Jimmy’s Bait Shop and Discount EV Battery Cells

[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. And on today's episode, we've got news, of course. This is going to be a little bit of a shorter episode because the CyberCab episode was longer, close to an hour. And then on top of that, this is my third podcast I've recorded today.

[00:00:48] And I still have some editing to do and some other stuff. So this episode will be brief. This morning, I recorded just a little teaser, a Live With It with Sarah Lane and Roger Chang, which they're part of the DTNS folks. And Live With It is, you know, kind of a product review website or a podcast and or YouTube channel, both. It's a podcast and YouTube channel.

[00:01:17] But on that episode, I talked about firetrucks and I talked a little bit about EV firetrucks and the different EV firetrucks that are out there. But I just kind of talked about my experience with firetrucks. So hopefully that will, um, Roger's going to let me know the Sunday before that episode goes live, because it takes them a little time to edit and they have, you know, a few episodes in the pipeline.

[00:01:43] So once that's out, I will let you know, and I would love for you to go and listen. And I'd love to get your feedback because honestly, sometimes when I talk about fire department stuff, I feel like I feel like I feel very navel gazily when I talk about it. So I would be interested to hear your honest opinion, um, when it comes out. But as of right now, it's not out.

[00:02:06] So, um, but go subscribe to live with it, uh, to get it when it comes out, just in case I don't tell you.

[00:02:14] The other thing is, um, you all know that I am very fond of the car stuff podcast. I'm very fond of Jill and Tom, the hosts of that show. They have said some very nice things about me, uh, as of late on their, their podcast. So I, one, that's super appreciated. Um, two, they're real journalists. So it really means a lot to me because I am not a real, I am not a journalist or a fake journalist.

[00:02:42] Um, so it's really nice, uh, that they, you know, just their comments. I don't know. It's really appreciated. Anyway, on the last episode of the car stuff podcast, I guess it's the one before the last, um, I'll put a link in the show notes.

[00:02:57] Jill Simoniello and Tom, uh, Appel sat down and they talked about Jill's review of the Mercedes CLA 250 EV. This is Mercedes most affordable EV. And Jill had a lot of good things to say about it. So if you want to hear, uh, a review of that particular vehicle, link in the show notes and you can link to that interview.

[00:03:21] And then I would encourage you to actually listen or subscribe to the car stuff podcast as well. Um, Sam Fiorani was on the latest episode. I haven't listened to that one yet, but yeah. Uh, and Sam was on this show of course. So I think, I think it's going to be, it's a good companion show to this show for sure. So thanks to Jill and Tom.

[00:03:46] All right. Getting into our EV news. Toyota is recalling 10,000 2026. No, I'm sorry, man. I didn't, I didn't do this very well. They're recalling 10,000 C dash H R EVs. Uh, these are all 2026 models.

[00:04:06] The problem is a software issue. So when the battery is fully charged or nearly fully charged, the regenerative braking can actually overcharge the battery, which is not something that you want. If this happens, the electric drive system may shut down. That's what it's supposed to do, but that causes you to lose power while driving. That's problematic.

[00:04:29] The recall is not yet on the national highway traffic safety administration's website. So we don't have a lot of information, but if you own one of these vehicles or you own that model year of this vehicle, you can either, you can do one of two things. You can wait for Toyota, I guess, one of three things. You can wait for Toyota to notify you, which they'll are going to do sometime in November of 2026.

[00:04:54] Um, or you can call 1-800-331-4331, or you can go to Toyota's website. It's toyota.com forward slash recall. You enter either your license plate in or the VIN number to see if your car is affected. And as of this recording, no other EV models that Toyota sells is affected by this. Just the, um, C dash H R EVs, which is a smaller version of like the BZ.

[00:05:25] Speaking of a smaller version of something, but in this case, it's going to be cooler. Audi unveiled a cool new EV on September 7th. It's the A2 e-tron and the Audi A2 is, is a, an old name that they're reviving, but this is a full EV. It's a compact car. It's built on Volkswagen group's MEB platform, uh, the MEB 31 architecture.

[00:05:52] I wasn't familiar with what the 31, uh, designation was. And apparently that's the architecture for rear wheel drive vehicles. So, um, that's interesting. I'm going to have to start paying attention to those numbers.

[00:06:06] Anyway, this car is about the size of a Kia EV3 or Volkswagen ID3 Neo in terms of specs. So first of all, this is, this is a smaller car. The interior of the car looks very Audi to me. Um, maybe, maybe a little bit more futuristic, but it, to me, it looks like an Audi.

[00:06:28] It's got an 11.9 inch digital instrument cluster behind the steering wheel at 12.8 inch infotainment screen. There is an optional augmented reality, uh, heads up display that you can get that'll display the speed navigation instructions and any sort of media information. That's all to the driver. It has a wireless smartphone charger. It does support bi-directional charging, which I think is cool.

[00:06:55] It's got a fairly low drag coefficient of 0.24. If you remember from last episode, the cyber cab is 0.20 and the model three is 0.22. It's going to come in three different battery sizes, which are, uh, 52 kilowatt hours, 61 kilowatt hours, and 84 kilowatt hours.

[00:07:18] With those vehicles, you'll be able to charge 10 to 80% in about 14 minutes for the smaller battery pack, 25 minutes for the 61 kilowatt hour battery pack, and 30 minutes for the 84 kilowatt hour battery pack. The 51 kilowatt hour battery pack is about 263 miles of range.

[00:07:38] The 61 kilowatt hour battery pack is right around 320 in range. And, and then it tops out at 401 miles of range for that big giant 84 kilowatt hour battery pack. So that's great. 401 miles range. Who doesn't want that? Um, the car itself is going to start around 38,200 euros or $45,000 us.

[00:08:02] Um, and then it will top out, uh, right at 51,200 euros, which is about $59,000 us. As of right now, it looks like it's only going to be available in Europe, but let's double check here. Audi, a tube, e-tron countries.

[00:08:28] I don't think it's coming to North America right yet, but let's look, uh, Germany, the UK, Europe, and then not expected to be sold in the U S because of market positioning and import tariff headwinds. So that is a bummer, but for everybody else who gets to have this vehicle, uh, congratulations.

[00:08:56] Sounds like a cool vehicle. All right. In our final EV story, Mark K from the UK sent on this really cool article. The UK United Kingdom, new car market had a surprisingly strong August. So we've been watching the car, you know, markets in Europe and the UK and traditionally, and I don't quite know why this

[00:09:24] is, but August is a slow month. It sounds like everybody's car registration renews in September and everybody, if they're going to buy a new car, they buy it in September. So they, that's already included in the car. I don't, I don't know. Um, I was a little unclear on, on that part of the article, but August is typically a little bit slower, but, um, August was a pretty good month as it goes. And actually August was the ninth

[00:09:49] consecutive month of growth in new car sales. So, uh, sounds like the UK is knocking it out of the park when it comes to buying new cars. According to the society of motor manufacturers and traders, new car registrations were up 13.7% when you compared August, 2026 to August, 2025.

[00:10:12] And there were over 94,000 vehicles registered in total battery electric vehicle sales grew even faster than that. They jumped up to 27.7% and they sold just over 28,000 EVs in August, 2026 plug-in hybrids were up almost 40%, uh, which is impressive. And then traditional hybrids up 26%.

[00:10:37] Petrol, like, uh, just your standard ice car, uh, actually declined. It fell to about 3.5%. So, you know, uh, we're getting there in the UK, you know, it's not Norway numbers, but it's definite improvement. As far as I know you, the UK still has some pretty favorable deals when it comes to buying EVs and, and, uh, probably the plug-in hybrids as well. So it sounds like that's really

[00:11:05] driving a lot of sales for that. Um, yeah. And Tesla had a pretty decent month in the UK in August as well. The model three was the UK's best-selling EV. Uh, they sold 1296 or registered 1296 model threes. And then that was followed up by the model Y, which registered 884 model

[00:11:29] wise during the month of August. So congratulations to the folks in the UK. All right. Um, if you want to support this show, you can go to support kilowatt.com and support the show. If that's something you're interested in, you get rid of all of the ads for as little as $1. So, uh, there's a link in the show notes under support the show, but, or you can just, you know, type in right now, support

[00:11:57] kilowatt.com and you can support the show on supercast or Patreon either way. And like I said, for a buck, you can get rid of the ads. All right. Moving on to our Tesla news. This is one of those blind spots that I have, right? So FSD version 14 light will be rolling out

[00:12:21] to model S and X vehicles soon. And when I say that, I mean, model S and X hardware three vehicles soon. So Ryan McCaffrey of the ride, the lightning podcast, which I think ride lightning podcast is a great podcast. Ryan seems I've never met him, but he seems like a nice guy. Um, so if you haven't listened, uh, I'll give you my recommendation. I think he does a good job. Um, Ryan posted on X

[00:12:48] that he was at the cyber cab launch and at the launch, he was able to chat with a shock Alaswamy who is in charge of FSD. And he asked when Tesla model S and X owners, Ryan asked this when Tesla model S and model X owners with hardware three would get version 14 light. And Alaswamy, uh, replied with, Oh, I thought it was supposed to go out last week. So, so it sounds like it's

[00:13:17] coming soon. Uh, as far as I know, it's not out at the moment, but if you do own an S or X with hardware three and you have full self driving and you've not got the FSD version 14 light yet, and you're waiting on it hopefully soon. Okay. Um, our next story I think is a very good example of putting the cart ahead of the horse. Um, so not a Tesla app is reporting that there's a,

[00:13:46] there was a bit of code discovered in Tesla app 14 point or excuse me, 4.60.5. And in this little bit of code that was discovered, it suggests that Tesla is preparing to offer robo taxi rides as one of the transportation options when you bring your car in for service. So right now, Tesla will either provide you with a loaner or they'll give you like an Uber voucher.

[00:14:14] Uh, the interesting part about this is the robo taxi option. Isn't the only option in the app. So there, the code references like a paid loaner, an e-bike, something labeled bolt, which is not clear what bolt refers to. Um, it's probably not the Chevy bolt. It sounds like it

[00:14:37] could be a European ride hailing company called bolt. So that's probably more likely. I, I, I, I, I don't that, that, uh, Tesla is going to give you a Chevy bolt, um, well as a loaner, but yeah, interesting, uh, from Tesla's perspective, I can see where this would be beneficial because, you know, loaner vehicles cost money to purchase and maintain, and they're sitting around service

[00:15:02] center parking lot and they're taking up parking spaces. Uh, and, and honestly, the Tesla service center by my house or the closest one to my house, it's always pretty full. Um, when, you know, Tesla offers like an Uber voucher for somebody to use, you know, Tesla's paying for those Uber rides. They're probably not paying as much as you would, but there's, it still costs

[00:15:28] them money. Um, so from their perspective, this kind of thing, if they have the robo taxis up and running in an area, it seems like that would be a very good option. And plus it gives people the opportunity to ride in, in a robo taxi, if maybe they wouldn't be willing to do that in the, you know, on their own because they have their own car or whatever. So it's an okay option. Um,

[00:15:54] Tesla obviously hasn't confirmed anything yet, but in my heart, unless you live in Austin, Texas at the moment, this isn't happening anytime soon. Um, maybe someday, but this is not something that's going to be widespread across the U S or anywhere else for that matter for now. It may be something in the future, but not for now. Like back in February of 2026, I went to the first responder Tesla event,

[00:16:24] which is at the Scottsdale training facility and a Scottsdale fire training facility. And it sounded like the Tesla Cybercab was around the corner. Actually, they thought they were going to have one for us to look at and crawl through. They didn't, they thought they were going to have a Tesla semi for us to look at and crawl through. They didn't, they did say when the cyber cab is up and running in Phoenix, they'd have another event, invite us back out, which I would go to. That'd be cool. But, uh, yeah, not,

[00:16:54] not exactly, uh, um, not, it wasn't around the corner, you know, we're in August and there's still no sign that it's going to happen anytime soon. As a matter of fact, I've actually stopped seeing cyber cabs, uh, not to say they're not still operating, but I used to see them pretty frequently and I haven't seen one in a while. So I'm not sure what's going on there. Maybe, maybe that is,

[00:17:19] maybe that is a sign that the launch is imminent, but I don't think so. Um, so yeah, this seems a little early, but I understand why Tesla is putting this in, getting ready for it. They can activate it whenever, you know, this is nothing against Tesla. I just think it's soon. Um, and then back to that app version, the Tesla app version 4.60.5, not a Tesla app had

[00:17:45] another story about, uh, some code that was found that may suggest that service centers, Tesla service centers may soon install non Tesla or non OEM replacement parts. So the app includes language and there are people like green, the only that, that are, are skilled in, in hacking and

[00:18:11] coding and they're able to comb through the code and find all this new stuff. But the app includes new language designed to notify customers when one of these parts is being used. So that's a really nice part. If Tesla is going to use a non OEM part, they'll let you know, Hey, listen, this was installed in your car. It's not OEM, but Tesla installed it anyway. Um, Tesla's language says that

[00:18:37] those components would not be covered by Tesla's normal quality assurance, which doesn't, I mean, listen, we're talking about something that is hidden in an app that's not publicly available, but that does not make me feel great. If they're like, we put this part in your car at the Tesla service center, but we're not going to give you the same quality assurance that we would give you a Tesla

[00:19:03] part. That doesn't make me feel great. Um, but again, we don't, we, there's a lot we don't know. So we don't know yet exactly which parts Tesla plans to use for this. However, it does seem an, and Tesla app, it, not a Tesla app is speculating this, but it does seem that, you know, the 12 volt battery or the cabin air filters or the windshield wipers or even brake pads, um,

[00:19:33] rather than like some major component, like a motor or high voltage battery, it's probably okay that those are not Tesla parts. Like who cares if they use, you know, Tesla windshield wipers or not. And maybe you do, I don't, um, same with the, the battery, not the 12 volt battery, the low voltage, low voltage battery, not the high voltage. Anyway, I don't know. Let me know if you care. Let me know. Um, I do know people who don't use OEM parts for

[00:20:03] those particular, um, pieces now. And so for that reason, I don't, I don't think this is going to be a big deal. Um, if you were going to look at this purely from a practicality side of things, you know, Tesla could offer service, charge you a little bit less money, but then also maybe because these third party OEM parts are, are these third party parts are, are more readily available. Maybe you

[00:20:32] can get your car done faster. And, you know, I don't know if it, if cheaper would really necessarily, um, be an actual thing. It just may be just a little bit less money, but cheaper, you know, when, when something costs $250 versus $300, you're really thankful that it's 250 and not 300, but it's still not cheap. Um, but yeah, uh, we'll kind of have to see where this goes. If it goes

[00:20:58] anywhere, do you think this is a big deal? Let me know. I mean, if, if this was, if Tesla was using parts from Jimmy's bait shop and discount EV battery cells, I'd be more concerned, right? But I, I really think the Tesla, Tesla is going to vet these suppliers that they use and make sure they're not putting junk in your car. So, um, especially things that might damage your car. I don't think they're going to do that. So anyway, if you have concerns about this or anything that we talked about today,

[00:21:27] you can send me an email, Bodhi, B O D I E at 918 digital.com. And, uh, yeah, that is, it's a tight 22 minute episode. So if you have, uh, comments or questions, like I said, you can email me, you can find me on LinkedIn, just search for Bodhi Grimm. And my last name is spelled G R I M M G like

[00:21:49] George and M like Mary. And yeah, I hope you all are having a wonderful week. And this Friday, we should have regular news. And then on Saturday, we should have a review. My first product review. I'm pretty sure it's my first product review that I've ever done on this podcast. So that will be

[00:22:14] released in audio as well as on YouTube. So if you're interested, uh, check it out. If you're not totally skip it, it is not a mandatory to listen to or watch. All right, everybody. Thank you so much. I will talk to you all soon and, um, I'm forgetting how I end the show. So I'm just going to play the music.