Don't Mention The War! BYD Kills Off Combustion? Trade Body Trauma?

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1:27Well, hello, everybody, and welcome to another episode of Pulse Now. I just want to reassure you, you know, you've got a huge disappointment with the fact that instead of Imogen being here, it's me, some old bloke. So I want to reassure you that the conversation will be wonderful and fascinating, and we've got some great topics to discuss today. and Imogen will be back shortly so this is not a permanent rearrangement, she's in Japan at the moment, which is lovely Land of the self-charging hybrid The land Thank you Dan for getting that one in so quickly The land of the self-charging hybrid It's possibly now the land of the setting self-charging hybrid because they are now bringing out some pure electrics, anyway Leave that there as it may be uh dan how are you getting on i'm good yeah sorry i couldn't resist that uh you mentioned japan and obviously a place i've never been to and a place i would absolutely love to oh it's amazing yeah but i would be looking at the cars i think and talking to people yeah uh and really annoying them but um no i'm very well thank you i'm not in japan oh good in the home counties hard at work trying to understand what's going on in the electric vehicle market yeah and it's just a slew of data some of it misinterpreted uh some of it concerning some of it positive but it's never dull is it it's no no it isn't no no no it's very exciting well i mean i say exciting it's very challenging i think it's probably more appropriate because you know there's some quite desperate things happening around the world this episode is brought to you by hongkook the hongkook ion tyre is built exclusively for electric vehicles, engineered to deliver what EV drivers need most, confident grip, quietness, energy efficiency and long mileage.

3:22As the official tyre partner of Formula E, Hancock proves its EV technology is at the highest level of performance and brings that same innovation to every ion tyre on the road. I mean we may as well start with the massive heavily armed elephant in the room, which is, I love that, just the title on our notes was Don't Mention the War, which is going to be more, you know, recognisable to people of a certain age. So it was certainly, it was a line in Fawlty Towers, that's where I remember it. But also my dad said it always before Fawlty Towers. Yes, it was that hero I do remember. Maybe I remember the repeats, but I do remember that and I do remember Dad's army as well.

4:06and we lived in the shadow of sort of conflict for many years. World War II was something that dominated discussions and then later the Cold War. And it seems incredible to me now in the 2020s that we have entered an era of conflict again. Of course, I'm not just thinking about what's going on in the Middle East. I'm talking about what started in Ukraine and has sort of spread around the world and the old rules-based world order, as they say, is crumbling. It's under attack. So that's pretty sad to see. But obviously, this story, don't mention the war, is more about what's happening in the Straits of Hormuz at the moment and what that will do to the prices of oil and gas.

5:01And it's going to have a huge, huge impact on that market, as we know, and the costs of those fossil fuels, which are already volatile, but are going to become less and less economic over time. And that does give an advantage to electrification in general and to battery EVs specifically. And what I've seen this week is as the world comes to terms with the enormity of this war that's sort of setting off, it's like a series of explosions and attacks. It is, of course, devastating and it is, of course, tragic. But I've seen a lot of people say, actually, well, we shouldn't mention this if we support EVs.

5:44Actually, EVs are going to benefit. but I've seen lots of people saying, well, we shouldn't make capital on the crisis that's coming around. But honestly, you know, oil and gas, they are conflict materials. You know, they have been for decades. Ever since they were discovered. Decades. And if you track back to the 1950s and the discovery of oil in the Middle East, it has brought them a huge bounty, but it's brought them huge problems as well. It's an extremely volatile part of the world. And now we're seeing that play out. And I think you can't help but mention it. But no one's profiting from the tragedies that's unfolding.

6:25But it does mean the inevitable that electrification, electricity is going to become more and more economic. You could generate it through solar, through wind, et cetera. All of our audience know this, I'm sure. But I don't think we have anything to apologize by drawing attention to the fact that this is a changing market dynamic. that is unlikely to get any better in the favor of oil and gas and is only likely to get better in the favor of electricity and more efficient technologies. So it's an extraordinary moment when no one really knows, not even the commander-in-chief of the USA knows how it's going to play out.

7:09Yeah, yeah. Huge, huge disruption yet again in Western economies that are already struggling economically. So the reality is if you were looking to buy an electric vehicle. It's not a bad time to do it. Well, it's getting better. The equation is getting better and better and more and more compelling, right? They're already cheaper across the total cost of ownership. So it is really fascinating. So this story really comes about, we saw a friend of the channels, Colin Walker. He works for the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit. And he posted some quick analysis they'd done on what the unpredictability in the Middle East could mean for the cost of oil per barrel.

7:53And then what ultimately would mean for petrol. You know, it could quite significantly increase the cost of fuel at the pumps. Surprise there. But the reality is, if you want to inoculate yourself from that, then battery EVs charged at home overnight are a particularly good way to do so. Yeah. I mean, I think this is something I discussed yesterday with Dave Borlase and Ewan McTurk on a podcast was that the – oh, God. Yeah, that reminded me of exactly what it is. I'm now going to admit to the audience that I did turn 70 this week and that maybe it's kicked in faster than I thought. Well, it's good that there was a real...

8:39The thing about that, though, Robert, is I can do the self-charging joke again and you won't remember it. Yeah, I think it's totally original. I've never heard it before. We're all... We're going to be... You know, it doesn't matter if you've only got electric cars and solar panels and batteries, you're still going to be affected by this because it affects everything. It affects the price of food. It affects all our industries at the moment. You know, we are very, very reliant on fossil fuel, apart from, you know, individually our transport needs may not be dependent on it, but it's going to affect the price of a bag of potatoes in the supermarket because they're moved by on a truck that's still using diesel, you know, unless it's a Waitrose one that's electric, they do have some.

9:21I mean, you're right, the ramifications are colossal and yes, you can inoculate against some of those costs, but not all of them, but that increases the need to make sure that your own personal transportation is more economic. But you're right. I mean, I don't know about anyone else right now, but when I go to the local supermarket and pick up a few things, I wouldn't care to say I was a stingy individual, but I do sort of like tut and wheeze now at the unmanned exit, you know. And while I'm buying things, because it is noticeable how expensive everything is. And unfortunately, that is set to continue.

10:02So, yeah, the war is extremely unfortunate. But the ramifications haven't really been factored out yet. We just don't know other than it could be net bad. And we have to see how that plays out. By the time this podcast gets released, it could be over or it could be a lot worse. We don't know. So we will see. But yeah, I would say that if you haven't quite made the leap away from liquid fuels yet, now's not a bad time to do it. A nice, cheap, used EV will go a long way to. There's some brilliant bargains. I keep getting really miffed because of being a very early adopter. The amount of people I'm meeting now who've bought a second-hand EV.

10:48And I go, that's not fair. How come you got that for£8 ,000? really good car it's 280 mile range in really good nick you know it looks new to me it's just you know it's very unfair god yeah i mean that's the that's the reality isn't it we've been part of that early cohort we've been yeah through leasing not through but i was outright but through leasing i've been kind of yeah you know starting to turn the the wheel on buying evs but yeah for for everyone now for anyone who's educated on the subject that isn't being willfully misled by the media you actually put the numbers together you know i could buy used tv for 10 000 pounds and then i could you know thousands of pounds on on running costs if you're fortunate i'll have to be able to charge your home on overnight tariff i mean that is a complete no-brainer in fact i go so far as to say as anyone who has done the numbers and isn't switching to battery eb now is yes it's being a bit of a low wattage individual i'll leave it there i try and be euphemistic about it but there are a certain group of people people who buy used cars and to driveway that's a huge group of people by the way huge yes that this is what buying a bv now are literally throwing thousands of pounds away yeah this is it's helped me remember what i was going to say which was you know that the argument which is very valid and very important that needs you know it's a big challenge which is to uh you know how to facilitate charging for the 40-ish said it depends who you are 38 to 40 percent of households in the uk that don't have anywhere off street to park but the point is then this was a ewan comment was it's about seven percent of the 60 percent of people who can park their car off the street have electric cars now it's quite you know it's a noticeable number but it's still only 17 therefore there's a massive number there's literally millions of people who would not only benefit themselves but they'd benefit this country because we would have to import less fossil fuel because we wouldn't be burning in cars we'd be using it to make plastics and fertilizers and petrochemical you know all the other stuff so you know it's not like we're never going to need it or certainly not for many many years but if we burnt say you know a billion barrels a year less that would make a difference to our economy because that money has to go somewhere it's going to get used it's going to start circulating within the economy employing people here blah de blah de blah and there are arguments we know very well but what is also interesting which Dave always mentioned and we discussed a lot was the number of inquiries that car companies and leasing companies and everybody in the car sector are getting now you know this massive increase in interest suddenly in electric cars you know that's uh which is you know it was in the times i think today there was a sort of mention of it well there's a kind of obvious there's a huge percentage of the population robert that just doesn't know that to yeah you know to use an overnight tariff and charge an electric vehicle is several many many times cheaper than filling up yeah at your local uh petrol station they don't know that and i will not rest robert until everyone knows that whether it takes me 10 years or 15 years or 20 years the reality is it's it's a huge opportunity so yes we can expect auto trader and car wow and other car trading websites to see more and more interest in in back TVs and and when people get in them as we know hardly anyone ever goes back because they are actually so good you know so when they say don't mention the war we're in a bigger wider ideological war We could argue how much of all of this disruption is down to the fact that the old ways are dying and the new ways are being born.

14:34And actually, energy is a central part of that. And the world is becoming more unstable as a result of this transition, which, of course, is tragic, but is part of a process that will hopefully lead us to a better place as long as it doesn't involve the populists and the fascists anymore. The reality is that we're moving through a difficult time and people who tell the truth and say how cheap these things are, are the people who need to be out there doing that on a regular basis. So it's impossible not to mention the war. We're part of an extraordinary period in history that people will look back on and read about if, of course, any of us are alive in 50 years.

15:17But, you know, on the assumption that we are, this is an incredible, incredible moment in time. So yes, we do have to mention the war, I'm afraid. And we do have to say, actually, EVs are becoming even more compelling. But it doesn't mean we don't feel incredible sympathy for the people who are caught in the cluster. Oh, that's appalling. I mean, it's also, you know, it has to be, I think I can't help mentioning it, the country with the biggest reserves of oil and gas, Venezuela, the country with the second biggest reserves of oil and gas, Iran. oh that's that's just coincidence that the usa have in effectively you know started a war or invaded both of those places they've got what they wanted with iran it took 10 with venezuela took 10 minutes it ain't going to take 10 minutes with iran they're going to they're going to be doing a lot of bad stuff because that's the trouble with this when you're in you know when you're confronted with a conflict like this and you say what America is doing is insane it's you know and then people go well oh you support the Iranian regime no the Iranian regime is run by a load of bronze age tragic nutters vile vicious criminal violent horrible people I don't support the Iranian regime at all I never have never will you know but that doesn't mean that what it doesn't mean is if you bomb those people, they stop being like that.

16:40They'll be like that even more. No, and the Iranian people, there's over 90 billion Iranian people. Amazing. The nicest people I've ever met in the world. In a sense, right? But it does feel like a pretext for war. Yeah. That, you know, there might be nuclear capabilities. And we have, if only there was some other example of a recent past that we could point to. But anyway, maybe we should reverse out of this argument into this yeah i know yeah yes just let's just say wmd was a was a three-letter acronym we heard an enormous amount of times with mr blair prime minister blair

17:22ryan reynolds here from mint mobile i don't know if you knew this but anyone can get the same premium wireless for 15 a month plan that i've been enjoying it's not just for celebrities so do like I did and have one of your assistant's assistants switch you to Mint Mobile today. I'm told it's super easy to do at mintmobile.com slash switch. Upfront payment of$45 for three-month plan equivalent to$15 per month required. Intro rate first three months only, then full price plan options available. Taxes and fees extra. Default terms at mintmobile.com. So our second story is BYD kills combustion. Yes, sorry, that was just strolling down to make sure I've got that there in front of me.

18:01No, this is extraordinary. Well, I mean, I think we should big ourselves up because our fabulous China correspondent, Elliot Richards, was there at the launch, which is so exciting. Because is he now, is he Everything Electric Asia-Pacific or is it still fully charged Asia-Pacific? No, it is Everything Electric. He's got, and there's another sort of bonus channel that he runs called Everything Electric Asia-Pacific. So you get other content on there and he's regularly filming with us on Everything Electric cars as well. It's six years since he started working on the channel. The first video and podcast were with Xpeng.

18:39Yes. And yeah, you and I have been talking about China for way before that and the impact it would have. Yeah. And for some reason, certain policymakers, car companies, media commentators have, I was going to say have their heads in the sand, But I've had their head up their asses, frankly, on this subject. They've been completely blind to it. And now you can't open LinkedIn or open newspaper without seeing about BYD and companies from China. So it is now common property, that story. Every time it comes up, you can see it everywhere. BYD overtook Tesla. I mean, that was literally every LinkedIn post for about three weeks running.

19:22It's suddenly become everyone's now an expert with their AI posts. you know they're all kind of typing in tell me more about bwd and then they're copying and pasting that directly into yeah but we've been talking about this for a very very long time and uh you know we've pat ourselves on the back but maybe the chinese pat themselves on the back a bit more because they've been working on this uh multiple year multiple um decade five-year policy uh they've been investing capital uh patiently over that period of time they've just announced their new five-year plan, which is less about electrification, more about integrating AI into every single Chinese economy, which will include factories, by the way, things like dark factories, which we make soon on the channel.

20:07But Elliot's been an amazing narrator of what's going on in China. So what we saw from BYD was a little bit less of a surprise to us. But it's the logical consequence of years and years of really really taking this stuff seriously so for those who are under a rock and have missed it they had a new sort of disruption day uh in early march where they announced um blade battery 2.0 that can uh offer 2 621 miles on a single charge that is wltp so that is uh high uh compared you're looking at 550 real world 550 in the rain on a windy day when it's not very nice weather. That's well over 500-mile range.

20:52Over 600 ,000-mile lifespan. That's extraordinary. Five-minute charge on the flash charges. Yeah. And lower prices. Yes. And using LFP, which has no cobalt, et cetera, et cetera. So it is an extraordinary leap forward. And I was speaking to Elliot in one of our weekly calls this week. He said it was interesting, actually, as the launch goes, was because there was more about the battery and the charging than about the cars. In fact, there were cars there, but they were more like updates rather than... Yeah, there was like a new, new car, was there? And he said, actually, the event was a bit more mooted.

21:28And I always find it interesting, because cars are, by their very definition, shiny and exciting and interesting and get a lot of gun or a lot of attention. But actually, we shouldn't underestimate the underpinnings and the importance of that. And actually, when it comes to battery tech and charging tech, I would say that this announcement is going to have far more impact than any individual car model. Yeah. Oh, God, yeah. Far further reaching impact, but a huge moment. And a website called The Fast Company, a US-based website, obviously quite ahead of their time because they were effectively saying, you know, US has messed up.

22:06We've missed this opportunity. and really sort of said, you know, this is the end of the combustion engine as we know it. And additionally, other companies, not just BYD, Zika, which is part of the Geely Group, and I believe XFANG and a couple of others are creating similarly fast, long-lasting, cheap technology as well. So it's not just one company. It's an assault from a number of different countries around the world, as a number of different companies around the world, many of which are based in Asia. But it's just an amazing moment that we'll look back upon. That short pit stop recharge that you get from a petrol station still takes a few minutes, you know, not like it takes no time at all.

22:59But that is going to be blown away by this. and obviously what most people don't know if they don't drive any yet is you actually do the bulk of your charging at home anyway. Yeah, or even with a destination charger, you know, while you're at work, while you're at the gym, while you're at the shops, you know, you can, those chargers I think are very, can I just quickly, very quick anecdote because I just, I really was aware of it. So the X-Pen G6 I was driving a couple of weeks ago, I really love that car, it's very nice and that can charge at 400 kilowatts so nothing like the speeds that BYD does but still by today's standards very fast and I stopped because I needed to on my way home from from filming up north and I was desperate.

23:43I was a gentleman who'd been sitting in on a motorway for I think they're three and a half hours non-stop driving and I needed to use the facilities so but I saw these chargers and one was available so I drove in plugged it in bit my card it started charging, I ran in, ran because I needed to into the gents and relieved myself, got a coffee, because I thought I'll have a coffee. And then I'll, you know, I had about another 60 miles to drive. And by the time I got back to that X-Bang, it was at 98%, no, 96%. And it was charging 110 kilowatts. So it was full by the time I unplugged it, you know, I just went, no, I don't, I needed, I didn't need any.

24:23But that changes the whole thing, because then you think you're driving a petrol car and you'd be driving for three hours you're desperate for a wee you stop you probably have a wee first then you get back in the car drive it to the garage stand there stand there holding the hose filling the tank for you know what two or three minutes then you go into the shop then you pay that takes longer than that now it now takes longer it charging an electric car is now faster than filling a tank and anyone who disagrees with that is hasn't understood their lives. Well, I think that for those who are kind of tuning in and think they're too old, zealot, well, maybe you're right.

25:04But I think we're a bit more pragmatic than that. But I think what's interesting is that most people inside or outside of the industry know that what Tesla did with the supercharger network was absolutely transformative. And obviously with the vehicles as well, that's a given. And in this Fast Company article, there's a couple of bits I'd like to read out. I think. Oh, yeah. First of all, for the benefit of those who are kind of confused about kilowatts and all those sorts of things, because we do have a habit in the industry of talking in jargonistic terms. Minutes are better than obviously kilowatts, kilowatt hours, etc.

25:37But this I thought was quite good, quick explainer, which is think of kilowatts as the width of a water pipe filling a swimming pool. A standard home charger trickles power overnight at roughly seven kilowatts like a garden hose a tesla supercharger long considered the gold standard of public fast charging maxes out at around 250 kilowatts so seven kilowatts at home like a garden hose tesla supercharger maxes out at 250 kilowatts haven't seen that too often from tesla superchargers but they are very quick byd however is unleashing six times that amount of energy effectively hooking the car up to a high pressure municipal water main i liked that that was a nice yes nice explainer And yes, you can drive electric cars in the rain just while I'm on that subject.

26:21Because what I missed with that anecdote was that I wanted the Tesla supercharger to be like a fire hose from a fire engine, like high pressure, loads of water going out. But it would still take a few hours to fill a swimming pool. It's a good analogy, isn't it, though? It's a good analogy. Nice analogy. And then if you imagine the supercharger network has been transformative for Tesla, and obviously there are multiple open sites now where you can charge other brands of cars as well. But actually, BYD are rolling out 15 ,000 of their megawatt charging stations across China by the end of the year.

26:58And they are going to deploy a 3 ,000 charger network across Europe. I believe UK is including those figures by the end of this year as well. Wow. That will be a tough assignment because of hooking them up to the grid. But nonetheless, I think we can safely say they're pretty ambitious. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, gosh, yes. And I mean, certainly within the next five years, there will be a kind of common sight. It's not the one I... Because somehow some of the stuff they do is just bonkers. but is that you know that you've got you everyone i think knows how you plug a wire in a big connector into one side of an electric car and that's how you charge it but there are cars i think yang wangs have it where they have charge imports on both sides of the car and the way they've designed their overhead cabling thing you can charge you can plug in both sides of the car and had 2 ,500 kilowatts at once.

27:59But for the EV nerds, though, actually, what's interesting, and I read another article about this, is what are the implications of these flash chargers, and not just from BYD, from ZUKA and others, et cetera, on the power swap stations, the sort of things that NIO has pioneered? Because obviously that was their USP, quick two-minute, three-minute change. Now, if there's marginal difference between actually hooking charging and swapping, where does that sit? You know, I'm quite a fan of battery swapping stations. I think it looks cool. I can see there's some reason why we'd like it to succeed. But if the charging is more akin to what's going on with liquid fuels already, is there really a need for that?

28:47So again, you know, it's going to be interesting to see how that plays out. But yeah, BYD, they're building their own dreams, aren't they? Yeah, yeah. They definitely are. Quite literally. Anyway, but it's staggering. And there'll be more announcements soon as well. Oh, yes. Hopefully, you and I will be joining Elliot in Beijing in April with our eyes wide open, mouths agog, as we kind of walk around that show and see what more progress is being made.

29:48We'll see you next time. you can afford and saving money as you become debt-free. National Debt Relief has already helped bring debt relief to over 550 ,000 U.S. consumers, earning thousands of five-star reviews and an A-plus rating with the Better Business Bureau. You're stronger than your credit card debt. Let today be the day you start turning things around. Take the first step and visit nationaldebtrelief.com to see what debt relief you may qualify for. That's nationaldebtrelief.com. But maybe we should go on to our third story. I switched around slightly last minute. So on your game, Robert, if you know what this one's about.

30:26I call this one trade body trauma. Yeah. No, I did have a quick look at it. And I mean, my problem is when I come across a new concept like this, I don't know what I think. Well, allow me to make it up for you. Can you help me? I mean, it is an interesting topic, but fundamentally what we've seen, and I do put it down to a complete vibe shift in North America that then spread to Canada, spread to Europe, etc. We see some regressive policy pullback in America from the current administration there. It kind of made the Canadians go, well, why should we keep our rebates alive? In fact, they're bringing them back in Canada and actually they're letting Chinese cars in as well.

31:12So every reaction has an equal and opposite reaction and we're seeing that in Canada. But by the time I got to the Munich Motor Show in September, all the talk was that the sort of zero emission ambitions in Europe, in Europe, in the EU, were going to be watered down. We fully expect the same to happen in the UK with the ZEB mandate. We entirely expect that to be watered down again at the cost of billions, by the way, to the emergent battery EV industry. It's a tragedy, really. As you just see this political flip-flopping, this pendulum swing, you know, I feel very sorry for companies like Ford who are in America and having to deal with policy that's all over the place.

31:51Biden saying, go battery EV, go battery EV, and then Trump, you know, pulling the rug out from underneath. I do have a lot of sympathy, to be fair. Oh, gosh, yeah. But to see governments being taken in and gulled by arguments that battery EVs are not the way forward, or there isn't real demand for them, is really, really sad. And obviously, there's this huge tectonic plate shifting with particularly around the threat from China, which has meant that the EU is now looking at things like local content requirements or batteries and things like that. But actually, that sets off an extraordinary chain of events in its own right.

32:30So to give an example, many of the European made cars have Chinese componentry and batteries. Yes. So what I've heard is that rumors are that Renault supports these new local content rules. Right. The German automakers, who are a bit more tied up with the Chinese supply chain, opposed them. Meanwhile, the trade body here in the UK, the SMMT, which is the equivalent body that represents the slightly more laggardly car makers in the UK, are saying, well, hang on a second, if you have these local content rules, that's going to seriously impact the cars that are made in Britain, because we are now post-Brexit outside of any agreements.