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Speaker 1: And let's talk about electric vehicles though now and a

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Speaker 1: study by Compare the Market, a study of twelve insurers

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Speaker 1: has found electric cars fifty percent, so half as much

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Speaker 1: dearer to ensure than petrol powered equivalents. So if you

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Speaker 1: ever wanted an incentive not to buy or a reason

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Speaker 1: not to buy an ev let alone, it's cost at

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Speaker 1: the moment being far more in most cases than a

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Speaker 1: similarly conventionally powered car. Well, here's another reason for you.

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Speaker 1: It'll cost you twice. It's so, if it costs you

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Speaker 1: a grand to ensure a brand new car, it will

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Speaker 1: cost you fifteen hundred to ensure an ev that's brand new.

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Speaker 1: That is a good reason not to buy if you're

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Speaker 1: looking to save money anyway. Trent Nikolick is with Drive

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Speaker 1: dot com dot AU Managing editor. Trent.

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Speaker 2: Good morning, morning, Matthew, Good morning everyone.

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Speaker 1: That's an interesting result this study. Were you surprised to

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Speaker 1: see that?

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Speaker 2: Yeah? Isn't it? No, not really, Matthew. Unfortunately, we run

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Speaker 2: a thought that your listeners can have a look at

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Speaker 2: on drive dot com dot are you a couple of

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Speaker 2: days ago, just on insurance in general, we already pay

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Speaker 2: way too much in Australia, Obviously every state is different,

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Speaker 2: So your listeners in South Australia where you are compared

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Speaker 2: to us up here in New South Wales where I am,

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Speaker 2: are already different anyway, but we already pay way too much.

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Speaker 2: The average is paying, believe it or not, nearly seventeen

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Speaker 2: hundred dollars a year to ensure their vehicle. Now that

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Speaker 2: takes into account all of the really expensive stuff as well,

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Speaker 2: But it doesn't surprise me with electric vehicles because they

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Speaker 2: are you know, I guess kilogram for kilogram. They're more

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Speaker 2: expensive to buy. They've got some really expensive componentry, but

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Speaker 2: if it is damaged in the event of an accident,

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Speaker 2: it's pretty difficult to repair. And I think insurance companies

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Speaker 2: are just covering themselves for the fact that they seem

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Speaker 2: to be more expensive to fit.

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Speaker 1: Okay, so all right, they're just asking for more premiums

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Speaker 1: as a result. I read the case Trent some months ago. Now,

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Speaker 1: HI wouldn't die ionic in Canada. It was where it

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Speaker 1: was brand new, you know, a year old or whatever.

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Speaker 1: The battery had suffered some relatively minor damage to a

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Speaker 1: quarter of the like the front quarter, so obviously must

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Speaker 1: have hit a rock or something. Who knows underneath damaged

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Speaker 1: the battery minor, but to the point where the whole

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Speaker 1: car had to be written off because it was it

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Speaker 1: was cheaper to buy to replace that car for the

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Speaker 1: insurance company than to repair it. So this is a

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Speaker 1: car that's a year old being written off. Now, if

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Speaker 1: that's happening across the board with evs, no wonder the

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Speaker 1: premiums are so high.

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Speaker 2: Well, this is the issue, Matthew, absolutely that that is

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Speaker 2: that's the nub of the issue right there. You know,

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Speaker 2: if you're driving around in a regular petrol or diesel

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Speaker 2: car and heaven forbid, your engine blows up and it's

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Speaker 2: out of warranty, the actual cost of repairing the engine

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Speaker 2: is nowhere near you know, fifty sixty seventy percent of

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Speaker 2: the value of the car. But if you're driving around

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Speaker 2: an EV that's a couple of years old and the

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Speaker 2: battery pack takes a h that damages it beyond repair,

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Speaker 2: the cost of replacing that battery pack is astronomical if

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Speaker 2: they can even do it in such a way that

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Speaker 2: the car is repairable. Because that's the other problem as well.

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Speaker 2: What you're see in some of the research is that

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Speaker 2: if the battery pack is badly damaged enough they can't

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Speaker 2: actually repair the car in order to replace the battery pack.

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Speaker 2: So I think one of the issues we've got with

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Speaker 2: electric vehicles, and it's why we've always been critical at

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Speaker 2: drive of governments and lobby groups and whoever else it

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Speaker 2: is forcing people to buy them or trying to force

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Speaker 2: people to buy them, is the fact that it's that

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Speaker 2: old one where we've seem to have put the cart

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Speaker 2: before the horse, because we've put the product out in

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Speaker 2: the market without really the infrastructure out there to charge it,

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Speaker 2: without really the understanding of how much they cost to fix,

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Speaker 2: and really without access to spare paths. If you speak

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Speaker 2: to an electric vehicle manufacturer around the world, one of

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Speaker 2: the biggest issues they've got is reliable supply of the

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Speaker 2: battery packs to build the car. So if you're struggling

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Speaker 2: at that level already and you're really having issues getting

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Speaker 2: enough product to build the car, what happens if the

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Speaker 2: car gets damaged? I mean a small repairer in country

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Speaker 2: South Australia, how are they going to get a hand

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Speaker 2: on a battery pack? For arguments A are they even

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Speaker 2: set up to fix the car? This is the other

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Speaker 2: thing as well, So I think, you know, part of

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Speaker 2: it is obvious. We've got one hundred years of automotive

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Speaker 2: technology on the road that we understand how it works

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Speaker 2: with petrol and diesel and to a lesser extent, hybrid,

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Speaker 2: but electric cars in so many ways are completely different

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Speaker 2: to everything else on the road. And I just think

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Speaker 2: you know, your listeners with sitting there nodding away, going yeah,

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Speaker 2: well of course. But I just think it's another one

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Speaker 2: of those examples where government hasn't really thought about the

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Speaker 2: consequences of the decision before the decisions.

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Speaker 1: Maybe yeah, well, this is it. We're almost being selda.

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Speaker 1: I don't know what the right phrase is, but selda

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Speaker 1: promise that you know is something of the future, but

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Speaker 1: it doesn't meet up to what we're being told it is.

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Speaker 2: That makes sense, That's exactly right. It adds to part

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Speaker 2: of the issue that we have spoken about. I mean,

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Speaker 2: I've spoken about it on your radio station before, Matthew

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Speaker 2: to your listeners. As part of the issue that we've

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Speaker 2: said that electric vehicles work well for some people some

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Speaker 2: of the time in some situations, they're not a solution

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Speaker 2: to all of the motoring issues that we have at

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Speaker 2: the moment. Nor if someone was going out to buy

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Speaker 2: one new car to do a job, would you recommend

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Speaker 2: that they go and buy an electric vehicle because there

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Speaker 2: were limitations to what they can do, and adding limitations

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Speaker 2: to the expense of ensuring them and the difficulty of

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Speaker 2: fixing them just adds to the other limitations that are

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Speaker 2: already there.

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Speaker 1: And you know what, maybe Australia is one of those

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Speaker 1: countries where they work even less for some of the

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Speaker 1: people some of the time.

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Speaker 2: Well, absolutely right, I mean last year and if people

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Speaker 2: want to have a look at the trials and tribulations,

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Speaker 2: they can watch it. We did. We did an eight

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Speaker 2: part series where we drove an electric vehicle at Kia

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Speaker 2: EV nine around Australia. And you know, South Australia is

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Speaker 2: a particularly good example of a fast charging network smartly

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Speaker 2: positioned around the state. That means you can road trip

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Speaker 2: around South Australia in an electric vehicle. But I can

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Speaker 2: tell you large other parts of the state of the

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Speaker 2: country sorry, are not set up for it. And I

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Speaker 2: can also tell you that unless you're going on that

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Speaker 2: predetermined route, it's a lot harder to charge an EV

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Speaker 2: in remote areas and it's really easy I think for

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Speaker 2: politicians who are largely city focused, as we know, to

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Speaker 2: just overlook the fact that there are going to be

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Speaker 2: people who own electric vehicles in rural areas, remote areas,

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Speaker 2: they might be anywhere on the continent, and they need

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Speaker 2: to be able to use them in a way that's

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Speaker 2: safe and affordable, I think is the issue.

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Speaker 1: Yeah. Absolutely, Are they going to take off ultimately? I mean, yes,

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Speaker 1: we've seen strong sales. The sales have taped off a bit,

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Speaker 1: haven't they.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, So I think that's because the early adopters have

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Speaker 2: got them, and then the second phase of the sales

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Speaker 2: requires everybody else to get on board, and I think

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Speaker 2: a lot of people, not just in Australia but around

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Speaker 2: the world are a little bit reticent to do that.

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Speaker 2: Will they work long term? Look, probably they will because

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Speaker 2: they're being forced upon us. I mean, honestly, if you

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Speaker 2: get a genuine response out of a manufacturer, they'll tell

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Speaker 2: you that the reason they're building electric vehicles is because

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Speaker 2: they have to. They're being dictated to to do with

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Speaker 2: emissions and targets and numbers and all all that sort

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Speaker 2: of stuff that governments have placed on them in the

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Speaker 2: various markets where they're building the cars. So they're being

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Speaker 2: forced honest by way of forcing manufacturers to build them

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Speaker 2: and then forcing people to buy them because that's what's

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Speaker 2: being built. Do they work for most people in Australia

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Speaker 2: know they still don't at the moment. They work for

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Speaker 2: people who live in the city and can charge their

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Speaker 2: electric vehicle at home, and I think that's a fair

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Speaker 2: point to make. There'll be listeners now who've got an

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Speaker 2: ev in Adelaide and they charge it in their garage

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Speaker 2: or their driveway at home and it works fantastically. But

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Speaker 2: you know, if you've got to drive into more remote areas,

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Speaker 2: they don't work. I think trying to tell people that

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Speaker 2: they do work or they do work easily is not

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Speaker 2: being honest because there's a fair bit of messing around

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Speaker 2: that you have to worry about when you're head out

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Speaker 2: of the city with an electric vehicle. And we've done it,

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Speaker 2: we've done it often, and we've done it in all

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Speaker 2: of the states basically around in Australia now, so I think, yeah,

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Speaker 2: there's still a long way to go. And it's why

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Speaker 2: we've always said if we can find an alternative fuel source,

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Speaker 2: if we can find an affordable way to make a

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Speaker 2: bio fuel that is environmentally friendly that we can use

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Speaker 2: to fuel all the cars that are currently on the road.

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Speaker 2: That's going to make a massive difference to the environment,

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Speaker 2: as opposed to eight percent of new vehicle sales being electric.

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Speaker 1: Some companies are walking away, though, aren't They haven't There

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Speaker 1: been some that have made a commitment to EV saying

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Speaker 1: actually we're going to just making solely the saying well,

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Speaker 1: we're going to drop that policy and make some of each.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, absolutely, Matthew, they have. They're backpedaling it and alarming, right,

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Speaker 2: And the reason they're doing it is because they're not

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Speaker 2: selling them. So they've got car yards full around the

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Speaker 2: world with electric vehicles that they can't sell. And as

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Speaker 2: I said, you'll hear nonsense argument from politicians and lobby

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Speaker 2: groups how Australia is a backwater in a third world

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Speaker 2: country and we're looking at it the wrong way and

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Speaker 2: we don't get it and we're stupid and we should

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Speaker 2: be considering evs. Well, they should go to every other

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Speaker 2: market around the world. You've got manufacturers in Europe, all

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Speaker 2: the major countries in Europe, in the United States, the

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Speaker 2: Japanese manufacturers all doing the same thing because in their

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Speaker 2: own home markets, people just aren't buying them in big

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Speaker 2: enough numbers for them to justify going either fully electric

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Speaker 2: or close to fully electric.

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Speaker 1: See all right, so we've been sold a pup.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, I'd have to agree with you on that one.

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Speaker 1: Good on you, Trent, appreciate your time.

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Speaker 2: Thank you, Matthew Trent Nikolic.

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Speaker 1: They're from drive dot com dot au on evs. Initially

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Speaker 1: we started talking about EV's being half as much to

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Speaker 1: ensure as your conventional car. And look, I think we

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Speaker 1: get it, don't we. Some people love them and have

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Speaker 1: them and swear by them. And I've had calls from

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Speaker 1: people like that here on five double A works fine,

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Speaker 1: and it probably does, as Trent says, it'll work brilliantly

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Speaker 1: for some people some of the time and not everyone

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Speaker 1: all of the time. And you know, for the people

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Speaker 1: that use it around the city will win win. If

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Speaker 1: you can charge it up, drive around day or two,

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Speaker 1: charge it up again at home or a fast charger

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Speaker 1: near your work, or whatever the case may be, Well,

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Speaker 1: good for you. I don't know. I'm in the market

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Speaker 1: for a new car increasingly seventeen year old now the

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Speaker 1: maybe eighteen year old two thousand and seven. What does

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Speaker 1: that make it? Yeah, seventeen this year and does need

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Speaker 1: a change. Goes okay, but yeah, I can see it.

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Speaker 1: Two hundred and seventy odd thousand k's in done all

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Speaker 1: right for a four cylinder car, but needs replacing. I

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Speaker 1: can't see it being an EV. I thought about it

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Speaker 1: for a while a couple of years back, when they

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Speaker 1: were all the rage and people were buying them. They

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Speaker 1: kind of look okay and be interesting to see how

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Speaker 1: it works. But I don't think so. And not for

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Speaker 1: double the insurance or half as much. No, thank you,