Tesla in Norway; Semi Truck Charging Network; Consumer Reports;

Brian I had to do it after all these years you made me I bought actually my wife bought for me a plant to eat your plant I saw the foliage and I say fa faux it's lovely I I love it I think you're going to enjoy being in the in the in the woods yes yes but I do I do need to buy a few lemons to hang from the branches of course yeah of course course or maybe at Christmas time you'll send me some leftover decorations from well you can see I've still got uh the little that's a red that red spot is a light bulb oh that is so I've still got my Christmas lights on they're just turned off of course you're supposed to keep your Christmas lights up all year round everybody knows this all right so should we talk about anything to do with Tesla or Elon muser those kinds of things I've heard of all of those topics Randy okay well you apparently were having some kind of a conversation the other day about the truck charging the Nationwide system of truck Chargers that are being put in as part of the IRA I think or was it the infrastructure act I don't remember which one uh I don't remember which one so there's a couple great things going on they're they're working on it in Canada they're working on it in the US and then since that video we've seen that uh a new grant program is being rolled out in California and California is a good Target for it because we know all of the locations of the ports and the warehouses yeah and maybe we can call that first mile deliveries because from the port to the warehouse is a perfect use case we know how long the routes are they are all almost all sub 100 miles um and you don't necessarily need to have Highway charging to make all those work uh you can have Depot in areas where land is not outrageously expensive or the land already exists like at the ports and you can get it going in that regard and it's very expensive to do because people think well yeah but a charger what could it cost 100 Grand maybe right that's not the expense it's getting the power to the location we were talking about um school buses there's a discussion I saw about school buses because uh Bluebird has just made their 2,000th 200,000th uh School Bus let me take a look here uh 2,000th electric school bus and people are saying well these should be absolutely everywhere they're a perfect use case how hard could it be to put Power into a school bus depot and the answer is hard it's difficult because I guarantee you that that Depot does not have enough juice to charge 50 100 Vehicles all at once even if they're only charging at the same speed as a car uh which would you know take them longer per mile to juice up and yes you do have the entire overnight to get it done it's a lot of juice my friend yeah so I happen to live on all those places that you were just talking about my I sit u e equid distance between the 215 the um 60 and the 15 um right in the middle of that Corridor and so those are the big uh uh all of the trucks in Southern California Rumble past about six miles from my home uh on their way to these various uh uh uh uh what do you call it distribution distribution centers yeah and uh and they're as you point out from Long Beach Harbor to Riverside uh T mecula Etc we're talking about under 100 miles well under 100 miles 60 70 miles from Long Beach Harbor to Riverside and all the same thing it's about 65 70 miles I've made the trip many many times um and so therefore being able to put in a charging stations at the Docks and other charging stations in the say the uh the area around all of these distribution centers is it's kind of a no-brainer to me I would also like to see the boring tunnel I've said this for over well well over maybe two years boring tunnels need to be going from the docks to Riverside it's the most obvious thing in the world to do to reduce not only uh pollution but also to reduce the uh the the uh break dust and everything else no road noise the whole nine yards and the rways are already secured you could build the darn things right under the existing freeways so yeah well let's talk a little bit real quick about the semis because here's what I'm looking forward to the problems we have with semis are they are loud well an electric one is not the Jake breaking that you hear from miles away that is disallowed within City Limits but happens anyway will be a thing of the past uh using power when you're going downhill instead of recuperating it that should become a thing of the past and what frustrations remain after that well break dust it is mitigated by regenerative breaking and then we get to our last little bit of fun which is crazy dangerous overs speed and uh and otherwise distracted semi- drivers uh going too fast going going um you know all of that can end with first uh driver assistance and then later with full autonomy because a semi doesn't need to go super fast if the human behind the wheel uh isn't there or doesn't doesn't have a motivation to do it right so that will increase efficiency because you know drag increases dramatically the faster you go if all semis were going the speed limit and for that matter platooning so that they are close to each other and you can they can then benefit from the uh the little bit of slipstream they get and cars can know to get around them you won't have to deal with them blocking and then they won't go slow going up hills which is another frustration on a highway that only has two lanes and you're stuck in a long grade and one semi is going 45 miles an hour because he's carrying a substantial load the other semi is going 55 miles an hour are trying to pass him and all traffic backs up all of those things will become things of the past and I'm here for it you're right you're right okay so let's go back to the charging systems do we know maybe these are things you don't even know we didn't have this conversation do we know you did mention I think in your video that some of these at least are Tesla superchargers but are we going to get into another problem of differential methods of charging different kinds of uh of equipment being used and therefore uh not being able to bring different kinds of trucks into the same uh charging stations so yes the short answer is yes I have yet to see what everyone is using um but it is reasonable to assume that Tesla once again is going their own Direction I know I've seen what the big charging cable connectors look like for for example caterpillar and uh they look they're like a fire hose they're they're tremendously big uh but their use case is they know what their use case is it's very specific so you've got like for example heavy mining equipment um and they need to be able to charge very very quickly so what they've got is a setup where they can plug in one or or two cables charge uh from a single or twice as fast um depending on what they have available and what their needs are um Tesla semi does not appear to be using that um and I don't know what all the other brands are using I'd be very surprised if if more than one or two of them are using a a standard in common yeah that's unfortunate and then do we know anything about the other companies that are winning some of these State bids do they are they the same players who've been involved all along who have made such terrible charging uh facilities uh do do we know anything I don't know any of those answers I I don't know because there's the question of equipment but there's also the question of contractors and if you look at the contractors who've been winning these State bids the bids at the state level for uh com for passenger charging they're almost entirely companies I've never heard of interesting all right okay and then um what about CH changing subjects we have Norway announcing well not announcing I guess the information came out today that Norway's electric cars have set a new world record 94% market share in August Tesla's model why with 18.8% of the market um this is almost Perfection for the future in my opinion U my my my uh numbers have always been that Tesla would eventually have 20% market share of whatever is going to be out there that could be not only on cars but trucks and semis and the whole nine yards if we just had a nice 20% of all of it that would be a totally acceptable number especially when you add in I don't know things like robotaxi and and Optimus as as the real money makers but um so why is Norway so far ahead why isn't the rest of Europe at least uh equaling Norway uh why is even California with extremely expensive gasoline and apparently a real zest for um for EVS why isn't California somewhere closer to Norway by now so there's a few things going on in the Scandinavian countries ver is they'd set aggressive targets and real targets not ones that we going to kind of head toward and then kind of back off from and then the manufacturers and everyone just kind of counts on the fact that well we'll be able to weather this storm if we do a bad enough job because they can't put us out of business Norway doesn't make cars they buy cars and as a result they're not uh looking to tax to death all the Imports because there's no domestic uh production to protect so they'll take a car from anyone uh so you've got a better buying opportunity there their incentives and I'm not sure if it was Norway I know in I think it's Norway as well what they have is very high import taxes on all cars except EVS which gives EVS a huge price Advantage they've got access to hydro and other uh an offshore wind affordable power the power is not an issue so they've got uh the other big thing they have is they don't have a philosophy in their heads where they need a thousand miles of range uh they're more realistic about their driving needs and they understand and that what they have works it is a smaller country so putting in a charging network from end to end was not as difficult as it would be in a big sprawling you know three-dimensional mess as the us but what they also don't have is it's not a political hot button nobody in Norway is saying well I'm not going to buy an electric car because I'm not XYZ whatever it is because I don't because because one person in Austin is too liberal or too conservative that's not part of the calculus I'm sure there are people in Norway who disagree with elon's politics I'm sure there are people everywhere who disagree with someone's politics that's just how people are uh but it doesn't uh appear to be hurting them and if you are one of those people in Norway who will just never buy a Tesla that's great there's plenty of options in that market for you to choose from yeah so you make a very very good point I hadn't thought I I'm sure I have thought about it over time that in California we don't really have the option of buying any of the Chinese we don't we don't have the option of buying a byd uh we don't have an option of buying a Neo not that anybody would but but but we don't we have the option of buying the domestic uh like for instance the Hyandai Hyundai vehicles that are made here but the ones that are imported would have the high uh uh High tariffs on them so that could be something that in addition so then that would be a problem on the co on in California in particular where the the interest in the EVS is extremely high charging system is charging structure is very very good uh and gasoline is expensive um I've maintained for a long time that the gasoline being so inexpensive in the midwest is maybe the number one reason that we're not seeing the Midwest uh uh adopt as quickly as Europe or California all good points uh getting cars from Europe to from you know the manufacturing bases in Europe to Norway is very easy getting the same cars here is a much longer process Hyundai has their new Factory it's about to begin deliveries uh for that matter we've got postar who's got their new Factory that just opened in the Southeast uh and yes I agree with you that gas prices are low in the US compared to other developed Nations you look at and the Midwest I don't remember who I was talking with on X but I was somebody was saying well yeah gas prices are high if you just figure an average of $3 a gallon and I was like an average of three I don't remember the last time I saw a number lower than three that would bring my average in that direction on the west coast uh you know 350 seems like a bargain um and I only know what gas prices are because I out of my way to look the other day I have very little idea on those Trends so yeah it's going to be there there are cheap gas is an obstacle and every time we've seen this over and over for Gen for decades every time gas prices go up SUV sales go down and then the gas prices come back down and people go boy you know that uh that big old Chevy Tahoe is looking pretty good right about now it's comfy it's a big couch on Wheels and that's great and then 6 months later gas prices go back up and ah what have I done yes all right well let's also talk for a minute about Consumer Reports now I have said before maybe even with you on the Channel that I am I don't have any respect at all for Consumer Reports partially I think that they might or might not be biased but partially I think it's because the amount of resources necessary to actually do what they do is astronomical ju again I was in the padlock business I cut my teeth in the padlock business 50 years ago um and so I learned everything I could possibly know about padlocks I actually became you know published in locksmith Ledger published in Hardware age Etc about small security devices like padlocks because I decided to become an expert when Consumer Reports came out with their article on small security devices it was completely wrong I mean it was just and and and you could have asked any locksmith and they would have told you it was completely wrong so I don't have a lot of respect for them in general but they probably spend most of their money probably the vast majority of their resources I have to think goes into their Automotive reporting and yet their Automotive reporting seemingly over the years to me also seems to be really bad but you did quite a little analysis of it the other day I wonder if you could summarize what your findings were so you will see a headline that says oh Consumer Report says Tesla's the worst car and then a month later you'll see one that says it's the best car you'll see it's the most expensive and then you'll see it's the cheapest you'll see it's the least reliable and the most reliable are they lying no they're playing uh the statistics game you can tell any story you want with the statistics so if you look at the one that says it's the most unreliable used car what they're saying is if you go back 10 years to the 2012 to 2014 Model S those have reliability issues and then they say but by the way the model Y is the best car of the year and that's because the model y like any car that you sell in outrageous volume gets really dialed in uh that's why other winners on that on that list are are like the Camry they sell a lot of Camry they sell a lot of RAV 4S so they can um just by changing ing the question you can get a different answer um the cost of ownership is lower but then they say oh but if you look at the snx you'll find that the cost of ownership isn't as low uh it's well right because it's a different car it's more expensive to buy in the first place it's uh they I don't think they factored it in but if you buy a plaid you're absolutely going to chew through tires that's not because it's heavy that's because it's a plaid it's like is is like a Hellcat you're not going to get more than 10 15,000 mil on those tires if you're driving it like the Hellcat it is so yeah Consumer Reports would I call them I wouldn't call them dishonest um I would say that everything they say has truth if you read the whole thing most people don't go past the headline uh I would say their motivation is to keep eyeballs on it to maintain their relevance so they can maintain their budget so they can continue doing these things and sometimes that's at odds with painting a complete picture you know we had a a an article out about a week no maybe it was more than a week ago maybe it was a long time I can't remember now but there was a car and driver article on the Cyber truck that was particularly dismissive um of the Cyber truck and the the reading of that one seemed to have been intentionally um disparaging without uh do you remember this one no no but it's but but I I understand how you reach those kinds of conclusions if you if you um you were saying that when you read this report regarding a topic you knew a lot about locks that it became clear to you how little they knew and I found this to be true with news generally yeah when when a local news story is unfolding and the networks come in to cover it you you get home and you watch the coverage and you shake your head because boy you guys first of all those weren't the things that the witnesses actually said I mean you're changing a whole bunch of things um when I went to court to give a witness impact statement a victim impact statement recently um I shared with a uh prosecutor some things that I'd read online in the paper that concerned me about the case and they said oh yeah don't don't don't put any weight in those that's just a local newspaper trying to get a story out in time it it's not necessarily based in reality and that was comforting yeah well when it comes to witness reporting and even the kind of reporting that we're talking about you may be aware of something called The Stadium Theory Stadium Theory says that if you're at uh the Rose Bowl and it's USC versus UCLA and there's a very important play and you watch that slow-mo over and over and over again everybody wearing the blue and gold will see it one way everybody wearing the purple and gold will see it the other it's amazing that uh that the re instant replay doesn't always provide the answer you would expect You' expect it to be cut and dry clear definitive well was his was his foot there tough to say exactly right all right well I think we've covered some very important subject matters uh for today I think we'll leave it there uh people that do not currently have a subscription it's free you can subscribe you can subscribe on X it costs you money to to Brian White but if you'd like to subscribe to him for free you can do that on YouTube so just go over to his YouTube channel push the Subscribe button and then while you're there you know he'd probably give you some kind of information in his description that would send you over to patreon or send you over here or send you over there where you could possibly support him in those places as well I would mention that I'm going to be in Vancouver BC this coming weekend for the Electrify everything Expo formerly called fully charged I um am a backup speaker should anyone uh need a a a place filled uh but I was not originally on the speaker registry because I had uh other another event that was supposed to be going on this weekend that ended up being moved so does that mean that does that mean that while you're there you're going to have to be going beep beep beep it means I have to leave my ringer on which I'm not excited about because you're a backup speaker ah for crying out loud Randy you should you should sign off all right all right then in that case it's been great talking to you