My Interview with James Cooke

[0:00] today and I'm really excited for many different reasons. If you have seen his channel and his [0:04] show, please let me know in the chat room or in the comment section if you're watching this in [0:08] the replay. I'm excited for many reasons. First of all, I met him personally myself when he was [0:12] visiting here in the United States for the tour of the Tesla factory for the Model 3 unveiling. [0:19] You're watching that video right now and I am excited to have him here because he's also [0:25] in the UK so a good perspective from what it's like to own a Tesla and electric car in the UK [0:33] and in Europe because of course as you guys know I'm in a bit of a bubble here in Silicon Valley [0:39] in California. For example on my way home yesterday I saw two Model 3s just driving around while I know [0:45] a lot of people have never seen one ever at all so I want him to bring me down to earth a little [0:51] bit here but there are also some really cool things that are going on in Europe that I [0:54] want you guys to know for those of you guys who are watching me from the United States or Canada [0:59] or Australia so this is going to be really really interesting conversation that I'm looking [1:04] forward to of course so and it's all coming up next. All right and if you guys want to ask [1:16] him questions please do so in the in the chat room just say e4electric so I can see I don't know [1:24] how many questions I'll be able to take because I have a feeling we're going to have our own thing going [1:29] on so don't get you know offended if I don't take as many questions as I normally do. A link to his [1:37] channel if for some reason you've never seen his videos is in the description of this video it will [1:42] stay there for the replay so if you guys want to check it out and you should please browse there [1:50] after you watch this and enjoy his videos. He just posted a really cool video I'm gonna watch it [1:56] actually also once we're done because I probably you you don't want it you don't want me watching [2:01] it right now do you but it's about a Jaguar I-Pace we're definitely going to talk about it as well [2:05] because he had another video that he had so we're gonna have some fun so without further ado James [2:10] welcome to the show. Hi great to be here. What's going on man? I love the sweater by the way I see you [2:20] varying it in a few videos I think it's my favorite. Cool. Yeah go ahead. I was just gonna say [2:29] it's this is actually my first time live ever. Really? Yeah. Well welcome I think it's exciting [2:39] because we're gonna have some people they're already in the chat room they're already talking [2:42] uh I see a lot of regulars here Tony, Sagafoto, Gary, New York, Tom who was my guest on the show a couple [2:49] of a couple of weeks ago so uh well listen let's get going and why don't you tell all of us even [2:56] those all those of us who watch you tell us how you started uh well first of all why you bought a [3:02] Tesla you have a Tesla Model S a black one just like me uh how why did you buy the the car and how [3:09] did you start your YouTube channel? Well the reason I bought my Tesla is because I had a Nissan Leaf [3:17] before and the reason I bought the Nissan Leaf was because I had a 20 minute test drive and like a [3:22] lot of people I guess I was just totally blown away by the instant acceleration and the quiet [3:28] refinement of that car and the Tesla was just a sort of more practical longer range version of that [3:35] I suppose. Cool so and how did you decide about starting the YouTube channel and and and what it [3:42] was like for you uh from the beginning till now? YouTube kind of came a little out of left field [3:51] for me because I originally was going to be a commercial drone pilot so I thought it made sense [3:56] to put some videos up on YouTube and try and have a a wider variety of things that I could sort of edit [4:03] and shoot uh than just drone footage of somebody's house for example and what I found very quickly was [4:10] that actually I enjoy the YouTube side more than the drone flying side so that's what I stuck with [4:19] well that's very cool and so um I see a lot of fans already in the chat room uh Tony says it's nice to [4:27] see James Cook I watch his channel all the time Aaron is also from the UK good to see he says good to [4:34] James on here at last um a lot of people were looking forward to this um of course all right so [4:41] uh let's talk about uh um owning Tesla uh in the UK um I mean you've been here you know before so you [4:49] kind of seen how this is this is sort of a Tesla slash electric car heaven uh in some ways in some [4:55] and other ways of course it's not because we wait in line for superchargers tell me what your [5:00] experience what like tell me about the contrast of the experience that you obviously have every day [5:04] in the UK uh compared to what uh you've seen here uh in California okay well I haven't driven an [5:12] electric car unfortunately in California so my experience on that is somewhat limited but obviously [5:18] I hear the stories about people who have to charge um queue for superchargers and this general lack [5:25] availability when it comes to CHAdeMO and CCS quickchargers and in a lot of ways I think we're [5:32] extremely lucky I mean you talk about living in a bubble in in California and you do to some extent [5:38] because you tend to have access to the cars ahead of us the problem we have is we don't get the cars [5:44] but we do have a really quite fantastic charging network partly because the island is quite densely [5:52] populated so you're going to say something no no I actually that's what I was really interested [5:57] in in in hearing about because I know we talked a little bit yesterday tell yeah the rest of the [6:02] world here um how is this different because actually I didn't know this so okay so obviously [6:09] geographically the island is quite a bit smaller than the US but at the same time we have motorways [6:15] that go everywhere and every 30 miles 30 40 miles there's a motorway service area basically [6:21] kind of like a mini mall I guess you'd call it you know some shopping outlets some places you can [6:27] buy books and travel pillows and fast food and all that sort of thing and coffee oh yes uh so [6:34] what's what's happened over the last five years which has been absolutely transformative I think for EVs [6:41] in this country is a company called Ecotricity who are a power supplier of green mainly sort of wind energy [6:49] has taken it upon themselves to put into all of these motorway service stations they started off [6:57] with at least one charger it took them a couple of years to get to the point where they had basically [7:01] full coverage with with one charger now there's usually two often three chargers with you know so [7:09] you've got three CHAdeMO um you know plugs that you can make use of at basically any stop along any [7:17] motorway so unless you have a very short range car it's pretty easy to get from one side of the [7:26] country to the other you know much as it is with a tesla with the supercharger network but of course the [7:32] the Ecotricity network is available for any EV as opposed to just teslas so and then this is this is [7:40] where I really was surprised you're telling me that the fast charging network at least in the UK [7:45] is kind of ready for all of these cars are coming out this year that uh do have fast charging uh um [7:54] capabilities is that what I'm hearing yes I mean the charges aren't massively quick for the mass for [8:00] the most part they top out at 40 kilowatts but that's still plenty to you know stop for half an hour and [8:06] put a meaningful amount of extra range in and the other sort of slight caveat is the actual charger [8:14] units are not very reliable so that can be a bit of a downer uh but equally though if you've got three [8:22] of them and one of them's broken you can just use one of the other two so okay well that so because [8:29] this is a big question right I think of this year because there's so many non-tesla cars coming out and [8:35] they have pretty decent range and they look pretty good and the prices are actually not bad very [8:40] comparable to what we got going on you know with tesla and nissan and and chevy bolt um but it looks [8:47] like though you know people who will be buying them will still have at least in the uk um pretty decent [8:54] chance to charge when they go out or even take long trips though I understand long trips are not really [8:59] that long um in the uk and in Europe just distances are smaller I think lengthwise it's something like [9:05] 600 miles from John O'Groats to Land's End so you know that's that's kind of the longest straight line [9:12] distance you can do in the country but at the same time if you've only got 150 mile car and you want to [9:19] do a round trip you probably do want some charging you know within sort of 60 70 miles you know for that [9:27] that radius okay so by the way you have a charger at home right the tesla charger for for your car [9:34] um now Ben in the chat room asks a pretty good question he says um what do people with flats do [9:39] there and flats are apartments right yeah we have the same problem here so I'm wondering what's going [9:45] on in the uk yeah we have exactly the same problem for the most part the people who own flats that I've [9:51] spoken to who also own an EV tend to take the approach of they're going to make it work no [9:57] matter what you know they're they're sort of early adopters and the people who wouldn't be willing to [10:03] say dangle an extension cord out of their first four flats are not the kind of people who would buy [10:10] an EV now that said I do think there is a solution coming to this problem obviously if you have a car in [10:17] the city you don't tend to do that many miles until you leave the city and if you know Shell are [10:25] installing along with a number of other petrol um suppliers around here if that's the right phrase [10:32] they're putting quick charges in their petrol forecourts which means that if you are a city dweller [10:40] you can hopefully go and grab a coffee do a little bit of quick grocery shopping and then come back to [10:45] the car and find you've got a another week's worth of charge so it's a different kind of ownership [10:50] model if you have a flat but I think it can still work okay yeah and and so this is this is what I [10:58] hear over and over again that um in Europe the intro is cool but I did not mean to do that so in Europe [11:10] uh uh people the the lifestyle and the distances and space is so different that um it the needs are [11:18] a little bit they're a lot different for for for electric car drivers and therefore the range doesn't [11:24] have to be as as as long as it is here or and the charging needs are very different um though some [11:30] people in the chat room do are saying that um the charging stations right the charging locations uh because [11:37] of all different types of connectors have one of each sometimes so if there's a car already parked [11:43] there and charging with your type of a connector you kind of have to wait uh is that has that been [11:47] a a problem well it's not been a problem for me because I have a one of the original dual charger [11:52] teslas so I with a chadamo adapter so I can get 40 50 kilowatts from a chadamo or 22 kilowatts from the [12:01] three-phase rapid ac side or alternatively I can use a supercharger so I'm I'm kind of living the [12:07] electric vehicle dream I suppose you could say yeah um but if you've got a chadamo car then you'll [12:14] be okay because every charger that's gone into the ground every quick charger has got a chadamo on it [12:19] the problem comes with ccs cars like the ipace that I saw a couple of days ago the thing with that is [12:27] there's only usually one ccs plug per location so if that one's in use or if that one is not working [12:36] then you're going to have to adjust your your journey plan if you've got a big range to your [12:41] vehicle like you have with the ipace then the trick becomes just make sure you stop before you [12:46] need to stop and that way if it's not working you just drive on past and get back on the motorway go [12:51] to the next one which will only be another 30 miles so it's not too inconvenient so you know go ahead go [12:59] ahead well I was just going to say I do think you know quickly going back to what you were saying [13:04] about how uh in the UK you don't necessarily need quite as much range I'm not necessarily sure that is [13:11] true because you do have the sort of the round trip to consider so for example for me if I go to one of [13:18] the larger local towns to me that's still 30 miles each way so that's a 60 mile round trip which means that [13:27] an original 24 kilowatt hour Nissan Leaf would just do that in the summer and leave me a little bit of [13:35] buffer for if they close the road which they do all the time around here fixing potholes and such like [13:42] okay all right so again I I'm I'm I'm finding out a lot about this and you know I first of all I I just [13:49] need to visit also myself I'm kind of looking forward to it yeah definitely come over you know and so [13:54] this brings me to uh the next topic um but before that I I I do that let let me just mention that uh [14:01] this uh this video and this channel is sponsored by Evanex the aftermarket accessories for Tesla if [14:07] you guys want to save a few bucks if you shop in there uh the description of this video has a discount [14:12] coupon so have at it and of course the description of this video also has a link to James's channel which [14:18] you should definitely check out right after this because he's just like literally before we went [14:23] live he posted a really cool video that I'm looking forward to uh James uh I want to hear all about it [14:29] because it looks like you have got a hold of a car that I have I'm considering as my next car uh it's [14:35] also just going to kind of get us into the topic of non-Tesla cars that are coming out this year like [14:39] this is a really exciting year um tell us about the video you just posted right okay so one of my [14:47] Tesla owning friends used to have a reservation on an I-Pace and what they did was they uh he then [14:55] cancelled the reservation and got a Tesla Model S but they kept him on the sort of mailing list and [15:00] invited him and whoever he wanted to bring with him also known as me um along to the uh uh a sort [15:07] of reveal is the best way of putting it I didn't get to drive it but I did get to sit in it and [15:12] you know have a bit of a play with you know the tiny frunk and the boot and doors and I like [15:17] the door handles by the way they're cool what what why do you like them what do they look like [15:22] actually I like door handles that come out I like the I like the idea of those they I like them very [15:28] much on my uh Model S I don't I mean I haven't owned a Model X I've driven one a few times I don't really [15:36] know if I I think I prefer the Model S door handles honestly despite well in the Model X you don't even [15:41] need to ever touch the door handles I think that's my favorite part like whenever I whenever I not rent [15:46] when I get it from uh the service center uh the Model X and I kind of drive it for a couple of uh [15:52] couple of days and you know you don't have to you know touch the door handles they doors open for [15:57] you and then I go back to my Model S I literally will just walk out of my car and not close the [16:01] door and go like oh crap I gotta close the door damn it uh brilliant yeah I can imagine you would you [16:08] would get used to that it always made me a bit nervous though the way the doors sort of have a mind of [16:12] their own you know because they worry that I'll you know stop by the side of the road and and go [16:18] to open the door and it'll swing out and the car will take it off okay so give me the impression that [16:24] you have of the car now that you had a sort of in-person look I'm I'm a huge fan by the way I don't [16:29] know if you've seen a few shows that I've done where I absolutely hate the way they're doing marketing [16:34] because they're trying to say how they can beat Tesla and they did this kind of a BS drag race I'm sure [16:39] you've seen it where they added this stopping distance and they kind of make us believe that [16:44] they're going to race P100D but it's not a P100D so but the crappy uh uh marketing aside what do you [16:51] think about the car would you get one whenever you're done with your uh Model S what's your [16:56] impression ah that you see that's a really if it had supercharger access I'd be happy to have one now [17:04] it seems like a really great car I think the the the interior fit and finish in particular is at a [17:12] level that Tesla at the moment can't reach I like the Tesla interior but the Jaguar is is I honestly [17:21] think better but I agree vehicle is only half of what you're talking about with an EV the other half [17:29] is how you're going to charge it and right now in the UK that means CCS which means you'd have to go [17:36] back to worrying about whether the next charger is going to be working and factoring that into your [17:42] journey if you go into the rest of Europe in France Germany Italy you're going to have to look at [17:48] charging networks charger availability plan your route out it's going to be a level of headache that [17:56] you just don't have as a Tesla owner because again Europe is quite densely populated in comparison to [18:02] many places in the US you're usually in a situation where wherever you are in your car you can go in [18:09] any direction and hit a supercharger on route so if I'm you know in northern France I decide I want to go [18:16] north into Belgium and the Netherlands you just press the next red dot north and if you want to go south [18:22] you press the next red dot south you don't have to ever kind of go out of your way really to do that [18:29] and that is something that's going to be would be completely different with a [18:33] I-PACE and I don't think I could live with that I guess that also answers my previous question right [18:39] about the charging so you would still say that Tesla supercharging network especially for trips long or [18:46] short are still superior and I can argue that's probably the best feature of the car right [18:52] if that makes a difference for you and many people like myself I'm I'm struggling with the same [18:56] thing I'm struggling I I love the uh the look of the I-PACE I love the interior over the model S and [19:03] but the reason I may not get it is because of the charging infrastructure yeah and it's it's almost more [19:11] of a problem I think in Europe because there are very few companies that have spread charging networks [19:18] beyond the national borders of the country they started in and there are a lot of countries in [19:22] Europe so if you're not careful you can wind up with a big selection of apps and cards that you have [19:29] to think about in order to get from A to B whereas you can trust that with Tesla you know I drove to [19:36] northern Italy last summer and I didn't even bother planning I just got in the car I knew roughly where I [19:41] wanted to go and just kept pressing the the map on the next red dots you know in the direction I wanted [19:47] to go and it was easy super easy absolutely by the way no way to replicate that with a non-Tesla at the [19:58] moment and I think when there is and I think it will happen you've got things like the Ionity network [20:04] that they're going to be setting up Ecotricity are going to be moving to faster 100 kilowatt charges which [20:10] will hopefully be more reliable and should also have CCS by default that will make a big difference [20:16] in the UK so you know things will improve for the I-PACE but right at this point in time it's not so [20:24] great for the longer distances yeah and I agree and this kind of brings me to the Ionity network that [20:30] you just mentioned so for those of you guys who don't know Ionity network uh is in the four companies [20:35] invested into this uh Volkswagen group which are also the um uh the owner of Audi and uh Volkswagen and [20:44] uh um um Porsche uh then Ford then Daimler that's parent company of Mercedes-Benz and uh missing BMW [20:52] right so and they just released this video which looks like they're definitely kind of trying to do [20:56] this futuristic Tesla supercharger like stuff um so it looks like and they have a couple of more years to [21:02] go um it's going to be faster than than than current supercharger network um but okay I guess I guess [21:09] that kind of um gives us a good idea about what um is happening with the infrastructure but they are [21:15] doing a smart thing they're kind of uh literally ganging up on Tesla right and and and key here the [21:22] network spreads beyond just one country because that's you know people are not used to having a car that [21:30] requires a significant amount of admin in order to get from you know one place to another a few [21:36] hundred miles away even if that's across borders you just get in the car you drive you fill it with [21:41] petrol and off you go what could be simpler and it's very difficult to sell EVs in a world where [21:49] you've got to talk about the fact that you you need multiple charging networks there are different [21:56] charging standards as soon as it starts to get a bit too complicated people start wondering why [22:02] they were interested in it in the first place I totally agree um that's the problem William in [22:06] the chat room is asking you does the I-PACE only uh charge from CCS um or other other ways to charge [22:14] just CCS and um type 2 uh I don't know if William is familiar it's from Europe and is familiar with [22:21] what we have here but uh where you have the J1772 um plug we've got something called a Menikeys type 2 [22:30] and what that is is it's kind of like a three-phase version if you like so it can take up to 22 kilowatts [22:38] through that but only if the car supports three phase which is I think probably where if I was if I [22:46] worked at Jaguar I would definitely have put a three-phase charger in there because that would have [22:52] solved a lot of the problems it would have meant that you'd have that 22 kilowatt [22:56] backup charging at many more pumps across the whole of Europe but specifically in the UK [23:03] okay well so let's move on to other cars because this year and I just went to CES I don't know if [23:09] you've seen those videos where they've only unveiled tons of new cars and this year there's tons of cars [23:16] are coming like they will be in production and for sale within 12 months right so um there are a couple [23:22] of them already in Europe and I kind of wanted to uh get your take on it and I'm gonna start with a [23:26] question that Ben says uh is asking you are leaves considered goofy looking over there in Europe because [23:32] I hated the previous generation leave the way it looks and I love the way it looks uh now this is [23:38] funny I never minded the looks of the original leaf I I like it fine now I don't think it has quite as [23:45] much character as it did but I kind of quite liked that sort of waspy sharp look that it had at the [23:52] front it looked awful from the side it looked like a kind of frog or something from the side it didn't [23:58] like that at all but from you know sort of three quarters to head on I thought it looked a bit um [24:04] quite good it's funny you compare it to a frog because I I was actually doing a speech in front of [24:10] for the cvs uh links uh conference here in Silicon Valley and I was uh comparing the the first [24:17] generation uh to a frog and I was just saying that now it's been you know kissed by the prince and [24:23] turned into this uh relatively beautiful car but uh so it's funny that you had the same comparison um [24:29] all right so um fair enough about the the leaf uh what about the chevy bolt how um um how are what's the [24:39] reception there now I know it's opal uh um pair e at least until recently uh what are your thoughts [24:45] on that yeah I it's a bit of a sore point in Europe I think that one is because I actually think it's a [24:51] great car but the problem is that opal is no longer owned by gm and gm loses money on every one they [25:02] they sell at least as far as I'm aware and a reasonably large amount of money so they don't have the same [25:07] drive to sell them especially if they're selling them to another company with a different brand [25:14] so they can be hard to get hold of in the rest of Europe and in the UK because we're a right-hand [25:19] drive country they just don't sell them and never will which is maddening because they would be a [25:26] fantastic car I I had a bit of a ride in one when I was in uh San Francisco and I remember that that was [25:34] right after we talked on camera yeah absolutely and it was it was brilliant I really liked it it [25:40] seemed to you know tick all the boxes yeah I okay one box that doesn't check for me is is the look but [25:46] I understand in Europe this is more acceptable look because it's a smaller car there's less space it's a [25:50] hatchback so I understand that I'm not a fan of the look I still think it looks like a compliance car [25:55] but the range and I've also had a test drive a while back I think back in August and um I liked [26:01] everything but the look um okay now going back to the leaf actually for a second um you know there [26:07] was a story that just came out just the other day about uh the fact that uh if you fast charge it [26:14] then uh the second time and third time around because of the lack of active uh uh uh thermal [26:19] management system it it actually can't charge as fast um so I'm going to be the bigger fan once they [26:27] actually take care of that at the end of this year and come up with a 225 mile range where I [26:32] think that will help a lot actually yeah absolutely I I think you you've hit the nail on the head there [26:40] with the Nissan Leaf's Achilles heel it's always been with the exception of the original 24 kilowatt [26:45] hour Nissan Leaf it's always been the lack of active thermal management that's that's held that car back [26:51] because I the way I look at a car is you should be able to drive it and charge it and drive it and [26:58] charge it forever it should never get to the point where it overheats unless it breaks as far as I as [27:06] far as I think I absolutely agree and and it looks like they're going to fix it so what I'm realizing [27:11] about the Nissan Leaf right now is they put a new body on the old uh technology and they're going to [27:16] update it uh at the end of this year for 2019 so yeah yeah it is horses for courses you know if you [27:26] want a reasonably competent electric vehicle that's got a good chance of driving 150 miles and still [27:33] having a little bit left in the battery then the Nissan Leaf is going to be great the problem only comes if [27:39] you want to drive significantly more than 150 miles which would be difficult in the us because of [27:46] the lack of charges and I mean okay it wouldn't be that difficult round here which I mean I I [27:54] wouldn't get one for that reason unless it was going to be very much a sort of a local area car [27:59] which only I guess blows my mind even more why uh a Chevy Bolt hasn't really been pushed more in [28:05] Europe because I agree with you I think it's a perfect car uh for Europe the look the size the range [28:11] and the price really the core problem I think for the Bolt and the um Ampera E is that because GM [28:22] don't make money on them as in sort of automotive gross margin because people always say you know [28:28] Tesla doesn't make any money but at the same time the more Tesla Model S Model X and Model 3 they sell [28:35] the more money they have every car they sell contributes something to their fixed costs overheads [28:42] R&D all that sort of thing whereas with the Bolt it's the opposite every car they sell as I understand [28:49] it GM has less money so from their point of view they want to satisfy the demand they absolutely have [28:55] to satisfy get their you know compliance car zero emission credits and and that sort of thing and get [29:03] this sort of you know the recognition for having created a good electric vehicle but they don't [29:09] actually want to push them they don't want to sell a hundred thousand a year or half a million a year [29:14] because you know they'll go bust yeah well I mean to be honest with you I still think that's when that [29:20] when they say that that's kind of an excuse because there's just the cost of you know changing your [29:25] product and staying relevant and you know going electric is one of them so whatever the cost is right now [29:31] and they do have benefits of getting those ZEV credits or whatever the incentives is something [29:35] they have to build into their model you know Tesla has done it and there are other companies [29:41] Chevy and GMC they have enough money to do it so kind of a complaining that they lost you know a million [29:46] or two or ten million dollars on this to to move forward I still think it's kind of silly on their [29:52] part to be honest with you yeah absolutely and if they look at their supply chain and they find another [29:58] battery supplier or going to a joint venture with a battery supplier in order to help bring down the [30:03] cost something like that then you know that they will be able to overcome the core the core issue [30:10] there which is effectively exactly what Tesla did except because they not the size of GM from a cash flow [30:17] point of view they just weren't in a position to sell the car first and then fix the supply chain [30:23] they had to go down the supply chain routes which is why you've got the gigafactory before model 3 [30:30] came online because Tesla couldn't build them couldn't make them and make any money if they [30:36] if they did that sooner yes uh Ben in the chat room says I just subscribed to James Cook channel which [30:42] you should Ben for those of you guys who haven't please check out the description of this video there's [30:47] a link to James's channel he just posted a a cool uh video of his first hand experience with I-Pace and [30:53] I'm super jealous uh and by the way if you're enjoying this video in this channel please give [30:57] this video a thumbs up it usually helps the video do well afterwards and of course give thumbs up to [31:03] every video that James has done and by the way James I I gotta tell you uh you had one of the best [31:10] youtube titles I have ever seen because it's kind of in incorporated uh what Tesla and Elon Musk has [31:18] done yesterday just like I said I I was one of the speakers at this conference and I spent I think my [31:22] speech was like an hour and 10 minutes trying to uh uh uh uh talk about what Elon Musk and Tesla has [31:28] done to move everything forward and you've done it with one uh headline and you uh you said in that [31:34] headline that um basically here it is it says Tesla's greatest achievement the Jaguar I-Pace [31:40] I absolutely love that because you're really right Tesla has dragged the entire industry and many [31:46] industries around uh to create better cars uh which I-Pace is obviously even compared to the rest of [31:53] Jaguars I absolutely love that analogy I have stolen many times I'm sorry I think I'm I owe you a big [31:59] royalty check but that was pretty cool so uh talk more about you know uh other cars that are coming out we [32:05] got um we got um we got obviously Hyundai Kona EV uh uh Kia uh is has the new EV coming out this summer [32:13] Porsche Mission E um Jaguar Pace we already mentioned uh I think I'm missing so Nissan Leaf has already came [32:19] out I think I'm missing a few oh Audi e-tron uh uh right and I'm still missing one more but anyway [32:26] what is what is your opinion about all these cars coming out they're not ugly anymore they got a good range and [32:33] it's yeah I think you know actually very similarly to the I-Pace and to that title um that's still up [32:42] there it what Tesla right from the word go said that they were not going to be able to be the only [32:51] automaker that was making next generation vehicles they needed other automakers to step up and start [32:58] producing EVs that were good and fit what can what customers needed their cars to do and I think you [33:07] are starting to see the fruition of that come through with cars like the I-Pace and the Hyundai Kona as [33:16] well although it's a sort of different price segment you know and obviously the the e-tron the Mission E [33:22] and what's nice about it is I I certainly sensed from Jaguar that their commitment to what they were [33:28] doing was significant they wanted this car to work they I mean you you mentioned how sort of it's a bit [33:35] annoying that they sort of targeted Tesla a little bit and I think to some extent that's driven by the [33:42] fact that what Jaguar don't want and what EVs are very good at doing is taking customers away from their [33:49] natural brand most people who have a Jag have owned a couple of Jaguars or a couple of Land Rovers and [33:56] they're just updating and the problem for a company like Jaguar is that if they don't have an EV and [34:04] that customer gets any experience of an EV they'll wind up going and getting a Tesla and so they're sort [34:11] of their primary goal I think is to stem the flow of customers away from their brand and then hopefully [34:19] down the line they will actually start to try and pull other people in and I think the I-PACE is a [34:25] good enough vehicle that it can actually pull potential customers away from other Jaguar Land Rover you [34:32] know like Discoveries and Range Rovers and stuff it to me it seemed like a fantastic uh piece of [34:38] technology really want to get to drive one and people are in the chat room but feel free to answer [34:43] your questions that you've put in about your sweater let us all know if you love uh James's sweater [34:49] did you say it was your who made you the sweater I'm looking in the chat room I have no idea oh and [34:56] then someone's typing in on under your username here because I was like I didn't see James typing in [35:03] it says here James Cook says does anyone like my green sweater my mom made it for this show [35:10] and that's using your account right I don't know I can't I can't read the um I can't read the chats [35:19] it's too blocky huh well let's keep you might want to check your you might want to change your password [35:27] but anyway we'll we'll we'll figure it out love the sweater and I like Alex's shirts that's Stephen so we [35:32] get both get props for our fashion statement all right so let's um uh let's so somebody asked about [35:39] NIO okay so Will asked he said what about NIO and let's talk about the Chinese manufacturers [35:45] because China is really quietly ahead of everybody now I just did a show maybe a few weeks ago where [35:51] I asked people because I didn't know myself hey do you know who sold the most electric cars in the [35:56] world and the answer was I didn't even know how to pronounce this uh Biati is actually the right [36:01] way to pronounce it Biati sold the most electric and plug-in hybrids in the world and the second one [36:06] is bike both uh Chinese companies they have one of the best uh uh incentives so for manufacturers [36:11] one of the best incentives for people buying cars and so person asking about NIO um I love that [36:18] question because NIO also they're just about they're just coming out with their new SUV uh they have a [36:23] swappable battery technology they will have uh just like uh Renault Zoe they'll they'll let people [36:30] lease their battery and they're going to have mobile charging where you can have somebody come to your [36:34] workplace or home charge like a van or whatever charge your car and then leave what do you think [36:39] about NIO and Chinese green revolution if you will um I think it's I think it's great and I think [36:48] I mean I always sort of suspect a little bit that perhaps the Chinese government feels that [36:53] there are certain wider economic advantages to being ahead of the curve when it comes to things like [37:00] electric vehicles and uh you know they actually probably renewable energy as well they seem to [37:06] be trying to push forwards with that quite heavily I mean they're happy to dig coal out the ground and [37:10] sell it to everyone else but the advantage of something like an electric vehicle is it prevents [37:17] the cash in the country from flowing out to oil producers it keeps it it keeps it local so I do sort of [37:27] wonder to what extent they're they're interested in giving themselves more sort of energy independence [37:34] from that point to view yeah and listen I have to say that because of the way Chinese government [37:39] that said is set up and be the way their tariffs are set up and the manufacturing uh for joint ventures [37:46] and stuff like that I'm also a suspect as well and of course their regulations are different so the car [37:51] that they made for the Chinese market you know may not fly here in California or or or Europe uh but [37:57] nevertheless um I have to say that they are kind of pushing it and definitely leading the way but [38:03] also there's a lot of Chinese money uh invested in China in here I think Elon tweeted just the other [38:09] day how it's actually kind of quite unfair about tariffs but they're you know he said there are five [38:14] Chinese heavily invested companies here in the United States obviously fair to future lucid air uh neo [38:20] and and quite a few others byton for example right um so but we should probably keep our our eyes on [38:27] what's happening there otherwise we probably would be fools not to do that yeah absolutely I mean what [38:33] I would love to see is for them to design a fantastic significantly cheaper but still very long range uh electric [38:41] vehicle and then sell it in places like the United Kingdom in California and stuff like that whereas [38:47] so far they don't really seem to have done that yet yeah so all right man listen your perspective on [38:56] all of this is is is awesome and I love watching your videos also when you talk about stuff it's very [39:02] unique uh once again guys if you haven't uh seen James's channel well first of all shame on you but the [39:08] description of this video has the uh the link uh so please go ahead and subscribe to his channel check out some [39:15] of the videos um they are pretty cool and um so tell us uh tell us a little bit about what's kind of [39:23] coming up on your channel in the next you know a month or so where you see this whole thing going [39:28] uh in the in the in in this really for the rest of the year um I think you you're supposing I have some [39:36] kind of uh plan to what I shoot whereas uh it does seem to be a little bit more reactive than [39:42] that than I would like at the moment um but uh you know what I can say is there's going to be more of [39:49] the same I want to try and get out there and get myself and uh my wife Soph into as many EVs as [39:54] possible I'm still trying to actually get her away from her diesel Mercedes but uh it's uh oh no [40:03] yes please upside I didn't realize that yeah and she's had it for five years now so it's cheap [40:10] that's the problem but I'm hoping that she'll fall in love with an I-PACE yeah I yeah I'm I'm I am [40:17] falling in love with it uh a little by little as well um all right well by the way before we go let [40:21] me just thank my my patreons because they have been great and they're the ones who are supporting [40:25] the show of course I'm going to upload the video of this uh SV links uh conference that I was uh [40:30] speaking at yesterday I'm going to upload this video today and you guys can enjoy it in full length [40:35] uh description of this video has a link to that description of this video has the link to uh [40:39] james's channel um and also I want to I want to remind you guys that um tomorrow uh not tomorrow [40:46] next saturday as you know every saturday we do uh we do awesome interviews with awesome people like [40:51] uh james and next saturday I got roger uh atkins which is who's a uh ev blogger on linkedin out of [40:58] all places he has a huge following there and uh he uh also is a brand consultant so he also has a great [41:05] uh perspective and he's also from uh uh the uk so we're going to have uh once again two european [41:11] accents next time around uh as well um james thank you so much this has been uh uh just a fun for me [41:20] fun for my viewers I can see I can see everybody enjoyed it huh brilliant and fun for me too [41:28] absolutely um okay guys one more time if you haven't done this yet uh please go and check out [41:34] james's channel um after this the description of this video has that link um so james listen I um [41:40] I hope to have you on at some point again uh your your opinion to me is absolutely unique and and [41:47] valuable so please come on sometime in the future whenever you're here in the united states back again [41:52] uh I hope we can hang out and and do more videos together yeah definitely and likewise if you ever come [41:57] to the uk send me an email and uh it would be great to do a collab absolutely man thank you so much [42:04] man I really appreciate it guys uh this has been a pleasure having uh um james on the show uh check [42:12] out next saturday I'm gonna have roger atkins uh on the show I think you're gonna enjoy him as well [42:18] also very unique perspective he works with a lot of brands uh um so he is definitely has a lot of kind [42:25] of an insight knowledge inside information so um I'm gonna I'm gonna definitely enjoy that conversation [42:32] as well I think you will uh you will too um of course uh uh tomorrow we have a subscriber hangout [42:39] which is going to talk about uh what happened this week uh in the world of electric cars tesla and all [42:43] the drama that's been going on uh it's going to be fun we'll hang out I'll answer your questions [42:48] usually we go for two or three hours so it's usually fun please join me tomorrow at 11 a.m and on monday [42:53] back to regular 10 to 15 which lately has been kind of 20 minute uh shows of all electric car news [42:59] uh so uh once again thank you so much for joining me it's been it's been fun um I'm sorry if we didn't [43:06] answer uh all of your questions but I will try to answer them when you once you post it in the comment [43:11] section uh once this goes into replay thank you for watching I will see you next time and remember [43:17] to stay charged