Transcript
The following transcript is autogenerated so may contain errors.
Matt Nally
On this week’s episode, we have Sarah and Shane from Select car leasing. So thank you for both coming on. Thank you. Hi, Sarah, you want to introduce yourself first and what your role is?
Sarah Worthington
Yeah, thank you, Matt. So my name is Sarah Worthington. My role at select car leasing as the corporate sales manager. So I head up our fleet division within select. So dealing with corporates, SMEs, fleet customers, who are looking for support on fleet management fleet solutions for their fleets. And what comes into that as well is Employee Benefit schemes as well. So salary sacrifice schemes, and also affinity schemes as well for wider employee benefits.
Matt Nally
Awesome. That’ll be interesting to hear a bit more about later. And yeah, Shane, what’s your role?
Shane Pither
Yeah. Hi, I’m Shane Pither. I’m head of automotive innovation. It’s like car leasing. Been here about 10 years, I guess, now, pretty much responsible for education in the business. And effectively the the expert for both partners, and various customer journeys within the business.
Matt Nally
Awesome. So I think today’s gonna be quite an interesting episode for me as well, because I’ve got I probably my misconceptions around electric vehicles, and leasing and all that type of stuff and realities versus myths. So we’ll go through all that type of stuff. But I suppose to start with the main topic for part one is going to be what are the realities of electric cars in sort of 2020? So I suppose as a starting point, do we go with how what’s the best way to navigate getting an electric car?
Shane Pither
Yeah, it’s quite, it’s quite an open, open question, Matt, it’s a good question as well to ask, and a few years back, I’d probably say it’s a bit more complicated than it is now. In reality, there’s actually probably more choice than there’s ever been, it’s only starting to get better. There’s more and more cars being released, pretty much in updates going on pretty much on a weekly basis. So I don’t think there’s ever been a better time to navigate into an Eevee. And whether you’re buying or leasing, and there’s plenty of stock out there. So I think there’s a lot more choice. It’s not as bleak as it used to be, it’s going to get a whole lot better. And
Matt Nally
is it I suppose it’s more choices that make it more complicated to know where to start? Or does that help?
Shane Pither
Again, it’s a great question, actually. Because I guess if you’re new to it, there is a level of confusion. It’s different type of technology. And this is where we come in as experts, you know, customers picking up the phone to us and maybe not used to it. And again, part of my role within the business here is to help with that navigation there as well. So we try and make that as slick a process as possible. And it is really trying to understand what the customer is expecting. And educating them to what what is actually true, because there’s a lot of, as you say, a lot of misconceptions and a lot of myths out there that are not quite quite true anymore. So we you know, this is where we’re best placed, I think to advise my opinion,
Matt Nally
is an interesting one. So I suppose if you’re, let’s say looking for car at the moment, or, or switching to something else, maybe it’s because of age and have another lease whatever it might be. Where do you advise starting the process in terms of whether you decide to go with a normal combustion engine or Titan type car or whether you go down the electric route?
Shane Pither
I think from a consumer point of view, you need to be really, really honest with yourself in how many miles you actually do it doing. Because ultimately, if you’re inquiring about an Eevee, there was a need or a want to go that way. Whether it’s because of what you’re seeing is happening in the media, whether you have green credentials or want to be better for the planet and environment. The biggest thing that comes up is there’s range anxiety. So I think if you’re realistic to your expectations, and what you’re actually doing, not that I need to have five miles because that’s what I’ve got in my combustion engine, you’re realistically what are you doing? That it’s normally 20 miles a day is most realistic for a lot of people. Maybe there’s some longer journeys in between. And that’s where your public charging comes into itself. And if you think that with the cars out there, on average these cars are doing in excess of 200 miles, that’s more than enough for most people to make that that transition over. So I think the key thing is to be realistic with what you’re doing is in mileage,
Matt Nally
I suppose I think the minus part is an interesting, an interesting one for the surveying industry because surveyors typically do a lot of driving in the day. Once he wants to get to a job. They’re not they’re looking around a property but if they’re out and about they’re going to different appointments. Sometimes there’ll be one sometimes it’ll be multiple. Yeah. But they could all be fairly local, some might be further afield. How difficult is it? In reality with with charging, is it quite easy these days to find different ports or are they all quite different in terms of which ones you can to use. Yeah, how complex? Is it really?
Shane Pither
Exactly. And these are great questions, Matt, that you’re asking here, because it’s this, this is the level of confusion you get when people start looking at this. Just big fear. It’s not like a combustion engine where you can go and you can find a petrol station know where to look for it. The reality is, there is a lot more than you think I think the latest data that was published by that map, for example, was there more connectors than there are petrol pumps in the UK, so that’s great. They’re just not in your normal conventional locations. Regards to the charging, somebody who’s on the road will be using public charging, rapid charges out there. And these things typically do 10 to 18% 20 3040 minutes, depending on you know, where you read this, and what the conditions of the car and the temperature is outside alike. So you’ve been realistic. That’s probably a stop off for most people who just pulled into a service station, for example, about a comfort break, grab a quick cup of coffee, and they’re back on their way. The way of planning that is, unlike a combustion engine, whereby you’re wanting to fit it to maximum, you just top it up just enough to get you home. The key to do this is that you charge it when it’s more convenient yourself and actually using when you sleep, I would like to refer this back to your your simple mobile phone. You charge these when you sleep or when you’re at home doing other things, it’s the same thing, you wouldn’t stand and wait for the charge up, you charge it overnight, wake up with a full charge in the morning. Pretty much what you do with an Eevee. With home charging, if you run out a charge on that phone during the daytime, you would actually charge it up, you find a charger somewhere you charge just enough to make the rest of the calls for the rest of the day, go home and charge it. Same with the public charge and charge it just enough to get you back home. Plug it in overnight wake up in the morning with a full charge. So you’ve got less downtime there. And it’s normally just to come for a break and off you go again. Yeah,
Matt Nally
fair enough. Okay. I suppose the the only other question that in my mind that comes after that is if you are over optimistic with your your range on one day, like we’ve seen people run out of petrol before. Is it really complicated at that point to deal with? I suppose the obvious one is you get towed to a charging point and, and you top up, whereas an electric petrol vehicle, you might just try and get someone to run you down to a petrol station checking the five metres and off you go. But it’s still quite simple to deal with at that point, or as you can does. Does it happen that often?
Shane Pither
I think what you’ve discussed there is a genuine fear. Somebody has not had an Eevee before. And that comes up as another question that comes up quite readily as well. You’re right. It’s not like a normal combustion engine. If it runs out of fuel. You can’t just run down the road and get jerrycan doesn’t work that way. In reality, people with EVs are a lot more planned. And by that, I mean, you’ve seen it many times before. I’m sure there’s someone with a petrol engine has got a petrol gauge on there. But yeah, they’re still broken down. They’ve run out of fuel if they’ve misjudged it, or they’ve missed fuel or whatever. With an Eevee. I think the stats that came back with the rst or the breakdown recoveries or the AAA, was most of these breakdowns that do happen if they happen in evey tend to happen at charge points whereby they’re not operating, they’ve already planned that journey. And that’s only set to get better. Because John, public charging is getting better all the time. Yeah, that was a few years back. So I think in reality, it’s not something generally happens. You’ve also got a bit of leeway on these cars as well. They go into what they call a turtle mode right towards the end. And it’s always a little bit more than like, you’re taking your car to get you there because they’re expecting this to happen. Yeah, but in reality, you hear very few cases of it.
Matt Nally
Yeah, and I can’t say I’ve seen a electric car stuck at the end of the road before. In question. Yeah.
Shane Pither
But it’s a good question.
Matt Nally
There other misconceptions, as you see around the, I suppose the balances are driving that we’ll come on to other ones around sort of, you know, whether they’re environmental or not, and those types of sort of misconceptions. But there are other ones other fears, you see people raising around that.
Shane Pither
I think it was like anything, anytime a new technology is just it’s just understanding it slightly differently, isn’t it? I mean, one of the things we’re saying just now about is when you charge it’s not like judge are fully the other bits and pieces where, I guess is people’s expectation levels to avoid disappointment. You hear about ranges that are quoted that maybe people don’t get is no different to an MPG from a car manufacturer currently, yeah. But because it’s an Eevee people hang on to that. And it’s a difficult one. So as long as people are realistic with this, the fact that these are on rolling mode figures and that there’s certain things that can affect that outside of that control. And that could be temperatures outside what was really functions got you got on whether you’ve done a lot on motorway rather than town driving so you’re not getting so much regenerative braking back. Yeah, I guess if you’re more realistic about that you understand that you can make and plan those journeys effectively. And a great way of doing that is one of our with one of our other partners on zap map where you can have a look at that platform. You can pre plan that you can stand where you might need to stop making that whole process a lot smoother.
Matt Nally
As Derek said, just deploy because I chuckled slightly to hackers. I was thinking about the mpg on a car and it’s to say, I’ve done this before I want I want the mpg. But I also want to have a bit of fun to go down the motorway. Yeah, exactly. I suppose then the other aspects that come up a lot. I suppose the argument around this is different publications will come out because different people are backing them. And they’ve all got different motives, whether they, you know, the producers or whether they’re the oil and gas companies, but you hear mixed information around how green cars are, obviously, there’s a complex aspects around where does the energy come from? Is it coal powered? Is it renewable, that type of stuff? That’s more of a running cost, perhaps, or running factor? But yeah, how? How environmentally friendly are they versus in terms of like total life, I guess, versus a
Shane Pither
petrol. It’s an interesting when it comes up time and time again, because obviously, everything’s got a cost to the environment to make it in other words, carbon footprint, but we’re hearing more and more about this as we’re moving to net to net zero in the UK and other other other places throughout Europe. So it’s, it’s an interesting one. Generally speaking, EVs are less of a footprint than a combustion engine. And that was been publicised on MIT, Massachusetts Institute of Technology recently, where you can actually see this. I think that that’s one aspect of it, which is fat. The other aspect of it that I think people will forget quite a bit is that these things don’t have these EVs don’t have a tailpipe. So there was less emissions affecting the environment and people’s health via air. So this was $1.02 sides to this argument really about moving to Eevee. Yes, there was an impact in the environment. It was with anything you make, but it’s a lot less than combustion engines, the bonuses, you’re also getting less impact on the environment, by the emissions. So I still think it’s a good thing to be happening.
Matt Nally
Perfect. And I’ve got, I think, two other questions around this. And Myths and Truths. If you don’t mind one is. So are they dangerous? I suppose one of the things you keep seeing in the news, and this has nothing to do electric cars, but you see the same thing in that house has gone up in flames because of an electric bike, you know, tend to be the smaller mass produced stuff. Is that risk? Is that risk there? Whether it rents hazard going light, or, I don’t know, short circuiting or something like that, or are they built very differently to something like an electric bike?
Shane Pither
Yeah, you’ve seen things on the news? I’m sure. It’s because it’s an Eevee tends to get highlighted. And enforced. Unfortunately, the first thing you hear is an EVP there’s got to be a Tesla. It’s not always the case right away. It’s just a very well known brand. So I feel sorry for him and a little way away. But you heard about it has recently loosened I’m sure you saw that in the carpark with that car called five we went it’s got to be an Eevee wasn’t an Eevee was combustion engineers? And but yeah, when this happens, we combustion engines, you hear very little of it. But generally speaking, these these EVs are constructed very well. Yeah, they’re housed in there, you know that. Other misconceptions, you think that you know, electrocute yourself and you go for a stream or something? A bit of water? That’s not the case that well housed inside there to protect you. So I think whilst it does happen, it does. It’s probably not as much as you think it does. And certainly no more than combustion engines, I would say. Yeah.
Matt Nally
And that’s, I suppose an important comparison to make because it’s relative to relative to a combustion engine, they’re not perfect, either. You know, there will be an element of both both doing the same thing. But my last question, I think, is around batteries. And there’s, I think two parts on this one, one is the question around, can there be recycled? Because you hear sort of people saying they can, they can’t? And then the other one is, does it affect the value of the car as in like, if you take a petrol car, for example, I appreciate I’m asking you two questions and one go here. But if you take a petrol, you know, it could last 20 to 25 years. And in terms of, you know, before the engine gives up, and it’s found to go wrong, whatever it might be, with an Eevee did. Did the batteries last that long? Or they’re big costs of potentially replacing them do we know yet? That’s like, that’s my final sort of myth and missing kind of element.
Shane Pither
And again, because we can relate this to a mobile phone, and we know those lose charge over time, we’ve all seen this happen. Right? Some of that might be software related. You’ve probably heard in the news as well. Some of it could be hardware related. I won’t go any further into that. But ultimately, you know, I guess, a few years back, manufacturers may start making these cars went to shore, they had a lot of alerts were not alerts but a lot of advice not to rapid charge too often to 100% and it wasn’t good for the battery. So happens it’s it surprised the match They’ve come back and under lost to chance on these matches or less than they thought it was going to be, where you’re starting to see manufacturers giving you eight year warranties on their batteries. This is this is a good sign or what they’re doing design. And you also seen second, third, fourth, or even fifth along with some new batteries. And by that I mean that used car market potentially as a secondary car, it’s more than enough mileage to get you to and from as a second vehicle is local driving the construction of these vehicles recycling the use of some of the battery power left over to make it environmentally friendly to break that down that product down again, it’s good for the environment, so many other aspects. And you’re also seeing them in battery storage, you know, solar and battery, which is a good point to take on as well. So putting strap to people’s walls, because it’s still going to be holding enough charge to get to do that job. Yeah, so I think there’s a lot more life to this, not just in the car, but outside that, as they say the second, third, fourth and fifth lightest.
Matt Nally
Actually, I imagine they get to a point where they they can work out ways of switching batteries over. It’s 12 years old, it needs a different battery pack that I’ve come up with something I would have thought by then anyway. But yeah,
Shane Pither
we’re starting to see it with Neo that’s coming in from Europe where they’ve got battery dropouts, they’ve started doing it in various parts of Europe, where you drive in battery comes out and supports back in again, it’s another solution to that problem. It’s great in some areas, not others probably wouldn’t work so well in London when you’re trying to get across to the traffic. But it’s a good you know, all these sort of things help with this solution to what’s going on with the drive to going full electric in the UK in the world.
Matt Nally
Perfect. And then my final question then on this topic. It’s just Yeah, and that recycling part, they hit misconceptions around the fact that they can’t and they get dumped somewhere is that reality, or actually we’re getting quite good at recycling batteries and repurposing and reusing,
Shane Pither
probably not having as much as it it was thought to be happening, as I said previously in the fact that because he’s got second and third life, and they’ve they’re lasting longer than they expected initially. But more importantly, they have a responsibility that whoever produces these batches and manufactures taken his own, by the way, with government mandate to recycle these, they’ve got a level of responsibility has been put back onto them. So you’re starting to see manufacturers partnering up with recycling companies ready for this if it needs to happen. So they have an obligation. So yes, the answer these will be recycled, they have to recycle.
Matt Nally
So it’s really interesting to hear that because the the discussion I’ve had a few times around other aspects of the economy or the fact that we don’t take into account environmental carbon factors in production and the end of the lifecycle, single life plastics and, and stuff like that it’s not built into the price of being dealt with. So counsellors have to handle that that problem when stuff gets thrown out, and so on. So, that’s really interesting to hear that’s been built