Welcome to season three of MTE's Plugged in podcast.

This season we will continue to explore the world of electric vehicles.

Whether you're a seasoned EV driver or you're just beginning your journey into electric vehicles, this podcast is for you.

For a more enhanced experience, be sure to watch the video version of this podcast that will be linked in the show notes.

Hello everyone.

Welcome to MTE's Plugged in podcast.

I'm Amy Byers and as always, we're here with Brandon Wagner.

Hello, Brandon.

Hey Amy.

And hello everybody.

In today's episode of the podcast, we're going to welcome Ben Barber, the founder and organizer of Nashville Cars and Coffee.

Ben, thanks for joining us.

Thanks for having me, guys.

So Cars and Coffee is probably real familiar with a lot of our EV Car club members because we try to come at least three or four times a year to Cards and Coffee.

And I know my first experience with that was very overwhelming.

I was not prepared.

I guess I just thought it was gonna be this little car kind of gathering.

I just had no idea.

And the cards that were there were phenomenal.

But before we get into all of that, we want to know a little bit about you, Ben.

So tell us a little bit about yourself.

I was born in New Jersey and then moved here in the and grew up most of my life here in Middle Tennessee.

The reason that this whole thing exists is because me and a really close friend of mine, we're just trying to get together.

And I was a chef and he was a bartender and that means that you're up late at night and or early in the morning hanging out.

And we would try to go to this local cars and coffee event that there was no rhyme or reason to when it happened as far as we were concerned.

So we would show up and it wouldn't be there and then we show up and it would be there.

And then we finally kind of realized that social media was just coming of age and the guy who was semi organizing these things was prepared to kind of let the reins go a little bit and allow me and my best friend kind of open this social media 2012.

Social media wasn't the animal that it is today, but kind of our event was an example of what social media could do and take it from what was a 30 or 40 car event to, as you noticed, thousands of cars and thousands of people.

And it's on such a regular basis for us.

We love being able to share it with everybody.

What are some of your memorable moments, standout moments in these things, in these meetups that you've had or what are some of the cards that have really blown you away?

I think the key for me and the reason that me and my business partner do this event is for the full variety of it all.

You know, I am not.

I love the really high end cars, but I want that high end car to be sitting next to a four or $5,000 car that some kid just built.

Because there's just as much passion in both of those projects to me.

So that's why our event, even as we moved to our new location, we had a, you know, we were in a movie theater parking lot and now we're at a big, huge track lot that we can control.

And I could have said, hey, I want to put all these cars here and then the public parts here.

But how we were, was everybody parked together?

Right.

So you'd have a supercar next to a car that was built by a kid next to a classic.

So that's what we stuck the event with.

We kept it that way by design so that everybody's together and, you know, which kind of makes it so that the enthusiasm, the theory really is like we can all enjoy each other's company.

I'm not about any one special car.

I appreciate all the cars that come out, all the people that want to be there.

I think that's the most important thing for me.

I was able to go to cars and coffee when it was in Franklin a couple times.

I love the speedway because when I pull in, you can kind of see down.

And I usually think I'm getting there early, but there's people getting there super early because it doesn't matter what time you get there, you can see people parked all over the place.

Well, folks, what he's talking about is from where our entrance is, it is a downhill slope all the way into the event.

So right when you pull in, even though you're early to go set up as a vendor or whatever, there's still so many people there.

That's just like what is happening.

And I take it throughout the course of the event, try a couple times to go to that vantage point to just kind of do the pull in shot.

It is so much dramatic than trying to pull into a movie theater parking lot.

You know, it is.

And I feel like I can move around, see more in that area.

And you know, my father in law, I think you've met him, he's a big car guy, built a lot of British cars, built hot rods.

And when I go with him, occasionally I'll go with just him.

And it won't be a time where we set up a vendor, but for him, he wants to see cars.

For me, it's.

There are so many different kinds of people that I meet that I recognize now.

You know, when I go and we'll see some of our car club members and when I leave, I'm not even thinking about certain cars I saw.

I'm thinking about the conversations I've had with other people.

There's so many walks of life, right?

And we all look like this.

We're all just wearing a little Cars and coffee T shirt, whether it's ours or someone else's.

So you will stumble across a billionaire or a millionaire, just like you'll stumble across a kid who just barely has a job.

And everybody's interfacing.

And it's fun to figure out that's what this is.

In the end, this is a big networking event where you get the opportunity to meet people that you're not just talking about, like, mindsets, right?

We're talking about the people that I just met.

You.

We can sit down and talk about your car for three hours, right?

This, It's a different kind of person, right.

It's not if you're a car guy or girl, you fit in well.

Right?

And you can learn about everything.

You know, I think, you know, getting to the EV stuff, like, people have asked me a couple times, like, what's the future of ev?

It's like the future is now y'all are here, they're modifying their cars as much as they possibly can.

And, you know, they're a part of our event cycle, you know, and I think that's, you know, I couldn't say that, you know, when I, you know, met some, some of the early team that we've been working because we've been interfacing with with you guys and or team members of Yalls for six years now.

There's a lot that has changed in the EV world in six years.

I know.

Even when we were there last year, you know, we.

We had our little spot for the EVs, but there were people that are not part of our clubs that were bringing their eevees in.

And I don't remember, but it was an EV we had never seen before.

I can't remember what model it was that came in there.

And I was like, oh, my goodness, I wish he would come park with us.

But he went over somewhere else.

But, I mean, there was more EVs there than just our club.

Yeah, well.

And I think that's a part of it, right?

A lot of these guys, whether they're.

You don't have to want the internal combustion engine to be the end all, be all for your car.

Joy.

I've been lucky enough to drive all of the full variety of electrical cars on the planet.

I personally am not one to buy one, but I can enjoy them for sure.

I can definitely recommend them for people.

I have a couple friends that now own them and they don't own them lightly.

They looked at the reviews and they went through the whole process and it wasn't for them, it wasn't a matter of decision.

It was just like, oh, is this a luxury car or not?

Or I'm trying to save the plant here.

It's like, no, this one just checked all the boxes.

I think a lot of them.

Now there's enough out there that you've got no excuse if there's enough out there that are nice.

Or hey, if you don't believe the build quality of a Tesla, check out some of the Mercedes or the Audi or everybody has got one.

I saw the i4 on the way down here, which you don't see a lot of, but you know, BMW's most highest selling model is their, you know, their 4 and 3 series cars.

And now they have the, now it's EV, you know, so I'm sure those will tack on the numbers of, you know, it was a great looking car as I drove by, you know, so, you know, I can appreciate the EV market.

You know, they've taken a hit recently for a couple different reasons, but I think the future is definitely strong.

I don't think Tesla is the future of our EV market.

All the other car companies have taken over and I'm looking forward to seeing what Rivian's got coming to the table and some of these other guys.

I feel like the supercar world is just starting to.

They're just starting to be able to put a two or three hundred thousand dollars car out that's all electric, that is the fastest car in the world.

Or as a theory they just haven't built them yet.

But the tech is there.

Well, and as a father, I think one thing that's cool is I get to take my kids to cars and coffee and there's Rivian and Tesla there, that'll do.

Ride and drives, they get a chance to get in there and check them out.

But there's also, last time I was there, there was a person that had a cybertruck and we were looking at it and he's like get up in there, check it out.

And you know, my kids, they just, they get a kick out of that.

So it's, that's pretty cool that they get a chance to.

Well, I think that's one of the things I like about Tesla owners.

A lot of them, especially when the Model X first came out and the doors were just such a crazy thing.

So many people were just willing to, yeah.

Open the doors and let kids jump in and out or put it on demonstration mode over and over again till, you know, probably to sacrifice the battery.

Probably not a good idea.

But you know, that's one of the things I've liked about part of this EV movement is a lot of these people are very hospitable.

Right.

You know, and I think that, you know, it's very easy to take the same priced car in a Mercedes, BMW or Lexus.

The person is not as hospitable as the, you know, the Tesla owner.

So.

And that's part of the reason that I feel like they've had such good incremental growth.

You know, they're the biggest car company in the world.

Right.

And they don't advertise really.

So they don't.

And that's what's one of the things that's real funny is like we're, we're part of their marketing arm.

There's very few people that are, that are working like we are with Tesla.

They don't have marketing budgets.

So the fact that we've had them as a part of our event shows how much they care about the community and trying to at least make sure that they're there with us.

But also shows how important our event is that someone like Tesla that doesn't have a marketing budget is spending some marketing dollars with us.

It's pretty amazing.

A lot of EV manufacturers have told me that their best sales position is butts and seats.

That's what they want to do.

And so your cars and coffee give them a chance to do that.

It's one of the biggest differences about our current location because at the other place we couldn't do that.

We didn't have the space to put them so that they could set up both of them.

Tesla and Rivian right now set up to be able to do test drives.

That's one of the great, great things about this.

You know, I can't speak as highly enough about the, you know, National Superspeedway.

They've really, everything that they've done to help us maintain and keep our event going and everything.

Like it's it's super important.

You know, we've had a lot of big ghost supporters over the years.

You know, we're a for profit company so people don't.

People want to give us money all the time and we, we're ready to earn it.

Right.

And so like you can't just, we, we want to, you know, just, just, just like you've realized like we want to.

If you're going to pay to be a part of our event, we're gonna give you a good spot so you get the exposure.

That's what we're about.

We're in the end, we're a marketing arm for local and you know, you know, worldwide companies, but really specialize in getting local brands in front of as many people as you possibly can.

I'm curious.

We were a little bit nervous I think the first time that we were going to go to a car club event or cars and coffee or car, any car show because we didn't know what kind of reaction.

You're not, as a theory, you're not a car related business like everybody else.

Exactly.

Yeah.

And you know, when I think about classic cars and new technology, how's that all.

But I mean we have been, for me it's been well received by everyone that's there.

Right.

I mean we, I will say when we were there, you know, we would have, I had a few people, you know, they would start the conversation with I don't believe in electric vehicles.

You know, they'd start it there.

And you knew, you knew that he, when I was talking to this person, like I know he was not going to have an electric vehicle, but he just kept asking, he's still right, he.

Still wanted the info.

And then what I found is a lot of the things that he assumed, well, you know, you can't do this with that.

And I'm like, well actually you can.

You know, a lot of the things that he assumed about electric vehicles were wrong.

So it was a great opportunity to talk to him, to talk to him about the effects that EV has on the power grid or whatever misconception that people have.

So it was an opportunity for us to educate these people.

But they were all, it was just funny because they were all like, they almost wanted to come over there to tell us no.

But then it ended up, the conversation shifted to where I think they left a little more open minded.

I guess then they walked in talking to us.

I think that's one of the things that's cool about some of these guys is whether or not they're gonna buy, like myself, Whether or not I'm gonna buy, I'm interested.

I want to know how fast are they really?

Right.

And, you know, and a lot of the information you guys will end up having is kind of stuff that isn't readily available.

Like, you know, how much can I actually save?

You know, how much tax credit do I actually have?

What are the, you know, what are all the little things that kind of come with it?

And that's what's good about having a group of people out there that are just ready to sometimes get peppered.

Right.

But a lot of the times the realization of, like, people aren't at my event to be in a bad mood.

So one more question for you.

Are there any exciting plans or new initiatives or anything on the horizon for cars and coffee?

Well, other than our normal event, Right.

Which is always a big deal to pull off, we're always partnering with other smaller companies and trying to help promotions.

Again, we're really just a promotional tool for other companies and other events to grow and utilize.

So it's not just our social media page.

We have a group with over 12,000 members where all these other events are being promoted in that group.

I just want to continue our growth pattern.

You know, having a second event is always something that is we are or we aren't pushing for.

You know, we definitely have one on the calendar right now that we're helping someone with.

And it's an evening event, but we can't be what we are now in that space.

It's a different venue, It's a whole different thing.

Right.

So I want, you know, our future is really making sure that this large scale, once a month, cars and coffee can happen forever.

And that's what I mean, this is what I do.

This is my job.

So it's not for me about setting these odd goals of, hey, we need to have 15,000 or 20,000 or 35,000 people.

It's like, no, we're still just trying to grow local companies, and we're only gonna be as big as those local companies want us to be.

Right.

So if I, you know, we're always gonna have a local car dealer, a local tint window guy, a local wrap company, a local paint body shop, those are the guys we're supporting.

And, you know, as long as they want to keep growing and.

Or, hey, I'm changing my business model.

I'm going to be a ceramic coater now.

You know, it's like, that's what we kind of keep doing.

So, like, if there's a future for us.

It's the next company that someone's opened and they want to grow it.

That's my future.

I'm going to help that person grow their company.

And they may decide after three months they're busy enough, they don't want to work with us anymore.

That's fine.

I need to find the next guy to help grow his company and we.

Hope to be back there soon.

So for our Car Club members, we will send out emails or our Facebook group page when our next Cars and Coffee will be.

But like I said, we try to get out there at least once a quarter.

Thanks again for coming today and thanks for everyone for listening today.

And we will be sure to link all the information on cars and coffee in the show notes, so make sure to check that out.

If you have any question about MTE's EV Ready program, night Flex, Ray, or anything EV related, email us@evcarclubte.com for more information on MTE's Drive EV programs or the EVCAR Club, please visit DriveEV.com or email us at evcarclubte.com and until next time, plug in, power up and drive safe.