From Top Gear to Tesla with Scott Doucet

It's Electric! The Electric Car Show with Afeez Kay

Host Afeez Kay welcomes Canadian guest Scott Doucet to the show to talk about electric cars. Scott comes from New Brunswick, a rural area of Atlantic Canada that is “behind the times” when it comes to technology, research and development in general, let alone in the electric car department. Scott admits that his knowledge of electric vehicles has come largely from Top Gear, and that he's only ever seen one charging station in his entire province, and it's 3 hours away.

The first Question Scott throws at Afeez is: without the infrastructure in place, how can electric cars become more of a reality? Afeez greets the question openly, and shares that the vast majority of EV owners charge their cars at home, and the range they get with their electric vehicles is more than enough to get around, and still have time to make it back home before needing to recharge. He explains that electric cars have a great range for running errands and normal day to day use, but when long distance driving is considered, that's when infrastructure becomes a necessity.

Afeez inspires a ton of questions from Scott after his initial explanation, and Scott's line of questioning then encompasses the Hybrid. He mentions that Hybrids appear to the best of both worlds, but never caught on. He wants to know if that was because they were a half measure, or did something else get in the way of their effectiveness. Afeez explains that there are advantages and disadvantages of owning a Hybrid, and is more than happy to break them down for us.

Scott brings up the climate where he lives, New Brunswick is freezing cold for 6 months of the year. He asks Afeez how the cold impacts the battery within an electric car. Afeez recounts a story of a skiing trip he took, and how his electric car battery withstood the cold. He also disclosed some statistics about which temperatures are best suited for EV's.

Afeez and Scott discuss the potential of low emission zones being introduced to places like London, and the death rate attributed to air pollution within larger cities. He even reference a move that Paris has made in introducing a No Car Day, in an attempt to curb air pollution.

Scott asks Afeez about “The Afterlife” of an electric car, and how they can be used or repurposed beyond their initial use as a vehicle. Afeez explains the concept of Second Life and how EV batteries can be used after they've run their typical lifespan to accomplish other electricity related tasks. He also talks about the Car to Grid system found in the Nissan Leaf, and explains that the car itself can e used to power things when power is not accessible.

Scott takes this opportunity to ask about Tesla, and what it is that makes Tesla stand out among all of the other electric cars on the market. Afeez replies by talking about the fact that Tesla is more than just a car company, they are a clean tech company, and as a result, they take things a step further than most conventional car companies who produce electric cars. Tesla's range of thinking goes beyond the cars, and include the infrastructure as well as the energy storage components. He describes the supercharging network, and how it gave Tesla a major leg up against the competition as far as ease and accessibility.

Quotes

“90% of the time, we charge at home”

“The infrastructure needs to be there for long distance”

“The cost of ownership is considerably lower than having a normal internal combustion engine car”

“You have two power trains, which means you now have twice the amount of things that can go wrong”

“Cold weather does effect a lithium-ion battery”

“80 or 85 percent of the world population can now start switching to a form of electrification which would reduce enormously our dependency on fossil fuel”

“People are dying, and their lives are being shortened as a result of air pollution”

“Electric cars have less moving parts, so there's less things to fall off”

“Range is King”

Links:

Rent a Tesla in the UK: https://www.teslarentals.co.uk

It's Electric! The Electric Car show with Afeez Kay can be found on the below Podcast platforms

Podible: https://play.podible.co/series/32217 Tune-In: https://tunein.com/radio/Its-Electric-The-Electric-Car-Show-with-Afeez-Kay-p1092295/ iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/its-electric-the-electric-car-show-with-afeez-kay/id1337246828?mt=2

www.teslarentals.co.uk