A Potpourri of Almost Philosophical Thoughts w/ Obie

[00:00:22] Hello everyone and welcome to Kilowatt, a podcast about electric vehicles, renewable energy, autonomous driving, and much, much more. Today our much, much more happens to be snow tires. Well, we're not allowed to call them snow tires, but we'll get into that in just a second. We are finally doing our long promo segment, Obie's Tech Tips. Obie is an EV mechanic, technician, and he is going to share some valuable information with us.

[00:00:50] And since we are getting into the winter season, where we need a little bit of extra traction on our tires, we're going to talk about winter tires, all weather tires, snow tires, and talk about all of it. And it's a good conversation. But before we get to that, we got some news to cover. So let me pull up the news here. Oh, oh. Before we get to news, I do want to let everybody know.

[00:01:19] So, so far on Sunday, I started emailing people that I had not gotten to. It started all the way back in August. So if you have emailed me recently and you're like, why isn't this jerk emailed me back? I was working through the late August to get back to people.

[00:01:38] And I'm slowly getting through that. I'm up to like mid to late October. So I'm hoping I have one meeting tomorrow morning at eight in the morning, and I'm hoping to spend the rest of my afternoon answering emails and catching up on other podcasting stuff. So, yes, if you're waiting on an email from me, it's coming more than likely tomorrow, but I can't make total promises. I might have to do it on another Sunday just because I'll have the time.

[00:02:07] All right. Let's start with our EV news. Fast food chain, Hardee's, which depending on where you live, it's either Hardee's or Carl Jr. So if you're on the East Coast, it's Hardee's. If you're on the West Coast, it's Carl's Jr. I'm not exactly sure where that divide happens. I don't know if you're like, you know, if you're in Kansas, it's one. And if you're Missouri, it's the other.

[00:02:30] I genuinely don't know, but it divides somewhere in the country where it stops becoming Hardee's and starts becoming Carl's Jr. Anyway, same restaurant, different name, depending on where you live. They are now going to be offering DC fast charging at some of their locations. And while you're enjoying your fast food, you can charge up your car. You have a Nex or CCS adapter to are not adapter, but plug to plug into your car.

[00:02:59] So, yeah, you know, it's been like 30 years since I've eaten at a Hardee's or Carl's Jr. It is nutty. I remember one opened up and I was probably 23, 21, 22, something like that. And a friend of mine wanted to go there and he loved it there. And I did not enjoy the vibe or the food, but maybe I should try it again.

[00:03:31] Next up, Mark K from the UK passed this along to us. MoveElectric.com put together a list of every EV with over 300 miles of range. Now, MoveElectric.com is a UK publication. So it's not, you know, this is more of a UK slash, we'll say, European Union article.

[00:04:00] Not so much the rest of the world. There are 43 different cars on their list. I'm not going to mention all 43. I'll just mention a few of them. And it's a good list, though. I put a link in the show notes so you can definitely go and and check it out. But just in case while I'm reading these off, you're like, well, you didn't mention Lucid or Rivian. It's because they're not being sold there. So that's why. And they weren't listed in the article.

[00:04:29] But some interesting stuff here. So I'm going to start with the BYD Seal. The BYD Seal has a range of 354 miles and comes in at 44,990 British pounds. So that all the prices are British pounds, by the way.

[00:04:50] The BMW iX has a range of 382 miles and a price tag of 102,000 British pounds, which is nutty. I'm just going to say pounds from now on because it sounds weird when I say British pounds. The Ford Mach-E, which we get here in the U.S., 372 miles and 59,000 pounds. Polestar 3, 379 miles.

[00:05:20] And just under 80,000 pounds. The Lotus E-M-E-Y-A. E-M-E-Y-A? I'm not sure how to pronounce that. If you know, let me know. Bodie, B-O-D-I-E at 918digital.com. Anyway, this bad chicken gets 379 miles and it starts just under $90,000.

[00:05:43] And then we have the Audi A6, 381 miles, 68,000, almost 69,000 pounds. And the BMW i7, 387 miles and starts at 113,000, almost 114,000 pounds. And then, of course, the most affordable on the list is the Hyundai Kona Electric.

[00:06:10] It has 319 miles and starts just under 39,000 pounds. You know, most of what I talk about is North America related. I try to, you know, expand out as much as I possibly can so that it's not just North America. But that's where I live. So it's more of that of a, you know, North American-centric podcast. But I'm glad when people send me things from different parts of the world so we can talk about it.

[00:06:40] So thank you, Mark. And let's move on to the North American's perspective yet again. The Ford Fathom EV, which is Ford's up-and-coming, really affordable EV built on their new architecture. I think it's called the Universal EV Architecture or Platform. That vehicle will start at $28,350 US dollars. And it will top out in the high 30s.

[00:07:08] Not in the 40s, but in the high 30s. So it sounds like you're going to be able to get a really good truck for a very affordable price. It's going to feature zonal architecture, electrical architecture. So that's good. Reduce cost and complexity. 48-volt system. Again, a great way to reduce costs. There's going to be an option for bi-directional charging. It will be capable of Blue Cruise, which is their autonomy platform.

[00:07:38] And unlike GM, Ford is embracing CarPlay and Android Auto. So you'll definitely have those options. And then, of course, Ford's going to have, you know, a few subscriptions here and there that you can take part in if you wish. So overall, I'm really looking forward to the Ford Fathom. And I've received one, maybe two press releases from Ford on the Fathom. Didn't get this one, though. And I'm hoping I'm on that list.

[00:08:07] I would very much like to go to Tennessee and check out the Fathom when it's officially announced. I don't know if Ford's going to invite me, but I'm closer than I was like a year ago. So Ford, please send the invite. I'd love to come and check it out. I might even bring a videographer. I might spring for my oldest to come with me because that's what she does for a living. All right.

[00:08:36] That is our EV news. I mentioned we have a segment at the end here. We're trying something new. So I didn't want to make the podcast overly long. But we do have some Tesla news. Before we get to that, though, I do want to let you know you can support the podcast at supportkilowatt.com. And there you can sign up and become a patron on Patreon. Or you can sign up on Supercast either way and support the show for as little as a dollar.

[00:09:04] We remove the ads for you and you just get that ad-free experience. So supportkilowatt.com if you're interested. Moving on to our Tesla news. A car and driver story. If you go back to the beginning of 2024, 232,809 electric pickup trucks have been sold. That's according to Cox Automotive. And those are estimates, right?

[00:09:33] It's not an exact number, but that's their estimates. And Cox is usually pretty good about that. When we look at trucks like the Rivian R1T and the F-150 Lightning, those came out before 2024. So this isn't the entire history of electric trucks. This is just from 2024, 2025, and up to where we are in 2026.

[00:09:57] So if we look at the breakdown of that 232,000 electric pickup trucks sold, we have, and that's here in the U.S., we have six pickup trucks. And I'm going to start with number six and we'll work our way to number one. So first, number six, we have the GMC Sierra EV. And since 2024, that vehicle has sold 14,489 vehicles.

[00:10:25] Next up, we have the Rivian R1T, which is the truck version of the R1. If you don't know, 23,110 sold since 2024, not in the entire product existence, just since 2024. And then we have the Silverado EV, and that's 24,030. And then this one surprises me.

[00:10:53] We have the GMC Hummer EV sold 34,805. I'm surprised. I thought, I would have thought that both the GMC Sierra, the Rivian, and the Silverado would have outsold the Hummer. But no, Hummer's still got some good sales. And I realize the Hummer's been on sale longer than the Sierra and the Silverado EV.

[00:11:19] But still, as popularity goes, you know, the Silverado and the Sierra are pretty popular truck models. I would assume that they would have overshadowed the Hummer by now, but they haven't. Next up, we have the F-150 Lightning sold 65,587 in those nearly three years, 2024, 2025, and 2026. I mean, they're not selling it anymore.

[00:11:49] We have to RIP the F-150 Lightning for now. It's going to come back as an extended range. But yeah, 65,000. Pretty good number, pretty good number. And then many of you at this point are probably asking yourselves, you said this was the Tesla segment. To this point, you haven't mentioned one Tesla story or Tesla item.

[00:12:16] And that is because the number one selling pickup truck from 2024 to current times is the Cybertruck, which sold 70,788 units. And you know what? I'm seeing more. There's it's very rare for me to go out anymore and not see a Cybertruck.

[00:12:41] There was a time, especially when everybody was hating on Elon, more hating on Elon than they are currently. There was a time that I rarely saw them. Like when they first started deliveries, I would see them every now and again. And recently, I'm like, man, I am seeing more and more Cybertrucks.

[00:13:04] And it's not simply, you know, the bare metal ones that are hard to differentiate between all the other bare metal ones. Like these are Cybertrucks that have been wrapped. And, you know, they're out in the world and they're unique. I saw a purple one the other day. I was driving the fire truck and it had pulled over for us. And it was it was it was an oncoming traffic. So it pulled over. But the gentleman who was driving, it must have had the.

[00:13:36] The air ride like all the way down because it looked so small and granted, I'm in a fire truck, so I'm sitting up high and stuff, but it looked way smaller than all of the other Cybertrucks that I saw and or see in general. And I was just thinking to myself, is that as I'm driving code three to this call, is that a Cybertruck? Because it looks so small, like it really messed with my head just the way that it was purple and it had some design on it. I didn't catch the design, but it was just like slammed all the way down to the ground.

[00:14:07] But yeah, I'm seeing more and more Cybertrucks. Are you seeing more and more Cybertrucks? If you are, send me an email. And if you own a Cybertruck, that doesn't count because you see one in your garage or driveway every day. But send me an email. Bodie, B-O-D-I-E at 918digital.com. All right. That brings us to our final Tesla story. The 2026 shareholder meeting is coming up. It's going to be held on December 3rd.

[00:14:35] The theme of this meeting apparently is building a world of amazing abundance. And, you know, while I applaud that, it might as well be building a world of big promises. That we can't guarantee we can deliver. I love the optimism. I'm not a big fan of the sustainable abundance messaging from Tesla, but that's neither here nor there.

[00:15:05] At the shareholder meeting, we can expect some updates on CyberCab. Maybe full self-driving, Optimus, Tesla Semi. Maybe we'll see something on the Tesla Roadster. But there are some proposals that shareholders need to vote on, and those are to re-elect Elon, the Tesla chair, Robin Denholm, and J.B. Straubel. And J.B. was like the chief operating officer for Tesla for a long time, if he didn't know. He now runs Redwood Materials.

[00:15:36] Each board term is three years. So that's what shareholders are voting on, and they're going to vote on each shareholder separately. So they don't vote on all three of these at the same time. Elon's separate from Robin, and Robin's separate from J.B., and so on. They're also voting on a 2025 executive compensation. So it's not just Elon.

[00:15:58] There's other executives in this vote, but it does also include a $158.4 billion stock award for Elon. This vote is non-binding. So what happens is shareholders vote yes or no, and no matter how they vote, the board is not bound by that vote. But it does give the board an idea of the temperature of the shareholders.

[00:16:26] So, for instance, if the shareholders vote 80% no, the board could technically say, yeah, but we're going to give it to them anyway. It's non-binding. I would imagine that would cause quite an uproar in the shareholder community, but they have that ability. So it just gives the board a temperature of what shareholders are thinking.

[00:16:53] And then, finally, the most boring of the proposals is to retain PricewaterhouseCoopers as their independent accounting firm. That usually passes. And obviously, Tesla recommends that you vote yes on all of their proposals. Typically, we will see shareholder proposals, and Tesla, as a general rule, recommends that you vote no on all shareholder proposals.

[00:17:18] I mean, it's not to say that they haven't said or recommended that you vote for one particular proposal. But to my memory, they've always said vote no to all shareholder proposals. And some of that information would be like more transparency when it comes to supply chain, or which Tesla is already pretty transparent about. Or more guarantees that people who are working for suppliers are being paid and treated well.

[00:17:47] And Tesla usually wants you to vote no for that. But having said that, I think based on what we know, or what I know at the moment, is Tesla does a pretty good job at making sure that that kind of stuff is above board. You know, there's all sorts of independent organizations out there. Lead the charge is one of them, which I think lead the charge is great.

[00:18:14] But there's all sorts of independent organizations out there that are tracking this stuff. And I have not seen one that was like really critical of where Tesla is in this regard. There's plenty of articles that are written about Tesla that are critical. I'm just talking about in this specific space. So when I see or when we come across what the shareholder proposals are, I will definitely cover those. All right.

[00:18:43] That covers our Tesla news and our EV news. Let's go ahead and jump in to Bodie's EV tech tips. And that is a working title. If somebody has a better idea, please email me. I'm working with the best I can here. And my creativity is really low. So if you have a better idea for this segment, please let me know. But we're going to chat about snow tires. So let's dive in. All right, OB, welcome to the show. Thanks for having me.

[00:19:13] Yeah. I thought maybe we'd start by just discussing a little bit about what OB's EV tech tips are and what it will be in the future. So essentially, the idea is to give good information that helps with, I mean, particularly with owning EVs, tires, maintenance, buying used, understanding how things work on the car. And ideally, as impactful as possible.

[00:19:43] Because there's a lot of bad information that makes it a less optimal experience than it could be. Because with the right knowledge, an EV is an incredibly trouble-free thing to own. So, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I think there's a little bit of misinformation out there that just because EVs are low maintenance doesn't mean there are no maintenance. Correct. Yeah. There is maintenance involved. There's significantly less maintenance.

[00:20:12] But there's also kind of a shift in the importance of the maintenance that they need. They need similar maintenance to what a combustion vehicle would need. But the maintenance that's important is a little different. Okay. And today, we're going to talk about something topical to the wintertime. We're going to talk about, and we're not supposed to call it a snow tire, but I'm going to call it a snow tire. That's my pet peeve. Snow tires. So, there's a misconception with snow tires.

[00:20:42] A lot of people say, I don't need a snow tire because I don't get enough snow. And the truth is that snow tires should really never be referred to as a snow tire. It should be referred to as a winter tire. While they are highly effective in the snow and they tend to outperform anything else, the area where a snow tire actually shines is ice. Ice. Most people think that you hit ice and you just slide out, but that's not how it works.

[00:21:09] Anybody that's dealt with a lot of ice knows that really what it boils down to is keeping control of the car and how much traction your tires have. So, if you hit a patch of ice on a set of summer tires, you're more likely to slide out. If you hit it on a set of all seasons, it's slightly better. If you do it on all weathers, that's a little bit better. But on winter tires, they're literally designed to keep their grip on ice.

[00:21:35] So, you can go from sliding regularly on all seasons and all weathers like I did for years until I put winters on and then did, I don't even know how many years and probably 50,000, 60,000 miles or more and have never slid on a set of winter, not snow, winter tires. So, when you say winter tires, you're not talking about studded tires though. You're talking about the rubber on the tire is specifically designed to operate in icy conditions

[00:22:04] or in snowy conditions. Yeah, that's exactly it. So, there are still studded winters and there's a place for them. If you're in a very high ice area, it's still not a bad idea to run them. Even the studs themselves have improved in design. I forget the name of it. It's Nokian. But they have like a retracting stud now. There's wild technology in the studs. You don't need studs.

[00:22:31] There's also a misconception that studs cause you to lose traction and while that's technically true in certain conditions, it's such a small amount that it's not meaningful. But it's actually the type of compound they use. And then if you ever actually look at a winter tire next to a normal tire, it has all these tiny little cuts in it. And those cuts are actually what grip the ice because it's the edge of the tire that bites ice. When you're dealing with a normal tire in normal conditions, it's the full contact surface.

[00:22:59] But when it comes to ice, it's really just the edge of that rubber that digs in and gets the grip. So, when you look at a winter tire, it's very squishy. It's very soft and it has those lines cut into it everywhere. The flip side of that is if you run them in warmer weather, they will melt. They're like silly putty above 50 degrees. So, you have to take them off. You can't run them in better weather. They wear out faster and you actually have compromised traction when it's warmer out. So, that's the flip side of the winter tire. Yeah.

[00:23:27] I mean, if you look at race car drivers and stuff, when they do their warm-up laps, not only are they getting a feel for the track, but they're also warming their tires up. And that gives them better performance when they're actually going fast. Yeah. Yeah, it's like the drag strips and they do the thing that they burn out and they warm the tire up to get more grip and everything. Yeah, in the winter tire, that would be bad. Because if the tire gets warm, now it loses grip. Yeah, 100%.

[00:23:56] So, when somebody is selecting a winter tire, do you have any suggestions or tips as to what to look for in a good winter tire? I mean, honestly, as long as you're using a known brand, they're usually pretty solid. Just like any tire, when you start getting into less major brands, and the big ones are like Continental, Handcook, there's a few different options that you can use.

[00:24:24] But those higher-end brands are usually pretty good about making a solid winter tire. The cheaper stuff is still better, generally speaking, than any all-season or all-weather tire. But yeah, as long as it's one of those big names. And then now they're starting to develop, and it's on, I think it's the Viking Contact 8 that has it, and there might be one other one, but they're now starting to develop an ice grip stamp because the three-mountain peak stamp

[00:24:54] is actually a little too easy to get, so it doesn't mean a whole lot. So, just because a tire has it doesn't mean it's a good winter. It just means that it is marginally better than a reference tire that the manufacturer selects. So, essentially, it means nothing. It's just the manufacturer putting their reputation on the line. Gotcha. Tell me what a three-mountain logo is specifically, because I don't know what that is. So, when you look at a sidewall of a tire, it'll look like a little mountain that has three peaks on it,

[00:25:24] and that's considered basically a light snow rating. I forget what the actual term is for it, but essentially they compare it to a reference tire, which they choose, and then it has to do 10% better in braking and acceleration. So, not much of an improvement over like a standard, and that's actually the difference between an all-season tire and an all-weather tire. I found out recently the all-weather is required to have that stamp on it.

[00:25:53] And again, if it's a reputable company, it will be marginally better in snow. But what I can tell you from personal experience is I ran tires that had that mountain peak stamp on it, and I got stuck trying to back up into fairly deep snow, but not that deep, in a four-wheel drive vehicle because those tires just weren't grippy enough even though they had that stamp on it. You know, and I pulled back out. I just couldn't go where I thought I was going to go with those tires on. Interesting.

[00:26:23] So, if you had to give like a real down-and-dirty summary for somebody who maybe was listening but was like, man, I just need to have the simple little bit of information. How would you kind of end this segment with the best information to walk out of this podcast and into a tire shop? So, the big takeaway would be if you're in an area that spends a regular amount of time

[00:26:52] under 40 degrees, it's a good idea to have a set of winter tires. And if you're going to go buy a set of winter tires, buy good ones. And basically, you can get them from any major brand, but honestly, the internet, you got all the power in the world. Just do a little bit of research on it. You'll find out who makes the good ones, who makes the bad ones. But when you go in, you're looking for a winter tire. You know, don't let them talk you out of it if it's something you want because winter tires are a lot cheaper

[00:27:21] than a whole car because you slip out of control. Oh, that's a good point. I mean, in Alaska, the first freezing and then the snow on top of that, there are, you know, the roads are littered with people in the ditch just because the way that, or at least when I was a kid, I don't know how it is now, but I would assume it's the same. Littered with people in the ditch just because you underestimated when you should put your studded tires on

[00:27:50] and you overestimated your ability. Yes. And one interjection, no tire makes you invincible. And the most important thing in winter conditions, because everybody's like, oh, I want an all-wheel drive. The most important thing is stopping. And the advantage of a rear-wheel drive or a front-wheel drive, they're lighter, so they're easier to stop. So if you can't do it in a two-wheel drive system, that should be like kind of the indicator, like, hey, I need to slow down

[00:28:21] because people get overconfident because all-wheel drive will get you going just fine. But it's when you go to stop that you find out, oh, I have a lot less traction than I thought I did. Yeah. And getting going, having trouble getting going can be frustrating. Having trouble stopping is terrifying. Yeah, yeah. One is, I will happily get stuck over not being able to stop. 100%. All right, Obi, thank you so much. We're going to have some more tire content coming. So everybody just kind of stay tuned

[00:28:51] and let us know what you think. All right. I want to thank Obi for coming on. And Obi is obviously not his real name. We're protecting him. But I want to thank Obi for coming on and chatting. And I learned a little bit about snow tires. Not snow tires. I learned a little bit about tires. We'll say tires. I hope you did too. If you want to email me, it's bodie, B-O-D-I-E at 918digital.com.

[00:29:20] We do have two more tire-related topics to cover and probably start the next one maybe in December as it goes. But yeah, thank you, Obi. It's really nice. I've known Obi for a little bit now and a solid dude. So thank you, Obi, for doing that. And yeah, if you have any questions, you can email me, bodie, B-O-D-I-E at 918digital.com.

[00:29:48] You can find me on LinkedIn under Bodie Grimm, B-O-D-I-E G like George R-I-M-M. I don't think I mentioned this or not, but no, I think I have mentioned it, but it's worth mentioning again. I'll put it in the show notes. I was on Live With It recently and I was talking about the Snoozo mattress. So if you want to go hear Sarah Lane and I discuss the Snoozo mattress, that's a great place to go. I don't want to put a link in the show notes,

[00:30:17] but go subscribe to Live With It. They're really, it's a fun show. And I think Howard Yermich, I think is, was on the recent, most recent one. If he's not on the most recent one, I'm teasing something, but Howard is a member of the community and you should definitely go listen. what else, what else, what else? Car Stuff Podcast is always great. Jamie Butters was on the latest episode. So if you're looking for more car content, I really recommend

[00:30:47] not only the Car Stuff Podcast, but Autotown with Jamie Butters. So good. Some of my favorites. And obviously, you know, all of our friends. I'm going too long here, so I'm going to go ahead and stop. But yeah, I, it's been, things are starting to slow down, so that's good. I've interviewed, I've recorded two interviews with some folks.

[00:31:16] The first one will be on, it was with David Kubik, and that's on New York's Curbside Charging. That'll be released on Friday. And yeah, I'll tease the next one next week. We have a few weeks before that one will be aired. But yeah, I hope everybody is enjoying their week. I have honestly, I don't know if you could tell, hit a very specific hard brick wall

[00:31:45] and I can't, I don't know how to land this plane. So we're going to say goodnight everybody and thanks so much for listening. I'll talk to you soon.