Crazy Kia Dealer, Tesla P85D Test Drive, BMW i3 On Amazon, Electric Mustang... (Cleantech Talk #10)

CleanTech Talk — EVs, Solar, Batteries, AI, Tesla

1. The first story we ranted about was the story of a Kia dealer in Vancouver who very blatantly pushed away a customer who was looking to buy a Kia Soul EV. The story is a really absurd one, but it's also a good demonstration for why Tesla doesn't trust dealers to sell electric cars. 2. That led us into a future in which we can simply skip the sketchy dealers and buy our cars online. Sure, galleries and test drives are still a must, but there's a lot of benefit to purchasing online. Aside from Tesla, one car company bringing us into that future is BMW. The news is that BMW is now selling its i3 on Amazon Japan. 3. Another interesting BMW i3 story we decided to discuss was based around recent information from BMW of North America. Basically, while many people think of the i3 and most other electric cars as city cars, the i3 is proving very popular with drivers outside of big cities in Texas, South Florida, etc. This actually matches really well with research I learned about at EVS27 which argued that people living in small cities would benefit from electric cars more than people living in big cities. 4. Then there was this story: 800 HP Zombie 222 Electric Mustang Goes 174 MPH At The Texas Mile. Yes, 800 HP. Yes, 174 MPH. Yes, the Zombie is back. 5. And a really, really fun one: Chris's test drive of the Tesla Model S P85D. You've got to listen for that one.