Speaker 1: This is Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Messer and Bloomberg
Speaker 1: Quick Takes Tim Stinovic from Bloomberg Radio. But there's a
Speaker 1: lot going on in the world of evs, you know
Speaker 1: that if you listen and watch Bloomberg, especially as major
Speaker 1: automakers are ramping up their offerings, really looking to give
Speaker 1: Tesla some challenges. Just yesterday we heard about Mercedes Benz
Speaker 1: entering a new era with its flagship S class sedan
Speaker 1: going electric. Well, here with the roundup of the best
Speaker 1: electric vehicles, though with some caveats and metrics in mind,
Speaker 1: is Brian Moody, who's executive editor for Auto Trader. He's
Speaker 1: with us on the phone in Atlanta. Brian, how are you.
Speaker 1: I'm good. How are you? I'm doing well? Happy it's Friday,
Speaker 1: to say the least. Um, First of all, tell us
Speaker 1: about the metrics you used to evaluate the evs that
Speaker 1: are out there, because she did come up with kind
Speaker 1: of a top list of evs we did. So. One
Speaker 1: of the things that we included was the car had
Speaker 1: to have a plug and so we didn't include hybrids.
Speaker 1: But we didn't include plug in hybrids, so they're both
Speaker 1: elect trick only and plugged in Happer vehicles. We also
Speaker 1: put the price cap at seventy dollars and we wanted
Speaker 1: to only include cars that would be available within the
Speaker 1: next six months of the public so that it would
Speaker 1: need you know, it would be meaningful to someone who's
Speaker 1: going to buy an electric car. Alright, So notably absent
Speaker 1: is Tesla. Is it that dollar mark that knocks it
Speaker 1: out or what? No, because Tesla actually has a couple
Speaker 1: of cars well under price range. Last year. We do
Speaker 1: this list every year. Last year we had the Model
Speaker 1: three on our list, and it is a fun car
Speaker 1: to drive, but we also like the way it look.
Speaker 1: But one of the reasons we just included this year
Speaker 1: was because of increasing competition for one thing, and a
Speaker 1: lot of us didn't care for that main central screen
Speaker 1: that controls everything. A more traditional screen uh with also
Speaker 1: gauges where you expect them to be, we thought was
Speaker 1: safer and more in line with what people would expect
Speaker 1: from a car. Alright, So it was reviewed, but you
Speaker 1: just you guys just didn't really like it as much. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and it's a good car. I think if someone was
Speaker 1: looking for an inexpense the electric car, that's fun and
Speaker 1: that's your main criteria. I would say you should be
Speaker 1: looking at cars like the Hyundai Kona, the Ford Mustang
Speaker 1: mach E. And that's in addition to too many others
Speaker 1: that you know. We have a list of ten. You
Speaker 1: can include everything. Let's talk about them, and that's fair
Speaker 1: and what's interesting. When I was looking at your list,
Speaker 1: I'm like, Wow, there's a fair amount of e vs
Speaker 1: out there. So walk us through the list some of
Speaker 1: the standouts based on your analysis. Well, one standout that's
Speaker 1: really telling is the new Chevy Bolt EUV and what
Speaker 1: that is is it's more of a crossover suv type
Speaker 1: version of the Chevy Bolt we already know, So that
Speaker 1: tells you right there, Chevrolet knows something about making money
Speaker 1: and about making cars that people want. Crossover SUVs is
Speaker 1: where this is going. We also like the Twitter rap
Speaker 1: for Prime again same type of thing, the Volvo x
Speaker 1: C forty recharge and all electric small Volvo Suv. And
Speaker 1: then the Ford Mustang mock Eat, which is a Mustang
Speaker 1: in name, but it has more of a h sits
Speaker 1: high up off the ground and has more of a
Speaker 1: crossover suv type of feel. You see, you see a
Speaker 1: theme here. People like SUVs. Yeah, well, listen, right, I
Speaker 1: mean that's the one thing I guess when it comes
Speaker 1: to the e V market, right, do I mean, do
Speaker 1: makers manufacturers need they need to be thinking about really
Speaker 1: kind of the cars people want to be driving if
Speaker 1: they're you know, hoping to kind of juice those e
Speaker 1: V purchase numbers. Right, that's exactly right. Now. There are
Speaker 1: plenty that aren't SUV based. For example, the Nissan Leaf
Speaker 1: is an affordable one that we like, um, but when
Speaker 1: it comes to cars like say the Hyundai Ionic, those
Speaker 1: aren't SUVs. That's just a regular car. But there's also
Speaker 1: a good number of plug in hybrids. We to put
Speaker 1: a couple of those on the list too, because we
Speaker 1: feel like it bridges the gap between fully electric and
Speaker 1: some concerns people might have and fully gas that has
Speaker 1: its own set of concerns. And one of the best
Speaker 1: of those is the Lincoln Aviator's plug in hybrid that
Speaker 1: goes for electric only, then gas and electric combined to
Speaker 1: get great gas milege. Well, you know, what is it
Speaker 1: that people want right now? What's the consumer demand? Do
Speaker 1: they want the hybrids? Do they want completely electric vehicles?
Speaker 1: What are still their concerns? I do feel like the
Speaker 1: infrastructure still lagging when it comes to supportive the electrical
Speaker 1: vehicle market, right, I don't think that the confidence is there.
Speaker 1: So what people want our trucks and SUVs, and when
Speaker 1: you can give them an electric version of that, and
Speaker 1: this is the important part, convince them that they will
Speaker 1: never be without a way to refuel or recharge, that's
Speaker 1: when it's going to, you know, really make a difference.
Speaker 1: There's a lot of electric trucks coming, but they're just
Speaker 1: not here right now. Well, do you feel like with
Speaker 1: the President's infrastructure plan, and certainly there's allocation for things
Speaker 1: like this in building out the infrastructure for electric vehicles,
Speaker 1: we're going to need to have some kind of program
Speaker 1: like that in order for evs to really take off
Speaker 1: in this country. Probably. Yes, Um. But here's the one
Speaker 1: thing that concerns me is that if it was you know,
Speaker 1: the way the market works, the way the economy works,
Speaker 1: is that it's it's market driven, it's demand driven. Competition
Speaker 1: makes great things. Why don't we see gas stations ramping
Speaker 1: up their electric charging stations to make stacks of money?
Speaker 1: I don't know the answer, but the fact that it's
Speaker 1: not happening makes me think that there's something that we
Speaker 1: are we aren't really aware of at this point. That
Speaker 1: cars are good and they can be charged up at home,
Speaker 1: but that's not enough for some people. Well against stations
Speaker 1: in the US, are they franchises or they're owned by
Speaker 1: the big you know, integrated oil companies who are kind
Speaker 1: of working their book there now, right, and many are
Speaker 1: many are franchises, so they would they're probably making more
Speaker 1: money on selling coffee and twinkies than they are selling gas. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's interesting. Hey, when you look ahead to this year,
Speaker 1: I do feel like, all of a sudden, there is
Speaker 1: a lot of momentum. Whether it's Folkswagen, whether it's Mercedes,
Speaker 1: whether it's you know, pick your well known auto manufacturer.
Speaker 1: It does feel like, all of a sudden, everybody's all
Speaker 1: in on E V S. Yeah, and I'll tell you
Speaker 1: something that you just mentioned that I find very encouraging.
Speaker 1: The Volkswagen I D for that you just mentioned is
Speaker 1: a very compiling car, no matter how it's powered. So
Speaker 1: it is an all electric car, that's the only way
Speaker 1: it comes. But it's good looking, it's fun to drive,
Speaker 1: the interior is great. The part that it's electric. I
Speaker 1: don't know that younger drivers are going to care that
Speaker 1: much as they get older. They just want something cool.
Speaker 1: That new Volkswagon is just cool, no matter what interesting.
Speaker 1: I know my daughter likes Volkswagons and checking that out. Hey, Brian,
Speaker 1: thank you so much. Have a really wonderful weekend. Brian Moody,
Speaker 1: he's executive editor at Auto Trader, jutting us on the
Speaker 1: phone from Atlanta talking about their list of the best
Speaker 1: electric vehicles one. I can also find it if you
Speaker 1: go online and check them out on Twitter at Auto Trader, Underscore, Calm,