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, and welcome to MTE's Plugged in podcast.

Hi, I'm Amy Byers, and as always, I'm here with Brandon Wachner.

Hello, Brandon.

Hey, Amy.

Today, Amy and I are going to talk about what's new in 2025 in the world of electric vehicles.

So, Amy, last night was the super bowl and one of the commercials that everybody was talking about was the Jeep commercial.

I think I read it was $32 million is what they paid because it was like a two minute thing.

But in that the, there was an electrified Jeep Wrangler, I think.

And so it was kind of funny because Harrison Ford, I don't know if you saw it, but at the end.

I did see it, I thought that was one of my favorite ones.

He goes, even though my name's Ford.

Ford.

And he whispered that.

Yeah, yeah.

But it got us thinking about what other models are out there.

And they've had some electric Jeeps in the past, but you've kind of done some research into what models are going to be hitting the electric vehicle realm in 2025.

Yeah.

And of course, this is not probably a full list.

I mean, this was just.

I kind of did some googling and these were some of the new models that are being talked about right now that are going to be out in 2025.

So I just thought I would go through a few of them and we can talk about them.

First off is the Audi Q6E Tron.

And the E Tron is expected to expand the brand's electric SUV lineup.

It's offering a blend of luxury and performance.

And while specific details are pending, it's anticipated to feature Audi's latest technology and design language.

Not really sure what all that means, but you know, those cars are always look good.

I know at the, the supercharged event this year there we have so many models and that's kind of where I see the latest models when they come.

And, and I always have my favorite every year.

And this year my favorite was that the Audi and it was a sports car and it was that you couldn't really tell what color it was.

It was kind of like sometimes it looked white, sometimes it looked gray, sometimes it looked light blue.

It was beautiful.

It was beautiful.

And when it pulled in, boy, heads were turned.

So I'm sure that this SUV is going to do the same thing.

So that may be one to watch for.

The E Tron's been around for a little while.

I got to do a ride and drive, I think in 2020 was maybe my first experience.

And it is impressive.

The interior of it, it's like a luxury vehicle.

It's awesome.

So I guess the Q6 is their latest version of that.

I guess so.

Okay, so the next one is a Cadillac Escalade iq.

And we had.

Didn't we have a Cadillac Escalade?

What did we have?

We had a Hummer at the riding drive.

Yeah, we had a Cadillac Lyriq.

A Lyriq.

Okay, so this is a different one.

This is an Escalade iq.

And this is a full size suv which aims to combine the spaciousness and luxury of the SUV the Escalade is known for with a modern electric powertrain.

So I would say, I would think this would be a pretty good one because that would be my biggest complaint about these SUVs.

These EVs.

SUVs are all like, what's an SUV?

I'm like, no, it is a puffed up sedan.

You know, I mean, they make it look kind of bubbly and call it an suv.

And I'm like, there's no story.

There's not.

I don't think they understand the concept.

Apparently they have not had children when they've designed these SUVs because I'm like, no, that's just a big bigger car.

So to have a full size, that'll be a game changer.

That will be.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

The next one is the Dodge Charger Dakota.

So Dodge is bringing muscle to the EV market with the Charger Dakota.

Designed to deliver high performance, this electric muscle car is expected to carry forward Dodge's legacy of power and speed into the electric era.

Maybe that'll be kind of their competition against the Mustang.

That's what I was thinking.

Yeah, kind of a.

I would say that Mustang right now is the only sort of muscle car out there.

So.

And it doesn't really look like a muscle car.

So I'm interested to see, you know, is this one gonna have that feel of the muscle car?

So we'll see.

The next one is the Hyundai Iconic 9.

So we've had a lot of the, the Hyundai's.

We've seen the Iconic at a lot of our events.

So this is the 9 and the details are a little limited.

It is expected to offer advanced features and a spacious interior catering to families seeking an electric suv.

So this kind of goes back to what I was saying earlier, that they need to make these a little bigger to function more for families.

It looks like SUV is sort of the theme really.

I mean and the Hyundai's, they're pretty impressive and the folks that I know that have them love them well and.

It feels like they were one of the first ones that really hit that market where people were buying them up.

You see a lot of those on the road.

So apparently they have a good track record.

People keep repeat buying them.

Yeah, exactly as well.

So the next one, we're at the commercial now that we talked about earlier.

The Jeep Wagoneer S and the Recon.

Jeep is entering the electric SUV market with the Wagoneer S and the Recon models.

These vehicles aim to provide the off road capabilities Jeep is known for now powered by electric drivetrain.

So we saw a lot about that in that Superbowl commercial.

Doing a lot of off roading and different things.

So that'll be interesting.

Jeep is a brand that, you know, people have sort of a, a really special relationship to that brand.

I mean I have some friends that are Jeep folks, you know, and you know it.

Right.

It's so.

Well, you get the ducks.

That's right.

Yeah, exactly.

You got good Jeep, somebody might give you a rubber duck.

So.

Yeah, yeah.

Well, I think it'll be, I think it'll be received well.

Especially only knock I have from my friends that are Jeep owners is Jeeps have horrible gas range or gas mileage.

So if you can get improved range electric.

So I think it'd be great.

It'd be interesting to see what the range is and what off roading will do to that range.

You know we've talked about if you run your air conditioning, if you drive really fast, you know, there's different things that affect your range.

So how is off roading and rugged terrain and that type of stuff, how's that going to affect things?

That should be interesting.

That will be.

Yeah.

To watch that.

Okay, the next one is the Kia EV9 GT and EV3.

So the GT is anticipated to be a performance oriented SUV while the EV3 is expected to be more of a compact, affordable option, broadening Kia's electric vehicle offerings.

And Kia, I compare Kia to Hyundai a lot.

They're both Korean made and they're both really good price points for what they offer.

So the same thing I would say about the Hyundai, the folks I know that have Kia electric vehicles are really proud of them and have nothing but good things to say about owning them.

Well, and the affordable option, the EV3 for those that are really wanting to get an EV, but they just don't want to pay those prices that they are.

You know, this may be something to watch for.

It may hit a lot more budgets than what some of the other ones have been hitting.

So this next one is a new one on me.

I think it was kind of a new one on you.

Maybe it's a Lotus Electra.

And I don't know if I'm saying that right.

We had to look it up.

We did look it up.

And it's not spelling different than what I want to say.

It's E, L, E, T, R E.

But anyway, it is stepping.

So Lotus is stepping into the electric SUV segment.

With the Electra known for its sports cars, Lotus aims to bring its performance heritage to this new electric suv.

So another suv.

We'll see if it looks like an SUV or if it looks like a beefed up car.

I don't know.

Yeah, it's going to be interesting to see these SUVs because right now I would say when you think about a traditional SUV, the Rivian R1s I think fits that.

The Nissan Ariya maybe is sort of there.

And then outside of that, like you said, the Tesla Model Y is considered an suv.

Well, most people look at it and think it's a larger sedan.

So I will see, I'll be interested to kind of watch this.

One thing that's interesting about Rivian is they're actually going backwards.

So they have a full size SUV and they're going to make a smaller version with the R2.

I don't know exactly when that one's coming out yet.

I don't know if it'll be 2025.

So I'm going to have to wait.

We're hoping that we'll see some of these models at the EV Supercharged event, which is June 7th.

Mark your calendars to attend.

It'll be in Murphy spread this year and of course we'll have more details about that as we get closer.

But I do hope we'll have a few of these that we can see that we've talked about here today.

So moving on, I mentioned, you know, the, the Kia being affordable.

You know, a lot of these are not affordable options for people's budgets.

You know, they're just, they're just at a price point that you just can't, you know, make work.

A lot of times you can get leases for less money.

So I thought maybe I'm going to give you the floor now to talk about maybe with some of these new models or existing models that we have out there, is it more accessible to people to do a lease option versus buying?

So what's the pros and cons?

What are the things to look for, that kind of thing?

Well, leasing is getting more and more popular with EVs.

A lot of folks look at them more like technology than they do owning a car.

And so a three year lease, that seems like a long time with technology.

And by the time those three years are up, you might.

The technology may be so different, you're ready to move on.

And so it's a little bit weird for folks like me who I've studied and thought the way I want to own my car is to buy it outright.

But what this allows for is a chance to take the tax credits for some of these.

You know, there's stipulations on all these tax credits and we're going to get with a tax professional here fairly soon, someone who's an expert in the legislation to give us more details.

But for now, some people qualify for the tax credits and some don't.

But, but one of the ways the tax laws are written are that the manufacturers can actually harvest the tax credit.

And so what is kind of interesting about leasing an EV that's a little different than leasing a gasoline vehicle is that Rivian, for instance, high price point vehicle.

But they can take the tax credit and package it into the lease so you get the value of the tax credit in a reduced lease.

And so let's look at some numbers just to kind of put some numbers to this.

I'm going to start with Tesla because they kind of made some waves within this area.

You can actually lease a 2025 Model 3.

Now, a lot of this depends on how many miles a year you drive.

And I mean, at least it's not for everyone.

For sure, I get that.

But depending on your amount of miles you drive and that sort of thing, you can actually get a Tesla 2025 Model 3 for $299 a month.

Same thing for the Model Y.

So there's a lot of folks that I know that buy their cars outright and then their monthly payment is quite a bit more than that.

So this allows you to take that tax credit, pull your lease value down, and then at the end of 36 months, you can decide if you want to renew or get another vehicle, that sort of thing.

Well, and like you said, and I think we've seen this as we have, you know, been paying attention to the different models and different things.

You know, the EVs that were coming out three years ago, you know, they're very different than the EVs that are coming out.

You know, the EVs that are coming out now have longer battery life.

They have, you know, newer, like the self driving, the this and that and the other, you know, all that kind of stuff that you didn't have, you know, two or three years ago.

So when you look at it more like, you know, a computer, a tech, you know, how often do you upgrade your phone, how often do you upgrade your computer at your house?

You know, when you look at things like that, if you look at the car like that, then a lease does make sense because you're always able to keep to that latest and greatest and you're not stuck having to sell it, you know, and take that big hit and that type of thing.

Right.

And you know, and I'm certainly not a personal finance expert at all.

I just want to share some of this to kind of broaden folks mind because if you're like me, I was very closed off to leasing.

But I want, you know, I just want to make people aware that, you know, maybe, maybe give it a second thought because like you said, and what's going to happen in the next three years, technology wise is I think is going to be radically different.

One of the things that we've talked about as far as innovation is full self driving.

Well, all full self driving is unique, right?

So there's Ford has their blue cruise version and it's more for major highways and interstates.

Then there's Autopilot which is limited full self driving.

It's not full self driving, it's limited self driving.

And then there's supervised full self driving.

And then what we might see in the next three years is unsupervised full self driving.

And this would be where you can literally read a book or something.

And so but there's also a lot of speculation to is the hardware that's out there today capable of achieving full self driving.

So full self driving unsupervised scares me a lot.

Right, it does.

That always goes.

I think we've talked about this before in the sci fi movies that always get you.

Yeah, I've seen this story, I've seen this movie.

It does not end well for the person.

So I don't know how I feel about that.

But speaking of the self driving, we are going to have a podcast.

I'm not sure when it drops, but in a few.

I don't know, it will be coming up soon.

Well, we're going to take some of the employees here, some of our member service specialists out in the car, in your car with the self driving, to see, you know, how things go.

And I was talking with one of them and they were like, oh, yeah, Brandon said that you'd be in there driving and I'd be.

And I was like, I did not sign up to be that guinea pig.

So I don't know what Brandon's thinking.

So we'll see if y'all get me in there or not.

I don't know.

But that'll be a fun episode and we can really tap into that self driving.

So, you know, that's the latest technology, the self driving.

But another thing that you're seeing so, so much of, and I even used it in researching my models that we talked about earlier is AI.

So we're all starting to use AI a little bit more in our own lives, maybe more than we want to admit that we are using that.

So let's talk a little bit about what does AI look like in this EV world?

Yeah.

And I found a really interesting article because one of the things.

And we've talked about trying to get a podcast just specifically about AI and how our industry is sort of overlapping it.

AI is.

I heard this phrase the other day.

It's our generation's Manhattan Project.

And so you're seeing a lot of countries position themselves to solve AI faster than other countries, but it's overlapping in everything.

Right.

I mean, there's the LLM limited, I'm sorry, large language model that we use, like ChatGPT, there's machine learning versions.

Now there's this stuff called agentic AI.

But what's great about AI?

I mean, there's scary things, right?

Oh, yeah.

But what's great, there's a movie about that, too.

We need to have a Netflix recommendation list.

Yeah.

But one of the things that these manufacturers are doing with AI is trying to find ways to make the experience for drivers better.

So, for instance, battery management and route planning, obviously this is something we have access to maps and that sort of thing.

And batteries are smart.

There's a battery management system there that knows how to project, how much range you're going to have on different trips and that sort of thing.

But this is still really new.

Right.

So there's still only so much research that has been done.

And so if AI can learn the Best way to manage those batteries and squeeze out as much range as possible.

I think that there's a lot of promise there.

Preventive maintenance.

This is really cool too, when it can alert you you've got an issue on this bearing.

Well, it's not an issue yet, but it will be in six months.

So go ahead and get it fixed now.

That's pretty awesome.

I mean, we've talked.

We don't like car trouble, right?

The only thing that's bad about having a car is when you get stranded because you have car trouble.

So if you can prevent those things ahead of time.

This is something that has already been working on, but charging station optimization, and we've talked about this.

When you plug your car into a DC fast charger, our chargers here at our Murfreesboro office are capable of delivering 150 kilowatts.

But frequently they won't do that because the cars are so smart.

They know I'm going to damage my battery life if I do that.

I need to warm up.

And until I warm up, I'm only going to pull maybe 70 kilowatts.

And then as I get full, I'm going to slow it down too.

So ways to preserve the life.

That's a question we get all the time.

What happens when your batteries die?

Well, that's a question we don't have a great answer for right now.

But in the meantime, let's use technology to get as much life out of these batteries as possible.

And then, of course, autonomous driving.

We've talked about how Tesla removed a lot of code and instead used neural network training, just feedback loops of videos of driving to program their autonomous full self driving.

And then vehicle personalization.

This is, I think one thing that's cool about EVs is the tech.

And when you can make this car your own and it knows your habits, it knows that Amy's driving today or Brandon's driving today, and it can adjust accordingly.

I think that's just going to make a better experience.

And going back to the lease thing, the lease allows folks who are maybe a little unsure is this lifestyle for me, you know, how much am I going to have to change my life to be an EV driver?

This allows you to kind of tiptoe in and try it for three years, see what the technology does.

And then if you decide I want to go all in, you can do that.

Right?

Well, this has been, this has been pretty interesting today.

I wasn't sure how this podcast was going to go, but.

No, I like it and I like what we've talked about.

I think it's a lot of things.

I think it's funny because I feel like the first year we did the podcast, you know, we were sitting here going, it's going to be interesting to see where it goes, you know.

And then last year I think we probably had an episode where we said those things, same things.

And now we're here, our third year doing this podcast and it's the same thing.

It's like, where is this going to go?

Like every year it's something more exciting.

So it's just interesting to sit back and watch and kind of have a front row seat to it.

Yeah.

And we talked a little bit about this.

There's a lot of negative sentiment out there, even by sites that I frequently go to that are pro ev.

There's just a lot of uncertainty right now.

The market is in a bit of a valley, so we'll have to sort of watch that too.

Where does it settle in at?

And so we're going to be trying to keep an eye on that and learning and share what we learn with our listeners.

And then of course, listeners, as you all are learning, please share with us what you're hearing.

Yeah, absolutely.

We certainly have our evcarclubte.com email address.

So if y'all are hearing something, if there's a topic you want us to kind of delve into, be sure to email us there.

But Brandon, we'll just sit back and see, see what happens with all this.

But thanks to everyone who was listening today.

If you have any questions about MTE's EV Ready program, the Night Flex rate, the EV Car Club, or anything EV related, go to drive EV.com or email us at EVCarClub@mte.com.

and until next time, plug in, power up and drive safe.