the EV suppliers, a couple of billion euros for that.
[SPEAKER_01]: And then, one of the interesting items here, 4.1 billion dollars, due to a change in estimate for contract.
[SPEAKER_01]: Change an estimate for contractual warranty provision, resulting from the reassessment of the estimation process, taking into account recent increases in cost inflation and deterioration and quality as a result of operational choices, which did not deliver the expected quality performance now being reversed by the new management team.
[SPEAKER_01]: So, basically, you know, they had, you know, again, as part of the accounting process, they have to estimate, okay, how much are we going to be spending over the life of this product on warranty costs?
[SPEAKER_01]: And they, you know, they realize their warranty costs are substantially more than what they estimated, and they're adding another 4 billion euros to that, to account for that.
[SPEAKER_01]: And a lot of that is here in North America, not all of it probably is some Europe, but most of that is here in North America.
[SPEAKER_03]: When you think about the health things went with, well, like they just stopped doing all the plug-in hybrids.
[SPEAKER_03]: And the number of recalls and warranty things that had to be done on that, which, you know, Do you know how many times your Wranglers have been recalled?
[SPEAKER_03]: I've lost track, and it, and he loves it.
[SPEAKER_03]: Like, Russ would not change it for the world.
[SPEAKER_03]: He loves having that car, but we have, I mean, the battery has been fully replaced in it.
[SPEAKER_03]: The hybrid battery has been completely yanked out and put back in various components have been yanked out and replaced, I mean, thousands of dollars in warranty covers.
[SPEAKER_03]: All covered, like they're all warranty stuff.
[SPEAKER_03]: But it's sort of an ever-ending thing, and you think you multiply that by the number of those vehicles that they sold.
[SPEAKER_03]: You know, there's a lot of warranty and recall costs that have been that they have eaten on this.
[SPEAKER_03]: And that's just the ones I know from having my own vehicle.
[SPEAKER_03]: And you know, of course, the poor swagonier had its whole share of issues as well.
[SPEAKER_03]: So it's just been, there's been a lot of costs there.
[SPEAKER_03]: You know, and it's interesting, you know, I think about that warranty thing.
[SPEAKER_03]: There's so many people that behind building these cars, there's so many engineers, there's so much smarts, there's so much experience and it still they've had such a hard time.
[SPEAKER_03]: They've had such a hard time of late.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: Another part of this, you know, a separate announcement that came out at the same time is that Stellantis has a couple of joint ventures in North America for battery production.
[SPEAKER_01]: One was the LG, they had a joint venture factory in Windsor, Ontario to produce batteries for future Stellantis EVs.
[SPEAKER_01]: That one's called Nexstar Energy, and then they also have a separate joint venture with Samsung in Cocoa, Moindiana.
[SPEAKER_01]: They as GM and Honda and Ford have recently done with their joint ventures.
[SPEAKER_01]: They are winding those down.
[SPEAKER_01]: They have sold their stake.
[SPEAKER_01]: Still, that's a sold their stake in Nexstar Energy to LG Energy Solution.
[SPEAKER_01]: Um, and um, I heard somewhere I haven't seen confirmation of this, but I heard somewhere that basically, um, they're handing it over to LG for like $100.
[SPEAKER_01]: And, you know, they invested several billion in building this factory.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_00]: Really?
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: Uh, again, I haven't seen confirmation of that,
[SPEAKER_01]: But LG is going to convert at least some of the capacity at that plant in Windsor to producing, can you guess?
[SPEAKER_01]: Energy storage system batteries.
[SPEAKER_03]: Oh God.
[SPEAKER_01]: For data centers.
[SPEAKER_03]: Of course.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's what they did at their expansion.
[SPEAKER_01]: They did in Holland, Michigan.
[SPEAKER_01]: They converted that from EV batteries to energy storage.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's what Ford's doing in Kentucky and GM's doing some of their capacity down in Spring Hill, Tennessee.
[SPEAKER_03]: So, by the way, I'm Googling your $100 thing, so I'm like, that sounds absolutely insane.
[SPEAKER_03]: It's not.
[SPEAKER_03]: So the Detroit news?
[SPEAKER_01]: Uh, that's where I thought, yeah.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_03]: Actually, has it in there, instantly into the Sun Friday, so it was 49% stake in a Canadian battered plant for $100.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, and I think some of Valentine wrote that story, I think, and she's just a good reporter.
[SPEAKER_01]: So I don't think she would have published that if you hadn't gotten caught.
[SPEAKER_03]: So yeah, so in literally $100, they're $49, 49% for some.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm surprised they didn't just do $1 just, you know, nominal.
[SPEAKER_03]: I don't think, yeah, I don't sell that.
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, I guess $100 Canadian is about $1 US.
[SPEAKER_03]: So yeah, for $100, wow.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_03]: I mean that's just like fire sale.
[SPEAKER_03]: Let's get rid of it.
[SPEAKER_03]: I guess I guess you're sitting on a get rid of it.
[SPEAKER_03]: Take the loss.
[SPEAKER_03]: Get rid of it and move on.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, right, right it off and right it off.
[SPEAKER_03]: Be done with it.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: So yeah, that's, you know, that's going to be another source of energy storage batteries for the coming years.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, when I spoke to LG last year when I visited their plant in Holland, Michigan, you know, they said, yeah, we expect huge demand for energy storage batteries going forward both for for data centers, but also for grid stabilization, you know, support renewables, things like that.
[SPEAKER_01]: So, all right.
[SPEAKER_01]: So, how do you feel about hatchbacks?
[SPEAKER_03]: I like hatchbacks.
[SPEAKER_03]: I think they're versatile little things.
[SPEAKER_03]: I'm I'm I am pro hatchback.
[SPEAKER_03]: What about you Sam?
[SPEAKER_01]: I am a huge fan of hatchbacks hatchbacks and wagons.
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, especially on smaller cars.
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, because, you know, and you know, when you look at modern compacts of dance, you know, Civic, Alantra, you know, Kerala, all these, you know,
[SPEAKER_01]: Maybe less so, the curl, but most of these have shifted over the last 10, 15 years to designs that have a fast back profile, and so what you end up with is, you know, a reasonably sized trunk volume, but a very small opening to get stuff into that trunk.
[SPEAKER_03]: So you can't fit big things in because the opening is teeny tiny.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yes, and so it's a lot, Nick, you know, they did one of their things where they put up a question for readers and posted some of the responses of, you know, which, which cars would be better if they had a hatchback or liftback according to their readers.
[SPEAKER_01]: First on the list was the Miata.
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't know that the meata needs to hatch back.
[SPEAKER_03]: I mean, meata is so cute the way it is.
[SPEAKER_03]: Don't mess with it.
[SPEAKER_03]: I don't know that I feel that.
[SPEAKER_03]: I feel like the meata is that when I disagree with because I just think the cute little fun little tiny impractical but stupidly fun car to drive just leave it alone.
[SPEAKER_03]: It's fine just like it is.
[SPEAKER_01]: But most normal sedans, absolutely.
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, Camry, the cord, Civic, yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, you look at the current generation Civic, yeah, you get the sedan and the hatchback.
[SPEAKER_01]: And the hatchback is actually a couple inches shorter, but, you know, they look very, very similar in profile.
[SPEAKER_01]: And, you know, with the hatchback, you get 24 and a half cubic foot of storage space behind the rear seats, whereas in the sedan, it's about half that, it's about 13, 13 cubic feet.
[SPEAKER_03]: I feel like any sedan could be, you could change in and make it a lift back or hatch back in the rear.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_03]: Great.
[SPEAKER_01]: And then the lucid air.
[SPEAKER_01]: Now, this is one I don't entirely agree with because, you know, the air, the trunclid on the air, it's this sort of clam shell design that wraps around the sides.
[SPEAKER_03]: It's a little different.
[SPEAKER_03]: This isn't just a standard trunk that just opens from the top, it kind of opens from the side.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, so the whole trunk lid wraps around the side of the car.
[SPEAKER_01]: So it's like some crossover, it's like the Audi Q5 because it's always been like that in there's some others.
[SPEAKER_01]: And so when you open it, you've basically got full access to the trunk volume.
[SPEAKER_03]: it has a huge, like the opening is exceptionally large for a trunk.
[SPEAKER_03]: So it's very easy, it's as it is, it's very easy to store larger items and you might think in the back of that car.
[SPEAKER_01]: Although if you did make it a hatch, you know, and had the rear glass tied to that trunk lid and had it open at the top, you know, and then you have a folding seat, you know, you would actually have a really huge volume in there.
[SPEAKER_03]: It would be gigantic, yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, Ford Mustang.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, absolutely.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, more.
[SPEAKER_01]: Mustang, you know, for the type of card is Mustang has a pretty reasonably sized trunk volume, but again, very small opening.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, very tiny.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, they, the Honda Civic SI, the SI is the, the SI is the one trim level of the, the Civic that you can't get as a hatchback.
[SPEAKER_01]: the Type R is hatchback only.
[SPEAKER_01]: All the other variants are hatch or sedan, but the SI is sedan only.
[SPEAKER_01]: And then the Tesla Model 3, again, same kind of things as what I said about the air, it's actually got a reasonably sized opening there and you can the picture that they should include in the story has the trunk open and it's actually a decently sized opening.
[SPEAKER_03]: It is a pretty decent size.
[SPEAKER_03]: I mean, I guess, yeah, it would be better if it was a lift back or but it's it's not prohibitively small.
[SPEAKER_03]: That's that's a thing with trunks.
[SPEAKER_03]: It can be even if they're a big amount of space.
[SPEAKER_03]: It's all about how large the opening that trunk opening is.
[SPEAKER_03]: And suddenly you're trying to wedge things in because that space, the opening is just too small.
[SPEAKER_03]: And you try to shove a lot of luggage in and it's hard.
[SPEAKER_01]: And the Cadillac CT4, you know, same same thing, same story there.
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, the Audi RS3.
[SPEAKER_01]: And they actually have a photo of an RS3 hatchback, which is only sold in Europe.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's not a film in North America.
[SPEAKER_01]: They only sell it as a sedan.
[SPEAKER_01]: So they have a hatchback.
[SPEAKER_01]: They just don't.
[SPEAKER_03]: They've done it.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yes, that's not adding one.
[SPEAKER_03]: It's just like bring it here, please.
[SPEAKER_01]: And the Genesis G80, Subaru WRX, yeah, same same story with all those, I think they all all be better with hatching.
[SPEAKER_03]: I think most cars, if you could find a way to attach back, there's some good, there's some out there that are really good the way they are, but I wouldn't complain about making more cars into a hatchback to make that trunk more versatile.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yep.
[SPEAKER_01]: All right, next up.
[SPEAKER_01]: So this is one that I was hoping to talk to Robbie about, but he's not here.
[SPEAKER_03]: Do you want to hold it for Robbie?
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, we can.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's about 3D printed pistons for Formula 1 engines.
[SPEAKER_03]: That's for Robbie then when he's here.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, okay.
[SPEAKER_01]: We'll hold that one for Robbie.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's nice.
[SPEAKER_03]: We forget Sam mentioned it, everybody.
[SPEAKER_01]: Jim Farley, for some reason still posts on that site owned by that guy that there's a Nazi but he posted something earlier this week with some teaser images of the new upcoming $30,000 electric pickup truck.
[SPEAKER_01]: You don't really get an idea what the thing is going to look like yet, but there's some interesting shots in here, some of the work that's being done and including using large unicastings for the first time, which I talked about before, but this is the first time that we actually see one coming out of the quench bath after it comes out of the mold.
[SPEAKER_01]: So you see this huge aluminum die cast part that is big big big part of the structure of this vehicle.
[SPEAKER_01]: And then you also see somebody else working on buffing the front end of one of the prototypes of this truck.
[SPEAKER_01]: So it looks like this thing's going to have a very smooth front end.
[SPEAKER_01]: And
[SPEAKER_01]: see.
[SPEAKER_01]: And then a couple of images are an image showing the work they're doing in the wind tunnel and the arrow efficiency of this truck.
[SPEAKER_01]: And then one that is labeled as the the best part is no part, but the second best part is one that serves multiple functions.
[SPEAKER_01]: And it's hard to tell exactly what this part is, but you see a couple of guys make smiles on their faces looking at it, so.
[SPEAKER_03]: It's exciting if you're an engineer.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, absolutely.
[SPEAKER_01]: Although in the background, you can see, you know, a little bit of what is presumably the front casting, you know, part of the, part of this truck.
[SPEAKER_01]: And.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, it's a front, yeah, it's a front, in front of the front wheel well and casting.
[SPEAKER_01]: And if this is the truck, it looks like that's the windshield there between their heads.
[SPEAKER_01]: It does really sloped back quite a bit, so it's going to be very interesting truck to see.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, it does like a windshield right.
[SPEAKER_01]: And promised we'll be seeing more of this in the not too distant future in the next few months.
[SPEAKER_03]: They've also Ford, while we're still on Ford, has made some additional promises.
[SPEAKER_03]: Five new cars under 40K by 2030.
[SPEAKER_03]: That's four years, just anybody who's counting, four years, including a mid-sized electric truck.
[SPEAKER_03]: Which is supposed to start at 30?
[SPEAKER_03]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_03]: And it says the five new models will be across our lineup of cars trucks, SUVs, Vans, and it will be multi-energy,
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, so gas and hybrids and plug-in hybrids, presumably.
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, we know there's going to be these range extenders coming to the F-150, but that's probably not going to be under 40 grand.
[SPEAKER_03]: No, I wouldn't think.
[SPEAKER_01]: One thing that's interesting in this story here.
[SPEAKER_01]: see these measures and those through these measures and those upcoming inexpensive products for communicated to dealers and this week they had the National Automobile Dealers Association conference in Las Vegas and all the automakers have meetings with their dealers during that event during the NADA.
[SPEAKER_01]: Ford communicated to dealers that it intends to retain 70% of edge and escape customers and keep them from shopping elsewhere.
[SPEAKER_01]: So the edge already went out of production more than a year ago.
[SPEAKER_01]: The escape ended production in December, although they built up a bunch of inventory that will keep them going for a few more months.
[SPEAKER_01]: But I don't have a hard time seeing how they're going to retain 70% of those customers.
[SPEAKER_03]: And it just feels like, I mean, I guess depending on what they introduce, but the cars are gone.
[SPEAKER_03]: You know what I mean?
[SPEAKER_03]: Like, so if you're one of those customers and you're looking for a new car anytime soon, you're not going with a Ford.
[SPEAKER_03]: You know what I mean?
[SPEAKER_03]: Like, you don't have to...
[SPEAKER_03]: I don't know.
[SPEAKER_03]: We'll see what happens.
[SPEAKER_03]: I mean, they could retain a good number of it.
[SPEAKER_03]: I'm sure a lot of four loyalists will wait and see what's on the horizon.
[SPEAKER_03]: But it does potentially the delay.
[SPEAKER_03]: And those are gone.
[SPEAKER_03]: The supply is gone in a couple of months of what's left.
[SPEAKER_03]: And then what, you know, if they don't have them, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: So some of those escape customers will buy Bronco sports.
[SPEAKER_01]: But the problem is that they, they don't have enough capacity because they build the Broncosport and the Maverick, both in their Homocione Mexico plant.
[SPEAKER_01]: And, you know, they're building as many as they can now.
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, part, one of the things that limits their ability to sell Mavericks and Broncosports is,
[SPEAKER_01]: you know they only have that one plant building them unless they're going to add production of one or both of those vehicles somewhere else it's going to be tough to retain escape customers with proper sports or mavericks you know some edge customers might step up to an explorer
[SPEAKER_01]: Um, but I think I think actually what we're probably going to see that, you know, we haven't heard yet from this is, you know, when I visited, uh, for its Marshall Michigan battery plant last June, um, they, uh, they told us that, you know, they're working, they're working on as many as eight different vehicles from this universal EV platform.
[SPEAKER_01]: So the, the $30,000 pickup is just the
[SPEAKER_01]: body styles going to be built on that same architecture.
[SPEAKER_01]: So perhaps what we will see beyond 2027, you know, so the truck is supposed to launch, you know, go and sail early next year.
[SPEAKER_01]: Maybe that's going to be followed up by a new compact crossover built on that same architecture.
[SPEAKER_01]: So that would, you know, if they do that and can sell it, you know, in that, you know, load a mid $30,000 price range, you know, that could keep some of those escape customers.
[SPEAKER_01]: But I think a lot of, a lot more than 30% of those edge and escape customers are probably going to go by a RAF or CRV or Tucson or, you know, one of the other competitors.
[SPEAKER_03]: I think you're right.
[SPEAKER_03]: I think a lot of people could go to other because there are very competitive options out there.
[SPEAKER_03]: So I think there's a good chance.
[SPEAKER_03]: I mean, it's a nice goal.
[SPEAKER_03]: Just and say they're definitely going to hit it.
[SPEAKER_03]: Just says we think we can keep 70.
[SPEAKER_03]: We'll see how that rolls out for them.
[SPEAKER_01]: Good luck and then Apple saying that they're looking at allowing customers to use third party chat bots AI chat bots with Apple CarPlay.
[SPEAKER_03]: I think that's kind of cool, actually.
[SPEAKER_03]: And it's new to the chat box.
[SPEAKER_03]: I don't, but I think it's kind of an idea.
[SPEAKER_03]: I think it's like, I haven't.
[SPEAKER_03]: I've never thought about using them in my car, so, but I think that's neat.
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, well, do you use Siri with Carpline?
[SPEAKER_03]: Are you Siri?
[SPEAKER_03]: But I mean, I use Siri, but I just use Siri all the time.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_03]: It's not like I, I shouldn't say.
[SPEAKER_03]: I don't mess with other ones.
[SPEAKER_03]: I'm all about Siri.
[SPEAKER_01]: So if, you know, if they gave you the option of using chatGPT or, well, I mean,
[SPEAKER_01]: Next generation series going to be used based on Google's Gemini, so you'll have that, but if you could use ChatGPT or Cloud or something else, would you consider trying those out at least?
[SPEAKER_03]: I mean, I would definitely try them out.
[SPEAKER_03]: I think, especially if you're using those, like, if you're using chatGPT for other things, depending how much it can get it with, the other knowledge it has about what you've been doing, you know, that sort of seamless from your desk to your phone to your car situation.
[SPEAKER_03]: That'd be cool.
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay.
[SPEAKER_03]: What about you?
[SPEAKER_03]: No.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm more skeptical of of these chat bots, you know, I still when I play around with them sometimes and they often come up with nonsense responses that sound very possible, but are not actually accurate.
[SPEAKER_03]: Sometimes hearing does do sometimes do get a little confused.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_03]: Like, I feel like it's, I don't know that they're better or worse.
[SPEAKER_03]: I don't know.
[SPEAKER_03]: I don't think I've used them enough to, to say that.
[SPEAKER_03]: But I'm occasionally series, you ask, Siri, a really reasonable question and, and you get back like, I'm sorry.
[SPEAKER_03]: I was asking for a bakery and you told me what the temperature of the sun is.
[SPEAKER_03]: How did I get that?
[SPEAKER_03]: You know, sun as it gets really confused.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: So, so did all the others.
[SPEAKER_01]: So, yeah.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: Not, not all of them are that great.
[SPEAKER_03]: I think you just got to pick your poison on that front.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yep.
[SPEAKER_01]: All right.
[SPEAKER_01]: And then the last item is one that you put in here.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I want to talk about that.
[SPEAKER_03]: I wanted to add this so.
[SPEAKER_03]: Nactoy North American car truck utility the year.
[SPEAKER_03]: It's one of their things was that they.
[SPEAKER_03]: We wanted to have a scholarship as part of our sort of mission and we don't make money.
[SPEAKER_03]: And so when we have money, we decided we should have a scholarship.
[SPEAKER_03]: So we worked with the SAE, the Society of Automotive Engineers, Robby's Turf, to come up with a scholarship for automotive journalism design and engineering innovation.
[SPEAKER_03]: The scholarship application period is for the month of February, so it closes on the 28th.
[SPEAKER_03]: And you can go to SAE, we'll put the link in the show notes, and they can show you what the requirements are.
[SPEAKER_03]: But it's going to be to help undergraduates and graduate students who are pursuing these careers.
[SPEAKER_03]: Actually, have a little bit of extra money to pursue something in automotive, and it's specifically automotive focus.
[SPEAKER_03]: There's going to be two scholarships each year, one for automotive journalism, and one for automotive design and engineering.
[SPEAKER_03]: So we'll also support
[SPEAKER_03]: the job that Sam and I do, which is the automotive journalism and the job that Sam did, which was not a mode of engineering.
[SPEAKER_03]: So I think that's cool.
[SPEAKER_03]: And so it's open to like spread the word.
[SPEAKER_03]: If you know a student, if you're in education and you know somebody, go check it out, share the news, get it out there because we want to, we want to give away some money to a word these students.
[SPEAKER_03]: How's that?
[SPEAKER_01]: Sounds good, so I was good to help out people that are, you know, trying to get educated, you know, to do the career that that they want to do.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, any help you can get.
[SPEAKER_03]: So, you know, if you're looking for a scholarship, you know, some kids who are pursuing this, check it out.
[SPEAKER_03]: You can find it at SAE, if you go there, they have a section with all the various scholarships that SAE offers and afterwards is on there, or you can check up the notes, Sam will have up there, I hope you'll link in there so that everybody can click and find the link and please apply and share it.
[SPEAKER_03]: And good luck, I hope you get to give some scholarships to some more of the people.
[SPEAKER_01]: excellent.
[SPEAKER_01]: And one last item, any progress on your car shopping hunt, or are you currently on pause, you know, waiting for a holding pattern is I'm trying to decide I'm going back and forth.
[SPEAKER_03]: Um, so I haven't yet, and who wants to test to have a new car in New England right now, right?
[SPEAKER_03]: Um, but it's, it's, it's in a holding pattern.
[SPEAKER_03]: Um, I have some thoughts.
[SPEAKER_03]: I'm going back and forth on some things.
[SPEAKER_03]: Um, ruled some things out.
[SPEAKER_03]: Still question marks about other things.
[SPEAKER_03]: So, no, no news yet.
[SPEAKER_03]: Sam, no news.
[SPEAKER_01]: All right.
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, keep us posted.
[SPEAKER_03]: I will.
[SPEAKER_01]: All right, everybody.
[SPEAKER_01]: Uh, we will talk to you next time.
[SPEAKER_03]: Bye.