Speaker 1: Okay, so hang on before we begin, I'm going to
Speaker 1: make sure I'm getting the title right. And managing director
Speaker 1: and executive chairman of EV Direct Luke Todd's in the house.
Speaker 2: If you want to simplify it, just go executive chairman.
Speaker 1: She looks good on the LinkedIn account. It looks good,
Speaker 1: it looks real good.
Speaker 2: We've got so many different companies and different structures that
Speaker 2: it's hard to get one title.
Speaker 1: Well, I wanted you to talk to me like I'm
Speaker 1: five years old, because Paul is the brains behind there,
Speaker 1: and we're still waiting for him to show up. I
Speaker 1: don't think he's going.
Speaker 3: To show up.
Speaker 1: That's how professional he treats this thing. But I wanted
Speaker 1: to get I guess, a bit of insight to what
Speaker 1: you guys do, and then we'll sort of climb from
Speaker 1: there because you guys are effectively the distributor of BYD. Right.
Speaker 2: Yeah, So the story behind how BYD cars came to
Speaker 2: Australia was us being heavily involved. So I've been involved
Speaker 2: with BID for more than ten years. The electric buses
Speaker 2: that you see floating around Sydney, CBD and other places
Speaker 2: was a project myself and BID worked on originally more
Speaker 2: than ten years ago, and then we morphed into electric
Speaker 2: vehicles passenger vehicles, and what started the relationship and bringing
Speaker 2: right hand drive cars to the country was an investment
Speaker 2: that our company made into BYD to convince them that
Speaker 2: the right hand drive market was a viable market. Because
Speaker 2: more than ninety percent of cars around the world a
Speaker 2: left hand drive, so BYD sort of evolving into the
Speaker 2: behemoth that they are now, they wanted to focus on
Speaker 2: the left hand drive market, but we had a strong relationship,
Speaker 2: so we convinced them, hey, let's look at the right
Speaker 2: hand drive market as well. We contributed quite a lot
Speaker 2: of money and that's why we became the exclusive distributor
Speaker 2: for BYD because it was a partnership and that's how
Speaker 2: we built the first right hand drive cars with BYD,
Speaker 2: which is something I'm really proud of to be able
Speaker 2: to work with the company that's so large and so
Speaker 2: now becoming so dominant in the automotive industry, to be
Speaker 2: there in the early days and convince them that right
Speaker 2: hand drive cars were viable. And now we've seen huge
Speaker 2: sales in Australia, Thailand, telling a huge amount of electric
Speaker 2: vehicles and the right hand drive market is really taking
Speaker 2: off for BYD, so that's how it all started.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's an incredible one, and it's one of the
Speaker 1: reasons why I think I really wanted to get you
Speaker 1: in because BYD when they launched here, it's a company
Speaker 1: that could have gone two ways. And I mean this
Speaker 1: in all respect, because it feels like it could have
Speaker 1: been yet another Chinese brand that is new and scary
Speaker 1: to people, and people don't really understand it. To me,
Speaker 1: it feels like a car company that has automatically come
Speaker 1: in the market and deserves to have a place next
Speaker 1: to the likes of Masda Toyota, like established car companies.
Speaker 1: Because the product the by D is putting out is
Speaker 1: I think it's incredible and the figures that show and
Speaker 1: I wanted to get a bit of a backstory onto
Speaker 1: what ev Direct does and a little bit more about
Speaker 1: BYD because there's a bit of an avalanche really with
Speaker 1: Chinese brands coming right, there's like what ten entering the
Speaker 1: market soon? Yeah, how hard is it? I'm curious how
Speaker 1: hard is it to deal with a foreign EV company
Speaker 1: from China?
Speaker 2: So I'm pretty fortunate. I've been working with Chinese companies
Speaker 2: for more than twenty years, whether it be buses or
Speaker 2: whatever I did prior to what I'm doing now. So
Speaker 2: I've had a lot of experience working with different companies
Speaker 2: in China, some very difficult to work with, some amazing
Speaker 2: to work with, and BYD fortunately is one of those
Speaker 2: companies that have been really easy to work with over
Speaker 2: the years. They're very passionate, driven by a really strong
Speaker 2: founder and chairman who's doing wonderful things and he's literally
Speaker 2: changing the automotive industry right around the world. So there's
Speaker 2: nothing's ever perfect. There's always challenges, but I've been really
Speaker 2: fortunate because I think my experience for one thing, but
Speaker 2: the ability just to have a good, healthy relationship with
Speaker 2: BID at all levels, whether it ri chairmen or people
Speaker 2: that are on the factory factory floor, it's a good relationship,
Speaker 2: it's healthy, and that's been made it quite easy for us.
Speaker 1: What are some of the challenges and sort of requirements
Speaker 1: you would face with something like this.
Speaker 2: Look, we've had a lot of challenges along the way
Speaker 2: that have all been solvable, but one of the key
Speaker 2: challenges is the amount of regulation that is in Australia.
Speaker 2: So it's a good thing, but to bring a vehicle.
Speaker 2: Import a vehicle into Australia is actually one of the
Speaker 2: hardest countries in the world because the standards are so high,
Speaker 2: whether it be ADR compliance and cap rating. As I said,
Speaker 2: it's a really good thing because the benchmark is really high,
Speaker 2: but to get an ADR compliant five stary nd cap
Speaker 2: vehicle into Australia is extremely difficult. So if I was
Speaker 2: to talk about some of the major challenges that we've
Speaker 2: had is ensuring that right through the production process and
Speaker 2: then bring in the vehicle on to market that everything
Speaker 2: has been compliant with Australian standards, as said, the highest
Speaker 2: probably in the world, and the results of vent wonderful.
Speaker 2: We've now got three vehicles with five starr ing cap
Speaker 2: ratings or within the last two years and as it
Speaker 2: probably where and cap ratings sort of roll over every
Speaker 2: six years, so you've got to keep current with the
Speaker 2: up to date safety standards so that means our vehicles
Speaker 2: are really really safe. And so to answer your question,
Speaker 2: that's probably been the toughest challenge getting the behemoth of
Speaker 2: company that it is BYD, with the hundreds of literally
Speaker 2: hundreds of thousands of engineers working for BYD, getting them
Speaker 2: together to fully understand what's required for Australia.
Speaker 1: Why BYD for you guys, like, why did you scope
Speaker 1: them out? Do you think so?
Speaker 2: My history was building the first electric bus for Australia,
Speaker 2: and the only company that I could find anywhere in
Speaker 2: the world that could do that in partnership with the
Speaker 2: company that I owned at the time was BYD, So
Speaker 2: really flexible company, but really powerful and capable company. So
Speaker 2: the relationship start off with buses. And then what really
Speaker 2: sparked everything was in roughly twenty eighteen, Wolfgang Egger, the
Speaker 2: head designer now for BYD, left outing and came across
Speaker 2: to BYD and brought a whole heap of really talented
Speaker 2: European designers with him, and that was the moment that
Speaker 2: we realized that there's something special going on with BYD.
Speaker 2: I spent a bit of time a Woofgang when he
Speaker 2: first joined, and I could just see the switch inside
Speaker 2: BYD that historically been a battery manufacturer, buses, trucks, and
Speaker 2: then to have this really high quality designer, automotive designer
Speaker 2: joined the company, you could feel the air of change
Speaker 2: and that was the moment that we sort of started
Speaker 2: talking about how do we get right hand drives for Australia.
Speaker 1: He's an interesting guy and I saw him on a
Speaker 1: recent reel that you guys shared. I mean, I can
Speaker 1: imagine that he would be this sort of type that
Speaker 1: would immediately change the ethos within a company. He really
Speaker 1: does treat design like a language. That the way he
Speaker 1: talks about it with such fluency and passion is incredible.
Speaker 1: And actually I don't know if it's the real that
Speaker 1: I saw. I think it had possibly a concept that
Speaker 1: you guys that byd could be. Do you know what
Speaker 1: I'm talking about? Have you seen it?
Speaker 2: There's something on whilst you're finding that. One of the
Speaker 2: things that most impressed me with when Wolfgen came, he
Speaker 2: designed what's called the E Seed, which is a one
Speaker 2: of a one and that was his signature vehicle when
Speaker 2: he first joined. And I presume he had some apprehensions
Speaker 2: leaving out in the powerhouse that it is around the world,
Speaker 2: coming to at the time a car company that was
Speaker 2: making cars that I know, we're near the quality and
Speaker 2: level that they are now. So he designed the E
Speaker 2: Seed and that's sort of his signature. You talk about
Speaker 2: the fluency and his craft work, that was his masterpiece
Speaker 2: as far as saying, okay, I'm here, this is what
Speaker 2: we're going to build from here on in, and that
Speaker 2: one of ones sits in headquarters in Shenzen in China.
Speaker 1: Okay, so here it is here.
Speaker 2: It's it's nice to have somebody asked me anything about
Speaker 2: but like everyone just asks about the un at the moment.
Speaker 2: So this is good.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, yeahs on the questionnaire. But like you look
Speaker 1: at something like this, you can see it, you can
Speaker 1: touch it, and you can feel it.
Speaker 2: I mean just his accent. He's a talented guy that
Speaker 2: this video is actually about four years old.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I've got a way behind you. Don't just shout it.
Speaker 1: So I was like, oh, this must have been here, but.
Speaker 2: It's still relevant for today.
Speaker 1: So how we talks Chinese culture into our design, this
Speaker 1: makes it unique.
Speaker 2: Yeah that's he said.
Speaker 1: Yeah, contribution, I mean that's stunning.
Speaker 2: That's when you see that in the flesh. That vehicle
Speaker 2: is just a standout. It's and what you talk about
Speaker 2: the I think the passion and it really I think
Speaker 2: he's an artist's you know, he's a he's obviously really
Speaker 2: talented in engineering and building cars, but what he speaks
Speaker 2: about there is the passion about bringing the Chinese culture,
Speaker 2: which is a thousand plus years old into automotive industry.
Speaker 2: Now that that's powerful. And when you combine the two,
Speaker 2: the history as well as the high tech that's coming
Speaker 2: out of out of predominantly Southern China, Shen's End region,
Speaker 2: and then you start to overlap designers from Europe that
Speaker 2: are of the top standard. That's why we've got great
Speaker 2: cars within the Bord range.
Speaker 1: Done this down for me right, and I genuinely mean
Speaker 1: this because by the time we're finished with this podcast
Speaker 1: and when it gets released, I guarantee you I'm going
Speaker 1: to get a lot of emails from old people, primarily
Speaker 1: because Paul's a bit of a scene with the MILFs,
Speaker 1: but yeah, we'll get We'll get a lot of old
Speaker 1: people like bloody Chinese cars you should be supporting to
Speaker 1: Australian made orange and the Fooge. What is the negativity
Speaker 1: do you think around Chinese important cars? And I guess
Speaker 1: reliability in the past has been something, but I.
Speaker 2: Think the negativity is exactly as I have said. There's a
Speaker 2: lot of people inside that are car enthusiasts and holden forward.
Speaker 2: There's such a rivalry and a history of Australian made vehicles.
Speaker 2: It then evolved of many years you saw the Japanese
Speaker 2: start to make really good quality cars Korea and now
Speaker 2: it's China's turn. So I think the way I answer it,
Speaker 2: in a short way of answering it is, if you
Speaker 2: want the best quality EV or a new energy vehicle
Speaker 2: at the moment, you go to where they're making the
Speaker 2: best quality vehicles. Ten twenty years ago, Germany was making
Speaker 2: the best quality diesel and petrol vehicles because they had
Speaker 2: the best quality engineers, and automotive vehicles at the time
Speaker 2: were highly engineered, probably over engineered. But now if you're
Speaker 2: looking for evs or new energy vehicles, the best quality
Speaker 2: vehicles are coming out of China, and we're quite passionate
Speaker 2: about that, and there's a lot of passionate people that
Speaker 2: speak very highly of our vehicles. So I think when
Speaker 2: you have sort of create that bit of a clash
Speaker 2: that there's a lot of people that have historic ties
Speaker 2: to hold and forward or whatever it may be in Australia,
Speaker 2: but we haven't built cars here for ages. So it's
Speaker 2: all about getting the best quality vehicles now to Australia
Speaker 2: at the most affordable price and that's how we've been
Speaker 2: so successful with inside ev Direct in partnership with BYD SO.
Speaker 2: I can't answer fully why the negativity, but when you
Speaker 2: look at the vehicles, when you fully understand the quality,
Speaker 2: the safety availability as well, we have stock available in
Speaker 2: most of our models, there really is no better place
Speaker 2: to be sourcing vehicles from than Southern China at the moment.
Speaker 1: I kind of also feel like it's such an important
Speaker 1: move for this country that you can effectively poort a
Speaker 1: family and look times it's half that you can put
Speaker 1: a family into a hybrid card now the Sea Line
Speaker 1: six for fifty between fifty and fifty five thousand a
Speaker 1: hybrid car one thousand k's quality. It does make me
Speaker 1: wonder like I don't understand why people are so negative
Speaker 1: about something that's doing such a positive Do you know
Speaker 1: what I mean?
Speaker 2: Well, what we say is just test drive our vehicles
Speaker 2: and then go and test drive some of the competitors
Speaker 2: vehicles that are on the market at the moment, whether
Speaker 2: they be similar price or more more expensive. One thing
Speaker 2: that and you've touched on it. The cost of living
Speaker 2: and the affordability is something that we've been dedicated and
Speaker 2: focused on from day one, and that's what I'm most
Speaker 2: passionate about the ability for somebody to if they're in
Speaker 2: the market, to buy a high quality, new and needy vehicle,
Speaker 2: whether it be a plug in hybrid like the Sea
Speaker 2: Line six or a full electric and start saving money
Speaker 2: from day one. And all of our customers that speak
Speaker 2: to us tell us about how much they're saving, and
Speaker 2: that to me is a byproduct, but it's actually become
Speaker 2: pretty much our core mission now. The more people that
Speaker 2: drive electric vehicles, it's good for the environment, but we
Speaker 2: won't need to go into that too much because there's
Speaker 2: been so much talk about what evs can do for
Speaker 2: the environment, which is great, but it's now about cost
Speaker 2: of living and the ability to save money. So from
Speaker 2: day one, when you're driving a BYD or potentially in
Speaker 2: other brands new Enedy vehicle, you're saving money, which is
Speaker 2: great and every dollar counts.
Speaker 1: At the moment, where do you see new I guess
Speaker 1: prices for evs going in Australia.
Speaker 2: So we've probably done a really good job, probably too
Speaker 2: good a job of bringing high quality vehicles at the
Speaker 2: prices that we have BYD vehicles that we have in Australia.
Speaker 2: If you compare to what the priced in Europe or
Speaker 2: other regions, they're a lot higher. So the affordability in
Speaker 2: Australia is actually the best in the world for BYD
Speaker 2: vehicles outside of China. So that's something that we're again
Speaker 2: proud of. So when we talk about future pricing, we're
Speaker 2: very responsible to make sure that the pricing that we
Speaker 2: come in is the best price we can do from
Speaker 2: day one, so we don't end up slashing prices or discounting.
Speaker 2: And we have a fixed price model as well, so
Speaker 2: if you go into any store, you're going to be
Speaker 2: paying the same prices, no hackling, none of that old
Speaker 2: rubbish that used to some people love. But the majority
Speaker 2: of customers these days want to know that they're getting
Speaker 2: the best value for money and they don't have to
Speaker 2: go to three or four different dealers to haggle.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I would argue that the old dealership is could
Speaker 1: be a dying breed. I think. I think showrooms and
Speaker 1: websites are working really well in collaboration with each other.
Speaker 1: Like what you guys do, you're effectively ordering off a website,
Speaker 1: you can go check out the car and in a showroom.
Speaker 1: I think the honeymoon period that the car industry got
Speaker 1: post COVID or during COVID, with especially with secondhand cars,
Speaker 1: but new cars as well. I think caused a lot
Speaker 1: of cockiness in dealerships. If I'm honest, I've seen it
Speaker 1: a lot, and I think it's still there.
Speaker 3: It is.
Speaker 1: You're right, It's one of those things that there really
Speaker 1: is a cockiness. Like you can walk into a showroom
Speaker 1: and I'm talking like anyone from a prestige car European
Speaker 1: car to an everyday consumable brand. You'll get a dealer
Speaker 1: that will barely even want appeal his ass off the
Speaker 1: couch to come over and chat. It's just like, you know,
Speaker 1: what do you do? What are you even doing here?
Speaker 1: What do you want? Like as soon as you talk
Speaker 1: deals with them, they just.
Speaker 2: Well come to us in a minute. What we try
Speaker 2: and do it with at B y D. But what
Speaker 2: do you talk about with the current dealerships and the
Speaker 2: honeymoon period? There has been a honeymoon period the last
Speaker 2: two years. A large proportion of the deliveries that you
Speaker 2: see in the vfax or whichever wherever you see it
Speaker 2: historic orders that have been on back order, so a
Speaker 2: lot of stock hasn't been available especially if we talk
Speaker 2: about toy to Wrap four as a comparatible car to
Speaker 2: our Sea Line six, people are still waiting. So there's
Speaker 2: people still waiting that the put orders in a couple
Speaker 2: of years ago, but we've got Sea Line six, which
Speaker 2: we believe is a far better vehicle in stock available.
Speaker 2: So when you talk about that cockiness, potentially it's because
Speaker 2: there were so many orders that were already in the
Speaker 2: bank and properly some of those salespeople who have already
Speaker 2: received commission, So the delivery has been happening over the
Speaker 2: last couple of years. So it's a really interesting area
Speaker 2: to be in now because everybody's now sort of starting
Speaker 2: to catch up on the deliveries, so it's changing and
Speaker 2: the dealership. From day one, why our company's called ev
Speaker 2: Direct is we wanted to cut out all the layers,
Speaker 2: all the junk. When we first did our research, there
Speaker 2: was actually seventeen layers between when a car was built
Speaker 2: and when it got to a consumer's hands, so you
Speaker 2: think seventeen times that somebody's taking a cut or making money,
Speaker 2: So we wanted to cut out as much as we could. Originally,
Speaker 2: when we first launched, we wanted to be fully online
Speaker 2: digital process and keep the vehicles as low as we
Speaker 2: could price wise. We listened to our customers and that's
Speaker 2: why we formed the partnership with Egager's Automotive and opened
Speaker 2: up a retail network right across Australia.
Speaker 1: So, sorry to interrupt, that's a new acquisition, right.
Speaker 2: So Eager's Automotive have been our retail partner now for
Speaker 2: about a year and a half and that allowed us
Speaker 2: to expand our footprint. But still today, roughly forty percent
Speaker 2: of our sales are still done on a mobile phone
Speaker 2: or a device, So people may be going into the stores,
Speaker 2: but the actual sale, they're not sitting down with a
Speaker 2: salesperson and going through that painful process of sign here,
Speaker 2: sign here. People are going online, putting down one thousand
Speaker 2: dollars refundable deposit and doing the order themselves in the
Speaker 2: comfort of their own home, which we really like. So
Speaker 2: proof is in the putting the digital concept and cutting
Speaker 2: out a lot of those layers, and the evolution of
Speaker 2: the dealership is proven in what we've been able to
Speaker 2: achieve in the last two and a half years.
Speaker 1: Just to sort of get a bit of backstory, Eggers
Speaker 1: is similar to you guys, right, similar to ev Direct.
Speaker 1: Are they MOLL like a distribution dealership.
Speaker 2: Or Apegas are the largest retail retailer of automotive vehicles
Speaker 2: in Australia, so they represent multiple brands and they're a retailer,
Speaker 2: so they're a fantastic partner of ours. We have some
Speaker 2: really great partners, so Eager's Automotive, my Car and a
Speaker 2: few others, but Eagers are our retail partners. We work
Speaker 2: with them. So the people that you see inside of
Speaker 2: our experience centers or megastore in Alexandria, they're Egers or
Speaker 2: our joint venture that we have with Eigers, their stuff
Speaker 2: but representing our brand, and that's allowed us to grow
Speaker 2: as quickly as we have.
Speaker 1: So it's like a partnership with you guys and BYD.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so it's a joint venture endorsed by b WED.
Speaker 1: Yeah. We touched on earlier ten new car brands coming
Speaker 1: to Australia. What's the feeling on that and I guess,
Speaker 1: how do you think it's going to affect the sort
Speaker 1: of sales in Australia.
Speaker 2: I actually think it's a really exciting thing to see
Speaker 2: some of the other brands that I've seen in China,
Speaker 2: for many years come to Australia. The reality is, and
Speaker 2: i'll just talk highly about BYD here for a second.
Speaker 2: BYD is the dominant player anywhere that you go, whether
Speaker 2: it be China or the expansion into European or soon
Speaker 2: to be American markets. The reason being is that they
Speaker 2: are totally vertically integrated companies, so they build everything, the batteries,
Speaker 2: all of the components are built by b YD. A
Speaker 2: lot of the other car companies that you're seeing don't
Speaker 2: have that capability. So I'm excited about the competition, and
Speaker 2: there are going to be some other vehicles that people
Speaker 2: can compare to by DS, but we have total confidence
Speaker 2: with the amount of vehicles that and different ranges range,
Speaker 2: so different models that we're bringing to the country that
Speaker 2: by D will be the standout. But as I said,
Speaker 2: I'm really excited to see some of the other brands
Speaker 2: bring bring vehicles in. What they have to do though,
Speaker 2: is they have to make sure they've got the network right.
Speaker 2: They've got to have not just copy and paste what
Speaker 2: we did, because there's been many, many years of effort
Speaker 2: coming to what we've now delivered.
Speaker 1: Yeah, but also you guys are a unique standalone by
Speaker 1: yourself I think. I think you've got to expect a
Speaker 1: bit of that though, right the competition.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, yeah, we expect it. And as I said, yeah,
Speaker 2: there's copycatting, yeah, of course. And that's a bit of
Speaker 2: a compliment as well, because we have new ground in
Speaker 2: the automotive industry and very proud that we've had the
Speaker 2: most successful new car launch of any brand ever in
Speaker 2: Australia's history. So if a few people copy that's that's
Speaker 2: a compliment.
Speaker 1: Would you guys take on any other ev brands or
Speaker 1: is it like I'm not sure how it works forgive
Speaker 1: me if that's a weird question. But obviously you've got
Speaker 1: to deal with by D, but could have essentially, could
Speaker 1: you take on any other brands or it doesn't work
Speaker 1: like that.
Speaker 2: Look, we want to stay with BID and be exclusive
Speaker 2: with BID. Once you start to see what's happening around
Speaker 2: the world and how strong BD is as far as
Speaker 2: their production, their quality, and what cars are coming in
Speaker 2: the future, BDS is our partner. We've been as I said,
Speaker 2: I've been working on and off in different various roles
Speaker 2: with BID for more than ten years, not directly for BID,
Speaker 2: but as a partner of BID. So I'm very loyal
Speaker 2: and we have no interest at the moment to look
Speaker 2: at other brands, but we welcome other brands into the country.
Speaker 1: The card game for you, like this is, I mean,
Speaker 1: this is the industry that you're in. Is that sort
Speaker 1: of something you always looked at? I mean, I know
Speaker 1: you sort of background was batteries, buses, all that sort
Speaker 1: of stuff. Did you ever think it was like, oh,
Speaker 1: I'm going to work in the car industry?
Speaker 3: Like whatever?
Speaker 1: Have you got like an early memory of where you thought?
Speaker 1: The way you kind of grew up is where you
Speaker 1: are now?
Speaker 2: Never ever did I think I'd be leading the byd
Speaker 2: whatever you want to call it in Australia. There's amazing
Speaker 2: success story. The moment for me though, was, as I said,
Speaker 2: when I met Wolfgang for the first time and I
Speaker 2: sensed the air of change inside b i D. I
Speaker 2: saw some of the early concept cars that he was
Speaker 2: working on. That was a moment that I thought, this
Speaker 2: is something that I want to want to participate in.
Speaker 2: And I've been very fortunate, fortunate to be on that
Speaker 2: journey with b ID since then.
Speaker 1: By the way, have you forgive me about like past history?
Speaker 1: I'd like to know a little bit about that. But
Speaker 1: were you ever did you have a work you didn't
Speaker 1: work with Paul? Did you because Paul I thought Paul
Speaker 1: knew you. I guess it's from just being there in
Speaker 1: the industry, But no, I was just curious to sort
Speaker 1: of see a little bit about your background.
Speaker 2: Like my background is running bus companies. That's what I've
Speaker 2: been doing the majority of my life. I sold out
Speaker 2: of a company roughly six years ago, so I no
Speaker 2: longer do that and fully focus on on BYD and
Speaker 2: EV Direct. But we've done a lot in the few
Speaker 2: years that we've been very active in the car car industry.
Speaker 2: So yeah, it's an interesting history, and I think it's
Speaker 2: a very good thing that I don't have some of
Speaker 2: the historic bad things that happen inside the industry as well.
Speaker 2: So I've come in with fresh pair of eyes.
Speaker 1: Sorry, what do you mean by that?
Speaker 2: The old way of doing things, So going into a dealer,
Speaker 2: standing in front of somebody trying to sell you what
Speaker 2: they want to sell you, rather.
Speaker 3: Than what do you want to buy?
Speaker 2: People dressed in suits and this is what you're going
Speaker 2: to buy. Then you get moved onto the finance department,
Speaker 2: you get moved onto all of the upselling. So I've
Speaker 2: had a very narrow vision of what I want to
Speaker 2: achieve and I think that's been part of our success story.
Speaker 2: That I've been not part of the old industry. It's
Speaker 2: caused me a lot of headaches because I've come up.
Speaker 2: I have to battle quite a lot with some of
Speaker 2: the old, traditional, old traditional ways. But fortunately I've been
Speaker 2: I guess, stubborn enough to fight through that and create
Speaker 2: a model that has resulted in high quality, affordable cars
Speaker 2: for more Australians next twelve months.
Speaker 1: I guess what are you hoping for and what are
Speaker 1: you excited about it as well? I know that. Look
Speaker 1: I can't remember the exact figure, but I know the
Speaker 1: July figures for you were was incredible.
Speaker 2: Yeah, twenty five thousand since we started two years ago.
Speaker 1: So we delivered it as of July. Right.
Speaker 2: We delivered our first at OH three roughly September October
Speaker 2: twenty twenty two. So within less than two years, we've
Speaker 2: delivered more than twenty five thousand cars. As I said before,
Speaker 2: that's the Australia's most successful new car launch, new brand
Speaker 2: in Australia's history. So that's we're very brad but in
Speaker 2: July there was about seventeen seventeen hundred odd vehicles delivered,
Speaker 2: which was about seventy seven percent increase for US year
Speaker 2: on year. So when you ask you about what I'm
Speaker 2: going excited about the next year, we want a double
Speaker 2: double our sales year on year going forward, and we're
Speaker 2: at about seventy odd percent. So we've still got a
Speaker 2: little bit of work to do to get together, but
Speaker 2: we've got the product, we've got the stock availability, and
Speaker 2: we're growing and growing with more stores, more digital digital capabilities.
Speaker 2: And then also we're launching which is a separate business
Speaker 2: but a pet project of mine, ev Switch, which is
Speaker 2: getting more charges out into this Draine landscape. So I've
Speaker 2: committed to one hundred thousand low waded charger. So these
Speaker 2: are seven killer what charges. They're not the high speed
Speaker 2: ones that you see on the highway, but these are
Speaker 2: charges that we could have down in the car park downstairs,
Speaker 2: you can have at home, you can have it work,
Speaker 2: you can have at sports fields. And what we've done
Speaker 2: inside ev Switch is bringing a product that was being
Speaker 2: around eleven hundred dollars, brought a comparatible product.
Speaker 3: To market for four hundred and ninety nine dollars.
Speaker 2: So, as I said, it's a pet project. It's not
Speaker 2: a company that's set up to make money. The profit
Speaker 2: margin is very very narrow. But what we want to
Speaker 2: see is one hundred thousand new serving killer what high
Speaker 2: quality charges into the Australian landscape, and once that happens,
Speaker 2: you just watch what happens. And as far as how
Speaker 2: many people will want to switch to evs because at
Speaker 2: the moment charging we can't not talk about cars without
Speaker 2: charging in the plug in hybrid that's a different story.
Speaker 2: But if you've got an ev you need a charger
Speaker 2: and a lot of people put them in at home
Speaker 2: or or they've got them in at work. But so
Speaker 2: far it's been really expensive and we want to make
Speaker 2: it more cost effective and that's what we've done with
Speaker 2: ev Switch. It's a fully digital store, so we've cut
Speaker 2: all the costs.
Speaker 3: Out so you go online.
Speaker 2: We're actually launching later this week and our commitment is
Speaker 2: one hundred thousand charges in the Australian landscape and doing
Speaker 2: it at a very competitive price.
Speaker 1: We can to know your thoughts on how we've launched
Speaker 1: again evs. As a country, we've seen like a lot
Speaker 1: of reliability issues with charging stations charge Fox in my
Speaker 1: view just I don't know, there's never really tech support.
Speaker 1: They're always breaking down. I feel like Tesla have and
Speaker 1: kudos where they've got it right. They've got it right
Speaker 1: over there with their with their charging stations and with
Speaker 1: their with the Tesla network. You sort of have to
Speaker 1: appreciate what they're doing there with with that. But yeah,
Speaker 1: what's your view on the current state of charging stations
Speaker 1: across Australia.
Speaker 2: Well, firstly, as you said, congratulations to Tesla. They've done
Speaker 2: a really good job. They've they've still got Australia's biggest
Speaker 2: network of charges and if you go to the US,
Speaker 2: they've they've got charges.
Speaker 3: Everywhere, so that they were smart.
Speaker 2: If you've got electric hor you need, you need charges
Speaker 2: and they invested a lot of money in putting charges in.
Speaker 2: When you talk about some of the other companies that
Speaker 2: are operating in Australia, one of the downfalls is that
Speaker 2: a lot of the charges that you see installed wherever
Speaker 2: they may be, that a lot of it's grant money
Speaker 2: coming from the government.
Speaker 1: Yeah, well that's my point, Like they're getting government money
Speaker 1: for this sort of stuff, effectively tax payer money. So
Speaker 1: in that regard if they're putting out a shonky product,
Speaker 1: surely they should be answerable answerable for that sort of thing,
Speaker 1: do you know what I mean?
Speaker 2: Yeah, I couldn't agree more so. The reality is, if
Speaker 2: you're putting in a charger, you've got to maintain it.
Speaker 3: It's just like us with our vehicles.
Speaker 2: We've got to set up a service network, and we've
Speaker 2: done that very successfully, because you can't just sell a
Speaker 2: car and then expect not to service it. It's not
Speaker 2: all of the charging company's fault though. The reality is
Speaker 2: Australia is a huge country with a tiny population, so
Speaker 2: trying to put a lot of charges that service highways
Speaker 2: in somewhat remote locations. I recently took a trip up
Speaker 2: from Sydney to the Hunter Valley in my Seal performance
Speaker 2: and I was doing it as a bit of a
Speaker 2: test to see what charges were available, which were working,
Speaker 2: and which weren't working. When I was, let's say, pleasantly
Speaker 2: surprised because the majority of charges.
Speaker 3: Along the route I didn't need to charge.
Speaker 2: By the way, because it's seal comfortably gets a Sydney
Speaker 2: hundred alien back.
Speaker 1: Which is more than more than four hundred CA's.
Speaker 2: It's definitely more than four hundred case, so it was
Speaker 2: comfortable for me. But the experience I found was that
Speaker 2: majority of charges are working, but there are a lot
Speaker 2: of charges in remote locations that just aren't working. And
Speaker 2: there's nothing worse when you're planning your trip and you
Speaker 2: come to a charger that's either occupied or it's not working.
Speaker 2: So there's a long way to go for Australia to
Speaker 2: get a full network, but we'll never fully get a
Speaker 2: total network because as I said before, huge country, small population.
Speaker 2: So that's why evy switch in my view, is so important,
Speaker 2: because we need charges where people live, where they go
Speaker 2: sport on the weekend or whatever it may be.
Speaker 1: Yeah, neighborhood charges effectively, there's quite a few around my
Speaker 1: area and I have to say to me, that changed
Speaker 1: a game living in lank Cove and there's kind of
Speaker 1: exactly what you guys are doing. There's all these small
Speaker 1: little I call them top ups because you know you
Speaker 1: can plug it there for three hours and you know,
Speaker 1: depending on the car, you'll probably get about thirty forty percent.
Speaker 1: Like you know, for me, a lot of so a
Speaker 1: lot just on that point. So a lot of journalists
Speaker 1: and a lot of commentators talk about you've got to
Speaker 1: have high speed charging, you've got to have the quickest
Speaker 1: charging that you can have. But the reality is the
Speaker 1: average Australian drives thirty two kilometers a day, so the
Speaker 1: top up charging and having more of these seven killer
Speaker 1: what charges which will fill a car in about eight
Speaker 1: to nine hours, but having the ability to plug in
Speaker 1: wherever you go, whether it be work or home or
Speaker 1: sports field, shopping center. That is the way that you'll
Speaker 1: see a huge uptake of evs and more people able
Speaker 1: to save money by switching to an EV by putting
Speaker 1: a base I call it a baseload. You've got to
Speaker 1: have the baseload first, so get a lot of seven
Speaker 1: killer what charges, and then the highway charges. They're really
Speaker 1: necessary if you're wanting to do long, long trips. But
Speaker 1: your average person has a driving profile and it's as
Speaker 1: I said, thirty two kilometers a day and generally they
Speaker 1: drive to the same location back and forth. So let's
Speaker 1: get as many charges as we can right across the country.
Speaker 1: I think there's probably a few things to learn about
Speaker 1: how we use a phone too, because in that respective,
Speaker 1: people want like quick fast charging. I guess it's similar
Speaker 1: to plugging your phone in at the end of the day,
Speaker 1: you know, you use like maybe say eighty percent of
Speaker 1: your phone, plug it in, you know, all that sort
Speaker 1: of stuff, and then you might want you might want
Speaker 1: to sort of consider that every couple of days with
Speaker 1: a car, Like if I'm lucky enough to have a
Speaker 1: home sort of set up, plug the car in, all
Speaker 1: good to go. I think if you're parking to do
Speaker 1: the shopping, to make people for coffee, to take the
Speaker 1: kids to sport, to do whatever it is, that makes
Speaker 1: a lot of sense just to have easy accessible charging.
Speaker 2: Yeah, the analogy of a mobile phone is really good
Speaker 2: because every I think everyone's got a mobile phone these days.
Speaker 2: Charging your phone is very similar to charging your car.
Speaker 2: So if you've got a home set up like you've
Speaker 2: got an fortunately I've got as well, I'll plug my
Speaker 2: cur in over the weekend generally and charge during the
Speaker 2: day with the solar, and I only charge once a week,
Speaker 2: but if I need to, there's plenty of locations that
Speaker 2: I know of, obviously because of the industry that I'm in,
Speaker 2: that I can top up charging. So it's very similar
Speaker 2: to a phone. People just get used to it, and
Speaker 2: as long as there's enough locations that you can top
Speaker 2: up your vehicle. It will give more customers the complete
Speaker 2: confidence to switch across to the Utopia, which is a
Speaker 2: full ev which is the best way to save the
Speaker 2: most amount of money.
Speaker 1: What do you say to people who criticize I guess
Speaker 1: battery degeneration. Like we've seen the Tesla, especially at the
Speaker 1: second hand market for that particular brand just plummet and
Speaker 1: they are heavily discounting their cars. It's an interesting one
Speaker 1: because people aren't wrong when they have concerns about degeneration
Speaker 1: of batteries. Sorry, but I was going to say that.
Speaker 1: I mean, I feel like sort of in the future.
Speaker 1: Obviously we're not there yet. As time goes on, that
Speaker 1: sort of thing will get a lot. How do I
Speaker 1: put this user friendly if you like? But yeah, I
Speaker 1: was just interested to get your point on what to
Speaker 1: get your view on degeneration of batteries.
Speaker 2: So fortunately I represent b D who has the highest
Speaker 2: quality battery in the world, which is the blade battery,
Speaker 2: not just say the most safe battery. So all those
Speaker 2: myths about batteries catching on fire literally the bad blade battery,
Speaker 2: I can't do that. It's highly safe, but it also
Speaker 2: has the lowest degeneration of any battery in our comparable vehicles.
Speaker 2: So the the degeneration.
Speaker 1: I've really got to like, I've got to concentrate, esus.
Speaker 2: Let me concentrate and say properly the degeneration of batteries.
Speaker 2: If you look three to five years ago, yes, there
Speaker 2: was a bit of a problem batteries degenerate, but the
Speaker 2: technologies evolve so quickly, and with a bad battery you'll
Speaker 2: have a there we go again. A degeneration of less
Speaker 2: than three or four percent over a ten to fifteen
Speaker 2: year period. It is really really low when you look
Speaker 2: at the actual stats of the current vehicles that we're
Speaker 2: putting on the market now. So that's one of the myths,
Speaker 2: and I love myth busting. There are brands that have
Speaker 2: batteries that do degenerate a lot quicker, but I can
Speaker 2: be very confident in the bad quality and what I
Speaker 2: know about how slowly they actually degenerate that we have.
Speaker 2: Let's stop saying.
Speaker 1: That bloody work, well, let's just call it battery. How
Speaker 1: Having said that, there, I mean there are real there
Speaker 1: are real concerns. I mean, would you expect that thing
Speaker 1: to that issue to be even like you say, three
Speaker 1: four percent. Would you expect that to become more user
Speaker 1: friendly in the future. I mean, could we get to
Speaker 1: a stage where batteries could be swapped out, swapped in
Speaker 1: all that sort of stuff.
Speaker 2: Look, that technology is around now, so if you go
Speaker 2: to China, there's some brands that have batteries swapping. To me,
Speaker 2: that's just a very inconvenient and clunky way of doing things.
Speaker 2: With the battery that we have in our vehicles, you
Speaker 2: don't need to even think about it. And when I
Speaker 2: talk about three or four percent, I'm talking have a
Speaker 2: ten to fifteen year period, so it's not even noticeable
Speaker 2: to the person that holds on. If you do hold
Speaker 2: onto your calf fifteen years, you're going to notice a
Speaker 2: very small amount of degeneration. But it's technology, so everything
Speaker 2: is always changing. Everything's slowly getting better. So yes, there
Speaker 2: will be an evolution and batteries at some point will
Speaker 2: probably go longer, have longer range. But it's also a
Speaker 2: balance between cost and the battery itself. So there are
Speaker 2: batteries on the market now that have a much longer
Speaker 2: range and you can drive more than a thousand kilometers,
Speaker 2: but the cost of those batteries high and you've got
Speaker 2: to get the price right as well as what's affordable.
Speaker 1: That Seal sorry, the Seal Performance, that's your daily yes,
Speaker 1: so excellent car, that fantastic, arguably one of my favorite
Speaker 1: EV's ever. It's just incredible. I'm not like literally pissing
Speaker 1: in your pocket because you're here and I know this
Speaker 1: whole sort of thing does feel a bit like that.
Speaker 1: But a lot of these performance evs, especially like if
Speaker 1: you look at the cheaper ones that are coming out
Speaker 1: right now, I won't name names that's below me mg xpower,
Speaker 1: but a lot of them, I mean go great in
Speaker 1: a straight line fast, Like if you want to talk
Speaker 1: figure zero to one hundred in austraight line, they can
Speaker 1: do that. I think the Seal Performance is one of
Speaker 1: the few that just handles bloody well like it really does.
Speaker 2: The car itself is actually too good for the price.
Speaker 3: Point that it's at.
Speaker 2: It's one of our challenges that we've got this wonderful
Speaker 2: car that is affordable. The the entry model Seal is
Speaker 2: under fifty thousand dollars, the Performance is around sixty eight thousand.
Speaker 2: Now that vehicle should be thirty forty fifty percent higher
Speaker 2: than at a price point in what it is. So
Speaker 2: we've got a really strong advantage on the price. But
Speaker 2: one of the really good things, and what you talk
Speaker 2: about performance, it's the first of the bid products that
Speaker 2: we've brought to market that has the cell to body technology.
Speaker 2: So what that is is the battery is actually integrated
Speaker 2: into the chassis. So it's not like you build the
Speaker 2: Chazzy and then stick a battery on top, which makes
Speaker 2: it difficult to get performance right. And this is another
Speaker 2: wonderful thing from Wolfganger and the design team that built
Speaker 2: this cell to body technology. So you've got the battery
Speaker 2: integrated into the chassis, which creates the lower center of
Speaker 2: gravity and that allows the vehicle to get the performance
Speaker 2: that it does. And it's a true sports car. It
Speaker 2: drives and handles unbelievably well. And I don't want to
Speaker 2: sound like I'm selling it up, but to drive it
Speaker 2: every day is a pleasure. It is a wonderful vehicle,
Speaker 2: and it's got a great driving range as well, like
Speaker 2: fire and sixty kilmeters. The one I've got on a
Speaker 2: single charge is amazing, and not to one hundred and
Speaker 2: three point eight, not that I would do that and
Speaker 2: lose points on my license because I'm getting low, but no.
Speaker 1: Neither.
Speaker 2: It's nice to be able to pull up to a
Speaker 2: set of lights and know that whatever cars next to
Speaker 2: you can you can take them.
Speaker 1: You can have some fun with. Actually, before we wrap,
Speaker 1: I did want to I'd be interested to kind of
Speaker 1: give love to not so much competitors, but just sort
Speaker 1: of car brands, whether it be classic cars or something
Speaker 1: like that. Have you ever sort of thought, geez, you'd
Speaker 1: love to drive an old Porsche or you know there
Speaker 1: is there anything like that.
Speaker 2: I've been so focused on the current technology.
Speaker 1: He's giving me, the politicians, and I guess, I guess
Speaker 1: I've given you. I've given you a good run.
Speaker 2: I've I've become a bit of a car enthusia. So
Speaker 2: there's some v eights around that are still nice as collectors' items,
Speaker 2: but not as not asaily drive. But yeah, I won't
Speaker 2: name mother brands or else I might get in trouble myself,
Speaker 2: but fair enough they was a true politician's answer. Sorry,
Speaker 2: but that one.
Speaker 1: That really was. But no, it's fine, back, We'll take it, sir.
Speaker 1: Thanks for coming in, Thanks pleasure, thanks for hanging out,
Speaker 1: and yeah, congrats on I guess all the success of
Speaker 1: what you guys have managed to achieve in the last
Speaker 1: couple of years. It's yeah, it's it's abiramble and it's
Speaker 1: it's cool to see, like just as a car enthusiast. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I think the products you guys are distributing is they're
Speaker 1: great and that's why I want to get you in
Speaker 1: and congrats on all the success.
Speaker 2: Thank you, Cordie. It's been absolute pleasure coming and I'm
Speaker 2: glad that you love our cars. And for anybody that
Speaker 2: is looking for a car, all we us is going
Speaker 2: to strive. Just go and have a look and feel
Speaker 2: for yourself and we don't have high pressure selling. It's
Speaker 2: all about letting the car do the talking.