Transcript generated automatically by AI and may contain errors.
Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
This is Two Blokes Talking Electric Cars with Trevor Long and Stephen Fenwick.
Thanks to NRMA Insurance and Uniden.
Great to have your company, Two Blokes Talking Electric Cars and NRMA Insurance, helping Australians protect what matters most for 100 years and many more to come. And all we ask is that you give them a chance. When your renewal comes up for your insurance, get a quote and hopefully there's a better deal out there for you. Frankly, you should be doing that regardless. You should be doing that.
But you need to make sure interim insurance is one of the people you call to get that quote. And Uniden Smart dash cams. If you've got a car, you should have a dash cam. You should have a record of what happens around you because it's peace of mind. Not just for the silly things that you want to tell your wife happen, but if something unfortunate happens and you've got a record of it then.
So the ultimate peace of mind, Stephen, with a Uniden Smart dash cam.
Good to see you, mate. Yeah, great to be here. Busy show today. Of course. We don't muck around. We talk to a lot of people on this show, very important people as well.
Very important people. And you are important to us. So if you have a question about electric cars and you're sitting on your big screen TV watching us on YouTube or you're going for a walk listening on Spotify, it doesn't matter, send us a text message, 0477 657 657. Send us a text about your electric car questions, your journey or your experience.
We'd love to talk to you as we do with hundreds of people on the show. But first, Stephen, this week, the Managing Director of Polestar Australia is joining us on the line, Scott Maynard. Welcome to the show, my friend. Good morning, guys. Thank you for having me on. Mate, an absolute pleasure. Polestar is a brand we've had a little bit to do with.
We've driven, I think, at least two of your models, maybe three. And we get a lot of very positive feedback about the Polestar brand. People love that they've bought a Polestar. Is it an overwhelmingly positive experience compared to the many years of automotive experience you have in your experience?
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Chapter 2: What is Polestar's position in the Australian electric vehicle market?
That's the car that is fantastic. Famous for not having a rear window. Yep. Yeah, no rear window. We drove that.
Sorry to interrupt, Scott. We drove that and loved it. The only thing we picked up on, you can't give a thank you wave in the car, mate.
No. Yeah. No. You've got to wind down your window and give a wave. You either wind down the window or you just do the hazard lights quick blink just to let people know you're grateful. It does block that right out. But, yeah, the camera system and the screen mirror that he was inside, the high definition. Yeah, it works really, really well. So we've got that. That's selling well.
That's the hottest selling product we have right now. Yeah, we're selling a lot of the Pulsar fuel product.
Which, from a perspective, is an $80,000, $90,000 car, right?
It is, yeah. So most of the range sneaks under the luxury car tax threshold. There is a super high-performance dual motor car that pops above that, and we sell a few of those as well. But it's a great value package. Just recently, we put on sale the sports car. It's a Grand Tourer. It's a four-door coupe. It's Polestar 5. And we've been doing some launch events with Polestar 5 around the country.
We flew a left-hand drive pre-production car to Australia. We had that on our stand at the Melbourne International Motor Show just a little while ago. And we've recently been running that car around Adelaide, Perth, Brisbane, and now back here in Sydney. And what's the reception been like? It's been great. It's been a really, really pleasing reaction to Polestar 5. It's not a cheap car.
It's a $200,000 sports car. But it really is taking it up to supercar rivals in terms of its performance, its fit and finish, its polish, its extraordinary styling. And so we've been really excited to see the public reaction to Polestar. Polestar 5.
We will get our first cars here a little bit later in the year, in the second half, and we're starting to take some orders on it now, which is really pleasing. And so that sits at the top of our range. We're really excited to have it.
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Chapter 3: How does Polestar address sustainability and performance?
The 16 who's out does the other one. No. Yeah.
No, all the models are still on sale. Okay. There'll be some enhancements and changes and all the sorts of things that car companies do will continue to happen in the future. And then off into the future, we'll see some changes to Polestar 2 next year and then shortly after that, we'll see a new SUV and we'll be calling that Polestar 7.
We skipped to 7 because there is a two-door coupe badged Polestar 6, which is still on the drawing board. We're not going to release that just yet. We're holding that off. Wow.
Chapter 4: What are the potential impacts of Vehicle-to-Grid technology?
Yeah, you're going to miss a number.
Windows going to 10 from 8. Skipping numbers, but that's completely fine. Let's talk numbers. We've obviously reported over the last few months some pretty extraordinary sales figures for the industry. Record EV penetration through the sales. I'm assuming that's been part of the Polestar story as well. My question for today is, is it still happening? Or was it a two-month bubble?
Because obviously fuel prices are receding back to where they were, but I assume that people have gone, I now know how volatile fuel prices can be. I'm getting out.
Yes. Yeah, you've got it exactly right. The customers that we spoke to during that initial sort of six-week period were customers that were now aware that Australia only ever holds about 30 days of fuel in reserve. Yeah. And so any disruption to the supply that replenishes that puts at risk our ability to be able to buy fuel on a day-to-day basis.
And so the moment the government sort of released a four-step plan that had the word ration in it, we saw a run for the door. And that really did create a frenzy of activity right across the EV industry, as you point out, and Pulsar certainly got its share of that, which was pretty exciting. The customers we spoke to over that period, they wanted a car right now, right or wrong.
It has settled from there, but it's settled to a level that is higher than it was before, and that's really pleasing to see. It feels like that there is this...
now a you know a broader understanding of the benefits for an electric car there is a greater appreciation of the flexibility that an electric vehicle brings and independence to be able to charge and run your car people have done a bit more research and realize that there's there's cost benefits to it as well and so i think we're now starting to see just a a gentle rise or a sustained level of interest that's higher than it was before that peak period we've rolled off the peak
That was expected. We wouldn't have seen it continue like that. But last month, we saw electric vehicles take up 16% of the total new car market. We've not seen a number like that before. We've seen electric vehicle sales double in the first part of 2026 as compared to the same period last year. And so that's good news.
It will now be interesting to see just where it now settles to and what it runs like. But it's looking good.
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Chapter 5: What is the significance of the upcoming Polestar 5 model?
What did you end up paying? It was a few hundred dollars, wasn't it?
Yeah, it's about just over $300. And the only person after about six phone calls that knew anything about it was a great crew down in BYD Dandenong. They were really helpful. Nice.
And so just broadly on the EV front, great decision. You're happy with, aside from the dramas of the charging network compatibility, it's turned out to be a great decision to go EV a couple of years ago?
Absolutely. More than happy. I think at the time we had a diesel Hyundai Tucson that was end of lease. And this was to be my wife's car to drive to and from work for probably the last nine, 10 months of her working career. But yeah, And it worked out perfectly. Once we'd done all of the charging installs, we put a Zappy 2 system in. We always also had a solar, in-phase solar micro converters.
Yeah, micro inverters, sorry. And a Tesla Powerwall 2.
You're kitted out, aren't you, mate? That sounds pretty good. Can I ask, back in 2023, what was the motivation to go EV? Were you seeing them on the road and thinking, oh, I want to get amongst that? Was it like a cost-saving thing or was it just wanting the latest and greatest? What was the main motivation?
It came down to looking towards the time where, I won't call it retirement because I haven't done that, where our income streams were reduced and we were looking to minimise our outgoings during that period. So having an EV for everyday use was just a no-brainer as far as we were concerned. The whole hybrid thing at the time, I felt it was like being half pregnant. You shouldn't do that.
Yeah, that seems about right.
Yeah.
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Chapter 6: What are the latest trends in electric vehicle sales in Australia?
I'm 58 years old. All right. Well, I'm about to turn 50. And, you know, retirement's 15.
You're a young bloke.
Yeah, 15 odd years away. But you do go, okay, well, you see all these calculators about retirement and how much you need to live and stuff. And you go, well, if I could completely, and I've done this with my mum, I look at her expenses on the pension and you go, if you had no power bills, it'd be a whole lot easier and stuff like that. So that's the kind of thought in your mind, isn't it?
It's reducing those long-term ongoing costs. And having that huge battery sitting in your car is going to be a big part of that.
Absolutely. Absolutely. Absolutely. That's what we're looking for.
Mate, we just have to hope the government and, you know, the authorities really start pushing this and regulating it, mate. That's really all we have to hope for.
Yeah. Yeah, so I think it's, you know, now we're looking at the next model and as I was sort of looking at the BYD Evo, the A03 Evo, and that sort of solves, that vehicle would solve another problem where we found on trips that the, The ATTO 3 standard range, which we currently have, is a little bit short on range.
You have to stop a little too often, and we did a comparison where we did a Noosa trip one year from Melbourne. Wow. In the electric, and it worked really well, no problems. Yeah. We found we had to stop multiple times, stay overnight a couple of times because you can't get as far in one day.
Yeah.
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Chapter 7: How does Polestar differentiate itself from competitors in the EV market?
No worries at all. Good on you, mate. That's excellent. So there you go. I mean, Blake hacked our rundown and went, yeah.
Got ahead of me there. There's been a lot of feedback about that, eh?
Yeah. It just sounds like a really good system. Yeah.
So I'll give it a try. The basics of it is you get better. You can predict and also plan. Say you want to have 15% battery left when you arrive. Yeah. It'll help you facilitate that.
Help you facilitate that. Yeah. Nice. I have noticed in a few cars now, and you'll notice it in the key you're about to take away, it gives you range and then most and least. So it gives you what it thinks it's going to be.
And then it says, but it could be as much as 700 or it could be as little as 300, which is it's a better thing for you because it means the car's going, listen, if you flog this thing, it's going to be 250. But if you take your time and you drive around the city, it's going to be 400, you know, that kind of stuff. So I like that. Okay. The other news about a week ago was the Ferrari electric car.
Ladies and gentlemen, it's been revealed, the Luce.
Yeah, the Ferrari Luce.
Now, gee whiz, the internet hates this car.
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Chapter 8: How does Polestar ensure a positive customer experience?
Like an engine sound. The way it was described to me, no, not like an engine. Really? The way it was described to me, think of an electric guitar. The way an electric guitar has sensors that pick up the vibration of the string and turn it into something else, right, as opposed to an acoustic guitar, that's the way this pickup will work on the vibrations of the electric motor.
So it's genuine sounds from the electric motor. Okay. It will turn into something different. But not like a roaring V12 engine. It will not sound like a V8 or a V12. No, it will sound like probably the most authentic electric car I've ever seen.
It's more than five metres long. Yeah, it's big. The pictures make it look small.
They make it look small, yes.
It's more than five metres long and two metres wide. Yeah, it's a beast. Solid car.
Anyway, I'm sure down the track it'll be in the driveway. You think so? Hi, Ryan. Is that for Ryan from Ferrari? Yes. G'day, Ryan. We love you, Ryan. Look, I can't wait to see it. There's no doubt. But it's a 2027 car for Australia, but it'll be fascinating. That's a shame. The reception will be after a car this year. This will be all around Hollywood.
I would have got this if it was this year.
This will be all over Hollywood like Priuses in the 90s.
What colour would you get? I like the blue. Yeah, I don't mind the blue. Yellow looks nice too.
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