Electrek

This week on the Electrek Podcast, we discuss the most popular news in the world of sustainable transport and energy, including Tesla's v11 software update, Tesla accepting Bitcoin, another Model 3 price increase, and more. The show is back live every Friday at 4 p.m. ET on Electrek’s YouTube channel. As a reminder, we’ll have an accompanying post, like this one, on the site with an embedded link to the live stream. Head to the YouTube channel to get your questions and comments in. After the show ends at around 5 p.m. ET, the video will be archived on YouTube and the audio on all your favorite podcast apps: Apple PodcastsSpotifyOvercastPocket CastsCastroRSS We now have a Patreon if you want to help us to avoid more ads and invest more in our content. We have some awesome gifts for our Patreons and more coming. Here are a few of the articles that we will discuss during the podcast today: Tesla v11 software leaks in look inside refreshed Model S test vehicleTesla (TSLA) starts accepting payment in BitcoinTesla explains how dumb it is to buy a car with Bitcoin in its own disclosureTesla increases price of Model 3 – its 3rd price change in just 2 monthsWatch Tesla’s crazy new way to shift from drive to reverse in new Model STesla claims EPA range can be achieved on its electric cars by draining battery beyond zero-mile rangeElon Musk confirms new Tesla Model S is a 7-seater despite no option yetElon Musk teases Tesla Cybertruck update: ‘There will be no handle’Elon Musk deletes tweet alluding to Tesla becoming world’s biggest company ‘in just a few months’Lucid ‘sold out’ the first version of its Air electric sedan, but we are only talking about 500 carsJeep unveils all-electric Wrangler, but don’t hold your breath to buy it Here’s the live stream for today’s episode starting at 4 p.m. ET (or the video after 5 p.m. ET): https://youtu.be/eusobReShfU

This week on the Electrek Podcast, we discuss the most popular news in the world of sustainable transport and energy, including Tesla Heavy Trucking, the BMW i4, the Rivian Adventure Network, and more. The show is back live every Friday at 4 p.m. ET on Electrek’s YouTube channel. As a reminder, we’ll have an accompanying post, like this one, on the site with an embedded link to the live stream. Head to the YouTube channel to get your questions and comments in. After the show ends at around 5 p.m. ET, the video will be archived on YouTube and the audio on all your favorite podcast apps: Apple PodcastsSpotifyOvercastPocket CastsCastroRSS We now have a Patreon if you want to help us to avoid more ads and invest more in our content. We have some awesome gifts for our Patreons and more coming. Here are a few of the articles that we will discuss during the podcast today: Tesla announces that Jerome Guillen transitions to new role leading ‘Tesla Heavy Trucking’Tesla stops taking orders for Powerwall without solar panelsTesla to shut down final assembly plant in Tilburg following Model S/X refreshTesla Model X with over 400,000 miles gets turned into a piece of art by Kenny ScharfVW announces plan to reduce battery costs by up to 50% and secure 240 GWh of capacityBMW unveils i4 electric sedan with 300 miles of rangeBMW iX price comes much higher than expected at more than $80,000Rivian reveals impressive map of over 600 planned fast-charging stations and wall chargerPorsche follows Tesla’s Supercharger lead with its own private charging networkToyota lobbies US government in its increasingly delusional effort to slow down electric vehiclesToyota teases its first electric SUVLordstown hype train slows down after prototype catches on fire, orders put into question Here’s the live stream for today’s episode starting at 4 p.m. ET (or the video after 5 p.m. ET): https://youtu.be/T0u0Owfl2IM

This week on the Electrek Podcast, we discuss the most popular news in the world of sustainable transport and energy, including Tesla's new price changes, the Model Plaid+ delay, the Audi Q4 e-tron, Volvo C40 first look and more. The show is back live every Friday at 4 p.m. ET on Electrek’s YouTube channel. As a reminder, we’ll have an accompanying post, like this one, on the site with an embedded link to the live stream. Head to the YouTube channel to get your questions and comments in. After the show ends at around 5 p.m. ET, the video will be archived on YouTube and the audio on all your favorite podcast apps: Apple PodcastsSpotifyOvercastPocket CastsCastroRSS We now have a Patreon if you want to help us to avoid more ads and invest more in our content. We have some awesome gifts for our Patreons and more coming. Here are a few of the articles that we will discuss during the podcast today: Tesla increases prices on its cheapest and most expensive electric vehiclesTesla delays new Model S Plaid Plus orders to ‘mid-2022’Tesla’s giant stamping machine caught on fire at Fremont factoryTesla’s communications with DMV over Full Self-Driving are released and they bring some confusionAudi unveils the interior of the Q4 e-tron electric SUV with impressive head-up display, and moreCanoo unveils fully-electric pickup truck set for 2023Secretive new EV startup unveils interesting-looking $36,000 electric pickup truck Here’s the live stream for today’s episode starting at 4 p.m. ET (or the video after 5 p.m. ET): https://youtu.be/3CdHzSXSouw

This week on the Electrek Podcast, we discuss the most popular news in the world of sustainable transport and energy, including a new Tesla Solar Roof, the launch of the Chevy Bolt EV/EUV, the Porsche Taycan Cross Turismo, and more. The Electrek Podcast is me, Fred Lambert, editor-in-chief of Electrek, and Seth Weintraub, founder and publisher of Electrek and the 9to5 network, discussing all our top stories of the week while taking questions from our readers and highlighting the most insightful comments on the site. The show is back live every Friday at 4 p.m. ET on Electrek’s YouTube channel. As a reminder, we’ll have an accompanying post, like this one, on the site with an embedded link to the live stream. Head to the YouTube channel to get your questions and comments in. After the show ends at around 5 p.m. ET, the video will be archived on YouTube and the audio on all your favorite podcast apps: Apple PodcastsSpotifyOvercastPocket CastsCastroRSS We now have a Patreon if you want to help us to avoid more ads and invest more in our content. We have some awesome gifts for our Patreons and more coming. Here are a few of the articles that we will discuss during the podcast today: New Tesla Solar Roof tiles spotted at test facilityTesla launches new social media platform to ‘engage’ its community and promote policiesElon Musk: Tesla aims to release new version of Full Self-Driving Beta next month with wider accessTesla takes part in deal to take over controversial nickel mine in New CaledoniaChevy Bolt EUV First Drive: The best value EV gets the best autonomyPorsche unveils Taycan Cross Turismo: a $90,000 more-practical version of the performance electric carVolvo unveils C40 Recharge electric SUV with over 200 miles of rangeRivian planning to manufacture solid-state batteries Here’s the live stream for today’s episode starting at 4 p.m. ET (or the video after 5 p.m. ET): https://youtu.be/0eDHzvdSBf4

This week on the Electrek Podcast, we discuss the most popular news in the world of sustainable transport and energy, including the current situation at Tesla Fremont factory, Hyundai Ioniq 5, WD ID.4, and more. The Electrek Podcast is me, Fred Lambert, editor-in-chief of Electrek, and Seth Weintraub, founder and publisher of Electrek and the 9to5 network, discussing all our top stories of the week while taking questions from our readers and highlighting the most insightful comments on the site. The show is back live every Friday at 4 p.m. ET on Electrek’s YouTube channel. As a reminder, we’ll have an accompanying post, like this one, on the site with an embedded link to the live stream. Head to the YouTube channel to get your questions and comments in. After the show ends at around 5 p.m. ET, the video will be archived on YouTube and the audio on all your favorite podcast apps: Apple PodcastsSpotifyOvercastPocket CastsCastroRSS We now have a Patreon if you want to help us to avoid more ads and invest more in our content. We have some awesome gifts for our Patreons and more coming. Here are a few of the articles that we will discuss during the podcast today: Tesla stops taking orders for cheapest Model Y in hard-to-follow updatesTesla Model Y Standard Range is still available ‘off menu,’ but Elon Musk doesn’t like the rangeTesla shuts down Model 3 production line for 2 weeks amid chip shortageElon Musk confirms ‘high demand’ for updated Tesla Model S/X, factory restarts after parts shortageElon Musk says Tesla is shifting more electric cars to LFP batteries over nickel supply concernsHyundai unveils Ioniq 5 electric car: Out-of-the-box EV loaded with attractive specs and featuresUSPS announces postal fleet replacement contract, doesn’t even go all-electric Here’s the live stream for today’s episode starting at 4 p.m. ET (or the video after 5 p.m. ET): https://youtu.be/YAp3QXoNR5s Transcription Fred Lambert: We are alive for a new result of the electric podcasts. I'm Fred Lambert, your host, and as usual I'm joined by set. When job are you doing today? I'm good. All right. You've been okay. The VW ID for, for a while now, you were able to test it for a week a week. We weren't supposed to be able to talk about it. [00:00:19] We don't have a post to reference for, for, for you guys to go read because the, the, the embargo was supposed to be later this weekend or early next week, Monday. On day and, but it was broken for some reason. And then the illustrator journal screwed up. They speed it  [00:00:36] Seth Weintraub: up. I think they put it in the print. [00:00:37] So you can't take it back? No, you can't take that back.  [00:00:41]Fred Lambert: So, so we're going to be able to talk about that. We're going to do it later on in this show, even though, like I said, the post is going to be coming probably this weekend and a video and the video too. All right. And then you went on that bolt, you. [00:00:54] Just a UV or did you get the new Evie too? Well, they were  [00:00:57] Seth Weintraub: both there, but we weren't allowed to drive the bolt Evie, which is weird because you know, it's been around for five years. But we got to drive the boat EEV and it was pretty insane.  [00:01:07] Fred Lambert: All right. That is Virgo though. So it's not interesting. [00:01:11] It's just blank. You cannot say anything about it, right? On Phil Monday, right? Monday,  [00:01:16]Seth Weintraub: One o'clock I think.  Tesla stops taking cheapest Model Y orders [00:01:17] Fred Lambert: All right. So we're going to discuss that on the next episode next week, but you're going to be able to read about it on Monday. Of course, if you follow electric we got to start with our testing and use as per usual, and we going to stop with something that happened last weekend, and then we add some more information this week that that came up and that's the mobile wise standard range. [00:01:39] So last week we discussed the price changes and everything, a good $2,000 a half. The standard range. I was like, all right, this is interesting stuff. And we'll just a month into the vehicle being launched already at $2,000 price cut. Now the model Y is less than $40,000. Interesting stuff. Then it just disappeared this weekend, this weekend, they took it off. [00:02:01] They took it off the configurator and people were like, Hey, well what's happening? Is it cancel? Or they just stop to take orders. We don't know. We didn't know. But that was very surprising just a month into watching it. And then a few days into cutting the pricing effectively. And then this week Ilan commented on the, on the issue. [00:02:20] He said that it's still available, but. Of the menu. So we know what that means. We know that what happens with that generally means that it's it's, it's going away. That's what happened with them all three salmon range. And it's, it's a weird thing just to, to have an existing 3m of your vehicle. Just, we don't tell you that it's there, unless you like you're in the know if you will. [00:02:43] Seth Weintraub: Yeah. I've got some questions about that because you can't just have a battery configuration. Like, are they going to still have the battery that battery size or are they going to like software limit? The long range battery.  [00:02:59] Fred Lambert: Well, the way I see it is that the standard Mo wide standard range was really a standard Amal as the same powertrain as a model three standard range, plus really call it a standard range because there was no standard range to be a plus though. [00:03:14] The same thing is true now for them all three. So they could, you could also change that. But it, so if that's the case, then. I assume it's not that big of a deal to just use the military center drainage plus power train and build them all wire around it. Or like you said, if it's really low, I mean, I felt like there was going to be a popular vehicle. [00:03:32] So if it, if it's to be popular, if it'd been a lot of people gonna order it, I don't, I don't think they cannot. I D I just don't think the, the, the, they would stop for a lucky, with a bigger batch of bag, because then you're you deliver more value for a smaller price?  [00:03:46] Seth Weintraub: Yeah, I agree. It's weird. I don't get it. [00:03:49] Yeah. It's that AI is that AI pricing.  [00:03:53] Fred Lambert: I think it's Ian, because Ian said that you said in many driving condition as yet to meet a Tesla's standard of excellence. So it goes back to originally why we were surprised in the first place last month when this law shit, because you had said that it was canceled. [00:04:08] So, if we go back to the beginning of the history of the military standard range, it was announced all the way back at the launch of 2019 and the March doesn't 19 of them. The more why. And it was part of the configurations that this was planning to make available at last, the 250 miles of range back then. [00:04:26] And then later on like a year later, I think, you know, and said that yeah, we're not going to launch it because it's going to have less than 250 miles of range, which we, we w we find unacceptably low. And yet a few months after that, they ended up launching it with 244 miles of range, which is. I think it's good for that price. [00:04:46] Like, I think it makes sense though. He is fair when he says to be fair, he does mention in many drive conditions. So, right. Like in, in, in Canada, for example, or in places where you have a lot of snow, you have cold temperature. Yes. I mean, two 44 miles range will be a lot closer to one 50 miles range in very cold conditions. [00:05:09] So with snow tires and everything. Yeah. Yeah. So at that point, yes. It, it's not, maybe not opposite Tesla standards. Yeah. You got  [00:05:19] Seth Weintraub: to make it between superchargers.  [00:05:22] Fred Lambert: Yes, exactly. But but in, in plenty of other markets, do I think it would be, would have made a ton of sense. Like it's still up with with the incentives too and everything like it's, it is, it becomes a very attractive vehicle, but. [00:05:34] And they decided not to do  [00:05:35] Seth Weintraub: that. Yeah. I mean, like right now. So if you order one of those in, let's say a month, if they're still around in a month via phone, is that going to have a battery, like a small battery pack? I guess it's the battery pack, like you said, that goes into the model three and they have the model three standard range plus, but that battery pack isn't like normally, like most model wise, they're going to have a long range battery pack. [00:06:02] So it would, it's just a weird thing to have, like, like I'm sure the call volume isn't high. So it's just a weird thing to do.  Tesla switching to LFP batteries over nickel supply concerns [00:06:12] Fred Lambert: Yeah. Well, this is, we're speaking about that. I think it might be worth noting when Elan said yesterday about the LFP batteries. Yes. Making it to standard range vehicle at Tesla, because you just said standard range. [00:06:24] He didn't say cars, didn't say mole three. So you said that Nicole is our biggest concern for scaling leads to my onsite production. That's why we were shifting standard range car to  plenty of irony. And leads him exclamation Mark. So we know already that the Mo three standard range plus produced in, in shin guy and the operation guy in China is using an [00:06:50]And then if the chemistry  [00:06:52] Seth Weintraub: that's from cattle, right.  [00:06:54] Fred Lambert: CATL yeah, I think so. So I run phosphate is known to be to have that as much energy density as Hi, Nicole cattle. Am I on with like NCA or NCM? Nicole manganese or just very high density? Nicole. So. There wasn't as much used in, in passenger cars though in China, it was a bit more popular with, with cheaper vehicles. [00:07:18] Cause it is cheaper to, and so a lot of people were saying the white Tesla was bringing that to the standard arrangement. All three it's not necessarily because they were saying that the energy density has improved enough and it has improved, but it's also obviously a cost situation here. The standard range plus is this is cheapest vehicle and People weren't too worried about it because it's just for China, the Chinese market, it sounds like, and people already a lot more used to it than China, but then they launched it in Europe. [00:07:44] They brought that vehicle to Europe. Now this thing arranged model three is produced in Shanghai for the European market. And then in Europe, people are starting to know this, Oh, it's not as good as the version with a nickel Kitto because the, the charging speed all a bit slower. And also in winter conditions, when it's colder, not as efficient, doesn't get as much range. [00:08:07] So. People were a bit worried about that, but what was interesting? Yeah, his comment is that that's where we are shifting standard range car to an iron ghetto. So he's implying that the shift is, is ongoing, the are shifting right now. So that might be meaning that the mode three standard range plus produced in in Fremont for the U S market and North American market. [00:08:29] And then everybody, everything else. Could also be shifting to LFP battery cells, which would be interesting. Yeah. And maybe they are waiting for that shift to happen in order to launch a model Y standard range. There you go. Because again, it's not just about range, it's also margin. This shoots also cost issue, and that might make more sense for them a little while at $40,000, if it has that battery. [00:08:55] Seth Weintraub: Also, we should note that I think iron phosphate is a little bit safer. Like you know, you puncture the battery, it doesn't have the runaway. Okay. It's not as explosive.  [00:09:03] Fred Lambert: Yeah. Thermal runaway, thermal runaway. Yeah. So yeah, I thought it was interesting too. Yeah, that's a good connection in to that, that poster, but now let's let's go back to what's happening at Fremont this week. Tesla shuts downs Model 3 line for 2 weeks [00:09:15] So there was a report. Yesterday from Bloomberg stating that a bunch of employees on a mole, three production line were told not to show up to work until March 7th. Because there was they were shutting down the production line. It wasn't clear why, but we speak later that it could be because of the Industry-wide microchip shortage that the automotive sector is experiencing right now because why we speak to did that. [00:09:40] But first of all, if someone is an automaker is announcing not that this announced anything. Of course, people had to find out by looking good, but yeah. The if for the filmmakers announcing production out or, or deceleration of production, it is generally because of that microchip shortage right now. [00:09:56] I mean, GM for Nissan Toyota in Subaru. Yeah. Christ are, they all announced at least deceration of some production line and in some cases, a complete alt of the production due to the shortage. So. With that in mind and with the fact that what happened in Texas last week, and we know that Samsung is in Texas and Austin with a big factory that, that lost power and that factor is, is part of the supply chain for Tesla for Tesla is a chip that goes into the hardware 3.0 computer. [00:10:27]We just made one this morning through and it would make sense that it affected this as inventory and they would eventually have to outside their own production capacity. Now what we learn after that, Ilan commented later on yesterday that it was indeed, there was indeed the production shut down, but it wasn't exactly that it was actually a broader shut down than we expected. [00:10:50] It was just one production line. It was actually the whole factory that shut down for two days, started back up a day before yesterday. A lot of people assume all that means that the Bloomberg report was was nonsense. I w I wouldn't go as far as saying that, like, W what Elan actually said is that it was even bigger than that. Elon confirms 'high demand' for Model S/X after parts shortage [00:11:07] The whole factory was shut down. They said it's already getting back up. So it's not going to be shut down for, for two weeks. Like like Bloomberg stated, but Bloomberg was just talking about one specific production line that, that production, I might really take two weeks to bring back up. Like the factory is not just a switch. [00:11:21] You just. Go on and off. So it could, it could very well be the case. He didn't confirm it's for a microchip shortage, but did say some some parts supply issue. So I think that's very likely at this point, but in that email that we obtain You also mentioned a few other interesting things, especially regarding the model S and X to upgrade. [00:11:41] So when, when does the launch the refresh that's? The next thing was, it was really, it was saying that it was going to be deliveries in the next few weeks by the end of February. And we we haven't really seen that. So, so far it looks like it might have been pushed a little bit. And in the email you wrote Maul S and X production liner almost done with the retooling. [00:12:00] So. Implying that these two are going to be a few more days needed to start ramping up production and started deliveries. We will be aiming for max production next quarter. So that's encouraging and then he added, there is high demand. So we are going to need to go back to two shifts even ask employees to recommend France for recruiting. [00:12:20] So it's been a while since the all S the next lines of I've been on two shifts. We, we noted of course, cells have been declining a lot in the last few years as the program became sort of stale and, and the, the store was focusing of course, on all three middle Y. So, so yeah, it looks like a, the, the refresh did it. [00:12:38] Breed some, some life into the, the vehicle programs. And now they're going to have to ramp up production to society.  [00:12:46] Seth Weintraub: Yeah. So the original email March 7th, what do you think that person who got that email is that guy or woman, is he, or she. Fired now, or like what, what  [00:12:58] Fred Lambert: I mean, it was, it was a whole production line, so I assume it was a lot of people would be like track it down. [00:13:03]There was some people that were stating today that they were told to come back to work now. So, so maybe the, the ripping up faster, or maybe they're going to be used to do the maintenance, the retooling, like they said that they're going to do two on more, few more wise. So. Hyundai unveils Ioniq 5 EV [00:13:20] Yeah, I doubt anyone's called fired, but you never know. I'm sure they're looking. Yeah. All right. We're already a very, do you want with two tests news use pretty quick. So let's move on to ya. I think personally, what I think was the biggest news of the week here, the good news. It got me the most excited was the Hyundai ionic five official on dealing. [00:13:41] We sort of equal and full on the 23rd. And it hit the Mark for me. It hit the Mark. Pretty, pretty good. I  [00:13:49] Seth Weintraub: was also pretty excited  [00:13:50] Fred Lambert: about it. Yeah. Design wise. I mean, look at that car. Yeah, it's for everyone. It's definitely a step forward and not again, like it is so, so like anything like you need to change like any more like drastic design. [00:14:02]Do I, I would argue it's not that drastic. It's not like BMW high three, eight years ago drastic, but it, it is forward. But in my opinion, like a lot of automakers dropped the ball in term of design when it comes to the front hand. I don't think that's the case here. I mean, the headlights are very new, like this old square thing. [00:14:23] It's not usual, but it works very well into the design, the hood. And then, yeah, this thing here and the middle, there's a little line here. It just works for me. It works. Yeah. Let's go on no need for a fake grill or anything like that. Just, they don't  [00:14:39] Seth Weintraub: even have the charge board in the front anymore. [00:14:41] Yeah.  [00:14:43] Fred Lambert: I mean, that was the Nero. Oh  [00:14:46] Seth Weintraub: yeah. That was key and Monday. Yeah. Cause it, the solar DB had that too.  [00:14:52] Fred Lambert: Did the, yeah, the soul and. So the Cola doesn't have it is it's only the  [00:14:58] Seth Weintraub: Negro. Yeah. I think that Kona has a normal one.  [00:15:00] Yeah.  [00:15:01] Fred Lambert: Maybe not. I don't know. I mean, I know the Niro as it from Kia and that pissed me off, but yeah, I think it works like it's and here's the thing that's interesting with it. [00:15:13] That thing is basically the same size as an ID for VWR D four. It's actually a little bigger than ID for, in everything except the eyes of the car. So, because if you look at it that it looks like a hatchback, they call it a CUV, but looks like almost a hatchback, but it's actually the size of a CUV again, except from the height. [00:15:32] And of course their height also contribute to your volume cargo volumes. So technically the ID four has slightly bigger or even decently bigger cargo volume, but that's because of the height, the actual space in terms of width and the length is is slightly bigger for the ionic five, which I found really interesting. [00:15:55] And then you'll you, you look into all the interior as well as some of these, I know it's got to get in there clean. Yeah. The, they didn't over complicate things. They, they they're still buttons. Of course it didn't go full Tesla, but it it's, it's minimal. I like it. It's not a big fan while there's an extent as much, but still pretty good. [00:16:16]The seats look. Very comfortable to me. Like of course that's just like, from what I can stand  [00:16:21] Seth Weintraub: built in Ottomans. Yeah, yeah, yeah.  [00:16:23] Fred Lambert: Yeah. That's a, that's like a lazy boy. Yeah. That's luxury right there. Like, I've seen that in, in luxury car before, but I mean, I guess the, the Hyundai is going like a Honda as a Genesis for its luxury brand. [00:16:35] But I think with ionic, they're trying to like, it's going to be a higher hand too. Yeah, for sure. Yeah, the panoramic roof. Yep. Which they didn't mention in the launch an option for a solar roof? I don't know how it's going to work though. Is it, is it going to be cells embedded in the glass or is it going to be, Oh, you're going to have a full metal roof with cells on it. [00:16:55] I don't know how it's going to work, but yeah. Apparently is going to be an option. I mean, look at that. Isn't that look like comfort. Yeah, it's  [00:17:01] Seth Weintraub: crazy. I mean, Th they, they did some crazy stuff there. Not only, I mean, notice the, for the floor and the front is flat. Like, that's almost a problem. Like if your kids are, you know, put their volleyball down at their feet, like any, you know, make a sharp right. [00:17:18] Fred Lambert: Turn, look, look, look, this, this is a cool thing too. Is that it goes back and forth. Yeah. The center console, when you're driving, like, no, right now I don't know what she's doing. Like she's just thinking of having in her car for some reason, but she lives there. Yeah. Maybe very, very stylish person for being homeless, but still. [00:17:36]That that center console is much forward. I don't know if it's for both. I assume it's for both seats, but when, when you recline a Cedar or push it back, the, the whole center console goes back. So those are through the dashboard once once you're in driving position I, I don't, I don't maybe a ball of some kind could still roll from the passenger side too, though. [00:17:59] Driver's side. I do understand your concert, but I also look at that center console right there. Does that mean you want some volleyballs put them there? Yeah, exactly.  [00:18:07] Seth Weintraub: Yeah. You got your laptop case and they're your briefcase. They got room for everything right there. Yeah. I  [00:18:13] Fred Lambert: mean, it's kind of a reminiscent of like the early mole SNX when there was like two seats and everything. [00:18:20]Yeah. In terms of the powertrain. A few interesting functions. Yeah. Yep. Yeah. I mean, that's, that's, that's the key word really options. You do get two wheel drive all wheel drive two battery packs, and they are both available on boats options. So unlike Tesla, like if you want all wheel drive, you have to go with long range and everything. [00:18:38] Honda that doesn't push that on you. The standard range is 58 kilowatt hour battery pack again, all wheel drive, two wheel drive which is 125 kilowatt for the two wheel drive, which is a real driver. Yeah, rear wheel drive, I think, and 173 for the all wheel drive. So it's not a big bump that you get with the front motor, but still you're going through snow. [00:19:02] Yeah. Decent enough for, for things like Hi-C conditions. No, we conditions. And then if you want to go with the long range, you get a 72.6 kilowatt hour for the European market. And th this is a trend that we're starting to see Hyundai is going, like why not? Or they want more range. They want more, not only do you want more range, the PE standard is, is more difficult to achieve a longer range. [00:19:25] So it's easier to look like you have a higher range on the w LTP. So the, the actually going to offer a 74.7 7.42 other a backpack for the North American market. So almost five. More kilowatt hour that you're going to get in North America. Yeah, that's right. And then you still get the two wheel drive option, which is going to give you the longest range option of them all. [00:19:46] When combined with the long range battery pack and an all wheel drive all wheel drive, we'll give you two 25 kilowatts. So you're starting to get like a petty level, a little car there. And that goes zero to a hundred kilometer an hour, which is 62 miles power in 5.2 seconds. Respectable. Yeah, it's not bad. [00:20:02] Like you gotta have some fun with that. Like off of a red light or something. So range wise. I mean, they didn't release the EPA, but did they? No. Okay. The w LTP is four 70 for the longest range version. Do you want me to read so two 92 miles. But then, so that's on the 72.6 gold or a pack. So I had the former kilowatt hour. [00:20:27] I mean, I know normally, like you're on the, see if you get to 92 miles on WTP, you'd be lucky to get like two 40, two 50 right off of APA, but with the fire Marshall at hour. And like we noticed, I mean, two 50, at least maybe up to two 70, I think. Yeah. Of course that's for the longest range version and everything. [00:20:48] So that's longer long range battery pack  [00:20:50] Seth Weintraub: too. It probably has to have more than the Kona. Like they have to maybe that's why they, I don't know, but like the Kona's at like two 60 or two, two 55 or something like that. So it's probably just over that.  [00:21:06] Fred Lambert: Yeah. That, that, that would make sense. Cause it's going to be probably like, like I said, that that's all we'll get to the pricing, but I'm charging. [00:21:14] 400 volt, 800 volt works on the infrastructure up to three 50 kilowatt charging.  [00:21:21] Seth Weintraub: But that doesn't mean it's an 800 volt system. It just it has the 800 volts.  [00:21:27] Fred Lambert: Yeah. Yeah. Well, you can, you can, you can take up to hit on a wall chart right here, though. I mean, it's crazy that that's good. Like, I mean,  [00:21:37] Seth Weintraub: real world is not going to be like that. [00:21:38] Fred Lambert: Yeah. Most of the time, like you're going to need to have a three 50 kilowatt charger, which are not, they're not that many, but they're getting more. But I mean, like if you want a three 50 kilowatt charging you want to tie in or something like that, or GT ADI GT. Or the Hummer and the heart Palmer, I mean, but those are all a hundred thousand dollars plus cars. [00:21:57] This thing again, I'm going to get to the pricing. We don't know yet, but we're going to speculate about Honda. They said that you're going to be able to charge from 10 to 80% in 18 minutes. So of course that's awesome. Yeah. That's crazy early.  [00:22:11] Seth Weintraub: Yeah. That's it like, that's pretty close to like gas. Yeah, I mean is, you know, 10 minutes tops, but we're getting so close. [00:22:20] It doesn't, it almost doesn't make.  [00:22:21] Fred Lambert: And again, you'd only need to do that when you're actually doing like long distance travel, right? I'm like this isn't charging is not even in your mind. We already talked about the ionic coming with the vehicle. Now they are calling a vehicle to load so that the vehicle to grid vehicle to home thing and everything. [00:22:36] That's, that's what they're called to talk about. No, you're talking, you're calling his vehicle to load.  [00:22:41] Seth Weintraub: This is the best thing for me. I think like finally, somebody is doing  [00:22:44] Fred Lambert: this. Yeah. Added that already. No compromise, like everything looks great. And then this is like a good headed value to have that through 3.6 kilowatt capacity that you can get all of it. [00:22:56]There's, there's a port that is under any the second row seats. That as a regular power off bet on it. So, so you can like plug it into your laptop if you're in the back or something and just use that as you drive or whatever which is not like unusual for cars, but there's also, you can literally use a bi-directional charger into the charge port of the vehicle and get access to that vehicle load capacity. [00:23:20] Seth Weintraub: Do you get the 3.6 kilowatts out of the, the plug, do you think, or do you have to use the bi-directional for that?  [00:23:29] Fred Lambert: They don't specify it here. They do say that the V two L board is located under the second receipt and it connects within when the vehicle is on another V2. Port is like the other charging port on the vehicle exterior. [00:23:42] Seth Weintraub: Hmm. Cause they did a little video and they had you know, it was a European plug, which is two 40 already, but to be 3.6 kilowatt, it would have to be about a 20 amp. Output, which is be a lot of power, but that'd be cool. And then they showed it like powering refrigerators and TVs and a bunch of other stuff like camping, like, but you know, 3.6 kilowatts, this is an important thing. [00:24:10] Like you can back up your house with that. Like you know, those generator ports that you know, people build into their houses and they have the separate fuse boxes and all that, that that's, that's the kind of power that, that those things need. You know, a typical house, like, you know, I probably could look at my house right now, but our typical house runs at like two kilowatts or less. [00:24:30] So, you know, as long as you're not doing like, you know, laundry and cooking at the same time, you can probably backup your house with this thing, which is a huge added incentive because you know, the cost of that you know, if you're buying a generator which is dirty or you're buying power walls, which are like 10 grand, like that's a. [00:24:49] Big value, add that nobody seems to be talking about.  [00:24:52] Fred Lambert: Yep, definitely. Yeah, we do the solar roof thing already talked about it. Didn't really mention any type of range that you can get all of it, but I wouldn't expect much to, to the surface of the vehicle  [00:25:03] Seth Weintraub: here. Mostly just the vampire drain elimination. [00:25:06] Fred Lambert: They have the latest heads up display here. I need to find a video of their, of Hyundai's ends of this Lakers. I mean, I've seen the one in the corner, which I wasn't really impressed with. Not, not really one of the best, but they said it's a new one with augmented reality capabilities. So I'm really curious to see what standard Alec is. [00:25:23] That could be good because I've seen some very good ones with augmented reality. So I'm going to look into that if I could get a video because. I'm sure people would want to see that. And then the, the smart sense, which is the driver has to suit of a Hyundai that you get, I guess, equivalent like of a autopilot, if you will. [00:25:40]Yeah. And it's coming this summer. The first app available in selected regions starting in the first half of 2021. So, so like that the regions, I would assume that South Korea, some are repairing markets. I wouldn't expect it in North America and then the second half, and now in term of the pricing. So they already released some pricing in Europe starting at like 40,000 euros, which should be expensive, but that includes the, that, so maybe a little bit cheaper. [00:26:11]In North America, I don't know. Some people were saying, Oh, the base base version could be starting at 30,000. I'd be surprised. But something around 40,000 would be, would be, would be interesting. I think. Yeah, if they  [00:26:25] Seth Weintraub: can get below 40, they still have the $7,500 tax credit, then all of a sudden that's a $30,000 car. [00:26:34] That's, that's, that's tempting, you know, that's like a. You know, I don't know, like it's hard to, it's hard to think about like a VW ID or ID for a Chevy, a Chevy bold. EEV a Mustang. Like this thing has all those little extra things that are pretty sweet. And if it's around the same price, it's going to be hard to think about those things with this thing around. [00:27:00] Yeah.  [00:27:01] Fred Lambert: I might become a Hyundai owner again. I was on the horn at some point with my super Superman. How was that? I like it to run. I mean, I mean, I was a kid when I bought it, but it was like a very cool looking sports car that you could actually afford. Like I paid, like I bought it used, but I paid like $10,000 and $10,000 for it. [00:27:21] It was a cool looking little, two doors, a sports car. So, and it worked well. I liked it.  [00:27:30] Seth Weintraub: I've never owned a Hyundai or any  [00:27:32] Fred Lambert: Korean car, Korean cars. All right. The USBs. Okay. We're going to discuss this piece of news right here. And then we'll talk a bit about said's experience with the ID four, and then we're going to take questions. USPS's new fleet no all-electric [00:27:43] So if you have any questions, put them in the comment section below especially if you have questions about the ID for, I guess. Then didn't write a post, anything yet, like you could help him like formulate some kind of thought and idea of what you guys really want to know about the core. Be fun. So USBs the announced their, their fleet renewal contract this week. [00:28:04] So they are replacing the 160 some thousand cars in their, in their fleet. And they're not even going all electric with it is kind of crazy because, I mean, if you remember just last month, One of the first thing Biden did when he came into office, it's like the old federal government fleet is going all electric. [00:28:21] Like every all vehicle in the government is going in. All the Trico were what period of time and all, no, but the made it like a priority. And then a month later, what the federal government fleet, like the most interesting one, like the biggest one, the biggest part of it, the USDS, the announced the renewal of the fleet. [00:28:42] And like, we're going to have some. Did your car, some internal combustion in general, we are working very hard to promote alternative fuels. I mean, I read the announcement that I was like, what are they talking about? And then a day later Mr. To boss of that thing, what was it called? Yeah, the joy was by the way, was elected by Trump was pointed like, huh. [00:29:05] Or under the Trump administration. I'm not sure if Trump is even know that guy is, but. It was under Trump. He was appointed committed to only 10% of those of that fleet. 160 some thousand vehicles, garbage going all electric, which is what shows a complete lack of leadership, complete lack of vision. I mean, Those those vehicles are so primed for electrification. [00:29:31] Like it makes so much sense. Although SPE stopping, starting all the time it that's all of the things that EVs are super good at as opportunity. Yeah. Super efficient at. And Nope, they're not doing it also. They gave the contract to some defense contractor for it. Yeah.   [00:29:50] Seth Weintraub: Wisconsin. We thought it was going to go to work  [00:29:53] Fred Lambert: horse. [00:29:53] Right. I mean, I wasn't like, I wasn't old, then I have any like favorite or anything like that. But I mean, a defense contractor, like these guys make pinks or whatever, maybe that thanks. But like military vehicles. Yeah.  [00:30:07] Seth Weintraub: Somebody got paid off. I'm  [00:30:09] Fred Lambert: sure. I mean, I wouldn't be surprised about that, but like this, th this, this needs to be made by a of theory, like a myth, every contractor that deliver mails, like  [00:30:18] Seth Weintraub: we've been kind of nice. [00:30:20] That thing is the ugliest thing I've ever seen. I mean, it's a post office, like thing you wouldn't expect it to look amazing, but that looks like it was drawn by like, you know, a third grader, something, it looks like Homer Simpson design.  [00:30:34] Fred Lambert: Yeah. Yeah, it doesn't have that egg at the front end. Exactly. This Elmer Simpson designed vehicle. [00:30:40] But yeah, I don't, I don't, I don't care a lot of these items just, yeah,  [00:30:45] Seth Weintraub: I'm more upset about the electrification, but like, if we're going to go back to the thing, like at least like, if, if they're going to do in current internal combustions, they should make it at least look decent and they didn't. So it's a  [00:31:00] Fred Lambert: zero. [00:31:00] Yeah. And I mean, after the announcement, the next day Biden announced that  was, it was able to appoint three more chairs of the, of the board of the ESPs. So he did that, which gave majority to the Democrats for the board. But I don't know if that's going to be able to do anything to reverse the decision and why Nike, they gave a contract already to contractors. [00:31:25] Officially cost. So like, can they do anything up? I don't know. I mean, I  [00:31:30] Seth Weintraub: guess I could tweak the 10% into 90%. Yeah. Yeah. But, and, and we should note the vehicle itself is supposed to be able to be upgraded from. Combustion to electric at some point later.  [00:31:46] Fred Lambert: Did it say that, but then why like, yeah, it's not, it's not like, Oh, we have like a battery constraint and everything. [00:31:53] 160,000 vehicles is going to be a big problem. It's over 10 years people. So the upgrade is over 10 years. Did they gave the contract now for 10 years? So that means that in eight, nine years under that contract, you could still be delivering and talk about engine vehicles. Which w can you imagine the in 20, 28 and buying a brand new and talk about an engine vehicle that you ordered 10 years ago? [00:32:21] Seth Weintraub: I got it. And knowing them and knowing that the post office and the government, they're probably like backloading the EVs. So they're, they're going to make a hundred percent internal combustion for like the first five years. And then, Oh, we'll throw in some electric vehicles in 10 years.  [00:32:36] Fred Lambert: It's just, I was very disappointed by that because you're not in the market. [00:32:41] Yeah. Yeah. But I mean, yeah, I know, I know if the us does it too, because of Biden's announcement last, but no, I agree because of the USBs actually gave contracts to a bunch of companies, including like workhorse and like a few of those, like to, to, to build like prototypes and everything, like to show that they can do it and whatnot. [00:33:00] So it's not like, not, it's not like. No one could do it. So they gave the contract to the Oscars, like make most of the internal combustion engine. It's like something weird happened in that, that the joy guys is plenty. I've never met him, but I would safely assume that easy to a moron or yeah, some vested interest in like three or three years from now. [00:33:24] He gets a cushy little job on the Oskarshamn board. For some reason. I wouldn't be shocked by that. Yeah.  [00:33:32] Seth Weintraub: 5 million a year consultant bastard.  Seth's experience in the VW ID4 [00:33:35] Fred Lambert: All right. So let's talk about something a little better. Did you find the ID for it's a great  [00:33:41] Seth Weintraub: car? You know, there's, there's trade offs, always and Volkswagen you know, they have three tiers, they have the Volkswagen Audi and Porsche inter you know, in Volkswagen's kind of the people's car. [00:33:52] And I think, you know, overall they have a saying, I guess, It's not for millionaires it's for the millions. So they, they took some, you know, it doesn't charge at 150 kilowatts. It charges at one 20 or one 10 or whatever. It's not super fast, like I got a rear wheel drive version in the snow it's sucked in the snow. [00:34:11] Like I've had, they told me it was snow tires and I was like, this is, you know, barely made it up. My driveway, I got stuck twice. I had to shovel it out a couple of times. So it's a great car.  [00:34:21] Fred Lambert: All wheel drive version is all the  [00:34:23] Seth Weintraub: all wheel drive version is coming late summer. Hopefully we'll get invited to that after the summer. [00:34:29] Yeah, just in time for the summer, they have a two wheel drive just in time for the winter. Smart. But what's cool about the all wheel drive one. We are a North American is they're making it here in Chattanooga, Tennessee. So, you know, maybe, maybe it's, if you're, if you're into that car, maybe it's a good thing to wait. [00:34:44]But this was the first edition. And we got it for three days or no, sorry, we got it for 36 hours. And that I got it for an hour. I took it, you know, did my. Waterfall pictures and whatever. Went shopping for some groceries, came back snowstorm for about 24 hours. And then the snow turned into rain and then I had another, like three or four hours. [00:35:06] So at the imagery and the videos, aren't going to be great. And I didn't get to take it to Vermont. Like I did the Mustang, which I couldn't put on  [00:35:13] Fred Lambert: knowledge on it really.  [00:35:14] Seth Weintraub: Yeah, I really couldn't drive it because, you know, in the snow, like the row, even though like, even if you can get out of my driveway, which is not that easy, the roads were just horrible. [00:35:25] So with a two wheel drive car, I just didn't trust being able to get up Hills and, and stay, you know, stay on the road. But that said like the car is really pleasant. Like it's a great drive, you know, BWS, German engineered. It feels great inside it, it it, it was like somewhere between like the Mustang level of luxury and a Tesla, like the, you know, when you hit a bump, it didn't make a loud noise. [00:35:49] Like my model, why does, but it also didn't like totally softened it like Mustang dead, which is weird because I don't think of the Mustang as like a luxury vehicle. Yeah. I mean, inside, it was really nice. It wasn't you know, we talked about like Tesla, no buttons, it wasn't, or even Mustang didn't have very many buttons and it had the screen, it was very much more like a traditional car. [00:36:11]You know, like if you want to know where the. The door handle is you don't have to like search around and try to figure out what Tesla or Ford was doing. It's just a normal door handle inside and out. They did of course make the gear shifter. I don't know why this is impossible for people to understand, but like they made the gear shift or super weird. [00:36:29]It's a, it's like it's on the dashboard. It's like, it's like the BMW thing. It's a dial on the dashboard. And of course, if you want to go into region mode or one pedal driving is everybody calls it. You got to go twice into drive, just like the Chevy bolt or everything else, which is super annoying. [00:36:46] I asked them if they're going to upgrade that, they said, you know, we're thinking about it, but it could be upgraded over, over the air where, you know, you can switch that or change. That one thing was really disappointing. I took it to a Electrify America, the same kind of thing that I took the Mustang too. [00:37:04] And the Mustang has plug-in charge. So you just plug it in. It does a thing for like 15, 20 seconds. And then you're charging kind of like a Tesla Volkswagen who owns electrify America and has the ID for took it to the station, plugged it in. Ask for my credit card. So I gave it my credit card that didn't work. [00:37:27]I did Apple pay that didn't work. I signed up for an electrify America account, which I've had, well, I had one, I just couldn't remember the password I signed up again. That didn't work. So maybe it was the station, you know, like, you know, we shouldn't know electrify America has been a great partner for electric and it works more times than it doesn't. [00:37:48] But in this particular case, it was quite frustrating that I had a Volkswagen and their charging system didn't work. And I asked them about plugging charge. Like guys, Like do that. Ford's got this, your other company you  [00:38:01] Fred Lambert: own  you own  [00:38:03] Seth Weintraub: electric. Yeah. America, you have a car, you know, on the other side of the, the company that's doing pug and charge already called those engineers, like just download that software, do whatever you have to do. [00:38:15]But they said a plugin charge is coming via software update at a later date. So that's good. That's something to look forward to, I think like from now on like, if it doesn't have in charge, Like they gotta, they gotta just go back to the drawing  [00:38:29] Fred Lambert: board. Yeah. I mean it, it, I feel like it's going to be a quick standard to be applied to the whole industry and it  [00:38:35] Seth Weintraub: just totally makes it a much better experience. [00:38:37] Fred Lambert: I mean, it's like that stuff was, was smart to do like their home thing start with their own charging, that work. Cause they were able to apply that easily if it's with their own network. It's not as easy though. It should be for Volkswagen. This would just described, but. I mean, they they're doing it like Ford is doing it. [00:38:55] So yeah. I would  [00:38:56] Seth Weintraub: assume if Ford can do it on Volkswagens chargers Volkswagen can do  [00:39:00] Fred Lambert: it. Yeah. I mean, officially there's a whole Chinese wall between the different American was Vegas, completely different company and everything, but still.  [00:39:08] Seth Weintraub: Yeah. So I don't, you know, that was one bad thing I have to say. [00:39:11] Like overall though, I was really impressed with the inside. The interior, the drive was great. You know, when you're not on snowy roads Like, you know, he kind of wonder like, all right, so am I just getting used to these electric vehicles? Like the Mustang was really good. The, you know, even the Chevy today also good. [00:39:30]And this thing, like baddie Ford, like, it was just great. Like it just flies down the road. Not, not crazy fast. I don't even think as fast as the Mustang that I had, but it gets there and, you know, You accelerate onto the freeway. You're not like wanting for any more acceleration. You're not pinning people back like a Tesla will, but I like Volkswagen says this is for the millions. [00:39:52] So I think it's a very appealing design. I think women and men who aren't necessarily electric vehicle nerds like us, they're going to be really comfortable in this kind of car. So. For me, it's a big winner. They do have some work to do, you know, all wheel drive getting the the and charge working. [00:40:12] But I think it's going to be a popular car.  [00:40:15] Fred Lambert: Yeah, let's go. Sorry. I'm supposed to get one for a while, right. For a week for a full review. Do we know when that's  [00:40:21] Seth Weintraub: gonna happen? I mean, I don't know if it's going to be all the way until. Late summer, but Oh  [00:40:27] Fred Lambert: yeah, I was  [00:40:28] Seth Weintraub: coming up. No, I hope so. I dunno when  [00:40:31] Fred Lambert: whatever we though. Q&A [00:40:32] All right. Let's, let's jump into the comments. What do you guys are saying right now? All right.  [00:40:38] Seth Weintraub: So Jonathan whirling says the boat. Evie is interesting. LOL. I think it is. I, I I've owned a boat Eby for three years. I, I loved that car. So the EVs. Kind of interesting, but I can't say why. All right. Matt, Oh, what are your predictions for model two $25,000 car price upon delivery. [00:40:59] Do you see anything below 50,000 Canadian out the door is 25 K too optimistic? Well, I don't think it's going to be called the model two.  [00:41:08] Fred Lambert: Yeah. I mean either, but I don't, I don't understand that quick. Would it be bill 50,000 Canadian? I mean, wouldn't it be? Yeah. I mean, there's no, there's no con artists ourselves right now. [00:41:21] And in Canada, that is twice the amount that it's sold in the, in the us on that's the saying that maybe it won't be $25,000 in the U S eater, which might or might not be like the Headspace glacier, because it's the, has had some issue delivering on pricing before. So yeah, mean maybe. But yeah, we'll, we'll see about that car. [00:41:40] W w we'll see when we get there. So very speculative right now, it's probably still like three or three years away. So I don't know,  [00:41:45]Seth Weintraub: In terms of the chip shortage station two 40 says Tesla also use a lot of chips from Texas instruments who are in Texas also  [00:41:53] Fred Lambert: good point. Yeah. It's Texas instrument, Texas. [00:41:56] I think  [00:41:57] Seth Weintraub: so. Green gold Tesla needs to figure out what models and prices they want and stick with it. This is in regard to the pricing. That would be nice for sure. I wonder if they're trying to create some like nervous energy with potential buyers saying it's at a good price. Now I should buy it before they raise the price or do something weird. [00:42:17] Fred Lambert: I mean, we would hell no is like test as it's so weird pod that for so long now and in the U S with the whole tax credit thing that like looms around everything too, is it's getting a bit confusing. Yeah, we didn't talk about that. I should mention this. There's a, there's a, like a competing reform for the tax credit has been introduced to we talked about the green act last week or the week before that was introduced. [00:42:41] Gives 400,000 more cars to Tesla and all the auto makers of the hidden threshold at $7,000, a dollar tax credit, the electric cars act, which was actually introduced in 2019, but of course was shut down under the Trump administration and the Republicans still have the Senate and whatnot. Now bringing that back and that one, if that one makes it instead of the. [00:43:03] Green act. That would be a big deal because first of all, it's retroactive through through the year. So it would start in 2021. So every car that was delivered in 2021 would apply to still 7,500, so $500 more. Who's going to complain about 500 or more in their pockets. Big deal here. Big, big deal. At the dealership, you can get it at the dealership on the sticker price. [00:43:28] So not a tax rate. It can be a tax fee too. And if you want it as a tax rate, it can be over five years. So if you don't have $7,500 of tax liability at the federal level you should have it over five years, especially if you're buying a new car. So. That's good, but then again, you probably, the most people won't do that. [00:43:46] If you can apply it to the, at the dealership at the sticker price. So some  [00:43:49] Seth Weintraub: people, I don't know why you would anyway,  [00:43:53] Fred Lambert: I'm not a tax lawyer, accountant. Maybe, maybe they would have a reason for it. But I I'm on the same page as you on that. And then the, of course the biggest thing of them all, they remove the cap. [00:44:04] There's no capital it's on a 10 year period. It's crazy. Yeah. Which is crazy. But I feel like that's more of a, like a negotiating standpoint, maybe like we asked for that. And then we like five years would be plenty. And then between you and me, like 10 years is a, is a long time, like by 10 years, like it's either, he's going to be way more competitive on pricing than any gas or cars. [00:44:26] I mean, I would have  [00:44:27] Seth Weintraub: to say this out loud in public, but like Tesla is already competing pretty well without a tax credit. Yeah. My thing is like, all right, take all that energy and, and all that. Stuff and carbon tax, like, or a carbon dividend. I mean, I know that's not popular and never going to be popular, but like not at the station at the well, like  [00:44:46] Fred Lambert: I dunno. [00:44:47] Yeah. But I mean, even though that the electric cars act sounds a bit crazy it's easier to do I'm sure than the car with AXA. Right.  [00:44:57] Seth Weintraub: All right. David authors, as sorry if I missed it. But did you guys ever discuss the Apple TV plus show long way up? It included reveal and truck driving up from South South of South America to LA quite a feat. [00:45:10] We did discuss it. Micah did a couple posts on it in conjunction with nine to five Mac, which covers Apple TV plus. It's pretty interesting. I only watched some highlights, but it was also with two Harley Davidson Livewire electric motorcycles. So go Google it. We're the  [00:45:26] Fred Lambert: focus on the show? [00:45:27] Really? Any does comes up a few times cause they were the support vehicle to the, but it's really just a motorcycle drive Molson.  [00:45:36] Seth Weintraub: All right. Kevin, do you have pictures of all the nine colors as being offered in? Was that in regard to the Hyundai or.  [00:45:43] Fred Lambert: Tesla. I don't know, but yeah, I mean, we, we should do that. [00:45:47] People always love those posts. Like we should probably do that with the high-end Nick in the ID for and post all the colors available.  [00:45:55] Seth Weintraub: All right. When, if do you think LFP equip Teslas will make it to North America? Well, they're not going to make it, they're going to make made in North America. But it could be, I mean, if Yuan's kind of hinting at it, now, it could be happening as we speak. [00:46:10] Fred Lambert: Could be, but I have no idea  [00:46:14] Seth Weintraub: we might not ever have it. Electric car market is finally heating up great for customers. I was just thinking the same thing. Like, you know, we're reviewing the Baldy UV, the ID for the Mustang model wise here, and they're finally catching up to demand. That's great. [00:46:29] Yeah.  [00:46:31] Fred Lambert: If there was like the standard rainbow, why competing with diet before competing with the ionic five competing with the Mustang Nike all the same year, that would be like crazy. It's pretty much what's happening though. Standard rainbow wise is kind of up in the air.  [00:46:45]Seth Weintraub: Green gold also asks is SCC investigating Ilan again. [00:46:50] Fred Lambert: That was a first Quoc, the Newswire financial news wire, which generally is pretty early on those news. So I think it was the one that they break the news to for the last ACC the station on Ilan. But yeah, probably they are, we don't know, they didn't ever come into an active investigation. So we very hard to permit by union is asking for it. [00:47:12] That for the news came out, he was, he went on Twitter and was like, I only do it will be Duke.  [00:47:17] Seth Weintraub: That's like when the the diver was like, when to Sue you, he was like, do it,  [00:47:23] Fred Lambert: but you want that one? So that's true. You didn't want the sec though, you could argue that he kind of won and we reported it like the deal that he had to buy more shares for Tesla. [00:47:32] You actually made money on that. So you could have done that anyway, though. Yeah, that's true. Like it wasn't, it  [00:47:37] Seth Weintraub: Manda whole says Ilan for president Andrew Yang would have made the mail trucks, EVs, no doubts, man, probably.  [00:47:46] Fred Lambert: Well, you know, or Andrew for, for president, he left for president, but Andrew Yang would have  [00:47:51] Seth Weintraub: made it, I guess Andrew would have been at Yuan's. [00:47:54] Fred Lambert: Yeah. I said, I wasn't, I wasn't really prefer Andrew Yang as as president than Elan. I mean, I love the guy  [00:48:02] Seth Weintraub: you on should be making cars. Yeah. How is Oshkosh qualified to offer EVs? I know they make kids overalls. How are they going to make a EVs?  [00:48:14] Fred Lambert: I mean, I think that's a different division,  [00:48:17] Seth Weintraub: different, different company, probably entirely. [00:48:19] All right. Wayno says you have to look at the quality of people working for the post office. Most drivers of Subpart. If that who cares, what does it, what does the driver have to do  [00:48:29] Fred Lambert: with it? Like morons going to drive electric vehicles right now. Yeah, it's easy to enlist a few. If you want.  [00:48:36] Seth Weintraub: We have a couple of good videos on the channel. [00:48:38] Alright, Chris, 50 fives stop. Well, Biden dropped $15 minimum wage and then bomb Syria. So that this doesn't surprise me. Yeah. I don't know. I don't want to wait too much into politics. Is giving did joy the hook news today. Oh, we got an exclusive from MDC 4runner. So I guess the joy has gone according to a YouTube commenter, Chris 55 stop. [00:49:06] That would be nice. All right, Mike Metcalf, Fred, you mentioned mining companies you're invested in. Can you share which ones, any other investments you're excited about? Disclaimer, time.  [00:49:16] Fred Lambert: Yeah, I'm not a financial advisor or a stock picker or anything like that, but I can discuss my own investment if you want. [00:49:22] I mean, I'm very high on Nicole. I mean, Elan's concerns I think are warranted. Like the diamond is coming for Nicole from the battery industry is truly immense. Like it's hard to overstate. It just all big it is. And it's starting to get reflected into the price of Nicole. But it's not just about the price of the, of the actual commodity. [00:49:48] Like it it's about having new mining projects that are sustainable. And that's why I'm looking into like, things that are not contributing to the problem, but they're just a part of the solution. And also, also The the, the, the, the, the closer to the supply chain, too. It would be nice, like not going like too far deep into the wild and whatnot. [00:50:10] So, yeah, there's a few projects that I like. Well, the, the giga metals, a Vancouver based company that has been rumored to be working with Tesla on a potential Nichole mining project and vested in that there's another company that I like that is related to giga metals. That could be an interesting exposure to, to nickel is a conic metals, but I think they're changing their name right now. [00:50:33] It's not going to be kind of mills and anymore, but that company is very interesting where the invest, the, the buy steaks and nickel projects and that's all they do. So they're there and they're not a mining company. They invest in mining companies with small stakes and a bunch of different them with a focus on nickel and so, so that gives you exposure to Nicole really, but with a wide variety of projects. [00:50:54] And so if you invest in legal metals, for example, it's, it's a riskier project because if it doesn't come to fruition, well, that's it, you lose your investment, but if you have a bunch of different projects like that, it makes more sense. So Connie metals, they are invested in, in the gold medals. For example, they have a small stake in the company. [00:51:10] So if it does succeed great for them, they have a small stake in the, in the. And another functioning mine in. I want to say Papua New Guinea. I might be mistaken, but one of those places that are big and they go producer. So they own like an 8% stake in.com that mind that's already producing. So that's revenue for a company and then they invest. [00:51:33] That revenue and to acquiring steaks in smaller like junior mining companies and that, that are looking into Nicole. And then if those projects come to fruition, then the company grows and everything. So I think that's a good exposure, I think, but look into it, like do your own due diligence. Yeah. There's plenty of opportunity for bashing materials, mining. [00:51:55] Seth Weintraub: All right. So moving back into the comments the ID for all wheel drive is the one to get, or the iconic five all wheel drive. We talked about those. When does the all wheel drive ID for arrive and the summer coming out of Chattanooga? We'll, we'll be there for the, a bunch there. Hopefully hopefully it codes over Nanda holds them back saying cyber truck is going to decimate these soft first time entries. [00:52:20] Nothing else will make sense. Good. Glad to hear from the Tesla fan club here sat in the ID for it's barely bigger than our least narrow E V. That's true. It's not huge. And it looks like an ice under the hood. It doesn't have a Frank that's also true build quality was tops true, but they missed the Mark. [00:52:39] Okay. It would be funny if one of the Elon sons will be the CEO of Tesla someday.  [00:52:44] Fred Lambert: I mean the isn't the whole, this like 13 years old or something right now. Yeah. If that would be like, you're talking about a 50,000 people company right now. It's not like you earn like 30 or something and like, ah, I can run the company  [00:52:58] Seth Weintraub: anymore. [00:52:58] That's a very South Korean like mindset. Like why would it? Yeah,  [00:53:02] Fred Lambert: well, it's like a foreign mindset to maybe also like Ian might not be the best person to run the test though right now. So why would his son be the best person to run the company? And also which  [00:53:13] Seth Weintraub: son, like they're going to all fight over it. [00:53:14] There's like, and they're all like, The same age, because  [00:53:17] Fred Lambert: we don't know any of them we'd have to toot the horn leadership or anything like that. Because like I said, I, I'm not saying that I don't like even running the company, but I'm seeing like at this stage of Tesla, I, there's definitely an argument that could be made for Elan stepping into like a chairman role and then like a product architect, role boat role, but the already older Tesla and then leaving the CEO role to somebody else. [00:53:42] I mean, It worked pretty well for companies like Apple, for example, like Tim cook is as I'm pretty good, even though people said that not as innovative as it used to be, but at the same time Apple, I didn't have a jobs to stick around cancer took him away, but if he can have you to stick around and have someone as a CEO that, that I think that would be. [00:54:05] I think the optimals iteration.  [00:54:06] Seth Weintraub: I mean, he's really not the CEO anyway, like he's, you know, in the traditional sense, he's a chief like architect or whatever, you know, whatever you want to call, like the head engineer or whatever. He's not doing a typical SEO CEO, sorry role where he's taking meetings and doing all that stuff. [00:54:23] Especially since he's got two companies going or 15 companies all right. Okay, Nana holes. Again, the only reason Tesla up the model Y price was to get some of the government cheese on one spite in GMB, $7,000 credit's head. It will be the best value at that point. I don't get that logic. You get the same 7,000 on a cheaper one. [00:54:45] Maybe we'll skip those for now. All right, Tom gearing says instead of model to what follows Elan's joke. Name convention, the sexy would have been sexy except for it on the E I'm guessing the next C six models. Okay. All all right. So sorry. Shane was Sullivan. It's a bit surprising that Ford didn't go with the heat pump in the Maki. [00:55:07] Did they reverse engineer the model three and decided to copy them? Or there is a lot of similar similarities with the Maki and Tesla's vehicles. Heat pumps. It's not a new technology it's been around for awhile. I don't, I mean, I know Tesla did like the OCHA valve, which is supposed to be interesting, but if they wanted to, they could've probably put a heat pump. [00:55:27] I think it's just a cost and size constraint. All right. Moving on, Kevin for the ionic five colors of the ionic five. Oh yeah. So I guess we'll have to dig around. Maybe we'll get one of our artists. To mock up some cool  [00:55:44] Fred Lambert: stuff. I think they released a bunch of them that might, there might be a configurator in Germany open or something. [00:55:50] Okay.  [00:55:51] Seth Weintraub: I'll look into that. All right. Jose Dela Cruz asked if the Maki had a heat pump, it would increase its real-world range and the winter for sure  [00:56:01] Fred Lambert: can argue. Yeah, I did test the Nike though in the winter and I was impressed by it. So just set that same. So yeah,  [00:56:07] Seth Weintraub: we drove to Vermont in like single digit. [00:56:10] And it was fine. All right. Our Panasonic and LG chem getting into LFP seems like NMC is on a downward trend due to nickel cobalt. Yeah.  [00:56:22]Fred Lambert: I don't know exactly the product roadmap for pass and I can in LG, but yeah, I mean, Desola is laid out. It's planned like four hour or shorter range vehicle are gonna use. [00:56:38] ILS, the mid range are going to use in an MC. I'm not getting these nickel and then high nickel for, for, for long range or demanding product, like the cyber truck and the Tesla semi and whatnot. And I think the broader industry is going to have to adapt to that. That means dish surprising if they don't. [00:56:59] Seth Weintraub: All right. Tristan ward asks any guesses on the ionic five price. So we, you know, rewind. We, we did a lot of guessing there. Some thinking it'll be between the ionic and Kona. Nope. It's going to be above the Kona looking great. 60 mile charge in five minutes, et cetera. Yeah. Kona. Kona is I mean, it's just dead in the water really. [00:57:19] I mean, I, I think  [00:57:21] Fred Lambert: it depends on if the price is still better, you might, you know, it might go with that, but. Also some people might it's too radical, maybe the design, but I feel like it hit the Mark for me. Like it's, it's, it's new potentially radical, but it still works well. It's okay.  [00:57:39] Seth Weintraub: It's the only car I'm kind of like, like really thinking about right now, but you know, obviously thinking about cyber trucks and Roadsters, but you know, ones that are going to be produced this year. [00:57:51] All right. Moving on Shannon Sullivan in Europe, ABB is providing a lot of the hardware to the identity network, which is what electrify America is called here. What is the predominant DC charge point? Electrify America is mostly ABB. They do most of the chargers, even ego, I think is. Mostly ABB  [00:58:08] Fred Lambert: I think at different, like if we had four different ones, they diversified  [00:58:13] Seth Weintraub: a little bit,  [00:58:14] Fred Lambert: they went to their site a lot though I, it is not really what the age of farm America is. [00:58:21] I mean, it's a coalition. I on a T in Europe, I think, I think Hyundai is it is. One of the big owners in Ford is too Fagen is for sure. But a department guy is Volkswagen is the sole owner. Perfect.  [00:58:34] Seth Weintraub: Yeah. And I think this was in regard to my comments about how I wasn't able to initiate a charge with credit card. [00:58:39] I think that's more like that. I don't think that has to do with ABB. I think that's more like the payment processing stuff, the credit card stuff and the communications, which I don't think ABB is a part of, they might be. And then we're at our last question from Shane. O'Sullivan a nice trend is all wheel drive. [00:58:55] But with the front wheels driven by a low speed, high torque motor, just for snow or off road driving. That's actually interesting because GM talked about that at their battery day in March or not battery day, but whatever they did. What was that called? Was it the battery then?  [00:59:10] Fred Lambert: The one last year? Yeah, last year. [00:59:12] Yeah, that was the easy  [00:59:13] Seth Weintraub: day, I think almost a year ago. Some of their cars are going to have a very low power, high torque front wheel. Well, you know, all wheel drive motors, just for that time, you know, three or four times a year when you're stuck in the snow, which I think is really smart. [00:59:31] There's really, you know, that's kind of, a lot of people are just buying all wheel drive for those particular times. And I think it's smart. I mean, you can do that with a luxury. You can't really do that with gas. You have, you know, you're either running a axle, like the length of the car or you're not. [00:59:45] So this is kind of a cool thing. I don't know if anybody else's, you know,  [00:59:51] Fred Lambert: I don't know. I mean also he's, he's, he's talking about front wheel drive. I mean, it's not all the people doing front wheel drive and the EVs of people doing real drive now.  [01:00:01] Seth Weintraub: Yeah.  [01:00:02]Fred Lambert: Ionic, I think is real. The two wheel option has to be real drive, I  [01:00:05] Seth Weintraub: think. [01:00:05] Yeah. So basically the, the wheels that aren't normally driving the car.  [01:00:12] Fred Lambert: Oops. Did I lose you right now? All right. If I, if I lost you, I'll I mean, that's it for today's episode of the electric podcast people. I think we lost set right now, but thanks a lot for listening. If you like the video or on YouTube, you can leave us a likeness, subscribe on your podcast app. [01:00:30] You can give us a review. So I always appreciated, and we're going to see you next time. Kind of get one, everyone. Transcribed using Descript

This week on the Electrek Podcast, we discuss the most popular news in the world of sustainable transport and energy, including Tesla's price cuts, the unveiling of the Chevy Bolt EV and Bolt EUV, and more. The Electrek Podcast is me, Fred Lambert, editor-in-chief of Electrek, and Seth Weintraub, founder and publisher of Electrek and the 9to5 network, discussing all our top stories of the week while taking questions from our readers and highlighting the most insightful comments on the site. The show is back live every Friday at 4 p.m. ET on Electrek’s YouTube channel. As a reminder, we’ll have an accompanying post, like this one, on the site with an embedded link to the live stream. Head to the YouTube channel to get your questions and comments in. After the show ends at around 5 p.m. ET, the video will be archived on YouTube and the audio on all your favorite podcast apps: Apple PodcastsSpotifyOvercastPocket CastsCastroRSS We now have a Patreon if you want to help us to avoid more ads and invest more in our content. We have some awesome gifts for our Patreons and more coming. Here are a few of the articles that we will discuss during the podcast today: Tesla reduces Model 3 and Model Y prices, now starts under $37,000Tesla Model S refresh spotted with ‘regular’ steering wheelTesla produces another new Tesla Semi electric truckTesla Powerwalls and other home battery packs proving more than useful in Texas blackouts2022 Chevrolet Bolt EUV and EV announced with almost everything you asked forMercedes-Benz cancels launch of EQC electric SUV in the USFord invests $1 billion in building electric vehicle factory in GermanyElectric snowmobile and jet ski maker Taiga goes public and raises $100 million Here’s the live stream for today’s episode starting at 4 p.m. ET (or the video after 5 p.m. ET): https://youtu.be/MB0N6Ejbc7Y Transcription [00:00:00] Fred Lambert: And we are live for a new episode of the electric podcast. Welcome back everyone. As usual, I'm joined by set one champ. Are you doing today? Set. I'm good. All right. Well, let's dive right in. We have a few, not too many news. This was kind of a, a slower weeks in in the world, but there was a big weekend with the reading of the bolt E V E V last weekend. [00:00:21] So we're going to discuss that old letter M on their show, but we're going to start as usual with the Tesla news this week. And the, the bigger news this week. I would venture to say, was that the price got for the model S three and model? Y I should say. And yeah, some, some pretty significant price. [00:00:37] Got, sorry. I'm hearing myself from new things that, well. Hmm, not true. Yeah.  [00:00:46] Seth Weintraub: It's coming through my  [00:00:47] Fred Lambert: head outside one, two, one, two, one, two. Yeah. I think I'm hearing from right now. It sounds not too bad, man. I don't know, let us know in the comments if you're eating the same thing, but I'm I have a lot of feedback and it feels like it's from a group you're speaker. [00:01:00] There's nothing coming out of your speakers. And you're saying no, one, two, one, two, one, two, [00:01:09] this strange. All right. Let's power on. Yeah. And the CFN price guts, especially for the base version on both mall three and more why the standard range Polis gets down to $37,000 from $38,000. And the model, Y it gets an even bigger price cut from $42,000 to $40,000. So the normal wife for the first time now is under 40. [00:01:33] And if you remember that standard range, mole wide didn't exist until last month when it was a. Launched by Tesla. So. So this is a, this is a quick price drop for the, for the new 3m of the, of the electric SUV. But other than that the long range all wheel drive for Baltimore, Wiremold three status saying 47 and $50,000 respectively. [00:01:56]But the, the, the performance version, interestingly, they get. The price increased by a thousand dollars, which, which adds up to 56, furthermore, three performance and a 61 for the model Y performance. So people are trying to read into what is happening here. Exactly. There's a lot of different theories. [00:02:17]Of course the main one, if you follow more of the Tesla of, of, of the, of the Tesla narrative is that we, we adjust the pricing when we make improvement in term of production efficiency and everything. So we pass those on to the consumer in term of in, in order to be aligned with our mission to accelerate the energy transport, all make sense. [00:02:41] Could be the case here, but there's also a bunch of different theories here because also we we've been talking about the green act that could bring back and significant tax credits and in the U S for perjury, because of course those price changes are in the U S by the way, though, there's been some, a few other adjustments in other markets, but other than Japan, I don't think there was anything significant with mode three and more wine. [00:03:03] So. We discussed last week. Was it last week when we talked about the green act or the week before that? Whenever it was introduced anyway, yeah, it was introduced in Congress and we discussed like they're going to bring, basically extend the limit from 200,000 deliveries to 600,000, giving Tesla, GE and GM, another 400,000 and more vehicles to, to receive a 7,000 tax student instead of a. [00:03:32]Of a 7,500 and surprisingly, there wasn't any specific price requirements in there. Like a lot of other countries are introducing like in Canada where there's a price limit on the model they can get, they can receive a tax credit. In, in, in Canada we have a, like a 45 and $55,000 limit, depending on some configurations. [00:03:52]There wasn't that in in the green act as it was proposed, but. As, as we discuss it, it could change by the time it gets adopted. If it gets adopted, though, it is. Likely. And so some people are speculating that a 40,000 limit might be introduced, which could have created this this price change, especially for the model Y so that the model Y gets accessed, at least at a standard version, could have been also why Tesla even introduced the standard range in the first place. [00:04:19] Because as you remember even less says that that's the wouldn't introduce that version. He didn't like the range of the vehicle was getting. So of course Tesla is most likely in talks with, with the new Biden administration while we know that they are in talks. I mean, Elan even confirmed that the suggested you suggested to them to introduce a carbon tax, but we also know that Tesla is part of the new Zita. [00:04:41]Association for electric vehicles in the U S that is pushing for a national national standards and whatnot. So this lobbying group really w people involve in their with know what they're, what they're planning and through all the tax credit and everything. So that might be something that I've been in talks for a while. [00:04:58] So Teslas might be making some move to, to take advantage of that preemptively. That that's my fake on it. But I mean it speak leash of obviously  [00:05:09] Seth Weintraub: 37,000. If you get a $7,000 tax credit brings to the model three below 30,000 bucks, which would be a pretty big deal. So that th you know, obviously $7,000 is the number being thrown around now. [00:05:21] So that prospect is, is obviously there. And I agree with you, like if, if the green act does have a $40,000 cap, Tesla's got a model Y for you there. So I think, I think the new pricing makes a lot of sense and clearly you know, less expensive overall. The problem, as we may have mentioned a few times, is that the uncertainty of the act, you know, whether it gets passed or not, and in what form people are gonna wait, like they're not, who's going to buy a car now, if it's not right. [00:05:50] You know, we don't know if it's going to be retroactive. I don't think it's going to be retroactive. So Everybody was talking about buying a Tesla now is thinking, well, I'm just going to wait until this comes  [00:05:59] Fred Lambert: through. Yeah, this is, this has been confusing because because it's a tax credit you think all right, happens in the tax year, but you can deduct from that. [00:06:08] So if the delivery happened, then if you paid for the cards during that year, it would work. But the way that there was. Raymond in the proposal, at least it didn't sound like that. It says when did he get adopted? So, yeah, that was confusing. I've been trying to, to gain some information from, from sources. [00:06:24] Of course, like I said, in the past few quarters, the slides tightened up the, the, the, the delivery goal, the, the, the, in the cells, the cells data. But I'm trying to get some information and how this affected the cells, because like you said, I would assume that. That will be quite significant because I mean, especially for standard range, more three 30, $7,000, like 7,000 differences is massive. [00:06:49]So no one would be buying a car. If you think that there's even a 50% chance that you could get $7,000 off that car within the next 10 months. So, so yeah, it's, it's interesting. So also. For, for the bowl TV, UV that just released those also that, that, that put a big question marks around those cars because They, they could also potentially get a new tax credit at the same time for all the other vehicles that are still on the old program. [00:07:15] Well, that's, that's a $500 more that you want right now, if you, so there's, there's a, it's a to a double edged sword, really, because technically it would bring down the tax credit by 500 bucks for, for the vehicles that are for the Nate that haven't reached that 200,000 threshold just yet.  [00:07:35] Seth Weintraub: Yeah. I mean, either way they should get through this quicker, like figure it out and get it done before for too long, because nobody's going to be buying fewer people are going to be buying Teslas and GMs until then. [00:07:47] Yeah. Yeah,  [00:07:48] Fred Lambert: I'm, I'm really curious to see how it's African DISA sales right now. Yeah. Other than that, I mean, the increase on the performance version without any changes in actual specs as far as I can tell, but as you notice though, is weird about that. They will introduce changes and not show them in the configurator for, for a while. [00:08:04] So we don't, we don't know exactly what might be happening here, but yeah. Interesting price change that happened overnight that two, two days ago. All right. Still talking about the model S to refresh, we had never got that thumb, that call that was supposed to happen, but it's so we were kind of just working with what we have in term of MLS refresh right now. [00:08:28] And there's the big question around the steering wheel that remains, people want to know if the, the butterfly is going to be standard or is going to be an option. Are you even going to be able to have the round around steering wheel? Are you getting able to have the stock or where you really won't be really done with the stocks and everything? [00:08:45] So The little development that happened this week is that a test vehicle or testimony as refresh was spotted in Ohio. And and it had the around steering wheel. I said, I said, regular steering wheel in, in quotes, in the In the video because in the article, because I mean, you could argue that the shape of the new steering wheel butterfly shape is not the biggest change to it is the removal of all the stock and all the user interface. [00:09:12] Now being the forced touch buttons and everything that. Is arguably the bigger change and that's still the case with that steering wheel. So this is still a new Tesla steering wheel with the forced us button. And you can see even the scrolls of all, you cannot see the force us buttons, but you can see that there's no stocks only. [00:09:26] It has to be some forces button on it. And the scrolls a little bit different too, but this is a standard round, a steering wheel. They're clearly a test vehicle because a little cup here is not very high in that hiding very well. A stop bottom that is standard for prototypes.  [00:09:43] Seth Weintraub: I think that's not. Legal that way like that, that stop button is supposed to be accessible, not, not covered by it. [00:09:49] Dixie cup. Yeah, but you know, [00:09:54] Fred Lambert: someone that someone touches in that veritably, if you, if you do many times and it's more dangerous to have it in the open like that, then, then to have the cap on it, maybe why interesting seeing things from that picture that, that the, on the prototype that was part of is that, like I talked about. [00:10:09] The earlier we can see those buttons on the release of Tesla, but I found them in documents that we obtained that said that there was some forced touch button for the drive modes underneath the phone. This is the phone charger right there. That's in building the center console and there, you can see them clearly because there's a, put some tape on it with clear Clear indication of park reverse, neutral and drive. [00:10:32] So, yeah, like I said, when we first talked about, about that, like, I don't think that's the removal of the stock, at least for the drive modes and people saying, Oh, now that with the autopilot that is supposed to automatically detect which drive mode to use, that's a big deal and everything. I think if you don't like that, I mean, they're right there. [00:10:50] They're really right there. You just click on those and I mean, you have the. You have the, the Mustang Nackey that basically has a dial right. At the same spot that those are, and this is not that different. Really.  [00:11:04] Seth Weintraub: Yeah. I mean, compared to some of the other stuff, like the the BMW I three, which has that weird dial on top of the dashboard and Some of the other stuff going on in business actually  [00:11:14] Fred Lambert: kind of normal. [00:11:15] Okay. Yeah. The, the bigger changes are more significant turn on the user interface will be more like the the blinkers, like the turn signals. That's people are like, you grew up however long. It was that you've been driving cars. It's always been a stock that you pulling. So that's, that's a bigger change, but I mean, If this is a clear indication of Teslas, this, the strategy with, with, with self-driving like the company has been so focused on self-driving so confident about the ability to bring self-driving to market, that the they've been making change to the user experience of driving a car and sometimes even lacking in some specific area, because they're like, yeah, once it's self-driving and won't even matter that I feel like that that has been like a a trend for Tesla. [00:12:02] And even things when you, that you can think like like ends up display. Like, if you, if you drive like one of the latest Audis and BMWs, universities, other vehicle that like more S is obviously going to compete with, they have some very, very good ads of this place. Now in those cars, like they are actually useful. [00:12:22] They will look great. They're, they're, they're fun to use. And that's the never, never even invested right too much into that and trying to bring that to market a version of that. And they think, cause they're like, eh, w w why, why do you need that for when, when it's sells driving? I feel, I feel that's one part of the trend and now of course we're seeing things like getting rid of the turn signals and even the drive modes. [00:12:45] But yeah, I mean that prototype also that the person that spotted some artists, the owner from the center, Michigan club in, on the Facebook group said that he asked, it was part of the local service center in Toledo. And he, as the service people, if that round steering wheel is going to be an option and they did say yes Now it's still not on the configurator. [00:13:05] It's still not an option. Even though this, those living, you place an order right now for them pneumo ass. And when I asked my sources at Tesla, they said that they haven't communicated to the soul force. Anything about it being an option, but like we reported the, the image appeared on not. [00:13:22] Consumer-facing but in the source correlate, this is website with the standards. The round thing will, and just now this, the posted a new video on this Twitter of the very short video of the, this, the plaid winter testing. And it does show that it has around seeing wheels. So,  [00:13:38] Seth Weintraub: yeah. And you should note that that steering wheel that you're looking at right there, the, the one in the, the sales stuff is the exact same steering wheel that the, the beta Gar at. [00:13:49] Yeah, yeah,  [00:13:49] Fred Lambert: yeah. But at the same time, like when it comes to the winter testing, I like I would the, the drive modes, the four-star spot, Nike that's one thing, but the butterfly shape needs to be tested too. I feel like as the butterfly shape does change with other things in term of the driving experience, especially in. [00:14:08] Things like winter testing where like, if you lose control of the car and everything, that's, that's when you, you want to be able, like to turn the wheel properly and everything. And it's not just about, it's about configurating the, the, the, the wheels turn a certain amount specifically for the ball of fire shape, because you cannot just do the normal motion of rotating like that. [00:14:27] So It's a strange situation. Some, some more clarity would be appreciated, but I mean, you cannot ask too much of the test that these days when it comes down to communications and clarity, Not their forte. Not much with anything coming out of there. Yep. Yep. Yep. I stay with some prototypes sightings. Another Tesla semi was cited this week. [00:14:51]This times is our friend at the Sacramento, Tesla, Jerome spotted the vehicle in Tuckey Truckee, cert Stuckey, a Truckee. Trucks are old trucking. Yeah. Truckee, California in between Sacramento and Reno, Nevada. So it's we, we saw one going from the Bay area and was going East and then ended up in Chicago last week. [00:15:17] And. It was clearly a new test as am I the first one that we've seen in the first new one that we've seen in three years, but now a second one, the second new one. So the fourth overall test is somebody that we knew about and clearly a different one. There's a, there's some changes in the back here that we can see that the forms, the picture, but the back of the other one. [00:15:37] And it looked like that at all. Maybe, maybe it was going from Fremont. My feeling is that it's being those prototypes are being built in Fremont and then ship maybe to Gigafactory to have the powertrain cause or the battery pack at least or something like that because we, we know that that that's where I at this last been installing some production capacity for, for the new, every new powertrain that they've been developing. [00:16:02] Even the mall as the new model, as model acts this there's, they have a new drive train there and everything that they are they're building. So it could make sense to make them the same thing for that. That's a semi, but a very active, easier  [00:16:14] Seth Weintraub: to take the the battery back to Fremont than take the, the old truck to  [00:16:19] Fred Lambert: Yeah, it depends where the truck is going after. [00:16:22] Like, like, like the last one, if it's going East and it's already going the right direction, you would decrease the, sending the batch back the other way. And at the same time, it's also it also looked like they give they're not, I you're not driving it on the roads on the public roads. Maybe, maybe they're still, they want to do some testing on proving grounds before going on public roads. [00:16:41]We, we haven't, we haven't seen any of those two new prototypes driving just yet. They've been on the backup trail so far. [00:16:52] All right. I'll. Yeah. So heart goes out to everyone who's in that situation right now with the blackouts and everything in Texas and in the neighboring States are having issues. Do I know my, my girlfriend is in Mississippi right now and she they, they got a few, a rolling blackouts too. Yeah, that's a pretty significant wetter for, for this part of the country. [00:17:09] Really? Yeah.  [00:17:10] Seth Weintraub: Anytime there's snow in the deep South, it's going  [00:17:12] Fred Lambert: to be a mess. Yeah. I mean, obviously they are not equipped to, to deal with it in term of like snowplows and everything that comes with it. But yeah, in Texas, it's the, I mean, it, it showed some massive weaknesses to the electric grid that just couldn't end-all at all the people cause, cause it wasn't just the snow, it was the cold, it was, it was extremely cold. [00:17:33] It was freezing temperature and people were running their electric heater like crazy. And the load on the grid was Also, there was some damage I think, on the grid to from the weather. But the load was was the, the biggest issue, my understanding. And there's been a ton of really bad few people speculating about what happened. [00:17:53] And I know that even though, even though I think that the governor of Texas even said that it was because of wind turbine freezing. Yeah. Really it wasn't. Yeah, no, I mean, I think it was in, in that, Oh yeah. That article. I shared it right there. You see here what went down and you see that every, all the turbo power plants, 25% of the output went down. [00:18:13] And renewable went down 1%. So, I mean, was a culprit here. I obviously have receipts, the natural gas and the coal power plants that took the biggest hit. But yeah what it did show that it showed that the strength of the power walls and all the others all on battery packs because a lot of Powerwall owners and In Texas started sharing their backup is to read, which was pretty crazy because they were, they were running some, some ruling blackouts, which means that they were planning the blackouts because in places where the grid infrastructure was still located, just couldn't handle the load. [00:18:47] They would have to shut down the electricity in section. Of neighborhoods and everything because to, to lower the load, you know, in order to some people to have so many Tricity throughout the day, at least so you can see what it looks like when your grids goes out. So during the same day well, is it the same or at least. [00:19:06] Well, these are all the same people. I don't know, 22.5 hours of backup within 32 events. And I don't know if it's all on the same day, but you can see here on the same day you have one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, 10 different events all about between 30 minutes and an hour and 10 minutes. [00:19:24] So very useful to have your balls during those times. And. If, yeah, if you have it combined with solar during the day, it's going to replenish itself. And the, she is fine. Air are the test owners club in Austin shared a, a video of a whole neighborhood being plunged at dark, except from one house that has a power, a power wall on right there. [00:19:48] So you've seen a lot of those videos being passed around the. And we've seen what we've seen. The same thing happened in, in, in Australia a few years ago, then two years and last, what were the last few big wildfire season in California also as, as, as cause a lot of rolling blackouts and, and that's per the China interest in, in own battery packs. [00:20:07] And I mean, it really shows that the, the future of a strong electric grid is going to be in these partly in de-centralizing energy storage at the home level. Makes a big difference, I think. Yeah.  [00:20:21] Seth Weintraub: And, and why even have to rely a hundred percent on, on the grid. Like it's not super expensive and it's pretty, you know, economical to, to have solar and a battery backup, especially, you know, as prices come down, the grid gets a little bit wonky. [00:20:40] You don't even have to think about it. We've been in a few out outages, and we didn't even know we were in an outage because. That's so quick. Yeah.  [00:20:50] Fred Lambert: I mean, I, the more I think about it, I think your situation with green mountain power and Vermont, is that in my car, I think the have the best approach. [00:20:59] It has to be some kind of mix between. You can hone your own system. If you want you have your own power wall of your own solar and the either have grid or connected to the grid with net-metering and everything, and add some value to that or subsidize those battery pack like crazy from the electric utility level. [00:21:20] And I have the advantage of having backup power, a very low cost while your electric utility can use some of that backup power. When needed. Cause I mean, if there was a high mix of that in the grid right now in in Texas, I mean, I don't know how high it is, environment, it's still relatively new. [00:21:38] It's probably much higher of course, because a lower population and, and they were early with that, with that program. But yeah, you, you you'd have a similar situation in Texas and it would be not as bad for sure. We'll have better. Yeah. All right. Next news items is the Chevy bolt, EU V and E V. Being unveiled at twin 22 version and are coming this spring, the spring, or this fall coming this year? [00:22:07] Yeah, the spring. All right. That was early.  [00:22:08] Seth Weintraub: So we've been sitting on this for almost a year, like we went out to Detroit and saw these two cars in March of last year. And that the bolt Evie was supposed to be a 20, 21 model that was supposed to come at the end of last year. And then the EEV was supposed to come this year. [00:22:28]They weren't supposed to be released at the same time. But Chevy delayed the the bold Eby cause of pandemic, I guess. So, you know, as you can tell, like it's a upgraded front ends, which some people, like some people don't like a little bit of upgrade on the back. But the big stuff is inside the interior as much more luxurious. [00:22:49]It's like night and day better.  [00:22:50] Fred Lambert: I, that was my biggest, I'm playing with the, with the bowl TV. When I, when I got it. I mean, especially back then when I tried it, it was like, what, 2000? 17,018? Yeah. And like the model I was, I was, I was driving was like 40. $43,000 car and the, in there felt like a $20,000 car. [00:23:08] So that's hard, that's a hard pill to swallow for this. This is a lot closer to it and also the price when we're going to get to that. But  [00:23:16] Seth Weintraub: yeah. Yeah. So the seats another huge complaint from a boat owners, although I have to say, like I was in, like, I wasn't really in that campus, he'd seem fine to me. [00:23:26]But the seats are much more luxurious. The inside's a lot better thought out. You can see from the pictures, it's just a much better experience inside. I actually got to sit in it seats felt way better. Yeah.  [00:23:38] Fred Lambert: Outside support looks more significant. Yeah.  [00:23:41] Seth Weintraub: Or lateral support, back support, all that stuff. [00:23:43]So, you know, compared to the 2020 model, there's a lot of things to like but is it, you know, is it something that's going to be Yeah. Are a lot of people going to buy it? I mean, I think so. I think if Chevy put some marketing muscle behind it, I think they could do quite well there, but I don't, I still don't really know if they're making much of a profit on these, these guys. [00:24:04] Fred Lambert: I mean, the prices are crazy. Where were the prices in there? Is that 30  [00:24:08] Seth Weintraub: 1030 3000 for the EEV.  [00:24:11] Fred Lambert: Yeah, not the wall more 32 33 34. Yeah.  [00:24:16] Seth Weintraub: That's a, that's great. And then you throw us another 7,000 on that  [00:24:20] Fred Lambert: and it gets good. Yeah. Yeah. Because of course, Jim doesn't have access right now to fill tasks. You did, but if it does get renewed, like we think it will, that's a cheap car. [00:24:29] I mean, in, in California could cost you like less than $25,000 for a brand new. Both Evie and just a few thousand more for both UV, which is, I mean, not all, exactly what we expected, but like the same car, just a tiny bit,  [00:24:49] Seth Weintraub: really a tiny bit bigger three inches more in the, in the back and like strangely they put three more inches in the front, right? [00:24:57] Like, why wouldn't you, I don't know, keep the front and move more space in the back. I don't know. But yeah. It's definitely more roomy inside as well. And I think the big thing for me is that they have the super cruise option on the UV, which for me, that's a, that's a big deal. That's  [00:25:13] Fred Lambert: an option. [00:25:14] Do we know how much of the cost.  [00:25:15]Seth Weintraub: I don't know if they broke it out, but there's a, you know, a version with, with super cruise and everything else. That's like  [00:25:20] Fred Lambert: 43,000. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. Well the launch edition. Okay. Yeah. Usually it's a $2,500 option.  [00:25:26] Seth Weintraub: Yeah. Which is, you know, and Tesla's world where it's like 10 grand. [00:25:31]That's pretty well.  [00:25:32] Fred Lambert: I mean, let's be like, let's be fair. It, yeah. It's more like autopilot, which is included in the price. Right. And then while it's some other people are getting super cruises Dillard in the standard autopilot. So, which I don't know if I agree with that, but you don't need a long time. [00:25:50] Yeah. Yeah.  [00:25:52] Seth Weintraub: You can take your hands off, but at the same time, you can only go on roads that GM has blessed, which is  [00:25:57] Fred Lambert: the driver monitoring part of it. 10 times better, the pilots and driver monitoring. But yeah, I mean, I w you know, what I'll do I think is gonna work great for the UV as if you, for, for Ubur drivers and taxis and whatnot. [00:26:13]I mean, right. Rideshare. Drivers, I should say that's what most people use these days, because I remember like when when GM at the Maven thing, and they did that program for, for rideshare drivers with the bolt DV that was super popular and the, they were doing great. Like all the both TV drivers, the Uber drivers that were using the bull TV. [00:26:33]That I talked to loved it. They said it's great financially. It makes a ton of sense too, with the driving electric and using that car for for the job. The only complaint is like, For your, your, your passengers are in the back seat and the bold TVs backseat is not bad, but it wasn't. Wasn't great either. [00:26:52]You're going to have, like you said, three more inches. It's, it's a big difference for that. So if you're writing, if you're a lot of people are writing as passengers in the back seat the Bolty UVS is a great option. So I think the, and now with the price too, at $34,000, if you get I mean probably going to lease it more. [00:27:10] I figured like most people lease they're bolted on by it, but I think it's gonna be the same thing for ride share owners. So drivers so you had that to it. I think I think it's gonna, it's gonna come through with the exact right pricing for that.  [00:27:22] Seth Weintraub: Yeah. So there were two kind of downsides there too. [00:27:25]One is like, Hey, it's you know, the bolt EVs and SUV. Why not all wheel drive? So I think a lot of people were hoping for all wheel drive that didn't happen. It's front wheel drive only. And the other kind of downer was that the charging speed, the DC fast charging speed fast is still 54 55 kilowatts, which is about half of the speed that most new cars are coming out at. [00:27:51] And, you know, we, we asked GM about that and they were like, come on, you know, like what's, what's the problem. And they were like, look, we're trying to hit a price point here. You know, this is a dead end platform. We're not going to, you know, invest in, you know, a faster charging thing when we have the whole Altium line coming down the pike. [00:28:08] That's just how it goes. So for, for people who are okay with that, who don't do a lot of road trips, no big deal. But you know, if you're, if you're expecting to charge, I think that quickly it's, it's going to be kind of a bummer.  [00:28:20] Fred Lambert: Yeah. I mean, GM strategy on that front is pretty obvious at this point. [00:28:23] Like they have the old CRM coming up and the bolt is obviously on a whole platform at this point with the older powertrain. And so we knew that it wasn't going to be updated with the new version, but if you look so we're thinking, all right, well, when are they gonna update it with the old cm? Then I went in all by Brett with that, because if you look. [00:28:44] Everything that's going on. I mean, it's, it's a mid cycle update for the Chevy bolt, TV, and wall, and the launch for the UV, but it's very, very close vehicle, really. So probably going to run for another four years like that. And and during those four years, GM is mostly going to release more expensive vehicle with the Ultium platform. [00:29:04] I mean, the armor heavy. For like starts 120 and doesn't go down to 180 for like three years or something. The Tad's lack w lyric and the other one that has a weird name and I forget and the, all those cars. Sell a stick are, are more are going to be more expensive. And it's gonna take a while for GM to come down in price with the LCM, like any new technology, really. [00:29:27] And so, so by the time that the bolt's going to be due for a refresh or something I think, I think GM's going to introduce the OCM through it, or it might be like a refresh or they might do a whole. They might strap the whole bowl, TV all together and just launch a different vehicle in the same segment or something. [00:29:47] Seth Weintraub: I hope they keep it. It would be nice. I think they could go really low end cause you know, the F the voltage, the LTMS come in like 50 kilowatt or a hundred kilowatt or 150 kilowatt, I think they could do a really low end 50 kilowatt, maybe, you know, 20 something thousand dollar bull out with the Altium, but, you know, quicker charging and some other nice stuff. [00:30:06] Fred Lambert: Maybe yeah, maybe not 20, but 25 or something like that. That would still make sense. Like I like a nice car. Yeah. Oh yeah, for sure. Yeah. All right. The not so good news, a Mercedes Benz can sell the lunch of the QC that gets you the altogether in the U S this week. So if you remember, the car has been around for a while now 2010 of 2019, really? [00:30:31] It was launched then we both drove one, right? Yeah. Yeah. I went all the way to Norway to, to like the, normally the European automakers. They don't invite us to go drive their car in Europe unless they plan to launch it in the U S and the plan back then, once you launch it in the U S in 2020 but then early in 2020, they decided to push it to 2021. [00:30:50] We are now in 2021 and The automaker confirm in the interview with Ulta blog that the following I'm quoting following a comprehensive review of market developments, they QC will not be offered in the U S for now. So they might change, but for now it's, it's it's canceled. So they don't have plans to do it right now. [00:31:10] So unless some of those market developments that they didn't specify what they are change then then they won't launch. So. I mean, I, I th I think it's quite obvious what's happening here. It's the QC is sort of turning into a compliance car, which that's not a bad word. Like, don't use it. Hey, you know? [00:31:29]But I mean, it's, it's just, it, it's not, the volume is just not there. Like, if it was, it wouldn't be a compliance car. If they had the volume, if they had the volume, they would ship it to the U S and try to surf for the U S. For sure. Like ADI, ADI has a higher volume where they each run like th th this would be a very competent equal with the heart of each one, but How do you invest in more in the higher volume production? [00:31:50] And that's how allows them to sell a lot of them in Europe. Most of them are sold in Europe for sure, but they have enough volume that they send some to the U S they don't sell that much in the U S with silver. So some decent selves, a Mercedes is not there yet. They don't produce the vehicle and high enough. [00:32:04]Capacity. So the, the sell it where it counts and for them to council a lot more in Europe because of the regulation there that forces them to have a higher mix of EVs and their fleets to lower their overall fleet emissions. So, yeah, we're not getting the QC, but it did confirm that the, they will bring the EQs this year to the U S so that's the sedan. [00:32:26] Yeah. I mean, it's kinda weird. Like it shows you like, technically the SUV sells better in the us than, than a sedan. So why would you bring a sedan? The reason is that they are making it in a higher volume than they're going to be making another thing in the higher volume. It's a bigger vehicle program for them. [00:32:43] Of course, though, the Mercedes is. Has an expertise in Sudan. I feel I did like the, they do have like the GLC and everything, great cars and whatnot, but I think like the, the S class it's kind of iconic and even really the C-Class do so the EQs is obviously going to be as class competitor. So,  [00:33:00] Seth Weintraub: yeah, but I mean, we, we we both drove the QC and we, I, I don't know about you, but I thought it was a really nice ride. [00:33:08] Yeah, it was a great car for sure to be. So, you know, there's a lot of people saying, well, Mercedes isn't competitive and, you know, with, with like Teslas in the U S and I do get that a little bit. Cause the mileage is so low comparatively, but I, you know, I also think like if they really wanted to sell here, they would, they would sell pretty good. [00:33:29] Fred Lambert: I mean, just, just like we talk about the bowl. I mean, there there's some limitation that has longer range for sure. But with the charging, everything, it doesn't make it great for a road trips. I would argue that QC is probably not great for a road trip, Cedar, but I mean, if you're for a, for an around town SUV to get your kids to soccer and whatnot, like it's, it's, it would be a great car. [00:33:50] And if you're a Mercedes owner already. I mean, it's, it's, it's the easiest transition ever for, from a Mercedes SUV to the QC, because it's very much a Mercedes car. Like they didn't cut any corners on that front and everything. And you get everything you'd expect in an SUV. It's just, and then Mercedes SUV is just electric. [00:34:09] Yeah. All right. So last week we talked about, or two weeks ago, whenever when the Ford announced that they're doubling their electric vehicle investment to two. $22 billion through 2025. We noted that it's nice and everything, but you didn't, they didn't S didn't release anything concrete. What are you going to do with that money? [00:34:30] Like you just said, double the inventor. $22 billion is going to be great this way. Give Elisa more concrete details, or at least for one of those $22 billion. One of those is, or is going to go to transform their their factory in cologne, cologne, Germany. So the, the, they already have a factory there, but they're going to reinvent it all to become an electric vehicle factory, bringing their first high volume EMV to market in Europe passenger car in 2023. [00:35:02] So they didn't really reveal which one is going to be. A lot of people are assuming it's going to be the one with the MEB platform that they are supposed to have in partnership with VW. But it's going to be built right down. So that's not, that's not clear did any confirm that there was the immediate in the press release. [00:35:18]But, and they also said that there a second vehicle is being considered for, to be built at the location of technology vehicles. So,  [00:35:25] Seth Weintraub: yeah, I think Autocar a UK based website said something about a smaller Mustang, like vehicle that was based on the MEB platform which would make a lot of sense, like. [00:35:36] You know, there's already a, we already know Ford in Europe is kind of in Germany, is going to be building a lot of MEB platform vehicles. So this, this is probably the you know, it's meant for that. [00:35:51] Fred Lambert: Oh, yeah. There's also a release some goals that term of electrification shouldn't mention them real quick. They said that by mid 20, 26, a hundred percent of Ford's passenger vehicle range will be zero-emission capable electric or plug-in hybrid. So the way I interpret that is that for every model that they sell, they're going to have an all electric or plug-in version. [00:36:15]Which it's never, I'm never impressed by that those kinds of announcements. Like, just to me, it sounds like an ionic, like where you have like the, the hybrid, the plug-in hybrid and which, which has never high deal. But anyway more significantly they did say that we'll be completely all electric by 2030. [00:36:31] So that that's more exciting to me, for sure. For is also big in Europe, but also in the U S but in Europe they have a big commercial division. And they said that they will be zero emission capable, all electric drink again, or plug-in hybrid by 2024 across the commercial lineup. And the expect that two thirds of their cells will be all electric or plug-in hybrid by 2030 for the commercial side of the, or their business. [00:36:59] So, I mean, not, not bad those are, those are good goals to have, I think in Europe I would like for, to have similar goals in the U S but if those are their goals in Europe, I would expect that it's not coming close to that in the us. And it should be. Yeah. All right. If you have any questions, put them in the comments right now, we're going to get to them in a second. [00:37:17] We just have one more news item to discuss here and That's that's an interesting one here, like with the pack deals these days that are happening in the ed. Well, not a lot of them are getting very excited. Some of them are fine. Some others I'm like, yeah, we can just opportunistic that this one is not opportunistic, but it's one, that's more exciting to me for, for, for a few personal reasons, of course, because there are close to here. [00:37:40] Like there they are located in Quebec, but I've been following Taiga fruitful for a long time. Tested their first prototype of their electric snowmobile back in 2018, I was really impressed by it and they improve on it a lot since, and now they're going public with a lot of money, so we should expect them to reach production volume production a lot easier with that without backup. [00:38:04]So they're doing the reverse merger like everybody's doing right now. They're doing it with the can I core Genuity growth through founds? So that's trading on the Toronto exchange and the Neo exchange. I'm not sure is that, do you know that the new exchange is that for the U S people that they, so they could invest two in us dollars? [00:38:20] I'm not  [00:38:21] Seth Weintraub: familiar. I've heard the name. I just don't  [00:38:22] Fred Lambert: know what it is. Yeah. Yeah, they're giving a hundred million dollars through the deal and they're going to be valued at 500 million, which is just significant for a company that's just starting now deliveries of their snowmobiles. But yeah, I'm excited to, I like the team, they, they kind of spun out of the, of the McGill university engineering program and the, the sun opportunity to electrify all power sports release, starting with a snowmobile, which is a very mission producing vehicle really. [00:38:49] And But the, the figure, if you develop a power train, a good at it, you powertrain rubbish. And that first snowmobile and everything, you can leverage that and produce electric watercraft and eventually ATVs and, and all, all power sport vehicles. So that's what they want to do. And they're going public too to make that happen. [00:39:07] So I chew a few bucks there away. If you want to do the same, we are not advisor financial advisor. You can do your own due diligence and everything. But I think, I think it's an interesting project and yeah, I can't wait to get on one of those general fund reviews, right? Yeah. I mean, as was jet skis, it's not a jet ski and selfishly a brand, but everybody calls them. [00:39:28] Jet-skis, it's a personal watercraft, right? Yeah, they, they do look fun and I mean, they they're getting some great performance out of them. Like I don't like the snowmobile world is kind of a crazy one too. Like there's some people here that are just snowmobile nuts, like the, the leave and breeds snowmobiles. [00:39:43] I never enjoyed it that much because of the sound. They have to be honest with you. The sound, the vibration is also pretty crazy, but the sound always killed me. Like you're, I mean, Your nature. I just went skiing through like in multimedia and my first time skiing in years, I'm like, this is beautiful. [00:40:01] Like, wow. And then rural, crazy snowmobile rides by you. And like what? Like, it just, it kills like the moment in nature and everything and those ones. I mean, there's still a sound, especially if you. Crank them up a lot, because they are very high performance is zero to a hundred kilometers an hour in 2.9 seconds. [00:40:19] And Erik motor does have a winding sound, but if you're just cruising and everything, and this is, this is very, very fun to use. So it's like it's the, the mission of the company is really to electrify power sports by. Bringing performance that you vehicles that have better performance than their gasoline powered counterparts. [00:40:43] So it makes sense to, to, to to, to buy DHE version because they offer a higher performance. And at the same time, by doing that, you, you remove the emissions and the sounds from that power sport that enables you to enjoy it more and be one with nature. If you will. Yeah, exciting stuff. All right. [00:41:01] So if you have any questions, let's, let's dive in right now.  [00:41:05] Seth Weintraub: All right. First question from the Jose we were talking about the Greenville has really hope Tesla doesn't pump up the prices. Once the Greenville passes and $7,000 tax credit is up for grabs. That's  [00:41:16]Fred Lambert: That would look bad. It would look crazy bad, but at the same time, when, when the credit went away, they did reduce the price. [00:41:24] They hit the bullet there in the U S they reduced the price of their vehicles. So, I mean, I guess it goes both ways. But I doubt it, especially with now introducing that new, lower price with with the green bill being coming at very least like we, we know it exists. We think it's coming. So I don't think that's going to happen versus  [00:41:45] Seth Weintraub: yeah, I hope not. [00:41:47] Alright. Isaac Luttrell, they should put retroactive to January 1st in the bill draft bills. So people will keep buying. Isn't that the point to drive sales? Great point there. Yeah.  [00:41:57] Fred Lambert: I completely agree with that, but again, I'll certainly extends for tax credit with every call deliver in the tax year and everything, but I don't know. [00:42:05] Seth Weintraub: Yeah. He has a corollary to that big three auto don't want it retroactive. I have. I big three. What is big three anymore?  [00:42:12] Fred Lambert: Yeah, this is bigger than all bakeries.  [00:42:16] Seth Weintraub: So I think maybe Ford doesn't want that, but big three auto doesn't want it retroactive because you can't produce some would lose out to Tesla. [00:42:24] Okay. Yeah,  [00:42:24] Fred Lambert: for sure. Forwarding Chrysler and not completely on the, the, or the ones that are more certain vintage. Buy it right now. Yeah. The same time companies like, Aw, these two they've taken advantage of that right now. Like, okay.  [00:42:37] Seth Weintraub: All right, Wayne. Oh, says the NTSB has regulations on steering wheels and only custom cars are allowed to have non-conforming steering wheels. [00:42:44] I've heard some of that, but  [00:42:47] Fred Lambert: apparently ambiguous. Yeah. Tesla is very confident that the butterfly will w w we be allowed to, so,  [00:42:55] Seth Weintraub: all right. This is something we didn't talk about. Can you guys comment on Tesla, lease pricing for three and why I heard it's down $40 a month, or so, did we check that out? [00:43:05] Fred Lambert: Yeah, I did. I did look at the pricing that they were updated in, in line with the w with when, when you sit down by $40 and that down. To get not down to but yeah, the, the, the, they were, they were updated in line with with the price decrease for the, if you buy the car, like in the purchase price. [00:43:24]And yet they do make a lot of sense. And those are going to also be affected by the tax refund, the dust come in, though, because. If the car is leased and the automaker is allowed to take the, the, the tax credit there. So and apply that to, to the pricing of the, of the car over, over the least to the least price. [00:43:44]So that reduced the price. It, I mean, I remember when when Chevy's still had access to the tax credit that both TV and like $142 a month. We lease at one point. So with the $37,000 price down the mall three, and if it goes get the 7,000 and the lease price in California would go will be pretty cheap. [00:44:07] Seth Weintraub: Yeah. All right. Lou, so sailor says the old central and CX had a strange blinker knob to that's in reference to the new model S and X. Right. Blinker situation.  [00:44:18] Fred Lambert: I don't know what that looks like. A knob and knob for a blinker.  [00:44:23] Seth Weintraub: Yeah. For me, it's like, you know, that it has to be much better than the current situation for it to be worth changing because everybody drives normal cars or all the time. [00:44:35] So I hope it's a lot  [00:44:37] Fred Lambert: better. Well, the idea is like on the highway, you're using the power that the pod would pull the blinker by itself. Right. And then if you're driving, normally you have both hands on the steering wheel, you and your Tom's are going to be where to blinkers are anyway. So you just, boop, boop, boop, boop. [00:44:54] Seth Weintraub: So you have a Deepak. All right. Chain of Sullivan says, have you seen the new FreeWire 120 kilowatt DC charge point that was installed in the UK last week with 160 kilowatt hours onboard battery looks really interesting and only requires 28. Kilowatt grid connection.  [00:45:13]Fred Lambert: I'm aware of the three wires, a combination of battery and fast charging. [00:45:17] I didn't know about a specific one installed in the UK, but yeah, I mean, a lot of, a lot of charging companies are looking into that now just due to have battery capacity too. Cause then you, you, you completely avoid so to speak charges that are  [00:45:31] Seth Weintraub: yeah. Jacks up the price a little bit though. And obviously like if somebody's charging for, you know, that there's like a lineup of people willing to charge that 120 or 160 kilowatt hours doesn't show disappearing. [00:45:42] Yeah. All right. Green gold says Chevy. Evie looks pretty nice for 33 K  [00:45:48] Fred Lambert: yeah. I'm not a big fan of the front end to be honest. But other than that, I think, yeah, it's a big improvement.  [00:45:55] Seth Weintraub: All right. What did I pass up here? Do you think Tesla will make a more affordable LFP Powerwall?  [00:46:02] Fred Lambert: Good question. If it can get a lot of LFP batteries, maybe. [00:46:07] I mean, a, I w Sonnen that use Lyft, I think, is that right? I think siren did use it FTE at some point, at least, or something close to that chemistry yet, but. Yeah. I mean if you could make sense for it, for, for wall. But I mean, anything you can do to not just, I mean, at this point they don't even need to make it more equitable. [00:46:28] They just need to make more because people will buy that, that price. Of course, if they make more than they can make it more affordable too. So that's had a bonus. Yeah.  [00:46:38] Seth Weintraub: All right, Brian says you need a full circle wheel for handling in case of emergencies. We can talk about that a little bit.  [00:46:45]Fred Lambert: Not if you change the turning radius that you don't have to go all the way down, you just make it so that if you turn just that much on the wheel, well, it turns that much in a car and  [00:46:54] Seth Weintraub: whatnot, and yeah, so we were talking about steering by wire at that point, which I think we saw previously Tesla had some like patents  [00:47:02] Fred Lambert: or something like that. [00:47:03] Yeah, I did. They've been working on that, but we didn't get, I think everyone assumes that that's in the mall ass right now.  [00:47:08]Seth Weintraub: So back to we were talking about Texas being out of power. The culprit is Arthur K lode says the culprit is the fossil based death grip on Texas politicians, which. It seems pretty obvious to be true. [00:47:21] I mean, even with Tesla making huge investments in Texas, they seem to still think that oil  [00:47:27] Fred Lambert: and gas, I mean, I was shocked by the amount of people that were carbon dioxide poisoning. Accent. Yeah. Camera on the left side. Sorry. I'm poisoning. I was like that like hundreds and hundreds of cases happened since it was freezing and like, and Jamie had a good point where I was like, eh, I mean, that, that doesn't have to be your first thought, like let's. [00:47:51] Start the car in the garage that makes no, first of all, everyone should know that you shouldn't do that. Like that's start with, but also that's even, even if you could, let's say it shouldn't be a first stop. Like just put some blankets, just put more, more close on it and like keep warm. But Jimmy was like, it's Texas. [00:48:08] Your first thought is like, let's burn some fossil fuel.  [00:48:12] Seth Weintraub: Yeah, it's funny. You know I'm in Vermont we snowboard all day, like literally out in zero degree weather all day long and don't even like, You  [00:48:20] Fred Lambert: know, like it's snowboarding, you're like you're doing exercise and everything like it's warm through, but I mean, even then he can, it can be minus 10. [00:48:29] And of course I'm, I'm better equipped than most people in Texas, but I mean, it gets, gets cold through in Texas. Like people have sweaters, they have blankets and whatnot. Like you can keep yourself warm. If you need to go start the car in the garage. Actually, it's not, it's not like, Oh, the report, it cannot afford blankets. [00:48:47] You have a garage, you have a garage. You can afford blade kits. Yeah. It's kind of rough. I know I have a garage and I have blankets. All  [00:48:57] Seth Weintraub: right, Wayne. Oh, says the government can't tax power. You can make stores. So there's no incentive for government to promote it. They can tax, building it. They can tax. I mean, electricity. [00:49:08] They can.  [00:49:10] Fred Lambert: So power is not tax it's tax for  [00:49:13] Seth Weintraub: sure. But you're saying you can't tax solar power that you generate on your roof and bring into your house.  [00:49:19] Fred Lambert: I mean, the, the, you, you, you could tax the, the power at the panels and everything that's already done really well, though. There's the ITC that controls that, but still, yeah. [00:49:31] Seth Weintraub: All right. Let's move on. Chain of Sullivan. When you are heating your home with a heat pump, it will eat into the battery storage pretty quickly pulling between two to four kilowatts every hour. [00:49:46] Yeah. I mean, heat pumps actually way, way more efficient than a resistive heating, which I think probably most people in Texas had, which is probably one of the big problems with the grid, which is like, it's not. They didn't really expect everybody to have to deal with like below zero degree weather with their electric heaters like Nana LOL, you could argue that any new car model coming out in 2022 should be adopting 800 volt batteries. [00:50:15] Thoughts?  [00:50:15]Fred Lambert: Depends on the pricing, I guess like right now what we're seeing is like every 800 volt vehicle is a lot more expensive. Like Tiken the e-tron GT and the more pneumo S  [00:50:29] Seth Weintraub: yeah. The first inexpensive ones are Hyundai's. The ionic line is a 800 volt. I think  [00:50:37] Fred Lambert: the new ionic one. Yeah. Yeah. Well, we don't hold the prize for that just yet. [00:50:42] Right, but we assume that it's not going to be okay.  [00:50:44] Seth Weintraub: Yeah. I mean, the idea with 800 volt is it's half. You only need half the amperage, which means you need much smaller wires and you could theoretically charge it much faster. And those all seem like good things to do, but it's more expensive to have a higher voltage systems. [00:51:01] All right. Did you have the opportunity to check the website and roads? Oh yeah, we didn't do that. Did you do that? I didn't do that. We didn't do our homework.  [00:51:08] Fred Lambert: Sorry. Right.  [00:51:12] Seth Weintraub: Tesla is smart. Says Brent. They are basically the VW of the 1930 sevens. If he can get every American driving one, he will indeed be a genius. [00:51:21] All right. [00:51:26] Moving on Justin Moore. When do you think there will be a largest electric SUV on the market other than the model X. Well, the  [00:51:33] Fred Lambert: Caribbean, Caribbean, that's the new  [00:51:35] Seth Weintraub: Caribbean. Yeah. It's big. And also a VW has got the ID.  [00:51:39] Fred Lambert: What is it? Six. The six is pretty big too. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's more of a Ford Explorer on the pilot competitor, I guess. [00:51:46] Cause the ribbon is a little bit more expensive than that though. The ribbon will get the 7,500 tax credit if it's still there or the 7,000, if it's by them, but maybe  [00:51:57] Seth Weintraub: it's got a third row,  [00:51:58] Fred Lambert: right. Yep. Can get it through the whole thing on the, yeah. What do  [00:52:04] Seth Weintraub: you think about getting a ribbon? Can I, can I maybe get that? [00:52:08] [00:52:08] Fred Lambert: Yeah, you were thinking like a different change. It like it, thank you. You can make some more sense to the youth to have the electric pickup for now. I can, I can wait. No, I'm not going to get the pickles, a big, big truck. Yeah, we were just still on my reservation  [00:52:25] Seth Weintraub: and I would think we need the big wheels Hills in Vermont. [00:52:28] All right. Pre-runner want to be says, do you think with the Sr plus price guide Sr model three buyers could upgrade to an Sr plus for less.  [00:52:38] Fred Lambert: I don't think the SRE exists. Yeah. Yeah.  [00:52:43] Seth Weintraub: It was kind of phased out at the end of  [00:52:44] Fred Lambert: last year. Yeah. Yeah. I don't think like, what we've been hearing is like, you can't really like get it and even, even if you could, like, it was $35,000, but the cut a bunch of things. [00:52:55] And now at 37,000 or to like the things that you get for those $2,000 was like no-brainer. Yeah. So.  [00:53:03]Seth Weintraub: What do we think of spark charge? Should Josh Aviv meet Joe Biden and produce millions of portable level three, Evie charters that fit in your trunk?  [00:53:12] Fred Lambert: I don't, I don't get that, that much, this little thing like this portable I, a spark charge makes sense for me for like triple A's and, and, and things like that. [00:53:20] Like that, that makes a lot of sense. Like all triple A's vehicles should have a spark charge or the equivalent of it and everything. But like, I only get like, people, you have a big battery and electric car is like, Oh, let's have some battery and efficiently the trunk so that they can charge it and like, stop, like. [00:53:39] No. If, if Biden needs to do anything, it's more charger everywhere. Like you can get that. You don't have to carry the battery with you to get there. He is making a, I don't like that logic that people have. Like the only thing that makes sense, it's like, you're, you're going to desert, for example, like you really need to go. [00:53:57] Through it, do you really need more batteries? I'll just put a spark charge in your back, the back of your truck and the echoes, but you're going to be less efficient doing that than just stopping at a charging station. So if you can start a subluxation, it's always a better solution. Yeah.  [00:54:11] Seth Weintraub: All right. In regard to LFP Powerwalls K star uses cattle LFPs  [00:54:18] Fred Lambert: lowercase store is  [00:54:20] Seth Weintraub: I heard it. [00:54:20] I  [00:54:21] Fred Lambert: can't remember where I was like a rapper or something.  [00:54:25] Seth Weintraub: I think you're thinking a Worldstar. Alright. No, I  [00:54:27] Fred Lambert: mean, I know what the word is, but like, can you start, could be a rapper on WellStar.  [00:54:32]Seth Weintraub: Taylor's Zeller Newman says will be interesting to see if aging vehicle programs, both leave ivory, et cetera, will continue to chase the higher range charging targets or start to lower MSRP and led future programs. [00:54:44] Push on spec wise.  [00:54:47] Fred Lambert: They don't need a ladder. I think.  [00:54:49] Seth Weintraub: Yeah. I mean, Th those cars, the  in particular belief. I just  [00:54:54] Fred Lambert: think that, well, actually it's pretty much dead. I think. Yeah. The, the, the leaf at the, I think it's going to go the, the second way lower prices and the REO and future Vico from Nissan's got takeover and GM, it's pretty obvious that's what's happening with that old cm and whatnot. [00:55:11] Yeah, we talked  [00:55:12] Seth Weintraub: about that before a little bit. The new bolt is certainly less exciting, but it is cool to finally see the price start to take down a touch. I mean, if you've been following the boat we have a page on electric about the prices they've been cutting the price of bolt for over a year now. [00:55:25] Pretty pretty ever since the, the tax rebate disappeared, Chevy Chevy has been getting it down to around 30,000 anyway, so.  [00:55:32]Fred Lambert: It's going to be interesting to see the price now of the old or the 20, 21, both like, cause it's still going, are they still producing it? Or even if they're not like whatever, then three is yeah. [00:55:44] If you can  [00:55:45] Seth Weintraub: get one of those, they're going to be quite inexpensive.  [00:55:48] Fred Lambert: Yeah. Now you have a new one. Yeah. The new one that is not only better in a bunch of ways. It's also got cheaper at the MSRP. So. The MSRP or the other one. I mean, even the brand new one's going to have to go down.  [00:56:03] Seth Weintraub: Yeah. There's going to be some very inexpensive old  [00:56:06] Fred Lambert: site there. [00:56:07] Oh yeah. 20,000 and things like that.  [00:56:09]Seth Weintraub: The automakers should be pushing for solid state batteries,  [00:56:14] Fred Lambert: for sure.  [00:56:15] Seth Weintraub: For sure. Toyota electric Toyota. Alright. Electric blankets with blue lady power storage would have helped a lot in Texas. Well, You know, if you have a battery powered electric blanket, congratulations. [00:56:30] You're not going to freeze to death. Electric blankets use very little energy overall. That's a good point. You know, if you're talking about keeping yourself warm, probably the most efficient way to do it, electrically is with an electric blanket, I guess if maybe you live in Texas and worried about the next storm, that might be a good investment. [00:56:47] Fred Lambert: Hmm. I'll look into those weighted blankets. Love them. That's what I use. Yeah. Okay.  [00:56:53]Seth Weintraub: Tommy says the new model S is 800 volts question. Do we need that? I think so.  [00:56:58] Fred Lambert: No. Is it? I think so. Or at least the plaid version.  [00:57:03] Seth Weintraub: Yeah. The plaid version. I think we got yeah. And, and frankly Tesla will move at, around its line in the years ahead. [00:57:10]Interesting to see Volvo Eby trucks becoming very normal in Norway, as we've seen in Tessa, Bjorn's recent video with four trucks charging at ABB, 150 kilowatt high power chargers. I did see that  [00:57:22] Fred Lambert: all that is though, but  [00:57:23] Seth Weintraub: yeah, that's just one, one instance in one place in Norway. Yeah.  [00:57:28] Fred Lambert: I'd like to know how many of them were delivered in Nori period at all? [00:57:31] I don't think it's a very high number, but yeah, the Volvo is definitely the leader or leader of the middle on that electrification of, of a mid-sized trucks, commercial trucks.  [00:57:41] Seth Weintraub: Yeah. And our last comment is bolt has horrible styling. I disagree. I was a boat owner for three years. I loved that car. I I'm thinking about getting another one. [00:57:52] Was crazy. It was a good time.  [00:57:55] Fred Lambert: All right, we're going to end it on that. Thanks everyone for listening or watching on YouTube, Facebook, the weather, wherever you're watching on your podcast app, we appreciate you and I'm going to see you. Same place, same time next week. Transcribed using Descript

This week on the Electrek Podcast, we discuss the most popular news in the world of sustainable transport and energy, including more Tesla Roadster information, Toyota bringing EVs to the US, a new federal tax credit, and more. The Electrek Podcast is me, Fred Lambert, editor-in-chief of Electrek, and Seth Weintraub, founder and publisher of Electrek and the 9to5 network, discussing all our top stories of the week while taking questions from our readers and highlighting the most insightful comments on the site. The show is back live every Friday at 4 p.m. ET on Electrek’s YouTube channel. As a reminder, we’ll have an accompanying post, like this one, on the site with an embedded link to the live stream. Head to the YouTube channel to get your questions and comments in. After the show ends at around 5 p.m. ET, the video will be archived on YouTube and the audio on all your favorite podcast apps: Apple PodcastsSpotifyOvercastPocket CastsCastroRSS We now have a Patreon if you want to help us to avoid more ads and invest more in our content. We have some awesome gifts for our Patreons and more coming. Here are a few of the articles that we will discuss during the podcast today: Tesla to get access to $7,000 tax credit on 400,000 more electric cars in the US with new incentive reformElon Musk asked Biden administration to implement a carbon taxElon Musk is serious about making Tesla Roadster ‘hover’ with rocket technologyElon Musk believes Bill Gates had a big short position on Tesla (TSLA) and lost a lot of moneyTesla (TSLA) buys $1.5B in bitcoin, pushing the crypto to all-time high; plans to accept as paymentToyota announces 2 electric cars coming to the US this yearAudi unveils 2022 e-tron GT – combining luxury and electric performance Here’s the live stream for today’s episode starting at 4 p.m. ET (or the video after 5 p.m. ET): https://youtu.be/lS4w6cAGtIw Transcription Fred: And we are lively. These are gentlemen for a new episode of the electric podcast. I am Fred Lambert, your hosts, and as usual I'm joined by set Winthrop today. Set  [00:00:09] Seth: I'm good. [00:00:10]Fred:  All right, let's jump into this. We have a, quite a few interesting news to discuss this week, and we're going to start with one. [00:00:15] That's gonna, it's gonna affect a lot of people that are planning to buy an electric car in the U S sometime this year or even in the next few years. The The long anticipated reform of the federal tax credit for electric vehicles is, is pretty close to happening. So it was officially submitted to the house of representative in Washington. [00:00:40]And it's called, it's called the green act. And green is an acronym for growing renewable energy and efficiency. Now. Now. Cool. All right. There's, there's a bunch of different things to unpack in there. There's it's a, it, it, it, it affects the ITC for solar. It brings it back to 30% and extends it until 20 26. [00:01:02] But of course, the thing that we were more morals interested in is how does it affect the federal tax credit for electric vehicles? Because that's what needed to be reformed specifically, because, I mean, it was really unfair to a Tesla and in GM, right? Warren now don't watch buyers of this NGM don't have access to it. [00:01:20] And and sorry, I don't, I'm going to share the screen here. Sure. Got to do that thing. Quick sharing screen. Boom, we're on. Yeah. So Tesla and GM hit the threshold for the, the $200,000 to 200,000 deliveries in the U S and after that, they, they still managed to get more tasks rather than 200,000. [00:01:44] Then there's a phase out period that lasts more than a year, really. But now it's over for both automakers and basically the situation now is you have. Automakers that have EVs in the market that they're more competitive. Price-wise. Because their buyers have access to the tax credit. And this learned GM buyers don't even though for the only reason that they were sooner to market with higher volume of EVs. [00:02:09] So it doesn't make any sense. It doesn't encourage automakers to, to produce the vehicles. There are a bunch of different things were suggested over the last few years. If you've been following this, the legislation that was proposed around that some people were pushing for. Let's just remove the cap altogether and. [00:02:26] Put a timeline on it. Instead, for example, like seven $7,500 now, and by 2023, it goes down to six and then by 2025 goes down to five. And so on you phase that out until all electric vehicles or competitive with Fossil fuel powered vehicles. But somehow that didn't go, that it was isn't the solution that has been brought forward this time, especially not with this green accurate, instead of what they're proposing is a new cap of 600,000 deliveries, so significant increase But the 200,000 deliveries that happened before are still accounted for. [00:03:04] So it's really 400,000 new potential deliveries that can apply. And I'm at the new count on those 400,000 Appen when the new law is adopted. So this, this is great. Anything also also the change, the, the, the, the change, the actual amount. It's not 7,500 now. It's it's 7,000 pretty, pretty close. But in, in, in the if you read the actual a document here, they do say that the, the new cap is adopted. [00:03:33] The date of enactment are, so those sole on the date of enactment, the student to determine when the 600 officials is reached between the 200,000 and the 600, the 600,000. So. That's all they're going to account for which it's kind of a problem because normally with tax credit, you would think is just if you took delivery in that tax year. [00:03:56]But not now, we we're going to kind of have to wait for this thing to actually be enacted. And that, that means that could, that could create some problem for Tesla in, in GM. For selling cars in between now and when it's going to be enacted, because I think a lot of the people, including herself were assuming that that thing is going to pass. [00:04:15] I don't know. What, what do you think Seth [00:04:17] Seth: yeah. W you know, with the Democrats in all houses and the presidency, you would think so, although some of those tiebreaker type Democrats, like Joe Manchin of West Virginia, May not be so easy to convince. So it's not a done deal, but it seems like something will, will come out of this. [00:04:37]As for the legislation, it doesn't really make sense. I mean, it doesn't make a ton of sense. Like, you know, I never thought that the first one made a lot of sense. You know, we've been saying for you, a carbon tax is really the best way to do it. Like capitalism takeover. We're not accounting for the pollution that goes into the air. [00:04:57]If we accounted for that, everything would be fine. So, you know, this is just like kind of another like weird hack bandaid kind of thing. I mean, it, it is obviously not fair to Tesla and GM and soon Nissan, I guess that they have to you know, they, they may the early investments in EVs and now [00:05:23] Now th the competitors who kind of can, you know, leverage the battery technology that came out of, you know, Tesla and GM's early investments, you know, at LG or something those they can take advantage of that. And so LG packs in their cars and they, they get a $7,500 taxpayer GMs.  [00:05:41] Fred: That's a good point. [00:05:42] And then see like that, like Companies like a Hyundai or whatever, like , they still benefit from like the partnership with LG and [00:05:54] innovation. But I mean the same principle applies.  [00:05:57] Seth: Right? So, I mean, there's a lot of things that kind of make it unfair. I mean, it should be something across the board. And then of course, like people are going to be upset that like you can buy Teslas plaid model S. And get a $7,000 rebate on $120,000 car. [00:06:13] Like nobody who, who is going to buy $120,000 car. It needs a $7,000 rebate.  [00:06:19] Fred: Yeah, I would have thought that they would have yeah. W w w if you're updating the program, might as well introduce a cap like that, that, that one I have to admit that's a bit, it's a bit tricky. Like, yeah. I like to see those discount on, on cheaper vehicle, like the bowl, like the model three and everything, but if you're going for a plan or as you probably can afford it, you don't need to, you don't need the refund. [00:06:41] Seth: Interesting. So there was a little part in that the bill. The, I got this from the Mike Thompson house.gov site. There's a part of it, section four Oh two on page, end of page four of it for the use bars used cars, right? Yeah. And in that one buyers with up to $30,000 or $60,000 for married couples filed jointly in adjusted gross income can claim the full amount of the credit, the credit. [00:07:04] So that one is based on. Or that bit is based on the income of the people earning it. And that, that is for the, the EVs should not exceed the price of 25,000. So that's going to be probably not many Teslas there. You know, some old  [00:07:24] ones, perhaps.  [00:07:25] Fred: So they, they, they were thinking about it at least. Cause they did it for the, for the use, the car rebates. [00:07:30] So why not do it for the new one? I mean, I do understand, like the idea is just to try to convince someone that is looking for a new car, a, you want to incentivize them to choose an electric one over a gasoline one. So that that's the goal. So that's the goal at. Any, any where on the market? W whether it's luxury or not, but here's the thing in the higher end of the market. [00:07:56] Now, it's not, it's custom, petitive the all electric version. Like, if you're looking for something like the plaid model S, there's nothing like it. Gasoline powered. Like there's nothing that gets the kind of performance that that car gets. So if you, if you're looking for that kind of performance, you got to go with them all. [00:08:13] So being incentivized to get it, it doesn't make it  [00:08:19] Seth: right. So you know, this is probably going to get, you know, changed a bit before it finally gets signed and put into law. You know, hopefully it does. But you know, maybe it's more focused on getting a lower cost cars out there.  [00:08:38] Fred: Oh yeah. I mean also. [00:08:41] Most of the incentive is going to go through those. I mean, it just, you just look at the production volume, then that's ready and that that's where the cars are going. So, so it's not that big of a problem either, but it's, it's certainly gonna be an attack vector for whenever this, this bill is debated and I'm sure they're going to use that. [00:09:01] Seth: Rena. We know the, that the line already, it's going to be like, Oh, we're supporting tax breaks for billionaires that are buying Teslas, you know, like that's we th it's already, it's already been done. Yeah. Yeah,  [00:09:14] Fred: we we've heard it before, but but ultimately it's going to be, it's going to be positive for X everything and the vehicle adoption in the U S there's no doubt about it, especially with bunch of other vehicles coming to market right now that are on the lower hand of the market. [00:09:27] $7,000 difference on a 30, $40,000 car. Makes it be a much bigger difference than on a 60, $70,000 car should that that's going to be a big deal. Whether people are saying that 400,000 like a cap, again, this is not ideal, especially not for Tesla with the kind of volume they're doing right now. Like this is, this could literally just last a year for Tesla potentially. [00:09:48]I'm not, I'm not sure. Sure. If that's the case, especially with. Like it's 400,000 deliveries in the us. And I mean, with the mall, why more, three production capacity right now, Fremont, it could, it could be fairly quick. But I don't know, like a w w we're going to have to see also there's a thing There's a, there's a phase out period. [00:10:07] Again, it's not, it's not as generous or a phase out period. So what they say here is that the prevision replays, the current for his up period with a phrase up here that incident begins during the second quarter after this, the, the, the instead begins during the second calendar quarter after Sasha and Charles. [00:10:25] And so you have basically two quarters. After you hit the 600,000 deliveries or of still having the full, so, so if you have a high production rate at that point, you can still take advantage of that. $7,000 a lot. I mean, desolate and could pronounce she's still like have. 200, $300,000, 300,000 more deliveries in the 600,000. [00:10:50] It could, it could reach to close to a million, really a total. So so it's still, it's still very the vintages. So and with the timing of it too, w what's gonna be interesting is that it's going to open up the tax credit, maybe to cyber truck buyers at this point. Like, Oh yeah, that's interesting. Yeah, depending on when this is enacted and if it is exactly like that, which again, we've said that it's not necessarily the case, but you, you gave it, you gave it like, let's say a year for this, that hit the front hundred thousand. [00:11:18] So that, that puts you somewhere in 2022. And then you still have six months of, of that $7,000 access. So. I mean, I don't think so. That puts you like in second half, maybe of 20, 22. I don't know. I could kind of volume production tests, like an eight on this laboratory at this point, but still, and the higher production capacity. [00:11:38] Do you have for all the vehicle programs that you all going to get at a big boost from  [00:11:42] it? Yeah. Maybe even the Roadster will get it. Yeah. A little discount.  [00:11:47] Okay. Yeah, baby, potentially though, again, that's the one that's going to go well with people with other people. If you get access to that.  [00:11:55] Seth: Yeah, but I think the sh the story in the short term is going to be all right. [00:11:58] So now this is being talked about when we think it's pretty likely to happen, but between now, and when it happens, like, is Tesla going to really, or Tesla and GM and whatever, whoever else are they gonna, are there going to be a lot of people just waiting for that to drop and, you know, our customers Number's going to go way down in the U  [00:12:17] Fred: S I mean, doesn't make much sense to, to, until you have some clarity over, over that happening. [00:12:23] I mean, I wouldn't buy one personally, like right. $7,000. $7,000. Yeah. And for people who say, Oh, you're just like a subsidy leech and you're trying to get us us. I mean, no if, if you understand the meaning of that, of that incentive, that's incentive is there because there's a cost that is not accounted for when you buy a gasoline vehicle that you burned, if that fuel we, we, you, you just started with that said that the carbon tax will, will make us more. [00:12:48] We'll make more sense than that. And we all agree on it, but this is actually our next step. And next article that we're going to discuss is regarding Elon Musk was on Joe Rogan this week, an episode of the Joe Rogan experience. Very interesting talk now lasted about three hours, but we got a few tidbits of information were really interesting in it. [00:13:08] And one of it that color high was that, eh, Elan. Said that he talked with the Biden administration about implementing a carbon tax and they apparently weren't really receptive to it in his word. He said, they see, they said that well to seems to be too politically difficult to, to, to do.  [00:13:29]Seth: I, I get it like nobody wants to see the gas prices go up. [00:13:32] I mean, if you look at France the, the whole strike this year was because they tried to raise the price of gasoline a little bit. I mean, I don't, I don't know if it was just that and it was last year actually, but yeah,  [00:13:45] Fred: but still, I mean, there's way to implement it without affecting the lower income people. [00:13:52] Right. And the country, right.  [00:13:55] Seth: Elan did mention that, you know, those people a rebate also like you know, the. If you, if you said, Hey, look, we're not doing a carbon tax this year, but like a carbon tax in four years is coming, like for sure. So plan for it, like sell, sell your SUV, get a, you know, if you're, you don't have a lot of money and you don't want to spend a lot of gas on gas, like putting one a little bit further out there, maybe a good answer for  [00:14:25] Fred: that. [00:14:26] Yeah. Yeah. That makes sense. Like, like Elan's point was, was very reasonable. Like if there is an unpriced externality, like the price, the cost that we have as a, as a society. In immediate CO2 emissions going into the atmosphere and the oceans. There's a customer that is it's clear, it's bolded, zero customer health term of hair pollution, but also long-term costs in term of, or the Zira costs. [00:14:54] Also like you look at Miami much, you're spending in the. I'm trying to solve their water problem and literally going on the water, there's a bunch of other places like that. So there's direct costs like that, but there's also a long-term cost of fishery. If the fishing industry is getting destroyed by how the CO2 is affecting the ocean and everything. [00:15:15] So there's all those direct costs and they need to be accounted for. And if you. But the markets there doesn't see that cost cause the, the, the, the there's no actual price on it. If there's not actual price on it, they don't care. You just have to, if you put a price on it, then they're going to start to do the right thing automatically. [00:15:33] Yeah. But I mean, of course you say that, that people are like, yeah, well, why aren't you just doing the right thing in the first place without the money? I mean, it just doesn't work like that. Like we're not, we're not wired that way, unfortunately. At least not all of us, but. Yeah, it doesn't sound like it's going to be in the cards for the Biden administration. [00:15:52]I don't necessarily blame them. Yeah. I know.  [00:15:54] Seth: It's super popular.  [00:15:56] Fred: Yeah. So  [00:15:57] Seth: like, I mean, the other option is like taxing at the well or taxing at the refinery or something like that. Yeah. I mean, the money is it's still going to cost more to buy gasoline, but it won't be like, you know, the breakdown won't be like, this is the money from  [00:16:11] Fred: the. [00:16:12] Yeah, but you know, all the oil industry is like, they, they will let you know that the reason you're paying more is because they are getting taxed at the other friend, RESO. They, they, they are, they, they don't have a good history in term of propaganda and marketing the ball. It's not proper again, it's actually through, like, it would be, would be through that. [00:16:28] The, the, the government would be the reason why the, the gas prices increases. I mean the, they will frame it in a way that, that looks worse than  [00:16:36] Seth: it actually. Yeah. And also if you tax it at the, well, then the military and government also has to pay more for, for gasoline, whereas they don't typically pay like the taxes that come at the, you know, at the gas station, [00:16:53] So that would be better for getting the military off of oil as  [00:16:57] Fred: well. Yeah. So short of that, short of actually putting a price on carbon, which would be the fairest way to, to, to address the problem. You have to counter balance this, like. On the officials subsidy that the oil industry gets by getting a subsidy to a green technology. [00:17:16] In this case, solar wind with the ITC and, and electric vehicles with with with this, this federal tax credit. And Because to be fair when Elan said tax the make a carbon tax, he said for electricity and gasoline. So actually actually a trustee that is produced with fossil fuels, like, like coal would, would be taxed higher than if you get solar. [00:17:40] If you get electricity from solar source. So if you have an entry vehicle, your cost, if you get it from the grid with a high mix of coal in the coal production, in the of production, from coal in that grid you would get your costs for you that your vehicle go up to. But it would also force those people to find alternative. [00:18:00] Cause that's, that's ultimately, that's the nice thing about that. Cubicle is you get a bite limited, you get more options to fuel it. If you have a gasoline powered car, you have one option gasoline. If you have an SUV vehicle, you can get it from the grid and from the grid. Sometimes you have some options, some I have to utilities will offer you some electricity from a renewable source versus or they give you like rebate and things like that for to counterbalance with, with if you're literally stuck with coal, you can get a rebate for solar and whatnot, or, but you can also get it directly. [00:18:38] If, if you have the opportunity, if you own your home, you can get solar and everything. So, so there is. Like limited somewhere options. And that, that that's the core of it. So if you are in this situation, you could decide all right, now that it cost me more to get majesty from coal, I'll look into solar. [00:18:56] So  [00:18:57] yeah,  [00:18:58] Seth: I mean, if electricity prices go up that makes solar all the better.  [00:19:03] Fred: I mean, most places it's already cheaper anyway. So but when you have a bigger upfront cost people yeah. Would like a return on investment faster, and that would be a faster return on investment for sure. All right. Other interesting thing that Ilan brought up during the, the Dragan interview he talked about the Roadster a little bit. [00:19:21]I mean, we always like to hear about the Roadster. It's been delayed a few times, but earlier this year, Ilan said that That they're completing the engineering this year and they are bringing it to production next year. So we know that the idea of the Roadster is being completed basically right now. [00:19:38]It, it has evolved a little bit since don't billing in 2017. And we know, especially with last month on wheeling of the mall as plan and plan plus that's coming later this year or actually in the podcast, it did say, but Nick said in a year now a year. Yeah. Which would put in an actually in 20, 22, not the end of the year, but I mean, that, that could have been just him giving a broad timeline on the, on the car anyway, even forget the plat. [00:20:02] Plus just the plant itself is, is getting competitive with what this learned nouns with, with the Roadsters. So now they're going to have to have higher capacity with the Roadster and part of that is going to be that space it's packaged and. I mean, everyone's been talking about it for a while. [00:20:19] About the core, I think thrusters on it, giving it either like a boost or acceleration, or even be able to hover at one point he said, and now that the engineering has been completed on the car, you were starting to think that like, all right, this, if this thing's gonna actually make it to production, this basics package is going to have fat and now, and he seems to be very serious about doing it on this show. [00:20:40] He was like, yeah, we're going to throw I'm quoting here. We are going to choose some rocket technology in that car. I want it to, or to hover we got to figure out how to make it hover without giving people that, that would be that would be a nice addition if it doesn't kill people, this is, I mean, it's not necessary, but I like that in my car. [00:21:00] When my car doesn't kill people, I always feel better about it. I  [00:21:03] Seth: want to know if it can go over water though. Like, is it like a hug?  [00:21:06] Fred: You did say that it's not okay, because when you say like hover, you can, are you literally just talking about like lifted up on the ground, just for show for a second or something. [00:21:14] And, but Rogan asked him if it's going to move. He said, yeah, you can move it. You said, you'd go pretty fast, but you're going to be time limited. So it's just going to be like hopping, like for a little while, I  [00:21:24] Seth: guess, you know, what did you think? Like a minute or 30 seconds or I doubt  [00:21:29] Fred: it's going to keep I guess 4,000 pound car up in the air for her. [00:21:34] For a minute. I mean, you talking about a high pressure Hara bottle, the silly late. So lifting up your hair for a whole minute, be able to do  [00:21:44] Seth: it while you're driving. Like, can you just drive? And you're like approaching like a Lake and then you just click the buttons and start floating and then you go over the Lake and then you. [00:21:53] I mean,  [00:21:53] Fred: I think that could be a possible cause you, you, you, you do that. If you have trusters that go towards your ground, you just put all of those trusts and then you stalking about having one in the bag that you just flipped the license plate and it pushed you to the bank. So if you do that, and then you really, some hair on the back, you can, you can move pretty fast, pretty quick. [00:22:12] Right? And like now, because it's not like rolling resistance announces, it's literally like, unless ferric resistance is the air around you. That's that stuff. And you said that. There's a lot easier to go through. So, so yeah, I feel like it's a possible just album. You can stay in the air and I'll know  [00:22:28] Seth: that would be really cool to not have to use bridges, you know, just to cross like a river real quick,  [00:22:34] Fred: but you're gonna, you're gonna have to be very precise on that because like you said through you don't, you don't want to drop too fast cause. [00:22:41] I mean, you said you're going to put a height limit on it. So probably like a mirror to six feet. So that's three through the six feet, which that's still crazy. Yeah, that's crazy. But like you said, it wouldn't kill you, but also you would, it would destroy your suspension if you drop from that. So you're going to have to slow moly land, really? [00:23:00] And  [00:23:01] Seth: they're doing yolks now, right? Instead of steering wheels, you're, you're kind of in three dimensions. So you may like pull it back and  [00:23:11] Fred: exactly, super cool. Actually, I didn't think of that. I mean, I get it, like, let's be honest people. It's insane. It's it's crazy. But it also makes some sense. I mean, the hover is just because if it's there. [00:23:30] Well do it right. But of course the actual idea behind it is yes, there is a lot of value of providing a trust or a cold, their trust or propulsion in the back for acceleration that will, that will kill your, your, your zero to 60 times. Nothing is going to be able to get close to that. I mean, it's going to break next, literally. [00:23:50]If you're not careful. And it also gives you trust on the, on the sides and downward trust to, to keep you on the ground. And there's lot of things for just regular driving that doesn't need to be strong enough to pull you in the air. But again, if, if like, you're, you're like 90% there, if you before the hover, so you just have like to crank it up and that, so, yeah. [00:24:16] And if you're really on Musk, of course, it's. That's an easy decision. You're gonna make parallel  [00:24:20] Seth: parking easy. You could have. So check this out. This is an idea. So if we go six feet up, instead of having a garage, like a, you know, a sideways garage, you could park your car up, you know, over your other car. [00:24:35] You don't have like a platform and just like pull it in there. Instead of, you know, like that the guy who runs a Nvidia has like 17 portraits.  [00:24:44] Fred: Well, I mean, that's, that's the thing though. I mean, well, what would they call that? They're that lifts there. Lifts. Yeah.  [00:24:49] Seth: So you don't need one of those, you just  [00:24:52] Fred: park all still need like a platform or something. [00:24:54] You don't want them to literally limb on the car, right?  [00:24:57] Seth: No, you have a platform, but you land, you know, you have your car and then you have another layer for your, your car. Save some money, parking in the city. You don't have to worry about You know, and just second  [00:25:07] Fred: level. Yeah. Yeah. We gonna have to see it. [00:25:12] Like it's, it's, it's pretty crazy, but it sounds like it's happening and this is working on it right now. This is going to be completed this year. Kenny  [00:25:21] Seth: Gates and fences no longer a problem just right  [00:25:25] Fred: over there. You also reiterated the fact that if you choose a space X package option, the, the air high-pressure hair bottle is going to be in the back where the backseat would go because a Roadster is supposed to have four seats. [00:25:37] Yeah. That's,  [00:25:37] Seth: that's a big,  [00:25:39] Fred: yeah. Four seats. It'd be nice. So I know you're getting through Roadster. And you're not even sure if you're going to keep one, but if you do keep on, do you go for a seat or you go space expanded?  [00:25:51] Seth: I dunno. It's hard to tell like I, I, you know, obviously we're going to learn a lot more about it, so I'm going to defer to when I know everything I can possibly know,  [00:26:01] Fred: let's assume a few things is going to be more expensive than a four-seater option. [00:26:05] So you would have to pay extra. I don't know if you, like, if the gave us like the founder series, I would assume that you did, I'm not going to make us pay anything on it, but I mean, that's an, that's an assumption of mine. Right. But let's assume that, but doesn't mean it's more expensive. But let's assume that, I mean, in term of performance, I thing in the world, it was going to come close to it. [00:26:27] Not even like a million dollar super  [00:26:30] Seth: car. Right. I mean, I don't know, like, I really like. The Roadster that we went in for the initial ride, that was like, as fast as I'd ever want to go at any point, there's like no reason to want to go that fast. Like it's painful. Like it was, it was it wasn't, you know, when you, you know, on the, the D rides, everybody's like chuckling, when they're going really fast, this was different. [00:26:56] It's like, you know, it wasn't like, it was a different kind of.  [00:27:01] Fred: Experience. I mean, you said it during the podcast 2.3 and 1.9. There's a, there's a big difference between the two. It doesn't sound like a lot, but it's actually like a big difference. Right? You'll have to do the GS, like, like, I don't know, like that's a different   [00:27:16] Seth: yeah. [00:27:16] That's the other question? Like, how do you get tires that can keep like the regular, the regular Roadster was spinning all four wheels. You're going to have to have some crazy time. I mean, I guess with, with the With the rocket boosters then. Yeah.  [00:27:30] Fred: But even, even, even with that you just going to go run through your tires super fast, but mean, I already run through my tire super fast with them. [00:27:37] Right. All three performance. And that's with three, three seconds doing 60. So, all right. Next next news item that came out of the podcast bill Gates. I mean, I was kind of surprised by that, but. So w we reported a while back when bill Gates made some comments about battery electric trucks saying that it's never going to happen. [00:28:01] And of course we, we trashed those comments back then, right. It made no sense, but Joe Rogan brought them up during the show and had Ian on addressed it. And of course he learned this at the same thing we did back then. Like, he doesn't know what he's talking about in this case. And And you brought up the fact that they already have prototypes that work. [00:28:21] I, I don't know if that's a perfect answer because it's not just like the energy density in it. Like you can show it that works for sure. But then yeah, I'll chop the shredder, the economics of it worst, but he did have a good point about what you said and that article actually confirming the same that the bash pack or at least the. [00:28:42] Is this, the mind is going to be 501 which is on the lowest side that we were expecting for sure. And you said that if you're having a $500 backpack, it's, it's not a big game changer in terms of the weight of the tractor is of course you have to manage with the economics of upright transport that mine age, the weight of the tracker so that you don't pass the next Memorial. [00:29:04] Right. Of 80,000 pounds on the road with, with your load and with the trailer. So it's all a whole generation of trying to optimize your load pounds per mile is what you going to charge them ultimately. So you want to have the lightest charter possible. They can still pull 80,000 pounds, or you can have a 40, 45,000 pound load or something like that. [00:29:29] And And he always says with, especially with a structural backpack that he on the bill last year, if you have a 512 hour structural backpack that you build with us with some eye on the weight, there's not that much either way , you don't give up that much weight, even though we're used to that you Eagles being a little bit heavier than their gasoline power counterpart. [00:29:51] So, so that was an interesting thing. But then like you to give some kind of reason why Dates with a, sort of a negative on Testa. And he said that according, I also heard that at one point he had a large short position on Tesla. I don't know if that's true or not, but things weird, people like, huh? [00:30:13] Very weird. Yeah. People I know would know the situation pretty well. That's almost Trump past like, Oh, people that I know said I asked them, are you sure? And they said, yes, he has a huge short position on Tesla. And that didn't work out too well. Bill use of the loss kind of all of the money, like a lot of people did on shorting Tesla. [00:30:32] So he didn't give a timeline, but we know that last year that's the one on a crazy run and estimated people, collectively people at short position on Tesla lost $38 billion. Of course, if I actually reached out to the bill Gates foundation to see if they can get a comment on that from from bill. [00:30:51]I don't expect that we, that we're going to get one, but I would like to have a confirming, like is inside of the story you hear, because it doesn't sound like the shorting type, like is more like exactly. You invest very long-term stuff and everything. So it doesn't sound like him. It's not impossible though, because you guys been more critical of Elon and Tesla then than you would think coming from him. [00:31:14]And personally, like, I'm not like I'm not all the shorts or the devils, like like Elan things and like, and like like a lot of more people think that like a lot of people I've been recently introduced to the idea of, of, of short short sellers with the old game stop thing and EMC and the whole wall street bet on Reddit. [00:31:31]I mean, I think there's a place for short sellers, like, because let's be honest, there's some companies that are bad that do bad, that lie. That like that it would make sense to bet against it. Like, I mean, I'm not a big fan of what's his face NYCLA. No, no. The short seller that, that they did against Enron the guy is always on CNBC, trashing, Tesla, Jim something Nope. [00:31:53] Channels, channels. All right. That, that guy, I mean, I give credit where credit credit is due. Like you, you saw the fraud that, that Enron was put a short position against it exposed. It made a bunch of money when it failing and it had to fail. It was defrauding people. So there's nothing bad with that. [00:32:19] Now. Also there's nothing bad thinking that Tesla. Is overvalued. Like there's definitely arguments to be made with that. I'm not on board with it, but I can definitely see our argument. I can not have a rational conversation with someone that says that this is what we value. That makes sense me, but I am not, but shorting it though. [00:32:39] I don't know, because like you have to look what's. W what's the positive icon for that? Like, yeah, you could make some money if there is a correction on Tesla, but at the same time test, as valuation contributes to his mission. And I think the mission is more important than all those things like to be. To, to, to accelerate the advent of renewable energy and energy transport. [00:33:03] And this high valuation certainly as helped us let, because they were able to raise a ton of money from the high valuation. So I don't know. And I'll be conflicted about that, but I'm not, I don't want to demonize the shorts. I don't like, of course the shorts that are lying about desktop, like they're take a short position and then they do a bunch of propaganda about in everything. [00:33:21] That's of course that's horrible. But in general, I don't hate shorts. [00:33:30] All right. All right. And then another big thing that turned on the market this week is we learned earlier this week on Monday that the slow when they released or 10 not thank you. The 10 K finding the sec. They reveal that last month they bought the above a large position in Bitcoin. [00:33:45] The the $1.5 billion worth of Bitcoin. The the, the, the said that it was part of a move to diversify with alternative reserve assets. So that included both digital assets, like the I mean, the, the call between digital assets never heard that, but and also gold, they bought gold too. [00:34:08] So, so the Tesla is like at the end of last quarter at close to $20 billion. So do you use the, the use 1.5 to buy Bitcoin? And they didn't disclose the goal though. The amount of gold that they bought, but of course the Bitcoin is what caught a lot of the headlines. Anyway, people didn't care much about their slaves buying gold and it sent it some big coins go on a big run. [00:34:35] What is it today like 48,000 I mean, last month when they bought it.  So they already made the, a lot of money cause $48,000 now, and a month ago it was trading between 38 and $30,000. So the, so they bought somewhere in between those and it's already up $48,000. So there was, that was a good move. [00:34:58] But of course the part of the rallies because of the study itself. So self fulfilling prophecy right there. What do you think about it, sir?  [00:35:09] Seth: The bigger news, I guess maybe was that they're going to start accepting where they're going to try to start accepting Bitcoin as payment for their cars. I think that might be a kind of a hidden gem because I know there's a lot of money out there in Bitcoin,  [00:35:26] Fred: Bitcoin millionaires. [00:35:27] Seth: Yeah. And you know, What's  [00:35:30] Fred: that they might want a Tesla. So there's that?  [00:35:32] Seth: Yeah. I mean, I think we did a story in like 2014 or something where somebody bought a Tesla, used it in Bitcoin, so it's not something new, but and you know that the idea of cashing out and then buying it and then, you know, Tesla's taking, taking on the rest. [00:35:50] I think they said that they would, you know, convert it immediately into cash. But I still think taking Bitcoin payments may open up the market for some, for some new buyers. I mean, particularly some buyers that just made a ton of money that, you know, that the buyers that are just really happy about Tesla getting into Bitcoin and they now have a lot more money and maybe they want to buy  [00:36:13] Fred: a of them. [00:36:15] Literally just. Take the profit from Tesla announcing that the big point, you just shave that off and buy a car with that. Like it's, it's crazy. But I know like some people are not on board with this idea because like, Bitcoin is not really transactional. Like it's, it's, it's more like a asset right now. [00:36:33] It's like gold, like Tesla itself. Just basically compare it to go than this. In this announcement. So you don't, you don't really go to the car dealership in, in with, with a bunch of gold and you're like, give me a car. So this is kind of the same thing. Like, especially if you, if you're going to take the goal, then change it into cash. [00:36:53] But after this is going to be the same principle there. So it doesn't mean that much  on that front, but yeah, I understand from your standpoint, what you're talking about for for Tesla, it makes sense to. Can really create some dumb and from that, but yeah. Yeah. Also some people are not on board with it due to the environmental impact of Bitcoin. [00:37:14] It does as an entity, as the blockchain does require a lot of electricity so that people are seeing that as an issue. I think it recently just surpass Argentina in term of electricity needs. It's crazy. As a, as a whole, it's like. A decent sized country now just to maintain the blockchain, just to pass the transaction on, on the blockchain. [00:37:39] But at the same time, I kind of have to think that, I mean, th th there's electricity in effect, it's, it's coming from the miners. Like the miners are the one that they're paying for the electricity to mind that currency. And they, they get some, some of that crypto in return to pay for that. Electricity use and the computing power that is required to mine it, and the whole idea between mining is to balance that computing costs electricity costs with the rewards from mining. [00:38:12] And so you want to maintain that if we discuss as low as possible and in this day and age, the lower electricity cost you can get is from renewable is from solar is from wind it's from. I do electricity. So I kinda, I would like to see a concrete study on that and see, where did they to steal the Bitcoin is using, is coming from my guess would be that it probably mostly from renewable sources. [00:38:38] My guess I don't have any actual stats from that, but I'm just running through the logic here. And I think, I think it makes sense.  [00:38:46] Seth: Yeah. I mean some people even think that Bitcoin makes Solar or more and more wind, but makes wind more viable because like, you know, for instance, in California, when there's so much solar that you can't do anything with it theoretically you could fire up a bunch of mining rigs on that extra solar power and make some money and that money could, you know, Help the balance sheet and building solar. [00:39:14] So theoretically you're building a wind farm or you're building a solar farm and you're saying, all right, well, when the prices get really low, when we're like, over-saturating the electricity market, we put some of that into Bitcoin mining rigs, and then we can therefore pay off our, our investment. So in that way, it kind of makes some sense. [00:39:34]But you know, overall there are some serious questions to be answered about the energy usage of Bitcoin. Yeah,  [00:39:40] Fred: I get it. I mean, I suggested that to Jason used w w K zero 57, like, well, known the hacker in a Tesla community. Yeah. It's a giant home solar system. I think it's like. The 40 kilowatts is something that makes it, it makes no sense. [00:39:55] I mean, he doesn't use like you use a fraction of a centricity and he also has of course, a very big self-build Tesla battery on system. So I suggested to him, you should, you should use that extra solar that you, that you make to. To, to, to build some kind of mining rig in that I, he was receptive Natty. [00:40:15] I don't know if he ever kind of came through with it. I need to look into it. I mean, he's, he's  [00:40:19] Seth: on the grid though. He can just send his extras energy.  [00:40:22] Fred: I think it was, he, he built it up grid. I'm not, I'm not sure, but I mean, yeah, it was, it's also, I don't know if like net muttering exists in North Carolina again, right. [00:40:33] To penetrate. I don't know, but I mean here, like right now my house is not being heated and I'm in Quebec, in the, in the winter. And 90% of my heating is coming from mining rigs. I have, I have three mining rigs in my house located in different rooms and those things, they, they eat up so much that they, they take up my, my eating. [00:40:53] So they actually replaced my trusty costs from eating to, to mining. And also it's coming from hydro electricity. So. My my house is literally powered mining bit, not the Queensland mining Ethereum right now. How much, how  [00:41:06] Seth: much money have you in dollars  [00:41:08] Fred: in dollars? I mean, I've been doing it for over a year now. [00:41:12] Probably got three. If their arms, it's not three, three, three, either three, either. And right now that I never sold them and they're worth 1800 bucks each right now. So I'm actually probably made money at this point already a year and a year and a half into it. Probably because you can account for the cost of electricity, of course. [00:41:30] And well, actually it's been done by the council that you see, I, I heat with electricity here. So so that, that counterbalance itself basically, and the, the cost of the mining machines to I mean, th the biggest around thousand bucks, I think it's 800 bucks or something. Right. So, so, yeah, I've probably made money at this point. [00:41:46] I one here in this room though, I only, I only shut it down from when I'm doing the podcast, because it's a little bit loud for the podcast, but then as soon as the podcast had done, turn it back on. And so I'm losing money doing the podcast right now. People didn't like, that's how much I love you guys. [00:42:02] Seth: I it is, it is interesting that the other part of that like, well, the excess heat from the resistance, from the, from the video cards and the, you know, the GPS is heating your home. That makes that's an interesting point of the equation.  [00:42:19] Fred: People were discussing too. Like if you link Bitcoin, Tesla, what if like all Tesla vehicles right now, there's a supercomputer that is not being used when it's parked. [00:42:29] So if you're plugged in and you're parked well to come together, obviously or why not? Would you be able to mind some cryptocurrency would that, would that computer of course Even if it's plugged in, you still use some of your battery cars because the anchor see something come to the battery and then the batteries is being charged. [00:42:50] So there is some degradation on that front, but I mean, it's probably, it would be small so that there there's some calculation to be made if it's actually worded, but it could be interesting.  [00:43:00] Seth: Yeah. I would much rather have my car mining Bitcoin than being used as a taxi.  [00:43:06] Fred: Yeah. I mean famously said doesn't want any Ford in scars, but by himself. [00:43:12] And that's my main but yeah, I mean, you could imagine something like, especially if, even if they're not plugged in, they even imagine it feels like the cyber truck, for example, that's the, does this solar cover thing and we're going to get into that too, but Elan discussed it a little bit in term of introducing solar. [00:43:31] Sells on cars. He said that the cyber truck is gonna be the first one with the cover for the bed being solar powered so that that's not going to hide a lot of mileage. Like you said, I think around 10 miles per day for a separate truck, but what it would though, it would also cancel any, any vampire drain for the car. [00:43:51] Yeah. And that's it. As you want to mind the car, then you could, it could be mining. Cryptocurrency with solar, if that was an option on it. So that, that could be interesting. Yeah. Once  [00:44:03] Seth: you fill up your battery, you just, it switches over to mining. Yeah. I mean, that's not going to be, that's not going to turn out a lot of coins, but  [00:44:12] Fred: no, but yeah, I mean the, the, the whole thing about this, this hardware 3.0 computer is that it's, it's, it's efficient too, so right. [00:44:22] All right, moving on. No. Oh, I guess I didn't put this on everything in there, but yeah, he discussed introducing you basically explain what we all know for, for a while. Now he explained to Rogan why solar on Corazon not make that much sense? Because of the under surface area of the solar and the efficiency of solar cell these days. [00:44:46] And if you want to go much higher and you. Go much higher in costs do so balanced. Don't make sense. You're much better off having solar on your home. Yeah. And then charging your car like that. But explain for bigger cars. It could make sense like the cyber trucks bed would make sense. Any also talk about the Tesla van. [00:45:06] I mean, if you remember a few weeks ago, we only confirmed that that's the we'll make event. As soon as it makes sense in term of battery supply. As soon as they have the batteries floated to make those vans. And he said for a van that you would make a lot of sense to have a solar roof on it, because you have a much bigger surface area that is flat. [00:45:22] So you can put solar cells on that. And he also suggested to put the deployable roof on each side where you could extend it. And it was all pretty much talking about camping. Like it can think then you make it like a little tiny motor home, really like it, a little sprinter ones. That, so with extending on each side, yet you provide shade. [00:45:41] You can build like Like a little camping area, all of it. And on those shades, there's also solar cells on it. So now you can have like a triple the roof area in solar power and that could generate decent amount. But again, I want to say decent amount, we're talking probably 30 miles a day. It's not nothing crazy. [00:46:01]However, it's still useful. Like, especially if you, if you do a campaign type of the camper with that, With that van, then let's see you have like 300 miles all over there that you can literally let go 300 miles from your home. You sit at like a camping spot where you, where your car is. You can either plug it in or you can just pull out the solar. [00:46:22] And if you're staying there for a few days, then you can replenish your battery. Or you can also run things out of your van with that or power. So it's a, it's a no brainer in my opinion, it just, it just makes sense. Okay. I don't think this is gonna be the first to do it, but we going to see that happen a lot. [00:46:41] I  [00:46:42] Seth: thought a Yuan was a little bit dismissive of solar powered cars. Like I, you know, I agree like normal cars. You can't really build a normal car and have it covered with solar panels and get any, you know, useful range out of it. But, you know, 20 miles is not nothing like a lot of people You don't have a commute of 20 miles a day. [00:47:02] So. Like theoretically, they would get most of their miles from solar. You know, we'll, you've seen cars like a Lightspeed and that one, the sole sole Scion cyan or, yeah. And then there's that other one? Aptera like the three wheeled one. Yeah. Yeah. That, you know, they claim to be almost entirely powered by solar. [00:47:24] Obviously you can charge them by a traditional means, but because they're so efficient and so aerodynamic, and then, you know, the wheels are very small and there's, it's small inside, but in that case, you're kind of, you're getting a real, like a long distance in the sun then. And those kinds of all, em, Come from those solar races that there's one in Australia where they go from like Darwin to Adelaide. [00:47:50] And there's one in the U S that, you know, they kind of cross and they're, these are kind of like bikes that have like a covering a super aerodynamic solar covering they're very quick crash with those. No, you don't even want to like. Tip over those things, you probably just fall apart, but they're so light. [00:48:09] They're so aerodynamic. And this, the covering of solar is enough to power them along with, with a passenger too. So it can definitely be done. It's just the trade offs are, you know, to have like a normal car that you would expect to have is isn't great.  [00:48:24] Fred: So, yeah. And all those cars is especially that Tara, for example, and the, the, the lights the, the lightning one is one of them a little bit, a bit more bullish on, but the , the whole thing is that, or solar matter on it, because it's so efficient, but at the same time to make the car so efficient, they have to make it like. [00:48:47] I wrote more aerodynamic and making it all there more over the NAMIC it reduced the surface on which you can put solar. So like, it is, there's this weird trade-off here that you have to be careful for. So I'm going to want to see like extensive tests on those cars to, to, to really see like the impact on solar, on them. [00:49:05]Because I have a suspicion that's a little bit gimmicky, like to see that they are solar power, like yeah. I want to see actual use cases, not extreme use cases, someone that has like a 30 mile commute or something like that and see like how much of it is going to be solar and how much you need to charge it, which is fine. [00:49:24] Again, I think a mix of both is perfectly fine, but if your advertise your car has solar power, like we have to be clear about what they really are. Yeah. All right. Toyota. The electric car and a U S what is this? What is happening? Yeah, I mean, Toyota is, is, is announcements sometimes. And now the, like, they kind of announce a few months ago, like, Oh, we're making an electric SUV, like sent out the press release and everything. [00:49:54] We're making electric SUV and more like, cool. Show it to us or something, but all right. Now they're saying we're bringing electric cars all at your cars to the U S the, to your, the North America. And that began the Butte in the U S this year three new electrify models, but don't panic. [00:50:13] They did specify to be these and a PHEV. So two ology vehicle and a plug-in hybrid. Crazy thing though, in the same announcement, which again, extremely little the announcement. That's basically what I just said. Like that's it, those three cars are coming to the U S are going to be the beauty of this year in the U S and the same announcement. [00:50:33] They were like, Hey, by the way, a plug-in hybrid is just as good as like all electric cars. See, as long as you don't use the gas part. Yeah. They released a study showing that all the vehicles produce just as much emissions as plug-in hybrids, which of course you can show those, you can make numbers say anything and you can probably make them say that I didn't look too deep into the study because of course, I mean, w we, we see the value of plugging hybrids, electric, that we understand it, and everything is just that all electric vehicles are obviously the future here and bugging the hybrids where. [00:51:10] Sort of like a compromise for a while, a transitional vehicle and eh, the all three vehicles I've improved so much at this point that it just doesn't make sense to focus on plug-in hybrids right now, if you're, if you're, if you're you right now on the toolmaker working on the plug-in hybrid program, you're kind of wasting your time. [00:51:27] You just put those resources on making better all electric vehicles right now. And you're probably being very, or actually. But the resources and making more batteries, probably like as a, of course the biggest advantage in my view of a plug-in hybrid is not that, Oh, we can go long distance with the gas tanks to full gas state is that you can, if you optimize it right, you can drive a lot of electric mileage without adding a big battery pack in it. [00:51:54] So you can make more of them with the limited battery supply that we have right now, that's, that's nothing in the biggest advantage of plug-in hybrids are ever. Obviously it's a compromise having two powertrains in the car or a generator for your energy powertrain. So, yeah. I don't know what he's teaching. [00:52:12] He felt the need to say that, especially the eye announcing to all electric vehicle in bed, but it's not like they were saying like, Oh, we're making for plug-in hybrid. And then one electric, no, you're making two, all electric vehicle. And the plug-in hybrid, by the way, plug-in average was just as good as the two electric vehicles. [00:52:27] Right.  [00:52:29] Seth: I guess maybe that's for their current lineup. Cause they have the the primes, the, a RAV4 prime and the a Prius prime.  [00:52:37] Fred: Yeah. That's that's all you have on the market right now. So they still want to sell those. Right. But at the end of the day, it's two more, I'll let you be equal in the market  [00:52:48] Seth: and they released zero information. [00:52:50] Yeah, yeah, yeah.  [00:52:52] Fred: But it's going to be also, how do you read that announced plans to debut? In the U S market this year. So, [00:53:03] or are you going to be available to purchase this year? Like normally my, to  [00:53:10] Seth: me it felt like at the end of the year, they're going to sell some compliance cards.  [00:53:13] Fred: Yeah. That's, that's normally the verbiage. Are they going to use when these, like we've seen announcements all the time? Of course I'm from automakers and they all use different language a little bit, but Like debuted. [00:53:23] Sometimes it will be just to show a car for the first time. So that doesn't mean that they're going to like the, it could literally mean we're going to show it in the U S market this year, which, which doesn't mean they're going to sell it this year. It was just like a, not necessarily a concept, but I mean, it, it's not, it's not completely clear. [00:53:45] All right. One vehicle it's going to be coming this year, for sure. That's kinda, that was a little bit this week. It wasn't that big of a deal because we pretty much knew everything about the car was the Audi e-tron GT and RS version of the GT two was on the bill. So that's that's basically our, these version of the  from Porsche there, the, the, the share the same platform, but. [00:54:08] To be fair. ADI did a lot of modification on their leads, in tune at different the Also the design obviously is different so that these items is pretty much the main thing that people were looking for because all the vehicle before where either to concept or easily camouflage a production version, now the unveiled a final production version, and it's, it's sexy as hell. [00:54:30] Like it's, it's, it's a great looking car. Yeah, I  [00:54:33] Seth: would say one of the best looking EBS  [00:54:35] Fred: out there. Yeah. I mean, I'm a fan of the Tiken design, but that's, I mean,  [00:54:41] Seth: Almost almost feel bad for the tie can, like, it's gonna be hard to buy a tie cane when you know this one's out there. Yeah. It looks  [00:54:51] Fred: nice. Yeah. [00:54:52] That's a great looking car right there. I mean too many buttons for me, but still  [00:54:58] Seth: they liked their buttons. Although this, you know, a lot of those buttons were software buttons, so yeah.  [00:55:04] Fred: So. Yeah, the, the power train is, is the same. So you had an 93 kilowatt hour battery pack, the 800 volt system that you find in the Porsche 270 kilowatt charging, all the great stuff. [00:55:16] It's awesome. And that the powertrain, you have the, the, the GT version that normal GT and the RS GT that a little bit more powerful. So the normal e-tron GT, which it's called a premium plus and the prestige. The ad 350 kilowatt of combined monitor power with the over boost, which I think is, well, yeah, with launch control, I had 2.5 seconds, zero to 60, and the RS gets 400 no, up to 475 kilowatts of combined Hartford. [00:55:53] So a decent bond over them. Three 50. Oh, okay. W that's the way the verbal, so three 90, so three 94, the prestige and version, and a four 75 thought possible output from the RS version in term of mileage, which, I mean, if you remember the Porsche officially gets an EPE of 200, 201 miles, the e-tron the estimate, that's going to be 230. [00:56:20] For the GT e-tron GT and 232 for the RS e-tron GT. It was kind of surprised by that, but at the same time, we know that Porsche has been extremely conservative with a 201 miles in the, in a tie. Can you, you can get more than that. All of the car.  [00:56:36] Seth: Yeah, Edmonton's got 120 extra miles.  [00:56:39] Fred: Yeah, it's crazy. [00:56:41] No, sir. But I mean, I wouldn't count on 300 miles on the top 10, but I would easily count on 30 miles more like this. Like, like those estimates from the EPA well for the EPA it's what are the, is expecting from the EPA test? If that makes sense, pricing starts at a hundred thousand dollars, go 140 for the R S version. [00:57:03] So not cheap. It's not like it, but it's similar to the tie. Can't really, it's a, it's cheaper than a tie. Can't really win for at least for the higher powered version that are S if you convert it to the turbo, think's a little less expensive. Now of course, ADI on the bill is that a few weeks after it has done on wheels, then you will ask some people are like, ah, it doesn't compare to the mole acid at all. [00:57:25] I don't know, like it. It's it's gotta be different people buying this. Like it's not, it's not either, or like, it's, this is a beautiful car. A lot of Audi fans are gonna love it. This is the new like flagship Holly and will opinion like people that are big ADI fans, like the idea that I have a great following audio, they're known for their quality and everything. [00:57:46] So I'm glad that they exist. I know. All right. Do we want to jump into the comments if you're want jump in  [00:57:55] Seth: here? Alright. Voting Dave says the tax rebate has paradoxically hurt companies like Tesla that were first to bring EVs to the market because without extending the credit, they become disadvantages compared to the companies that came later. [00:58:08] That's a lot of what we were talking about. It is paradox, but. You can't really like that's, that's the rules of the  [00:58:16] Fred: game, I guess. And the same time, like that's, that's been doing pretty well in the U S without the tax credit, like this they're still the market leader in the U S despite that being in some vintage, like yeah, like built in Dave  [00:58:29] Seth: Johnson. [00:58:30] Yeah. They did drop their prices a little bit, but I think they were the first company to like, kind of take, take a a loss of a incentive. And not lose any market share, sell for in the beginning, but the, then a disadvantage. Good. It's good is to be extended. Carbon tax makes the most sense for the marketing electrification. [00:58:51] And that's also what we said.  [00:58:54]Fred: Assets, even if they do reduce the price to match the price that it was before the incentive, a lot of people are just are like the, the, the seat as a like if you go to a store and there's a pair of jeans that. Is 60 bucks, but has been discounted 50% and they have another pair of jeans right next to that. [00:59:12] It's 60 bucks, but that's the regular price. Are you going to want to buy the one that's 60 bucks because it's been discounted. So it's more you think, so people have the same principle for a car that has access to the tax rather than one that does.  [00:59:24]Seth: SF says diesel in the UK costs around one quid 30, a liter car tax per year. [00:59:29] Depends on CO2 three liter diesel engine could cost around 1500 per year in tax as an example. Yeah, you could tax it at the car, I guess as well. But you know, I think some people use our car a lot more than others, so it would be penalizing the people that didn't. So how would you get the military off of oil? [00:59:51] Well, you'd make electric tanks and planes.  [00:59:54] Fred: There's a, there's a, an officer in the U S army that contacted me last month. That is, is making a report on electrifying some sector of the military, right? Like he's doing a study on it for the military. And he reached out to me about my opinions on a few things and Thanks. [01:00:14] The rest things like, you know, there's like there's a way to do some things, not everything so far, but yeah, I mean, eventually like the tanks are going to be going to be electric and they're going to deploy like a mega pack in the foreign base and with solar and they got to charge it like that in  [01:00:31] Seth: cyber trucks. [01:00:32] Yeah, everywhere, cyber bullying.  [01:00:33] Fred: That was one thing. And the Joe Rogan interview too, that Joe Rogan suggested that they should make some for the military and the law says, yeah, maybe  [01:00:42] I'm  [01:00:42] Seth: sure. I'm sure there's been a discussion. Leslie Faulkner says the idea of carbon tax came from British Columbia, Canada. [01:00:48] Okay. I feel like that might've been you know, some economic economists, sprain,  [01:00:56] Fred: lot environmentalist in BC for sure. I don't know the actual origin of the carbon tax. None. Right around for a while. I feel like it's been  [01:01:03] Seth: like, yeah, since like the eighties, all right. Military is looking to make more EVs, but they need to make sure that the battery supply is not dependent on Asia. [01:01:10] That's a good point, but that's good in like, Hey, diversify makes them better faculty. I  [01:01:15] Fred: mean, I've heard some rumors that the military has gone to war for the oils energy kick you. They go to war for some battery supply. Hmm.  [01:01:26] Seth: But. Tanks and aircraft won't work on electric energy. That's not true. Tanks can go electric aircraft could be hydrogen or whatever. [01:01:35] Fred: I mean, that was another big discussion from Elan on the Jurgen dude, further aircraft. And he does, he does still believe that that 400 watt hour per kilogram at the pack level is sufficient to, to make an electric chair. He also said that he's not going to work on it. And then he thinks his brain's going to explode if he does. [01:01:57] Oh,  [01:01:57] Seth: wow. No, I don't want that. All right. Anton B says, hi guys. Congratulations for your weekly live. Always so interesting. Oh, that's nice. Do you know the website and roads simulating the climate change depending on several parameters.  [01:02:10] Fred: That's awesome. It's scary  [01:02:11] Seth: to take a look at that. Elon Musk believes bill Gates had a big short, I mean, we talked about that. [01:02:18] That's  [01:02:18] Fred: really just. My headline.  [01:02:20] Seth: Really? Yeah. I wonder if this sec won't investigate. I don't think why would they, I mean,  [01:02:28] Fred: not that that's a known thing. That's market manipulation per se.  [01:02:33]Seth: Leslie Faulkner says the tenure bad on sales of for SK bad, make them pay a fine and move on with making batteries for Ford and VW. [01:02:42] Oh  [01:02:42] Fred: yeah, we didn't discuss that. That Leslie here is referencing the fact that we, we reported it when the lawsuit was first brought up by LG LG said that SK innovation, which is a South Korean manufacturer of batteries, which is just like LG Stole some trade secrets from LG, LG cam at the time now LG energy solution. [01:03:01] And they were seeking for them in a law suit in the U S to ban them from importing. Sells into the U S and M and they want this week. Now, if you see a role for LG and they basically ban SK from importing cells into the U S and that apparently affected two specific vehicle programs, one being the Ford and one 50 electric, and the other being Volkswagen program, didn't specify which one, but I assume it's gonna be the ID for cars. [01:03:30] I think it's for vehicles that are built into the U S and they need to import cells from outside the us.  So probably the visible you are the ID for it's going to be built in the U S next year. But they did receive exemption for a, for a while. So four for four that's, four years. Oh, if it's starting now or for four years when they started production, I don't know. [01:03:52] And two years for Volkswagen, I don't know why the difference on them, but maybe Volkswagen. Maybe that's what they ask. Maybe that's what Ford to ask. Like we need four years to be able to change battery manufacturer and lose logins. Like, I'll do it in two, but yeah. They both, they both said that they were okay with the decision, so it's not like it's going to affect apparently the timeline, but it, it is definitely a problem. [01:04:12] All right,  [01:04:13] Seth: Michael. Carrie Carrie asks any idea why it's taking so long for the model S release would have expected. They were closer to delivery based on that early January retooling. My guess is Michael's never retooled a auto line before. Cause it's  [01:04:28] Fred: yeah, because the trivial complete contrary, I thought, I thought it was quick. [01:04:31] I thought it was too quick with what was happening like that. That's what we like when we, we, we were pretty certain, like we had a lot of sources that we were putting in indication that the Mo pneumo S was going to be released at the end of January. But then at the same time, I add sources in, in the production that was like, Oh, like, this is not ready. [01:04:50] Like, this is gonna take a while, like two weeks, three weeks to retool. And, and then the, the you production line for the cause they have to use the new motors and everything. So they have the new production line and Gigafactory in Nevada, too. And that was just coming up, like late you various, something like that. [01:05:07] So we were trying to like pull all the information together and something that makes sense, but then there's like, ah, this is coming in a few weeks and I ended up  all right. Well, now it's been a few weeks and we haven't seen them yet, but let's give them a few more weeks, at least before panicking.  [01:05:24] Seth: All right. [01:05:25]Have they started expanding Tesla, gigabit, Nevada yet?  [01:05:29] Fred: Not that we can see. I mean, there's always new things happening inside the factory. I assume that Gary's referencing though the, the actual space of the factory, the square meter. And no, we haven't seen that happening. All right. Dan  [01:05:43] Seth: Howard is asking if we know any good lithium supply stocks and Chile for  [01:05:49] Fred: investment not in Chile specifically, but I can tell you all my, my, my, my lead some investment. [01:05:55] And if you, if you want to know.  [01:05:59] Seth: All right. A huge Bitcoin farm in ocean Pauls British Columbia, clean hydrogen.  [01:06:05] Fred: Yeah. That's that's what I'm thinking. I think most of them will have to be running on renewable energy  [01:06:10] Seth: abandoned town with old hydro plants. So Bitcoin operator bought it. Oh.  [01:06:14] Fred: So they have their own hydro plant that they refurbished and yeah, I guess, I  [01:06:18] Seth: mean, wow, it's weird that there'd be just like orphaned electricity. [01:06:25]It looks like China and Tesla are the big dogs for lithium supplies.  [01:06:30] Fred: I don't know. Tesla is no dog at all. I mean, I mean, it's just a listen buyer, but not, not supply, like yeah. They want to be with that thing in Nevada apparently. But we haven't heard much about, about prod pro progress on that. [01:06:45] Seth: All right. Moving along here. Instead of region brainy, breaking, mining braking when your car needs to slow down in mines, Bitcoin,  [01:06:54] Fred: not sure about the logic here, Pablo, but I like your thinking  [01:06:58] Seth: a solar roof on the semi-trailers that, that does make sense on  [01:07:02] Fred: the sides. Yeah. I don't know why that's not happening. [01:07:05]The trailer. It makes a lot of sense for me. That's a lot of area I guess, I guess like you want, you want, Sollers the only thing that logically, that makes sense for me, that's why it's not happening or why it doesn't put any indication towards that. Is that it's you want your solar cells to be exposed to sunlight when every time there's sunlight. [01:07:27] And so if you put those solar cells in those places, there are a lot more valuable than places that when there's sunlight there might not be. And that could be the case with trailers, for sure, because look trailers, they spend a lot of time on the road, on the road. They do have a high potential of being exposed to sunlight. [01:07:45] That makes sense. But they also often docked on at distribution centers or at factories or whatever. And when they're docked. Depending on the situation, often it is going to, it's going to be shaded with, with the building next to it. So if you, when you spend a lot of time dark, it's not, it's not ideal. [01:08:01] So it's, it's just, it's, it's kind of sad that you have, you, you, you built a solar cell and it doesn't get its full value because it's putting on a place that doesn't get sun all the time, or, I mean, there's no place that gets on all the time, but you, you know what I mean? When there's sunlight health,  [01:08:18] Seth: All right. [01:08:18]We're getting toward the end here. How do you think Tesla's going to solve the dirty camera issue for robo taxis, especially the backup camera or writers going to be required to clean the cameras from time to time?  [01:08:29]Fred: No, I did. I discuss that on the podcast last week, I might have talked to my friends about it or something, and I'm thinking it was on the podcast, but this, this has been a big problem for me this winter. [01:08:38] Like I, I don't spend that many winter and get back. And now with the COVID I spent my winter cadets I'm driving my car, my Teslas. In the winter and I just cannot see this as full self-driving working in the winter and Quebec anymore. It's just, there's just no way, like, I always get an alert when I'm adding autopilot. [01:08:56] Oh, this camera is like, it's not clean anymore or is not clean. This camera is not clean. I'm like, eh, I'm not going to stop every few miles to just clean my car on my windshield. Let's think right. You got me right in there. Can see where I can see. But I don't need to see from like the fender on the side. [01:09:12] Like I, I, my window is through your hair. And my, so in my view, like th the best solution for that would be, you have to have cameras. Like, if you want to be competitive with a human driver, you have to see the same thing as a human driver. I don't have, I don't have eyes in the back of my head, like the camera do, but if, if, if it's not clean anyway, it's not a vintage. [01:09:32] So you have to have like, maybe a camera on the, on the side mirrors. So that makes sense because that's where I use to see where the, where the orthopod would see. But the thing in the fenders, they get, they get dirty all the time with the slush and everything that, that spins off from the cars and yeah. [01:09:49] You  [01:09:49] Seth: know, something interesting. My Chevy bolt, Evie, and I'm sure other vehicles have this, but they had like a little squirter that would squirt the the rear view camera. You know, like, like the windshield wipers, so yeah.  [01:10:01] Fred: It's quartz. And then D does it wipe it or it just let it dry?  [01:10:04] Seth: No, just shoots water at it. [01:10:07] And it worked clean, cleaned off the camera. So  [01:10:11] Fred: yeah, I mean the rear view camera often you have to wipe it and then quite often, every time you drive in the winter, like the other way.  [01:10:19] Seth: All right. That's pretty much it we've got a bunch of other conversations happening, but We can end it  [01:10:24] Fred: all right. [01:10:24] Well, thanks a lot, everyone for listening. Thanks. Lawful watching. If you're watching on YouTube on Facebook, you can give us a subscribe there. It's always appreciated a Tom's up to, and I'll always help with the algorithm for some reason. And if you're watching from a listening from a podcast app, you can give us a subscribe there to download the next episode, whenever it comes out which is always on Fridays. [01:10:44]We are alive at 4:00 PM Eastern time. It's going to be the same thing next week. So have a good one. Transcribed using Descript

This week on the Electrek Podcast, we discuss the most popular news in the world of sustainable transport and energy, including about Tesla Semi's new prototype, Tesla's new Supercharger factory, GM's 'No Way Norway' ad, and more. The Electrek Podcast is me, Fred Lambert, editor-in-chief of Electrek, and Seth Weintraub, founder and publisher of Electrek and the 9to5 network, discussing all our top stories of the week while taking questions from our readers and highlighting the most insightful comments on the site. The show is back live every Friday at 4 p.m. ET on Electrek’s YouTube channel. As a reminder, we’ll have an accompanying post, like this one, on the site with an embedded link to the live stream. Head to the YouTube channel to get your questions and comments in. After the show ends at around 5 p.m. ET, the video will be archived on YouTube and the audio on all your favorite podcast apps: Apple PodcastsSpotifyOvercastPocket CastsCastroRSS We now have a Patreon if you want to help us to avoid more ads and invest more in our content. We have some awesome gifts for our Patreons and more coming. Here are a few of the articles that we will discuss during the podcast today: Tesla Semi electric truck production prototype spotted ahead of launchA closer look at Tesla’s latest semi electric truck prototypeTesla’s new Model S and Model X get rid of lead-acid 12v battery, move to Li-ionTesla Model 3 is still the best-selling electric car in the world and it’s not even closeTesla opens its new Supercharger factoryTesla updates Model Y timeline in Europe, hints at Gigafactory Berlin to start production ‘mid-2021’Tesla finally ‘voluntarily’ recalls Model S/X with touchscreen problem after getting arm twisted by NHTSAGM unveils amusing ‘No way, Norway’ EV Superbowl ad starring Will FerrellFirst pictures of the VW ID.6 electric SUV leakThe Electrek Review: The Mach-E is Ford’s most important Mustang in 56 years Here’s the live stream for today’s episode starting at 4 p.m. ET (or the video after 5 p.m. ET): https://youtu.be/a2oMZFkrxaQ

This week on the Electrek Podcast, we discuss the most popular news in the world of sustainable transport and energy, including the unveiling of the new Tesla Model S and Model X, TSLA Q4 earnings, Biden giving electric vehicles a push, and more. The Electrek Podcast is me, Fred Lambert, editor-in-chief of Electrek, and Seth Weintraub, founder and publisher of Electrek and the 9to5 network, discussing all our top stories of the week while taking questions from our readers and highlighting the most insightful comments on the site. The show is back live every Friday at 4 p.m. ET on Electrek’s YouTube channel. As a reminder, we’ll have an accompanying post, like this one, on the site with an embedded link to the live stream. Head to the YouTube channel to get your questions and comments in. After the show ends at around 5 p.m. ET, the video will be archived on YouTube and the audio on all your favorite podcast apps: Apple PodcastsSpotifyOvercastPocket CastsCastroRSS We now have a Patreon if you want to help us to avoid more ads and invest more in our content. We have some awesome gifts for our Patreons and more coming. Here are a few of the articles that we will discuss during the podcast today: Tesla unveils new Model S with new interior, crazy steering wheel, and moreTesla’s new steering wheel comes with Autopilot sensor-based drive modes, force touch buttons, and moreTesla new Model S/X refresh: 12 new features yet to be announcedFirst Look at Tesla’s new refresh Model X electric SUVTesla Model S and Model X sales are spiking, but some buyers are not happy about pricingTesla (TSLA) releases Q4 2020 results: record revenue of $10.7 billion but misses on earningsTesla Energy’s massive quarter accelerates drive to decentralized electric utilityTesla had talks with other automakers about licensing its self-driving software, Elon Musk saysTesla Semi is ready for production, but they need the 4680 cells, says Elon MuskTesla Cybertruck: Elon Musk warns they need to be ‘lucky’ for electric pickup to not be delayedPresident Biden will make entire 645k federal vehicle fleet electric Here’s the live stream for today’s episode starting at 4 p.m. ET (or the video after 5 p.m. ET): https://youtu.be/8wAtRsALi1c

This week on the Electrek Podcast, we discuss the most popular news in the world of sustainable transport and energy, including the first picture of the Tesla structural battery pack, Tesla Powerwall and Model 3 prices, the Mercedes-Benz EQA unveil, and more. The Electrek Podcast is me, Fred Lambert, editor-in-chief of Electrek, and Seth Weintraub, founder and publisher of Electrek and the 9to5 network, discussing all our top stories of the week while taking questions from our readers and highlighting the most insightful comments on the site. The show is back live every Friday at 4 p.m. ET on Electrek’s YouTube channel. As a reminder, we’ll have an accompanying post, like this one, on the site with an embedded link to the live stream. Head to the YouTube channel to get your questions and comments in. After the show ends at around 5 p.m. ET, the video will be archived on YouTube and the audio on all your favorite podcast apps: Apple PodcastsSpotifyOvercastPocket CastsCastroRSS We now have a Patreon if you want to help us to avoid more ads and invest more in our content. We have some awesome gifts for our Patreons and more coming. Here are a few of the articles that we will discuss during the podcast today: First look at Tesla’s new structural battery pack that will power its future electric carsTesla increases the price of Powerwall againTesla drops Model 3 prices in EuropeTesla slashes the price of its media unit upgrade amid controversyMercedes-Benz unveils EQA electric SUV with 265 miles of range and ~$46,000 priceThe DeLorean might be coming back as an electric carVW CEO teases Tesla’s Elon Musk in Twitter debutVW plans new ‘Trinity’ flagship electric car that will ‘revolutionize Volkswagen’You can now buy a Porsche Taycan in the US for under $80,000SONDORS unveils affordable 80 mph electric motorcycle [Update: Get your questions answered] Here’s the live stream for today’s episode starting at 4 p.m. ET (or the video after 5 p.m. ET): https://youtu.be/5KEN69KgsMg

Listen to a recap of the top stories of the day from Electrek. Quick Charge is available now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, TuneIn and our RSS feed for Overcast and other podcast players. New episodes of Quick Charge are recorded Monday through Thursday and again on Saturday. Subscribe to our podcast in Apple Podcast or your favorite podcast player to guarantee new episodes are delivered as soon as they’re available. Stories we discuss in this episode (with links): Tesla (TSLA) stock gets new $950 price target on arguably conservative delivery projectionTesla is liquidating Model S and Model X inventory by the end of the month as refresh nearsTesla (TSLA) launches its own solar power inverterTesla claims you are ‘7x less likely to be in a crash’ with Autopilot, but the data is not that clearFord delays hundreds of Mustang Mach-E deliveries for ‘additional quality checks’Lotus and Renault team up to develop an all-electric Alpine carAn electric Corvette…SUV? GM is thinking about itVW’s highly-anticipated ID Buzz electric minivan has been delayedToyota’s greenwashing leads to record $180m fine for emissions lies https://youtu.be/mgM3wki2V0I Subscribe to the Electrek Daily Channel on Youtube so you never miss a day of news Follow Mikey: Twitter @Mikey_Electric Listen & Subscribe: Apple PodcastsSpotifyTuneIn Share your thoughts! Drop us a line at tips@electrek.co. You can also rate us in Apple Podcasts or recommend us in Overcast to help more people discover the show!

This week on the Electrek Podcast, we discuss the most popular news in the world of sustainable transport and energy, including a Tesla Model S/X refresh, a new Tesla solar inverter, the Model Y's third-row, and more. The Electrek Podcast is me, Fred Lambert, editor-in-chief of Electrek, and Seth Weintraub, founder and publisher of Electrek and the 9to5 network, discussing all our top stories of the week while taking questions from our readers and highlighting the most insightful comments on the site. The show is back live every Friday at 4 p.m. ET on Electrek’s YouTube channel. As a reminder, we’ll have an accompanying post, like this one, on the site with an embedded link to the live stream. Head to the YouTube channel to get your questions and comments in. After the show ends at around 5 p.m. ET, the video will be archived on YouTube and the audio on all your favorite podcast apps: Apple Podcasts Spotify Overcast Pocket Casts Castro RSS We now have a Patreon if you want to help us to avoid more ads and invest more in our content. We have some awesome gifts for our Patreons and more coming. Here are a few of the articles that we will discuss during the podcast today: Tesla is liquidating Model S and Model X inventory by the end of the month as refresh nears Tesla (TSLA) launches its own solar power inverter Tesla releases video of Model Y third row but doesn’t show someone sitting in it Tesla starts production of Model Y with massive single-piece rear casting NHTSA asks Tesla to recall Model S and Model X over MCU fiasco GM’s BrightDrop to build delivery EVs, 500 FedEx trucks this year GM teases Cadillac Celestiq electric car with interesting ‘smart glass’ roof Lucid (CCIV) and Proterra (ACTC) become latest EV companies looking to go public Hyundai releases new images of the IONIQ 5 electric car, makes vague claim about fast charging Here’s the live stream for today’s episode starting at 4 p.m. ET (or the video after 5 p.m. ET): https://youtu.be/JYo6mA3yh9E

This week on the Electrek Podcast, we discuss the most popular news in the world of sustainable transport and energy, including Tesla (TSLA) stock going to the moon (or Mars), a new Model Y, the timing of the $25,000 Tesla car, and more. The Electrek Podcast is me, Fred Lambert, editor-in-chief of Electrek, and Seth Weintraub, founder and publisher of Electrek and the 9to5 network, discussing all our top stories of the week while taking questions from our readers and highlighting the most insightful comments on the site. The show is back live every Friday at 4 p.m. ET on Electrek’s YouTube channel. As a reminder, we’ll have an accompanying post, like this one, on the site with an embedded link to the live stream. Head to the YouTube channel to get your questions and comments in. After the show ends at around 5 p.m. ET, the video will be archived on YouTube and the audio on all your favorite podcast apps: Apple Podcasts Spotify Overcast Pocket Casts Castro RSS We now have a Patreon if you want to help us to avoid more ads and invest more in our content. We have some awesome gifts for our Patreons and more coming. Here are a few of the articles that we will discuss during the podcast today: Tesla (TSLA) surges to record high — making Elon Musk the richest man in the world Tesla launches Model Y with Standard Range RWD and 7-seat third-row option Tesla sells out first quarter of Model Y electric SUV in China in just a few days Tesla unveils new map of upcoming Supercharger stations, adds stations, and updates timelines Tesla’s $25,000 electric car could be coming sooner than we thought VW makes new batch of ID.4 1st Edition electric SUVs for the US GM to produce Honda and Acura electric vehicles in Mexico and Tennessee in 2023-24 GM updates its logo for 5th time in history for huge electric transition campaign Here’s the live stream for today’s episode starting at 4 p.m. ET (or the video after 5 p.m. ET): https://youtu.be/alzJRH2tLNE

This week on the Electrek Podcast, we discuss the most popular news in the world of sustainable transport and energy, including our thoughts on what 2021 holds for electric cars, the Tesla Model S/X refresh, a Model Y interior update, and more. This week we are sponsored by NeoCharge smart charging splitter. The Electrek Podcast is me, Fred Lambert, editor-in-chief of Electrek, and Seth Weintraub, founder and publisher of Electrek and the 9to5 network, discussing all our top stories of the week while taking questions from our readers and highlighting the most insightful comments on the site. The show is back live every Friday at 4 p.m. ET on Electrek’s YouTube channel. As a reminder, we’ll have an accompanying post, like this one, on the site with an embedded link to the live stream. Head to the YouTube channel to get your questions and comments in. After the show ends at around 5 p.m. ET, the video will be archived on YouTube and the audio on all your favorite podcast apps: Apple Podcasts Spotify Overcast Pocket Casts Castro RSS We now have a Patreon if you want to help us to avoid more ads and invest more in our content. We have some awesome gifts for our Patreons and more coming. Here are a few of the articles that we will discuss during the podcast today: Tesla Model S/X refresh back in the spotlight as hacker finds updated interior with selfie camera in code Tesla updates interior design of Model Y electric SUV Tesla offers 3 months of free Full Self-Driving package as unprecedented end-of-quarter incentive Tesla (TSLA) is inching closer to historic delivery goal with a day to go Tesla owners of brand-new Model 3 and Y cars plagued with heating issues in dead of winter Tesla opens new world largest Supercharger station with a whopping 72 charging stalls Ford throws shade at Tesla over quality, calls its electric vehicles a ‘compromise’ What does the year 2021 hold for electric cars? Here’s the live stream for today’s episode starting at 4 p.m. ET (or the video after 5 p.m. ET): https://www.facebook.com/electrekco/videos/152548163049291

This week on the Electrek Podcast, we discuss the most popular news in the world of sustainable transport and energy, including a few news items about Tesla and other automakers, but as a holiday special, we are going to have a broader discussion about the year 2020 in the electric vehicle world. Sponsored by Electrify America: Discover all the new and innovative ways that Electrify America is providing freedom for electric vehicle drivers at ElectrifyAmerica.com. The Electrek Podcast is me, Fred Lambert, editor-in-chief of Electrek, and Seth Weintraub, founder and publisher of Electrek and the 9to5 network, discussing all our top stories of the week while taking questions from our readers and highlighting the most insightful comments on the site. The show is back live every Friday at 4 p.m. ET on Electrek’s YouTube channel. As a reminder, we’ll have an accompanying post, like this one, on the site with an embedded link to the live stream. Head to the YouTube channel to get your questions and comments in. After the show ends at around 5 p.m. ET, the video will be archived on YouTube and the audio on all your favorite podcast apps: Apple Podcasts Spotify Overcast Pocket Casts Castro RSS We now have a Patreon if you want to help us to avoid more ads and invest more in our content. We have some awesome gifts for our Patreons and more coming. Here are a few of the articles that we will discuss during the podcast today: Elon Musk: Tesla Superchargers are now being used ‘low-key’ by other automakers Elon Musk reveals he looked to sell Tesla to Apple for a fraction of its current value Tesla is ‘ironing out a few bugs’ in big holiday update, Elon Musk says it’s still coming Hyundai accidentally leaks IONIQ 5 electric car specs and it’s not bad The year 2020 in the electric vehicle world Here’s the live stream for today’s episode starting at 4 p.m. ET (or the video after 5 p.m. ET): https://youtu.be/eAYsaJEWQck