The EV Breakthrough How Electric Cars Are Transforming Our Future with Elliot Richards

Episode Topic:

Elliot Richards, presenter for the Fully Charged Show, joins the EV Leaders Podcast to discuss groundbreaking advancements in the electric vehicle (EV) industry. He shares insights into China’s rapid EV transformation, global shifts in battery technology, and the future of autonomous vehicles. This conversation explores pivotal changes shaping a greener transportation landscape and highlights the technological marvels steering this evolution. Whether you’re an EV enthusiast or eager to learn about the sustainable future of transportation, this episode is packed with valuable takeaways.

Lessons You’ll Learn

This episode delves into the core elements driving EV adoption: affordability and availability. Discover how advancements in battery technology, like sodium-ion batteries and ultra-fast charging, are reshaping the industry. Elliot sheds light on public perception shifts, the politics surrounding EV production, and the challenges legacy automakers face in adapting to a rapidly changing market. By understanding these dynamics, listeners gain a comprehensive view of the global EV landscape and its impact on everyday life.

About Our Guest

Elliot Richards is a leading voice in the EV industry and a presenter for the Fully Charged Show and Everything Electric. Based in China, Elliot provides in-depth reviews and explores sustainable energy trends shaping the future of transportation. With extensive knowledge of EV innovation and global markets, Elliot bridges industry insights with practical applications, making his expertise invaluable for enthusiasts and professionals alike.

Topics Covered

Explore the rise of EVs in China and their global influence, alongside breakthroughs in battery technology that enhance affordability, durability, and range. Discover the role of EVs in sustainable urban development and renewable energy integration. The episode also covers the challenges of global EV adoption, from infrastructure limitations to political hurdles, and future technologies like high-density batteries and autonomous vehicles poised to transform transportation.

About the Guest:

Episode Transcript

Ryan : Welcome to the EV Leaders podcast, where we dive into the electrifying world of electric vehicles, bringing you the latest trends, insights and innovations. I’m your host, Ryan, and today we have a very special guest joining us. We’re thrilled to welcome Elliot Richards, a prominent presenter at the Fully Charged Show and Everything Electric. Elliot has been at the forefront of the electric vehicle revolution, providing in-depth reviews, thought leadership and educational content on the shift to sustainable energy. In today’s episode, we’re going to explore the rapid advancements in EV technology, discuss the future of electric transportation, hear Elliot’s expert advice for both enthusiasts and industry professionals. Elliot, I am so, so excited to welcome you on today. Thank you so much for being here.

Elliot Richards: Thank you for having me. I’m really excited to talk to you about what’s happening in the EV space around the world.

Ryan : And I’m excited to hear about it.  and before we do that, let’s talk a little bit more about the fully charged show. Can you kind of give us a synopsis of, like, what the fully charged is and kind of give the give the listeners a background of who you are?

Elliot Richards: Yeah, I mean, sure.  so the fully charged show has been going for. I think I’m going to get this wrong over ten years. Started by Robert Llewellyn.  who’s a presenter from the UK, used to be on Red Dwarf and Scrapheap Challenge, so he’s quite well known in the UK. And he started off by just presenting videos by himself in a small electric car. I think it was a Mitsubishi I miev, uh, and then it kind of snowballed from there, adding presenters, adding other team members and then covering not just cars but renewables, home energy. And now here we are, I think about 12 years later and we’ve got presenters all around the globe.  and I’m the China based presenter. So I present what’s been happening over this side of the world over the last kind of 4 or 5 years.  and it’s, you know, it’s an area that’s been growing in a lot of interest from customers and industry experts.  so it’s very fitting that it’s become much more mainstream now. We’ve got over a million subscribers on the main channel and we have live shows around the world. I think last year we had six live shows where people can come along, speak to us and see the cars and see the home, energy, things in real life. So it’s grown into something very, very big now.

Ryan : I absolutely love that. So let’s talk about what’s happened in the past 4 to 5 years, specifically within like the China markets. Could you share some of the like the most significant innovations that you guys have seen?  in the past like 4 to 5 years that have really excited you?

Elliot Richards: Yeah, sure. I’ll try and summarize this as quickly as I can, because I can talk about this for about three hours. And there’s so much that’s kind of that happened in the last 4 or 5 years. So, you know, obviously we’ve had Covid, but in that time, I think the China EV industry has developed at breakneck speed. And it was a really interesting phenomenon. I think it was last year at the Shanghai Auto Show. In 2023. It’s the first auto show China did since Covid, and it’s the first time a lot of automakers had come back, uh, like German executives had come over and Japanese executives had come over to China for the first time in four, 3 or 4 years. Yeah. And the look on their faces was just of, oh, no, we’ve been beaten. Or, you know, they looked so defeated because China had advanced so much in the EV space and those in that short time. And that’s kind of what happened in China is just they’ve innovated so quickly in the battery space in the, you know, UI, UX space in terms of cars, charging infrastructure. You know, it’s just this fully developed industry that now is taking on legacy automotive. So the traditional automakers are really giving them a run for their money, especially in China. Not so much in Europe, definitely not in the US yet. But that’s kind of the biggest change that’s happened. And I think the and for me personally, the biggest thing that I’m excited about is the battery technology. Yeah. You know, so we were talking about batteries I think 4 or 5 years ago, 150 $200 per kilowatt hour. Now we’re well below $100 per kilowatt hour, which means that they’re now on a price parity with internal combustion engine cars. And that price is dropping and dropping and dropping as new battery technology comes out, like sodium ion batteries, you know, made from essentially salt, which are now dropping the price even further. And I think we’re going to see so much advancement in battery tech over the next few years that that’s what’s so significant, I think, about this shift to electric vehicles.

Ryan : Interesting. What are like what are those? What are you expecting from the battery? Let’s talk about the specific battery perspective. Like what are the shifts that you’re going to that you think we’re going to be seeing within like the actual EV battery space?

Elliot Richards: So for me, I’m really looking forward to seeing the high density battery. So that’s not so much maybe for cars like passenger cars. Yeah, maybe for fleet like busses and trucks, but especially airplanes. So currently, I think, uh, battery capacity is around 160 watt hours per kilogram. But this super high energy density batteries are about 500 watt hours per kilogram. A lot of numbers throwing out, but basically means you can have a, you know, battery, which is, you know, a third of the size, you know, has so much more power. I mean, that’s that’s kind of one area. Then the other area is like the, the affordability. So they’ve easily got rid of like coal cobalt from batteries now. And they’re focusing on so the sodium batteries, you know the NCM batteries just really dropping the price so that yeah, very soon I think we’re going to see within the next 6 to 8 months electric cars that are cheaper to buy than internal combustion cars.  and that really is the game changer, I think, in terms of people adopting EV technology. And then the other uses as well is obviously like the home battery systems, then the price drops, the size of them drops. It just becomes something you can easily install in an hour. There’s, you know, it’s very wide ranging, but it all comes back to that core, which is the battery.

Ryan : Interesting. Yeah. I feel like the battery is like that’s the key to, like, EVs. Like getting over like people’s perception of, like, oh, I can’t get an EV because, like, I’m gonna have to charge it every time I go.  I want to also ask about, like, public perception that you’ve seen amongst electric vehicles.  In the past few years, especially within China, it’s one of the largest adopters of EV vehicles across the globe. So I’m curious, like, what is your perception been on the public perception of people adopting EV vehicles?

Elliot Richards: I think there’s been a huge shift in the last, say, 18 months to two years.  within let’s talk about within China first, where the public are now much more open and willing and prepared to basically invest in these new brands with electric cars just because it’s so much more convenient. So, you know, we have very good charging infrastructure here, which helps a lot. Very few of us have home charging because we don’t live in like suburban houses. We live in apartment blocks. And so the charging infrastructure is really good. Then you’ve got the benefits of having a free number plate. So in order to drive in cities, in some cities in China, you have to pay money to get a number plate to then drive your petrol car in the city. That number plate costs 10,000 pounds, which is, I don’t know, 15,000 USD. Wow. Before you even bought the car, they’re like, right, if you want to drive in Shanghai, you have to buy this number plate first. That’s going to cost you 15,000 USD. And so you see cars out there, you know, like a basic Nissan with a Shanghai number plate. And you think that number plate is worth more than the car. So it’s kind of nuts.

Elliot Richards: But with electric cars it’s completely free. So it’s kind of a no brainer if you commute into work or you live in Shanghai. I think we’re close to about 50% of cars now sold or in Shanghai are electric cars. You know, there’s so much choice, you know, from the smaller five, $6,000 electric cars up to the I know, 150,000 USD like BYD’s and stuff. So there’s a lot of choice and it’s not seen as a natural choice for people who want to drive in China because it’s just so much cheaper. I mean, gas prices here are on par with the US or the UK actually. The UK is a bit more expensive, but your wage here is obviously a lot lower. And you know then you’ve got maintenance costs etc. etc. and it’s just, it just makes everything so much easier. And then you, there’s much more of a greater awareness of the environmental, environmental impact of burning fossil fuels. So we had terrible pollution here. I don’t know, 6 or 7 years ago. Very visible. You go outside your door. It’s gray. It’s pretty disgusting, to be honest. And people were like, well, my son or daughter is growing up in this.

Elliot Richards: I don’t want them to continue growing up in this environment. What can I do?  so Electric cars was obviously a big part of that. And the government’s been pushing them as well. So the perception here is it’s inevitable that they’re going to take over. I think,  very, very soon we’re likely to see widespread bans on petrol cars within cities in China. It hasn’t been announced yet, but I expect that to happen very soon.  outside of China, the perception is very different, almost the opposite. I mean, you’ve got this small core group of people who are like, yeah, we love EVs. We love, you know, Tesla or whoever it is. Byd.  but then outside of that and people who are diehard petrolheads are very resistant to the change. And I think there’s a real it’s kind of become involved in politics now. It’s like a political issue which makes it very spicy. It makes it very difficult to talk about, to have rational conversations about it.  so it’s much more of a divisive situation. I think that’s my impression from hearing. Yeah, yeah, I think it’s much more divisive even in the US, I think. Right. It’s a bit of a spiky subject.

Ryan : Yeah. A question that comes to mind. What does it take for like adoption in regions that aren’t adopting as quickly as, like China or like Norway, like some of these countries that are really adopting it, like between charging infrastructure, like technical technological advances, government policies, economic factors like what are like the two main things that a country needs to actually adopt EV vehicles, like two of the most important things that you think.

Elliot Richards: Is the two A’s affordability and in availability.  so I think the problem with the US and Europe, for example, is that they’re not particularly affordable, and especially if you’re lower income and there’s not much availability. Right. So if you go out and buy an electric car in the US now, what choice do you have really. You know, maybe ten, 15 cars.

Ryan : Not a lot.

Elliot Richards: No. And what’s the lowest price like 20, $25,000?

Ryan : Exactly. Yes.

Elliot Richards: So I mean, for people to really pick these up, they need it all price categories in all sectors. So you need the super luxury ones. You need the really affordable family ones. And I think we’re going to see the growth of these EVs, not so much in the US and Europe. It’s going to be in places like Southeast Asia or Africa or South America. And that’s where Chinese manufacturers are going in a big way.  at the moment and they don’t have the same brand or image issues that,  you know, Europeans might have with a brand from China or whatever. So,  I think these Chinese brands can offer that affordability, and they have the scale. You know, we’ve heard about the overcapacity and that overcapacity is going to, you know, South east Asia where there’s customers wanting to buy these cars. And that’s where the uptake is, is really starting to explode. So yeah, affordability and availability are the two biggest hindrances I think.

Ryan : Yeah. And I feel like once you get beyond that it could also then go to that like do you have the infrastructure in place or they’re actually charging stations that are well equipped and like or can you find a charging space? Easy. It’s a huge problem.  not a huge problem, but it’s a huge solution to a huge problem. I guess if we’re looking for ways to adopt EV vehicles.

Elliot Richards: Yeah, absolutely. And I mean, the charging here is not perfect. I mean, there’s been multiple times I’ve turned up to a fast charger. It doesn’t work or the app doesn’t work. Or, you know, it’s the same issues everywhere, I think so that globally still has to improve. But we definitely have a few more charging poles here. So if that one doesn’t work, there’s plenty of others nearby.

Ryan : But  I also want to look ahead here.  we talked about battery technology that’s going to excite you, but what are some other upcoming technological advancements in the EV industry that excite you? Is it the UX you talked about the China? I think that’s a fascinating topic. But like, what are some other advancements that you really are exciting? You know.

Elliot Richards:  it’s kind of battery related, but it’s the it’s the ultra fast charging. So this is like cars with 800 volt architecture or more than that. We’ve already seen them on the market here in China. I think Europe is beginning to get uh, sorry, Europe is beginning to get a few cars as well. I think Lotus, for example, has the super fast charging basically means you can get from 20 to 80% in 15 minutes. So then you’re on pretty close to getting. Yeah, you’re getting close to, you know, Equivalent to filling up your petrol car. That is only going to get quicker. And those batteries are only going to last longer. I think one of the issues now is if you keep doing those superfast charges, the battery will degrade quicker. And so those super fast charging, when that gets very close to filling up an Ice car, I think that’s going to be a real shift for people to,  to move into EVs. The other area, which is it’s not something which excites me, it excites me. It’s probably the opposite. It’s the self-driving technology.  it has like the you’ve seen from Tesla’s, you know, FSD in the US and Europe. It has the potential to really transform our cities.

Elliot Richards: So not just, you know, cars and personal cars that then you don’t really need to own a car. You can just get into this personal transportation pod with no driver or, you know, we’ve got driverless,  taxis here in China. You’ve got them in the US, in San Francisco and a few other cities, but it’s things like the busses or trucks here, like what do you call them in the US? Trucks not. I don’t mean pickup trucks. The big red semi trucks. That’s it. Semi trucks. They have no cabs. So there’s no driver but there’s no cab. And so it’s just this flat kind of unit with big wheels uh, with layered radars and lidar on the front. And those are going from a port in Shanghai to, I don’t know, an the shipping area or something. Uh, it’s about 30km, no drivers. And they drive in a line of about ten, and they’re just driving autonomously down this road with shipping containers on the back. That’s reality now, although it doesn’t personally excite me to potentially go into a future where I’m not driving, a car will become fabulously wealthy. So which I think was why Tesla is so keen on getting out there first. Yeah.

Ryan : The economic impact of driverless semis because this is a humongous industry. Logistics, transportation, that is a humongous industry. So right now in Shanghai, we definitely don’t have that in the US. You guys have driverless or autonomous vehicles, like semi trucks right now. Yeah.

Elliot Richards: Yeah that’s right. It’s on a very special area. I not sure I think it’s a public road but they just go up and down between the port and somewhere else with no driver and a row of ten of them like the first truck. Then the second truck is like a meter behind because it’s ridiculous.  and this, this has actually been on the market for 2 or 3 years. That kind of aspect of, of self-driving is, is happening very quickly. There’s a lot of companies developing tech in that area. Yeah. And have a driverless car in a Chinese city is extremely challenging. Oh gosh. Motorbikes. There’s people walking in the road. There’s roadworks all the time and it’s it’s nuts. But these cars and these systems and software can cope with it. So yeah, it’s going to have a huge impact, especially safety and and things like that. So that’s going to be a pretty groundbreaking over the next few years.

Ryan : Elliot I’m not gonna lie that blows my mind that you guys, you guys truly are very much ahead of, like, the whole world when it comes to, like, EVs and autonomous autonomous vehicles. That blows my mind.  I want to ask the broader role of this as well, because obviously semi trucks use like not very great for the environment.  So how do you envision the role of like electric vehicles in the broader context of like sustainable living and like renewable energy? Yeah. Could you share how that’s going to shape cities and communities?

Elliot Richards: Yeah. So I think, you know, if you think we’re heading towards a future where, I mean, we’re pretty close already where you don’t own your own car. So many people lease their cars, right? Yeah. And it’s basically a car subscription. And we’re already kind of falling into that model of having a car subscription. So maybe, you know, you have a car that you subscribe to, and perhaps it comes and picks you up from it to go to work in the morning. And it’s, you know, I think we’re falling kind of into that model. So as soon as you take away like car ownership. Yeah. Then all of a sudden you don’t need all these, you know, car parks or places that you need to park your car all the time. You drop off places. But then I think it challenges the perception that you need cars in cities. And I think we’re going to find out very much like Paris, for example, they’ve become much more cycle friendly, and Amsterdam obviously leading the way there. And we’re going to have a hybrid, I think, between electric cars, uh, last mile mobility solutions, you know, electric scooters. It’s going to be a whole kind of breadth of, uh, different transport types within the city. It’s going to be much less reliant on the car long distance then we, I think, will probably rely on, you know, like the autonomous buses, but then, you know, rail, bullet trains, maglev. It’s all technology which is here or being developed.

Elliot Richards:  and so I think maybe this is a bit of a, you know, a bit of a fantasy of mine, but I think it really will begin to transform how we live and work. Obviously, a lot of us are now working remotely, so we don’t need to go into office. We don’t need to go into our cities. So, you know, will there be less strain on the grid. So therefore we need to produce less power. Then we can use our electric cars to power the grid. So I mean there’s so much that could happen and so many directions it could go in.  but I think we’re really going to see a switch away from fossil fuels in our energy grid, uh, over the next 15 to 20 years, especially as we start seeing V2G, which is vehicle to grid where our cars become part of the grid. Now, if you have a million electric cars, you know, plugged into the grid. They can really start to balance that power. So you don’t need coal power stations as backup.  so, yeah, there’s a lot happening and it’s hard to kind of pinpoint one thing that I think is going to make a big difference. But I, I’m hopeful that we, I know I review cars a lot of the time, but I hope that we start moving away from like, a car obsessed kind of lifestyle. And it can be done. So absolutely.

Ryan : Yeah, I think that’s like what’s so exciting about the industry is like, it truly feels like we’re still like, so young and like the capabilities of, like what EVs are going to be able to do and like the technology that they have and like the true impact that they’ll have on us. I think that’s like one of the most exciting things about the industry.

Elliot Richards: Yeah.  and I think we don’t really know the impact yet. We don’t know how it’s going to impact our lives, but I think it will be significant. You know, like how when the internet came in, it would be something potentially similar to that?

Ryan : Yeah. Do you think it’ll be something that we look back in and like, you know, 20, 40 and we look back and be like, wow, like, this is fully integrated within my lifestyle now, similar to like how the internet is.

Elliot Richards: Absolutely. Yeah. And you’ll, you know, you’ll probably see it in China first or Southeast Asia first.  and I, you know, I think we’re going to look back at the last 50 years and think, oh, we let cars with pipes on the back spew out kind of toxic smoke in front of my kids who were then breathing and walking along the street. It’s going to blow our minds. And I think,  you know, how smoking is perceived now or, you know, things like that. I think we’re really going to look back and think, wow, that was a that was a strange time.  But it’s going to happen very quickly.

Ryan : I absolutely love that. Obviously, it’s going to happen quickly, but there’s going to be challenges that come along the ways.  so like, what do you think some of those challenges will be over the next, you know, 20, 30, 20, 35? What are some of those big challenges that you think will be possessed?

Elliot Richards: I think the biggest challenge at the moment and over the next few years is politics. Because most of the development is happening in China. Solar panels, wind, wind turbines, battery technology, EVs. It’s like, oh, it’s all China, China, China, China. And there’s a huge, you know, perception that China is a threat. China is a risk. You know, I can’t speak for that. You know who knows, right.  but I think we have to disconnect politics from EVs and politics from, you know, making our grid, uh, greener and making our lives better because this is about, you know, saving the planet. You know, hopefully preventing climate change from getting any worse. It’s not about, you know, my EVs built by a Chinese company or my panels are built by a Chinese company. I think we need to move away from that. But, you know, these perceptions really are hard to shake. So I and you obviously got the tariffs. Yeah. And you know things like that. So I think that’s really the biggest challenge within the next four 4 or 5 years. I think over the next ten years, it’s going to be the perception of electric cars and B items from China.

Elliot Richards: I think that kind of is shifting already in a lot of places, but that stands in some people’s heads. I think the other biggest challenge is legacy automakers. Now they’re really, really struggling and they’re very resistant, obviously, to wanting to change because they have to shift all their production lines. They don’t know what potentially they’re doing.  so you’re going to see a lot of resistance from them. And we’re going to see some of those businesses fail. In fact, just before this call, I saw VW for the first time ever, considering, I think, closing one of its factories or scaling down production in one of its factories. So they’re going through a really tough time and I don’t want any business to fail. But I think the only way they can be successful is by lobbying governments to say no, we still need internal combustion engine cars for the next 5 or 10 years to just keep us in business.  but as soon as consumer sentiment changes, then that’s it. It’s game over for a lot of those legacy car makers.

Ryan : Yeah. I want to ask a question that comes to mind. Obviously, you have your legacy companies in the United States. It’s like Ford, like that’s the first one, of course, that comes to mind. But from a global perspective, like what are like 1 or 2, 2 or 3 companies that actually, like, do excite you. Of course, Tesla might be up there for a lot of United States people, but I’m curious about the perspective that you have in like the EU and China and those types of companies.

Elliot Richards: So for specifically Chinese companies, I would definitely say obviously BYD. I mean, from what they’ve been able to do, their scale, their vertical integration, it’s just incredible. You know, when we toured the factory back in 2020 20 or 2021 we had. Even when we filmed that episode, we had no idea that they would become the biggest or the second biggest automaker in the world. And so quickly and with such high volumes of cars. Uh, you know, and the stuff they’re doing with the batteries as well, I think is, is absolutely groundbreaking. I’m not so sure about their hybrid strategy, like their, you know, uh, range extender cars, but let’s see how that works out. So BYD is obviously one to look out for.  shifting away from cars, I would actually look at Carl, the battery manufacturer, the biggest battery manufacturer in the world. They’ve got the scale, they’ve got the ambition. They’re in every single car electric car brand in the world, including, I think, except BYD. So they’re in your Tesla’s, you know, in your VW. They’re in everything. And so they have something like 1200 PhD, Not students.

Elliot Richards: People who have PhDs working for them. You know, they’re researching them. So what’s going to come out of that factory? Factory over the next 5 to 10 years is going to be very interesting. They’re hopefully going to release that sodium battery, I think this year, which I’m very excited to hear more about. So those are kind of the two big companies that I’m most excited about. And I think they’re probably going to make the biggest difference. Then there’s probably a self-driving company who are going to be very successful. I cannot pinpoint one at the moment. It’s all very much everyone’s kind of at the same level. Yeah. Xpeng have their own self-driving system, which is very good. Nio have their own one again very good. Huawei again have their own one again. I’ve been told it’s very good. So no one’s a stand out winner at the moment.  but yeah, those are kind of the three areas that I keep my eye on that will make those batteries and self-driving technology.

Ryan : Yeah, I absolutely agree with self-driving technology. Anyways, here in the United States there’s like two that comes to mind is like Waymo and Cruise. And they both are like still in the testing phase of it. And it’s not clear like who in my mind anyway like who the absolute winner is. But obviously like Tesla is the leader here and like the EV vehicles and everything. So I think it’s always interesting. The autonomous vehicle technology is insane to talk about and even to think about what it will do.

Elliot Richards: Yeah.

Ryan : I want to pivot to our last segment here.  just practical advice for people that do want to get started with like EV vehicles. So for someone that is considering their first electric vehicle, what are the key factors they should look for when making their decision and buying a car?

Elliot Richards: Yeah, this is a I saw. I was like, oh gosh, this is very, very difficult.  I’m gonna say the obvious one. So the first one is going to be charging. Can you charge at home? If not, do you have fast chargers nearby? That’s probably the biggest barrier that you’re going to have to owning an electric car and then enjoying an electric car. If you’re always stressing out about where to charge it or you don’t have chargers at work, it’s probably not going to be for you just yet. Specs are not important, which is kind of an odd thing to say, but like horsepower range, like they all have really good acceleration. Some have insane levels of acceleration. Yeah some have okay. But they’re all very fast and feel fun. Like on the road, right? Yeah. Even a Nissan Leaf can be fun. So I would say things like horsepower, things like that are just not important. Range also is less important. Most cars have 2 to 300 miles or kilometers of range. Now, I think the biggest thing you need to look out for is the company is stable in terms of hardware and software future proof, because we have all seen over the last few months. Fisker.  so if you bought a Fisker. Great. Well, I think it’s a pretty good car. I’ve never driven it myself. It looks good. But now what happens? How do you update it? Like, how do you get parts for it? And the situation in China is that.

Elliot Richards: But times 4 or 5, there’s 4 or 5 companies here which have gone bust. Yeah. And the users are finding the app now no longer works. They can’t unlock their car. They can’t turn on the radio, they can’t use navigation. And so I’d really actually look into that company, you know, do you really think it’s hard to predict obviously. But do you really think they’re going to be here for the next 5 to 10 years, and then are they equipped to be able to update software. So someone like Tesla. Yes, very good at that. But then hardware as well. I know Nio here in China. They offer hardware upgrades. So if your screen if you bought the original NIO Es8 came out in 2018, as far as I know you can upgrade the hardware behind the screen. So if it comes a bit slow and laggy, if you want it to last for the next kind of five years, you know, improve efficiency of the motors. Et cetera. Et cetera. You can actually upgrade the hardware for a few thousand dollars.  so I think it’s, it’s thinking about how future proof those vehicles are. I definitely wouldn’t worry about battery health if you’re buying a new car, don’t worry about that. But if you’re buying second hand, see if you can get an inspection on the battery health, because obviously that is quite important.

Ryan: I love that.

Ryan :  And going right off the opposite end of that question, like, what are some of the common misconceptions about electric vehicles,  that you kind of want to debunk about it based on, like your experience with the fully charged show?

Elliot Richards: Yeah. Uh, number one would be not enough range. Electric cars are. My parents have said this. They said it can’t fit our lifestyle. You know, we don’t think it’s got enough range and not enough charge in the UK. And I’m like, guys, it’s the UK. What? It’s only about 500 miles long. So anyway, electric cars have more than enough range. The infrastructure is decent enough in the UK, and I think even in the US that you can. I mean, you need to stop after two hours to go to the toilet and now you have this ultra rapid charging of, I don’t know, 15, 20 minutes, it becomes so much less of an issue. So I think the range thing is, is a non-issue, especially not an issue here in China. I think Europe in some areas it still may be a bit more of a sore point, but I think range, don’t worry about it. The other one is people’s perception of Chinese EVs. Polestar is a Chinese EV, right? People haven’t really had any issues with that so far.  so I think the quality thing is just nonsense. And I just encourage people to, to try one, you know, get into a Polestar whilst you still can before the tariffs come in. You know, Teslas are made in China. Uh, not the ones that go to the US. Try it. See what it’s like. You know, most people, if you’ve got an iPhone or an Android phone that’s also made in China, so the quality is much less of an issue now.

Elliot Richards:  And the last one I hear a lot misconceptions is, oh, your batteries are dirty. They’ve got cobalt in them.  You know, they’re not good for the environment. I encourage those people to do some real desktop research. There’s lots of very good papers and even just articles about the truth behind that.  There is very little cobalt in batteries now. Most batteries here now are cobalt free. Uh, Catl are actually developing a battery passport. So the car you buy with that battery has a battery passport. That’s basically a book which says your battery has these materials in it. These materials have come from here, here and here. We use this much CO2 and this is how we’ve offset it. So you can actually kind of see Where your battery is from, and I think that’s going to become a lot more important when buying a car is seeing that your battery, you know, doesn’t come with cobalt, doesn’t, you know, damage the environment. Yeah. And then we’ve got, you know, things like battery recycling coming up. You can recycle 99.95% of the electric car battery, whereas an Ice car, you can’t recycle any of that petrol. It’s used once and then that’s it. Uh, cobalt is still used in oil refining. You know, there’s so many arguments here. But yeah, I encourage people to do that and do their research, you know, visit fully charged, their website and many other places to look at some of those myths.

Ryan : Absolutely.

Ryan : You have done a research,  within the EV space, you are obviously like so plugged in. You’re well researched, you know your facts, you know the data, all that stuff.  so just last question for you, like, what are some of those best practices you would recommend for staying up to date with all of everything that’s happening?  within the EV industry.

Elliot Richards: I would say,  absorb all media from everywhere, not just from the West. I know it’s quite difficult, you know, to say that, but, you know, sometimes there’s, uh, an agenda or a bias. You know, every media has this in every country, but, you know, open your mind to, you know, what’s happening in China. Come to China, see for yourself. You know, the number of EVs on the road. Uh, and educate yourself about, you know, what’s happening here, what impact that will have around the world. I think that’s the best way of being in front of what’s happening in the EV space. Uh, just visit China, get in touch with people myself. You know, there’s plenty of us here. And actually, you know, sit down and talk to us and learn about, uh, what’s going on, or listen to podcasts like this. Uh, it’s all about talking, having those conversations with people and seeking to understand, you know, really what’s going on.

Ryan : Well, that and if people are like, oh my gosh, why want you to be a resource for you? And I want to ask you a question, where can people learn more about you and connect with you?

Elliot Richards: Multiple places. Probably the best place to start is my own website. It’s just Elliott reese.com. I got I’ve got DM link on there or you can contact me on threads. Um Elliott Reese I think or Elliott Richards and you can find me on LinkedIn. That’s probably the best place just Elliott Richards. You’ll find me. I’ve got a yellow picture.  and then I produce content for the fully charged show and my own YouTube channel. Elliott Richards on EVs. Contact me on any of those. Write me a comment. Send me a DM. Uh, I’m happy to speak to anyone.

Ryan : You are the absolute best. Elliott, I want to thank you so much for sharing your expertise and passion with us today. And to our listeners, if you enjoyed this episode, make sure to follow the EV Leaders Podcast and stay tuned for more deep dives into the world of electric vehicles. Don’t forget to check out the Fully charged show as well for amazing content. Until next time! I am Ryan and this has been the EV Leaders podcast. Keep driving towards a greener future.