600 Kilowatts Later…

[00:00:21] Hello everyone and welcome to Kilowatt, a podcast about electric vehicles, renewable energy, autonomous driving, and much, much more. My name is Bodhi and I am your host. This is the 600 episode of Kilowatt, 600 episodes. So I am very pleased that we've made it this far. I'm still trying to figure out the podcast recording thing. I had meetings for most of yesterday. I've got some really good

[00:00:51] interviews coming up for you. I've got three interviews scheduled next week and I think you're going to enjoy those. But yeah, that lots, lots of stuff I've kind of neglected for the podcast and now it's all coming up in floods. So I'm going to record an episode today, which is Thursday, an episode, which will be GM's earnings call that will either be Saturday or Sunday when it's released. And then we'll record an episode on Tuesday and an episode on Friday.

[00:01:20] Next week, and hopefully we'll start evening this stuff out. But just because the episodes have been kind of weird with the release schedule does not mean that I'm not working on the show. Like I said, I had quite a few different meetings yesterday, trying to get everything like set up and I'm exchanging a lot of different emails with people. So yeah, hopefully with any luck next week will be the week we go back to our normal schedule.

[00:01:50] All right. First up, I have a little plug isn't the right word. I have a recommendation. Patrick, who runs the cars with cords blog, it's carswithcords.net.

[00:02:01] On November 8th, 2024, his solar panels produced a total, not in one day, they crossed the threshold. They produced 138,562 kilowatt hours of energy to see what celestial body he could theoretically drive his 2018 model Y to and back.

[00:02:25] Go to carswithcords.net. I genuinely enjoy reading Patrick's blog. And as a bonus, you'll learn how many times he could drive around the equator with that much energy as well. Next, Bill wrote in because we talked about how the Hyundai Ioniq 5 qualified for the $7,500 federal tax credit if you were going to purchase one. I don't know why I said that so weird.

[00:02:54] Anyway, Bill rightfully points out that prior to the Ioniq 5 qualifying for the $7,500 tax credit, Hyundai was offering an additional $7,500 discount as a way to offset the fact that it didn't qualify. And then as a side note, United States House Speaker Mike Johnson has confirmed that there are discussions in the House of Representatives here in the U.S. to end the $7,500 EV tax credit.

[00:03:23] And finally, we got a lot of listener emails this week. We talked about the U.S. having a $250 annual flat fee for anyone who owns an EV to help pay for the road taxes. And it turns out, you know, unless you drive a lot, that $250 flat fee is quite a bit higher than what internal combustion engine people pay when they fill up their gas.

[00:03:53] Sean wrote in from New Zealand and Sean's been on the show before. He emailed in to share how New Zealand handles this. So, in New Zealand, there's a 7.6 cent per kilometer road user charge, which is roughly 7.3 cents in the U.S., but it's 7.6 cents New Zealand, right? Their currency.

[00:04:20] So, how this works is the New Zealand drivers will buy the RUC, the road user charge, in increments of 1,000 kilometers. And then they get a display sticker on the inside of the windshield, which allows the police to come by and just randomly check to see if you're within that mileage range. Sean says this is a bit of the honor system, unless you get pulled over and they check.

[00:04:48] And they can also check at, like, DUI checkpoints or just to check to see if people are drinking, that kind of thing. But overall, it's a bit of the honored system. So, I wrote Sean back and I asked, how does this compare to what ICE drivers pay when they buy gas or petrol?

[00:05:08] And Sean was nice enough to write back and he said that EV drivers pay about $7.60 New Zealand, 7 New Zealand dollars and 60 cents per 100 kilometers. That's pretty easy to calculate. It's 7.6 cents times 100 kilometers, $7.60. However, it's not that simple because there's an additional tax on electricity as well, which is about 35 cents per kilowatt hour.

[00:05:38] So, that would actually add an additional 68 cents to that price. So, instead of $7.60 New Zealand, it is now $8.28 New Zealand in taxes for that 100 kilometers. In terms of what internal combustion engine folks pay, they're looking at about $6.93 in fuel taxes per 100 kilometers.

[00:06:06] So, Sean buys about 10,000 kilometers at a time, which is $760 New Zealand dollars. So, quite a bit more than the $250 proposed here in the U.S. However, if you buy a block of 10,000 kilometers and it takes you three years to go through that because you don't drive very much, probably not a bad deal. So, what do you think?

[00:06:33] How do you feel about buying blocks of miles or kilometers as a way to solve this problem? Send me an email. Bodie, B-O-D-I-E at 918digital.com All right, let's move on to the EV news. First up, Waymo is considering selling robo-taxis to the great unwashed masses, aka you and I. We don't have any specifics.

[00:06:57] It was just an offhand comment from Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai during their earnings call. And if you didn't know, Waymo is an Alphabet company. So is Google and YouTube, that kind of thing. Here's the thing, though. I'm not sure Sundar Pichai was talking about selling them to you and me, right?

[00:07:17] I heard a lot or I saw quite a few headlines that kind of indicated that, but I wonder if they would just sell them so that you can put them on some sort of autonomous taxi network like Uber or Lyft or something like that. Or maybe Waymo will do its own thing. Right now, they're working in Austin with Uber. So, kind of an interesting idea.

[00:07:42] Yeah, the price would have to come down quite a bit to make it reasonable for regular humans to afford because there's a lot of tech in those vehicles. So, we'll see. Interesting. I think it's interesting. Up next, we have a recommendation from Bart Bouchot. He's been on this show many times and does the Let's Talk series of podcasts. He also does the NoSilicast.

[00:08:11] He does security bits on NoSilicast. So, Bart sent this in. Maynooth University in Ireland has completed the transition from ICE vehicles to an all-electric fleet. The university first purchased their Gopiel, hopefully he said that right, EV in 2015 to replace a diesel van. Gopiel builds these small EVs that are kind of used as utility vehicles.

[00:08:37] Think of two-seater, slightly bigger than golf carts, facility management. They're used for cleaning, green space. Like I said, facility management, waste collection, gardens and parks, logistics and parcel delivery, that kind of thing. Since they purchased that first vehicle in 2015, Maynooth has replaced larger ICE vehicles with EVs as well.

[00:09:02] Like they are using the electric Ford Transit van and the Peugeot e-professional. The transition doesn't just include vehicles that get you from point A to point B. They've purchased an electric forklift and an electric ride-on lawnmower or riding lawnmower. Maynooth has an initiative to reduce greenhouse gases by 51%. And this is from starting in 2016-2018 baseline. So that's where they're starting as their baseline.

[00:09:32] And they're going to reduce that 51% by 2030. So congratulations to Maynooth University. Foxtron Vehicle Technologies. Yes, you heard that right. Not Foxconn. Foxtron, which is a subsidiary of Foxconn, has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Mitsubishi Motors to develop and supply a new electric vehicle model for Mitsubishi.

[00:09:58] The upcoming EV is slated to be released in Australia and New Zealand in the second half of 2026. Foxtron is planning on utilizing its open platform approach, which is potentially based on its MIH electric car platform. And the reason why they're using this platform is to help streamline the development and production of the EV, right? We don't have to start all over from a clean slate.

[00:10:24] This move helps Mitsubishi's broader goal to electrify its vehicle lineup by 2035. And when I say electrify, it includes hybrids as well as electric vehicles. Our final EV story. Walmart is building its own EV fast charging network with plans to add chargers to thousands of stores by 2030. The chargers will be 400 kilowatt DC fast chargers,

[00:10:54] and it will support both NACS and CCS1 plugs. Customers can start and pay for charging through their Walmart app. Walmart here in the United States does not support Apple Pay or Android Pay or whatever Google Pay is called. It's probably called Google Pay. Walmart has their own payment system, so they're going to force you to use the app.

[00:11:16] But the rollout will prioritize areas with fewer chargers and then scale up based on demand. Walmart already has partnerships with networks like Electrify America, but it'll be interesting to see what they're doing with their own infrastructure. It doesn't sound like they're kicking Electrify America off the properties. It just sounds like they're adding chargers to the locations that don't have EV chargers.

[00:11:44] The first location is live in McKinney, Texas, with more pilot sites in Texas and Arkansas on the way. If Walmart completely follows through with this, they would most likely have one of, if not the largest, charging networks in the U.S. That would certainly make them a major player in the U.S. And then also, just kind of as an added bonus,

[00:12:10] you know, they're going to be putting EV chargers in rural and underserved areas as well. So that helps out everybody. I like to see that kind of thing. Not a huge fan of Walmart as a company, but I am a fan of this initiative for sure. All right, everybody, that is it for our EV news. I do want to remind you, if you want to support the show, you can go to patreon.com forward slash kilowatt or support kilowatt.com. Some of those things are changing based on a conversation I had with Alice and Sharon today.

[00:12:41] But we have a new way of supporting the show through Supercast, and I promise I'll get that information to you soon. But if you are not aware, Acast Plus is going away. Acast isn't going to do that anymore. So we're switching with Acast's help. We're switching over to Supercast. And if you are a Acast Plus subscriber, you should get an email soon from Supercast on how to switch over.

[00:13:10] If not, please reach out to me and I will do my best to get you answers. But if you want to support the show, you can go to patreon.com forward slash kilowatt or email me and I'll send you the Supercast link. And yeah, all the money goes back into the show. No, none of the money goes into my own pocket. The show, it goes to paying things like when I went to Vegas for CES. I'm hoping to do some more events this year.

[00:13:38] It's a matter of time. Like it's very hard to tell my wife that I'm going to be gone two to three days a week for, you know, 48 hours at a time at my current job. And then I'm going to come home on my four days and take off for another couple of days. That's not really fair to her. So I'm trying to get out there and do more events while balancing the fact that I don't want to abandon my family. But anyway, the money goes towards that.

[00:14:06] It goes towards buying equipment and all that good stuff. So patreon.com forward slash kilowatt or support kilowatt.com. Next up, Tesla has launched the long range rear wheel drive trim of the Model Y. So it comes with all the cool stuff that is found in the new Model Y. Just a few weensy teeny tiny differences. The zero to 60 time is 5.4 seconds.

[00:14:35] The top speed is 125 miles an hour. Range is quite good at 357 miles. Starts just under $45,000. But if, you know, the $7,500 federal tax credit is still around, it qualifies. So that would put the price just under $37,500. Tesla is also offering 1.99% financing or zero down on a new Model Y here in the United States.

[00:15:05] They were already offering 0% financing in Europe and China. By the way, the new Model Y is selling quite well in China. A little bit of a different story in the UK. In April, Tesla only sold a total of 512 vehicles. That's down 62% when compared to April 2024 and down 65% when compared to January 2025. So yeah, that's not a lot of cars.

[00:15:33] So we'll keep an eye on that for sure. Next up, Tesla has announced that the AutoSteer feature, which was previously included in the standard autopilot package for Cybertruck and is in my autopilot package for my Model Y. They are no longer going to offer AutoSteer as part of the autopilot package with the Cybertruck. Now, I will tell you this.

[00:16:01] That includes all of the people who have purchased a Cybertruck to this point. So when you bought a Cybertruck, let's say two years ago and you didn't buy a full self-driving, maybe two years, maybe we'll say a year and a half ago. The promise was that you would eventually get AutoSteer for the Cybertruck if you have an autopilot. And they're not doing that anymore. So you only get it if you purchase the full self-driving package for $8,000.

[00:16:32] They are kind of softening the blow a little bit. And they are giving you a year of full self-driving for free because, you know, they're taking something away from you. They're trying to give you something in return. However, what happens if you don't want to continue paying for full self-driving?

[00:16:54] Like, I understand if you are selling the cars without AutoSteer and an autopilot included. I understand that. Like, if I bought one today and it wasn't included, that's on me because I bought it. But when you purchase the vehicle and then you're told later that it's not available, that doesn't make me happy. That actually is quite irritating.

[00:17:21] And Electrac is calling this a bait-and-switch because AutoSteer was advertised as part of the standard autopilot package. I don't know that it's a bait-and-switch. I would not go that far.

[00:17:35] However, I can completely understand why somebody might think that and why somebody who paid $80,000 to over $100,000 for their vehicle would be irritated that that did not come with the vehicle. Especially when it's coming with all the other vehicles in autopilot. You know, if they were just like, you know what, no more AutoSteer for any Tesla going from this point on. Okay, great.

[00:18:05] If you want AutoSteer, you've got to pay for full self-driving. But just retroactively taking it away and then giving a full year of full self-driving, that's great. Why don't you give them a nice hefty fat discount off of full self-driving? You know, a full year of self-driving is $1,200. Give them $2,500 off full self-driving if they want to upgrade. Or give them a choice.

[00:18:30] You can have $2,500 off of the $8,000 that you have to pay for FSD. Or you can have a year of FSD for free. And then after that, you get to pay $100 a month. Give them a choice. But I don't think it's quite as bad as a bait-and-switch. But I think it's a pretty crappy thing to do. All right. Our final Tesla story here. Tesla is preparing to launch its RoboTaxi service in Austin.

[00:19:00] That's Austin, Texas. This is June. So just a few weeks away. This report comes from Insider. The initial rollout will use Model Ys. We've heard this. Elon said this. So the Model Ys are going to be equipped with Tesla's full self-driving software. But in supervised mode. As well as have an in-car safety driver. Then there are plans to transition to unsupervised operations.

[00:19:27] But it still sounds like they'll have remote operators as just kind of to be there. Just in case something happens. The remote operator is able to take over. The rollout will involve approximately 300 test drivers operating the autonomous vehicles on city streets. And they're going to accumulate driving data. And I'm sure Tesla's already working on this, to be honest. Tesla's also conducted safety training.

[00:19:54] And I believe Elon said this in the earnings call. But maybe I'm wrong. Maybe I saw it somewhere else. But they've conducted safety training with local first responders. Including Austin Fire Department and Police Department. To prepare for real-world deployment. And these sessions involve, you know, simulating different traffic scenarios. To ensure that the firefighters and police officers know what to expect when they come up on one of these vehicles. And I think that's great.

[00:20:23] Now, while they're rolling this out in Austin, Texas first. Tesla is also looking at rolling out the service in Atlanta, New York, Seattle, and Phoenix. So that's exciting for somebody who lives in Phoenix. As a matter of fact, I am completely biased on this. But I think Phoenix should have been first. Because we already had Cruise. We had May Mobility up in Sun City. We have Waymo.

[00:20:50] Like, our area is very robo-taxi friendly. So they should have been here first. All autonomous vehicles should be tested here first. In my personal opinion. Which is completely unbiased. Because I don't have to pay for a plane ticket to Austin to see how well this service works. Anyway. If you're wondering about the Cyber Cab. Which is the two-seater designed vehicle that's supposed to be on the robo-taxi.

[00:21:20] You know, it doesn't come with steering wheel or pedals. Production of the Cyber Cab is expected to commence in 2026. And it will start around $30,000. And it's supposed to start under $30,000. We'll see if that actually happens. All right. Well, everybody. That is it for me today. If you want to email me, you can do so. Bodie. B-O-D-I-E at 918digital.com

[00:21:48] You can also find me on X at 918digital. You can support the show at supportkilowatt.com And yeah. I appreciate each and every single one of you. I hope you all have a wonderful weekend. If you are in a place that celebrates Mother's Day weekend. Or you are a mother. Happy Mother's Day. And yeah. I will talk to everybody soon.