VW ID.BuzzKILL

[00:00:21] [SPEAKER_02]: Hello everyone and welcome to Kilowatt, a podcast about electric vehicles, renewable

[00:00:24] [SPEAKER_02]: energy, autonomous driving, and much, much more. My name is Bode and I am your host. And

[00:00:28] [SPEAKER_02]: on today's episode, we are going to talk about EV news. And you might be thinking, well,

[00:00:34] [SPEAKER_02]: you kind of always talk about EV news. Well, we're going to talk about EV companies

[00:00:40] [SPEAKER_02]: that aren't Tesla news today. Like when I was preparing the show last night, I went

[00:00:46] [SPEAKER_02]: through all the EV news and I'm writing up all the notes. And just the EV news section

[00:00:51] [SPEAKER_02]: of this podcast is four pages long. And typically an entire show when I write up

[00:00:57] [SPEAKER_02]: my notes is four pages long. So it's like, well, let's go ahead and split this into

[00:01:02] [SPEAKER_02]: two different shows. We'll do EV news today and then I'll release an episode tomorrow

[00:01:07] [SPEAKER_02]: for the Tesla news. So you still get all of your information, but I have heard from

[00:01:13] [SPEAKER_02]: many of you and I agree with this by the way, that the shows can be too long and

[00:01:18] [SPEAKER_02]: unwieldy. So the goal is to create an EV news podcast that you actually want to

[00:01:27] [SPEAKER_02]: listen to and that you don't feel like you have to dedicate a bunch of time to.

[00:01:32] [SPEAKER_02]: It's more like get the news and then, you know, move on with your day, which is how

[00:01:37] [SPEAKER_02]: I like to listen to podcasts too. So I completely understand. So without further

[00:01:44] [SPEAKER_02]: ado, let's go ahead and get in to today's news. Ford is working on a new

[00:01:49] [SPEAKER_02]: electric pickup truck. This was the pickup truck they were talking or the

[00:01:53] [SPEAKER_02]: vehicle they were talking about in their Skunk Works. It's looking like

[00:01:56] [SPEAKER_02]: it's going to be a midsize pickup truck, which I love. I don't want a big

[00:02:02] [SPEAKER_02]: giant F-150 or even a Cybertruck in my garage. I would much rather have a

[00:02:09] [SPEAKER_02]: midsize pickup truck that can accommodate, you know, four to five people.

[00:02:13] [SPEAKER_02]: Four door, midsize pickup truck, perfect size. Hopefully it doesn't cost

[00:02:18] [SPEAKER_02]: as much as a full size pickup truck. Speaking of full size pickup trucks

[00:02:23] [SPEAKER_02]: and how much they cost, GM has started delivering the GMC Sierra EV

[00:02:27] [SPEAKER_02]: This will be the Denali 1 edition. Here are some of the specs on that vehicle.

[00:02:33] [SPEAKER_02]: 0-60 in 4.5 seconds, 754 horsepower. You have the choice between 170 or

[00:02:40] [SPEAKER_02]: 200 kilowatt hour battery, which is estimated. I don't think anybody knows

[00:02:43] [SPEAKER_02]: for sure. I mean, GM knows. I don't think anybody outside of GM knows how

[00:02:48] [SPEAKER_02]: big the battery pack is for sure yet. Four wheel steering, so that crab

[00:02:55] [SPEAKER_02]: It also comes with adaptive air suspension. Range will max out

[00:03:01] [SPEAKER_02]: somewhere around 440 miles or 708 kilometers and this chicken starts at

[00:03:07] [SPEAKER_02]: $99,495. So yeah, we want that Ford midsize pickup truck to cost

[00:03:16] [SPEAKER_02]: significantly less than $99,495. However, I really like the way this

[00:03:23] [SPEAKER_02]: GMC Sierra EV is designed. It's got a lot of power, a lot of

[00:03:23] [SPEAKER_02]: GMC Sierra pickup truck looks. It's a good looking vehicle.

[00:03:28] [SPEAKER_02]: GM has recalled over 20,000 Lyric EVs because of a possible brake issue.

[00:03:34] [SPEAKER_02]: So at speeds less than 25 miles per hour on dry surfaces, the anti-lock

[00:03:40] [SPEAKER_02]: brakes become overly sensitive. So the ABS system activates in an

[00:03:49] [SPEAKER_02]: instance where it doesn't need to activate. And if you've ever felt when

[00:03:53] [SPEAKER_02]: ABS kicks in, when you're driving your vehicle, there's this pulsing that

[00:03:57] [SPEAKER_02]: happens when it activates on the brake pedal and that creates a specific

[00:04:02] [SPEAKER_02]: sequence of wheel movements. And then the vehicle continues to release

[00:04:07] [SPEAKER_02]: braking pressure when this happens and the brake system can or may no

[00:04:15] [SPEAKER_02]: longer work. Now, this problem seems like if it happened to you, it'd be

[00:04:19] [SPEAKER_02]: very scary. It goes without saying. But I should say that even though

[00:04:25] [SPEAKER_02]: GM is recalling over 20,000 Lyric, there's only been two minor accidents

[00:04:31] [SPEAKER_02]: attributed to this problem. So it's probably not widespread, but it is

[00:04:34] [SPEAKER_02]: something that needs to be fixed. GM was able to track the problem

[00:04:38] [SPEAKER_02]: down to a software and electronic brake control module issue. The

[00:04:44] [SPEAKER_02]: recall effects 2023 and 2024 all wheel drive catalytic Lyric models.

[00:04:51] [SPEAKER_02]: The Polestar 4 SUV has arrived in Europe. It's going to come in two

[00:04:56] [SPEAKER_02]: different variants. It's a five seater, zero to 60 in 3.7 seconds.

[00:05:03] [SPEAKER_02]: One battery trim gets you 590 kilometers or 366 miles. And the other one

[00:05:09] [SPEAKER_02]: gets you 620 kilometers or 385 miles. So great range on these batteries.

[00:05:15] [SPEAKER_02]: 10 to 80 percent charging within 30 minutes. And I couldn't find a

[00:05:19] [SPEAKER_02]: reliable price in euros, but in the U.S. it starts at $57,800.

[00:05:25] [SPEAKER_02]: In sticking with Polestar news, Polestar has started production of

[00:05:28] [SPEAKER_02]: the Polestar 3 just outside Charleston, South Carolina here in the

[00:05:32] [SPEAKER_02]: United States. This is great news. Number one, it brings jobs to that

[00:05:38] [SPEAKER_02]: area in South Carolina, but also allows Polestar to avoid those

[00:05:43] [SPEAKER_02]: high tariffs that the U.S. put in place against Chinese EVs.

[00:05:48] [SPEAKER_02]: All right. We have some Lucid Motor news and I'm going to

[00:05:53] [SPEAKER_02]: start with playing a clip. Peter Rawlinson was being interviewed on

[00:05:58] [SPEAKER_02]: Yahoo Finance. I'm going to play the clip and then we'll come back

[00:06:02] [SPEAKER_02]: and we'll talk about it real quick. Let's start with the EV space. Talk about

[00:06:07] [SPEAKER_01]: Lucid. What do we know there? Yeah, so you know, you were in Pebble Beach.

[00:06:11] [SPEAKER_00]: I was in Pebble Beach. What is it called? The Concours? Is this a concours?

[00:06:15] [SPEAKER_01]: Yes. Correct. Correct. So I was at Pebble Beach for the Monterey Car Week and Sunday was the

[00:06:20] [SPEAKER_01]: big concours event, right? They also have something called the concept model. They show new cars,

[00:06:25] [SPEAKER_01]: cars of note that they want to show the attendees. And Lucid CEO Peter

[00:06:30] [SPEAKER_01]: Rawlinson was there with the Gravity, which he tells me will be it's on track for later this year.

[00:06:35] [SPEAKER_01]: It's got a compelling kind of feature set and it's going to come in at the $80,000

[00:06:40] [SPEAKER_01]: price tag for the tax credit. So I asked him about that car and I asked him about sales expectations

[00:06:45] [SPEAKER_01]: and could they make up half or double the amount? And he said it could be even more so. Here's what he had to say to me about that.

[00:06:51] [SPEAKER_03]: I think more so until mid-size comes. Absolutely.

[00:06:55] [SPEAKER_03]: We believe that the total addressable market for Gravity is six times that of Lucid Air. This is

[00:07:00] [SPEAKER_03]: a huge product for us. We're just in the process of completing

[00:07:05] [SPEAKER_03]: the build out of our factory in Arizona to a capacity of 90,000 units per

[00:07:10] [SPEAKER_03]: atom. We're on track for manufacturing around 9,000

[00:07:15] [SPEAKER_03]: Lucid Airs this year. Gravity is going to come in and our finances

[00:07:20] [SPEAKER_03]: are dominated by scale. It's all scale, scale, scale. And this is a big

[00:07:25] [SPEAKER_03]: step in that scale. Clearly we have the best technology in the world. We've now taken the mantle from

[00:07:30] [SPEAKER_03]: Tesla. We have the best tech. And that is why do you recognize it?

[00:07:35] [SPEAKER_01]: Right, so you'd say that Lucid has surpassed Tesla in terms of technology. Oh yes, absolutely.

[00:07:39] [SPEAKER_03]: We've taken the mantle without a doubt. I mean everyone is striving for how far can you go

[00:07:45] [SPEAKER_03]: with how little battery space. We are considerably ahead

[00:07:50] [SPEAKER_03]: of where Tesla is. We've taken that mantle. When I was at Tesla, Tesla was the tech leader. They

[00:07:55] [SPEAKER_03]: become distracted and we have taken that place. So we've taken that place.

[00:08:01] [SPEAKER_00]: That's some big words there from Peter Rawlinson.

[00:08:06] [SPEAKER_02]: Juicy commentary. Yeah, Tesla has been distracted. Okay, so a couple things here.

[00:08:13] [SPEAKER_02]: What do you think of Peter Rawlinson's, and I'm asking you genuinely, I want you to email me,

[00:08:18] [SPEAKER_02]: b-o-d-i-e at 918digital.com. What do you think of Peter Rawlinson's

[00:08:25] [SPEAKER_02]: claim that Lucid has taken the

[00:08:28] [SPEAKER_02]: mantle in terms of best tech from Tesla?

[00:08:33] [SPEAKER_02]: And then what do you think about Peter's claims that they could potentially sell six times more

[00:08:38] [SPEAKER_02]: Lucid gravities than they sell Lucid airs? Right now they're selling

[00:08:43] [SPEAKER_02]: 9,000 Lucid airs or they're projected to sell 9,000 Lucid airs

[00:08:49] [SPEAKER_02]: in 2024 right around that number. So once they scale up the operations, they're

[00:08:53] [SPEAKER_02]: looking at somewhere around, if he's right, 54,000 vehicles just for

[00:08:58] [SPEAKER_02]: the Lucid air gravity. And just as a point of reference, Tesla sold

[00:09:03] [SPEAKER_02]: 68,874 Model X and Model Ss in all of 2023.

[00:09:08] [SPEAKER_02]: So I would assume that roughly half of that, because they don't break out the

[00:09:13] [SPEAKER_02]: numbers beyond what Model S and Model X sold, I would assume that half of that,

[00:09:18] [SPEAKER_02]: maybe a little less than half, is the Model X.

[00:09:23] [SPEAKER_02]: So you're looking, we'll say 30,000, like Tesla sells 30,000 Model Xs in a year.

[00:09:29] [SPEAKER_02]: And then if you look at Rivian, Rivian I think sold

[00:09:33] [SPEAKER_02]: somewhere around 23,000, 24,000 R1Ss in 2023.

[00:09:40] [SPEAKER_02]: So is it possible that Lucid could sell 54,000

[00:09:43] [SPEAKER_02]: gravities after they're up and running? Sure. Is it likely?

[00:09:48] [SPEAKER_02]: Not at this time, I don't think. It's an $80,000 vehicle.

[00:09:53] [SPEAKER_02]: Other vehicles in that price range that are good vehicles, the Model X

[00:09:58] [SPEAKER_02]: and the R1S are not selling that many. But to be fair, the R1S

[00:10:03] [SPEAKER_02]: is only sold here in the US. Maybe they're sold in Canada, but they're not sold outside of North America.

[00:10:09] [SPEAKER_02]: And the Model X is only sold in

[00:10:13] [SPEAKER_02]: left-hand drive countries. They don't sell them in right-hand drive countries.

[00:10:18] [SPEAKER_02]: I guess you could import it if you wanted to, but even then that's not a large number.

[00:10:23] [SPEAKER_02]: So I think his numbers are a little bit optimistic.

[00:10:27] [SPEAKER_02]: Peter Rawlinson is two things for sure. He is a really smart engineer

[00:10:33] [SPEAKER_02]: and he is a great marketer.

[00:10:36] [SPEAKER_02]: Let's move on to another Lucid gravity story. I told you last week or last time we talked about news

[00:10:42] [SPEAKER_02]: that the Lucid gravity was going to come with a Naxx charging port and a CCS

[00:10:48] [SPEAKER_02]: charging port. One was in the front, one was in the back. I thought this was actually pretty cool

[00:10:53] [SPEAKER_02]: because it gave the owner of the Lucid gravity a little bit of flexibility in where they could

[00:10:58] [SPEAKER_02]: charge and how easy it was to reach said charging port.

[00:11:03] [SPEAKER_02]: But Nick Twerk, not Twerk, but Twerk, T-W-O-R-K

[00:11:08] [SPEAKER_02]: said that the gravity that was showed off at the private event was a development car

[00:11:13] [SPEAKER_02]: and not a production car. So the car with two ports was just for testing.

[00:11:17] [SPEAKER_02]: I don't know that they've officially said what that car is going to come with in terms of charging ports,

[00:11:22] [SPEAKER_02]: but I would imagine it would be the Naxx port instead of a CCS port.

[00:11:28] [SPEAKER_02]: Alright, we have one more Lucid story here. Lucid will introduce

[00:11:32] [SPEAKER_02]: three new affordable EVs in the coming years. And by affordable I'm talking about

[00:11:38] [SPEAKER_02]: $50,000 because previously Peter Rawlinson called the

[00:11:42] [SPEAKER_02]: $69,990 Lucid Air pure affordable. Although you can buy

[00:11:48] [SPEAKER_02]: a demo model for $57,000 which by comparison does seem affordable.

[00:11:54] [SPEAKER_02]: But these new affordable vehicles will be Model 3 and Model Y killers

[00:11:58] [SPEAKER_02]: or at least one of them will be. The other two unannounced EVs, we're not sure

[00:12:03] [SPEAKER_02]: what their role in the company's product lineup will be, but senior

[00:12:09] [SPEAKER_02]: vice president of design Derek Jenkins said that the midsize EVs

[00:12:13] [SPEAKER_02]: would be more athletic vehicles and also kind of

[00:12:18] [SPEAKER_02]: made reference to being able to take them off road. So it looks like Lucid is planning

[00:12:23] [SPEAKER_02]: on doing some luxury overlanding which honestly I'm not mad about.

[00:12:28] [SPEAKER_02]: Sounds like a pretty cool and decadent experience.

[00:12:33] [SPEAKER_02]: Alright, let's move on to another startup that wants you to go off road. Rivian has paused

[00:12:38] [SPEAKER_02]: production of their EV delivery vans. Now the EV delivery vans aren't going

[00:12:44] [SPEAKER_02]: off road but Rivian as a company does encourage off roading so this is

[00:12:49] [SPEAKER_02]: related to the transition. What you're seeing here folks

[00:12:53] [SPEAKER_02]: is I just realized that was a terrible transition. Anyway, the cause of the production

[00:12:59] [SPEAKER_02]: pause is due to an undisclosed parts shortage.

[00:13:04] [SPEAKER_02]: Rivian didn't say what it was which is why it's undisclosed so I'll keep you

[00:13:09] [SPEAKER_02]: posted as we learn more. We have a couple more Rivian stories so let's get

[00:13:14] [SPEAKER_02]: to those. Rivian has a software subscription. It is called

[00:13:19] [SPEAKER_02]: Connect Plus. It is $14.99 a month or $149 a year which I think is

[00:13:24] [SPEAKER_02]: kind of expensive but you can use the vehicle as a hotspot for your phone or

[00:13:29] [SPEAKER_02]: laptop or whatever tablet and you can connect up to 8 devices to the

[00:13:34] [SPEAKER_02]: in-vehicle hotspot for that price so that's pretty good if you use it.

[00:13:39] [SPEAKER_02]: Amazon's voice assistant, the A-Lady, is included in that subscription.

[00:13:43] [SPEAKER_02]: You also get access to Spotify, Apple Music, TuneIn, Tidal, YouTube,

[00:13:50] [SPEAKER_02]: the Gear Guard Live Cam.

[00:13:53] [SPEAKER_02]: You can Google cast your apps if you have an Android phone and

[00:13:58] [SPEAKER_02]: videos to the car as long as it's not moving and Audible.

[00:14:03] [SPEAKER_02]: In order to use those streaming services with your truck or our

[00:14:08] [SPEAKER_02]: TV, you will need to have that premium subscription. Now you can save a little bit of

[00:14:13] [SPEAKER_02]: money by connecting your phone directly through the Bluetooth if you want to listen to your music through the Bluetooth. That doesn't cost

[00:14:18] [SPEAKER_02]: you extra but if you want to use the in-vehicle

[00:14:23] [SPEAKER_02]: infotainment system and have access to that it is $14.99 a month. If you own a Tesla

[00:14:28] [SPEAKER_02]: I think it's $10 a month but you don't get to use the vehicle as a

[00:14:37] [SPEAKER_02]: hotspot. For me, probably not so much.

[00:14:40] [SPEAKER_02]: Rivian's VP of Manufacturing Operations, Tim Fallon, is headed to

[00:14:45] [SPEAKER_02]: Stellantis. So I guess it would be more appropriate to say that Rivian's former

[00:14:50] [SPEAKER_02]: VP of Manufacturing Operations, Tim Fallon, is now working at

[00:14:56] [SPEAKER_02]: Stellantis. He will be taking on the role of North American

[00:15:01] [SPEAKER_02]: Head of Manufacturing to accelerate Stellantis' EV plans. Fallon was

[00:15:06] [SPEAKER_02]: with Rivian for two years. Honestly, if you're an executive

[00:15:11] [SPEAKER_02]: at an automotive company and you have EV experience you could probably

[00:15:16] [SPEAKER_02]: name your price and go pretty much wherever you want.

[00:15:21] [SPEAKER_02]: Let's see here. We have two more Rivian stories. Rivian has been approved to expand its

[00:15:26] [SPEAKER_02]: normal Illinois operations so that they can manufacture their new

[00:15:31] [SPEAKER_02]: R2 EV. So they're going to build a whole new 1.14 million square foot

[00:15:36] [SPEAKER_02]: building just to the east of the main plant. In addition to that,

[00:15:41] [SPEAKER_02]: they are also planning on increasing the size of that main plant by

[00:15:46] [SPEAKER_02]: 208,000 square feet. That main plant is currently

[00:15:51] [SPEAKER_02]: a 3.8 million square foot plant. That is enormous.

[00:15:56] [SPEAKER_02]: It's going to increase by 208,000 square feet.

[00:16:01] [SPEAKER_02]: I lied. There was only one more Rivian story. The other one was a repeat.

[00:16:07] [SPEAKER_02]: Chinese automaker NIO has a more affordable

[00:16:11] [SPEAKER_02]: EV brand called Envo. The Envo brand has started production on the

[00:16:17] [SPEAKER_02]: Envo L60 which is going to compete directly with Model Y in China.

[00:16:21] [SPEAKER_02]: I would imagine eventually this vehicle will make its way to Europe.

[00:16:26] [SPEAKER_02]: This is a really good looking EV. If you get a chance, I'll put a link in the show notes,

[00:16:32] [SPEAKER_02]: but Google Envo, O-N-V-O, L60 and take a look at this car.

[00:16:37] [SPEAKER_02]: It has a glass roof. It will come in rear wheel drive and all wheel drive

[00:16:41] [SPEAKER_02]: configurations. It will support NIO's battery swapping technology.

[00:16:48] [SPEAKER_02]: If you live in a country where they have that, that's cool.

[00:16:52] [SPEAKER_02]: 17.2 inch center screen at

[00:16:58] [SPEAKER_02]: 345 miles of range. At certain angles it looks better

[00:17:02] [SPEAKER_02]: than a Model Y to me and then there are other angles where it kind of looks a little silly because it's got

[00:17:06] [SPEAKER_02]: the exposed cameras that kind of stick up, but that's not something that's going to

[00:17:12] [SPEAKER_02]: keep me away from this vehicle. The best thing is it is $30,800.

[00:17:17] [SPEAKER_02]: That's the starting price. Now this is in China. It'll probably

[00:17:21] [SPEAKER_02]: cost more when it eventually comes to Europe and if it ever comes here to North America

[00:17:26] [SPEAKER_02]: it's probably going to cost a little more than that because we have tariffs. Some parts of Europe,

[00:17:31] [SPEAKER_02]: if not all of Europe has tariffs against some of these Chinese

[00:17:35] [SPEAKER_02]: EV makers. So still pretty cheap in terms of an

[00:17:41] [SPEAKER_02]: EV with 345 miles of range that can seat five people.

[00:17:47] [SPEAKER_02]: Like honestly folks, this looks like a very impressive vehicle and if you can

[00:17:51] [SPEAKER_02]: get it for $35,000 in the country that you're in,

[00:17:56] [SPEAKER_02]: if you're not in China, you're in good shape. This is really nice.

[00:18:01] [SPEAKER_02]: The production units will start shipping in September. I think you all know

[00:18:06] [SPEAKER_02]: that I think NIO is a pretty interesting company. They've got their

[00:18:11] [SPEAKER_02]: issues for sure but they're doing interesting things in the EV space and I think this is

[00:18:16] [SPEAKER_02]: one of those really interesting things. The other thing is battery swapping. I'm really high on battery

[00:18:21] [SPEAKER_02]: swapping. I think battery swapping is a cool technology that we need more of. Oh and by the way,

[00:18:26] [SPEAKER_02]: if you want to lease your battery, the price will actually go down.

[00:18:30] [SPEAKER_02]: It'll be below $30,000 if you choose to lease. Alright let's move on

[00:18:36] [SPEAKER_02]: to our final story which is all about the Volkswagen ID Buzz.

[00:18:41] [SPEAKER_02]: It's finally made its way to the United States and for me when I heard this news I was like

[00:18:46] [SPEAKER_02]: hooray and then I came back down to earth a little bit.

[00:18:52] [SPEAKER_02]: Before you hooray, I have some things to tell you.

[00:18:56] [SPEAKER_02]: Before I get to that if you would please indulge me in a story.

[00:19:00] [SPEAKER_02]: When I was a kid I loved the VW microbus. To me

[00:19:06] [SPEAKER_02]: it was the coolest vehicle on the road. I had a lot of

[00:19:11] [SPEAKER_02]: older uncles that worked on muscle cars and they had all these

[00:19:17] [SPEAKER_02]: really cool beautiful muscle cars. Those were cool, but for me the microbus

[00:19:22] [SPEAKER_02]: was the coolest. It was cool for a couple of different reasons.

[00:19:25] [SPEAKER_02]: One, when I was born in 1974 and for a good long time after that

[00:19:32] [SPEAKER_02]: seatbelts were not required. They were not even really suggested.

[00:19:36] [SPEAKER_02]: As a kid you could take a long trip in that thing and you could

[00:19:41] [SPEAKER_02]: work your way around that microbus and play on the floor, play on

[00:19:45] [SPEAKER_02]: the seats. There was a table in some of them. So there's lots of things that you can do

[00:19:51] [SPEAKER_02]: with this vehicle as a kid. One, it provided a lot more

[00:19:56] [SPEAKER_02]: freedom and we didn't have iPads back then so you had to do something

[00:20:01] [SPEAKER_02]: to entertain yourself. But the other thing was that

[00:20:06] [SPEAKER_02]: as I got older a lot of my friends inherited

[00:20:10] [SPEAKER_02]: those vehicles from their parents or from different family members or they just bought their own.

[00:20:15] [SPEAKER_02]: But the point is, as I was becoming more independent as a young adult, I

[00:20:20] [SPEAKER_02]: did a lot of stupid stuff in these vans that I'm not going to go into here but a lot of it was really stupid.

[00:20:25] [SPEAKER_02]: I have fond memories of doing stupid things in these vans.

[00:20:30] [SPEAKER_02]: One of the memories I have was my wife and I met in high school

[00:20:34] [SPEAKER_02]: and we met through a friend of ours. This mutual friend

[00:20:41] [SPEAKER_02]: of ours, her dad was rebuilding one of these

[00:20:45] [SPEAKER_02]: microbuses and he had this thing painted candy apple red on the bottom,

[00:20:50] [SPEAKER_02]: white on the top, white walls and put a Porsche engine in it.

[00:20:55] [SPEAKER_02]: Her dad was a mechanic so he would walk us through

[00:21:01] [SPEAKER_02]: all this cool stuff that he was doing on this bus and occasionally

[00:21:05] [SPEAKER_02]: you might get to sit in it. I was never able to ride in it but to me those moments

[00:21:11] [SPEAKER_02]: made me want to... Like when I get older and my kids are older and I have time for a project car

[00:21:16] [SPEAKER_02]: this is the kind of thing that I want to work on. I want to build something as cool as

[00:21:21] [SPEAKER_02]: what our friend's dad had built. Now that I'm almost 50 in a couple of

[00:21:26] [SPEAKER_02]: months here, I've come to the realization that I

[00:21:31] [SPEAKER_02]: did not have skills to be a mechanic and it would be a waste of my money to do

[00:21:36] [SPEAKER_02]: that so I could either buy a VW bus that was already finished

[00:21:41] [SPEAKER_02]: or I could just forget about my dreams. And then Volkswagen announced the ID

[00:21:46] [SPEAKER_02]: buzz and I was like, that's close enough. That's not quite it. It's not quite what I was

[00:21:51] [SPEAKER_02]: looking for when I was 16, 17, 18 years old but it's close enough.

[00:21:56] [SPEAKER_02]: Now let's move away from a time when I was young, hopeful, had a full head of hair,

[00:22:01] [SPEAKER_02]: wasn't overweight. The world was my oyster at that

[00:22:06] [SPEAKER_02]: time. Now the world is my Werther's original. I'm to that point in my life.

[00:22:13] [SPEAKER_02]: But the ID buzz was a vehicle or is a vehicle

[00:22:16] [SPEAKER_02]: that I would really like to have in my garage. My wife likes minivans.

[00:22:21] [SPEAKER_02]: I was like, well maybe she might like the ID buzz. And you know what? Maybe she would like the ID

[00:22:26] [SPEAKER_02]: buzz but the problem is the current configuration for the ID buzz, at least here in the United

[00:22:31] [SPEAKER_02]: States, is lackluster. So let me read you off some specs here.

[00:22:36] [SPEAKER_02]: For rear wheel drive we're looking at 282 horsepower,

[00:22:41] [SPEAKER_02]: 234 miles of range and that's the number that

[00:22:46] [SPEAKER_02]: VW is reporting. Real world range might be completely different

[00:22:51] [SPEAKER_02]: than that and it's not going to be better. It's going to be worse. Like if you live in a cold climate or you live

[00:22:56] [SPEAKER_02]: in a really hot climate that's going to be less. You're going to get 80% of that because we don't charge our EVs to 100%.

[00:23:02] [SPEAKER_02]: So that's not great. Well then you might say to yourself, well what about

[00:23:06] [SPEAKER_02]: the all wheel drive version? Maybe you get a little bit bigger battery. Nope. That gives

[00:23:11] [SPEAKER_02]: you 330 horsepower and 231 miles of range. So you lose

[00:23:16] [SPEAKER_02]: three miles of range to go in with all wheel drive but it costs more.

[00:23:20] [SPEAKER_02]: And we're going to get to cost here in just a second. The ID buzz comes with a

[00:23:26] [SPEAKER_02]: respectable 91 kilowatt hour battery but again

[00:23:30] [SPEAKER_02]: we are seeing pretty low numbers in terms of range. I don't know if that's

[00:23:36] [SPEAKER_02]: because the ID buzz is just a really heavy vehicle or if that's because

[00:23:41] [SPEAKER_02]: the efficiencies in the vehicle are terrible. I don't know why

[00:23:46] [SPEAKER_02]: we're dealing with such a low range on that vehicle. Let's get to

[00:23:51] [SPEAKER_02]: price. So the price starts out at $59,995.

[00:23:57] [SPEAKER_02]: And if you go to the higher end trim with the

[00:24:01] [SPEAKER_02]: all wheel drive it's $67,045 and you only get

[00:24:06] [SPEAKER_02]: 231 miles of range for $67,000.

[00:24:13] [SPEAKER_02]: That was disappointing to me. It was disappointing to a lot of other

[00:24:17] [SPEAKER_02]: people as well. So my question to you is, are you interested in the

[00:24:22] [SPEAKER_02]: ID buzz at this price with those specs? Send me an email and let me know

[00:24:26] [SPEAKER_02]: bode, B-O-D-I-E at 918digital.com. And if you want to

[00:24:32] [SPEAKER_02]: include any cool stories that you have about the Volkswagen micro bus

[00:24:36] [SPEAKER_02]: go ahead and include those as well. I'd really appreciate reading them.

[00:24:41] [SPEAKER_02]: Rob and I, our podcast Beyond the Post took over the DTNS feed yesterday on Thursday

[00:24:46] [SPEAKER_02]: and we're getting a lot of really good feedback but I would really love it if you

[00:24:50] [SPEAKER_02]: have a chance to go and listen to it. I'll put a link in the show notes to that direct episode.

[00:24:55] [SPEAKER_02]: Please do. We'd really appreciate the feedback and if you want to pass that along

[00:25:00] [SPEAKER_02]: to Tom and the folks at the DTNS crew, that would be nice too.

[00:25:05] [SPEAKER_02]: I know some of you, I was looking at some of the comments. I know some of you have already done that.

[00:25:10] [SPEAKER_02]: Stephen's done that. Thank you very much for doing that.

[00:25:14] [SPEAKER_02]: Alright everybody, that is it for me this week. I hope you all had a wonderful week. I hope you have a

[00:25:20] [SPEAKER_02]: wonderful weekend and I will talk to you on Tuesday.