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, I'm Brandon Wagner.

And I'm Amy Byers.

And welcome to MTE's Plugged in podcast.

So, Brandon, it's hard to believe that we are here at Christmas time again.

Last year we did a list of Christmas gifts for the Evie lover in your life.

So we thought let's do this again and make this an annual thing.

So it's hard to believe that it is time to start shopping for Christmas presents, but here we are.

So I have asked you to do a little research and pick out things that are maybe you want on your Christmas list.

And I will say before we get into this list, I want to make sure to point out that we do kind of have some price what these are priced at.

But the majority of them, when we were looking at them before this podcast, were 40% off or 50% off.

They were all on sale.

But I'm just listening like the regular retail price.

But chances are as we're getting close to Christmas and definitely, you know, right now it's Black Friday.

So there may be some deals today if you want to get out there.

And I hope with saying that I hope everybody had a wonderful Thanksgiving.

So.

But let's get started.

So the first one on your list is the Caspro 2.0.

So what in the world is a Cast Pro?

Well, I mean it's sort of self explanatory, right?

It just casts.

No, in all seriousness, it was not.

Self explanatory to me.

In all seriousness, what's cool about this episode is this to me is kind of like what are the new gadgets?

What are the new tech that's out there?

And so to your point, some of the price points are a little high, but we kind of zoom back a little bit and say these are some cool things that maybe you haven't come across yet.

And so the first one I found is this CAS2Cast Pro 2.0.

What it does is it actually casts your phone to a.

If you're a Tesla, if you have a Tesla, it casts to the Tesla screen.

And so if you're a GM owner or something like that, you have the opportunity to use Apple CarPlay but not Tesla.

You've got to use Tesla's thing.

So what this does, it allows your phone to do Apple CarPlay on your Tesla that that's what you prefer.

It also has an Android mode.

Same thing.

You can also mirror your phone screen to the other screen.

So it's just trying to get a little more functionality out of that screen in your Teslas that don't have the native Apple CarPlay.

So this is really for the Tesla owners.

This one is.

Some of them are specific to each one because there's some compatibility issues.

But yes.

Yeah, this one's for that CarPlay ability for Tesla owners.

Right.

So the price on this one, the regular price was $240, but I do believe it was on sale when I looked at it yesterday.

So, you know, if maybe you, a bunch of people go in together, all the kids go in and get that for dad or something.

That's perfect.

All right, so let's move on to the next one.

It is a Blum car led door seal 2.0.

So I looked this one up and I'm like, I wonder first of all.

Well, tell us about it and then I'll ask my question.

Well, this one is.

This is for any car.

That was my question.

My question is this for EVs, because I'm thinking I think my husband might like this on his truck.

Yeah, well, and some of these are not EV specific, but I think they'll.

People that are EV owners might gravitate a little bit more.

I'll tell you why I picked this one.

If you're a Tesla owner, one of the native upgrade you can get is an illuminated panel.

So when you open your door at the bottom it'll illuminate.

And what this does is basically replicates that and it's an adhesive that you put down and it's got an LED in it.

And you can get it for a variety of different makes.

It'll have the make of the car, whatever you want it to say, and you put it down there.

And what's cool is so you open the door, it sort of lights, gives it a little bit of ambient lighting, but there's no wires.

You don't have to wire it into your car system or anything like that.

It's got a battery that can be recharged.

So it's kind of a cool little wireless.

It kind of reminds me, you know those under cabinet lights that are.

Yes, yeah, yeah.

I have several of those in my closets.

Yeah, yeah, exactly.

So same thing and just kind of adds a little bit of Neat little touch to the car.

Yeah.

And I guess the price point on this really varies because if, you know, if you just need two, if you need four, whatever.

So it's anywhere between like maybe 59.99 to 148, 98, depending on how many you do and that kind of thing and your car.

So I noticed when you got on that site, you picked your, the make of your car, you picked your model of your car and then it gives you the option.

So.

But yeah, that was a, that was a neat one, I thought.

Yeah.

So this next one that I put on here was any sort of NAX to CCS charging adapter.

Whether it's CCS to NAX or NAX to ccs, either way, we're all moving towards a NAX system.

So in just a couple of weeks, 20, 25, all these manufacturers are going to be making their vehicles with a NAX charging port.

And what that stands for is North American Charging Standard.

That was the Tesla standard, you know, the Tesla plug everyone's adopted, and not everybody, but the majority of vehicles are adopting it.

And so what's cool about this is if you have a car that has a ccs, this migration over to NAX sort of was announced in perpetuity to announcing that Tesla is opening up their charging station to non Tesla drivers.

But in order to do that, you need to be able to plug into the NAX port.

So, you know, some folks that are Ford owners, they're going to get a conversion adapter in the mail for free.

But if you're the EV owner in your life is a CCS car driver and they don't have, they're not on that list where they're going to get a free one.

This would be a great thing for them to have.

Opens up a lot more charging network options to them as they're traveling around.

Yeah, and this was just on Amazon and it was $189, so.

And I will pause and I'll mention this again at the end to remind everybody, we will have all these links in the show notes.

So if you're unsure where to go, you can check out the show notes and get that.

So the next one is another one for a Tesla owner, which we, we know you are a Tesla owner, so I guess that's why we have all these Teslas ones on here.

But this is the Tesseri.

Am I saying that right?

7.2 Rear Seat Entertainment system, which I know you have kids in your life, so this is a hunt.

I think this is More so if Brandon's wife is listening, this is Brandon's Christmas wish list.

But tell us about this.

So I mean, and again, think about it in a big umbrella term.

Anyone that's got kids and travels a lot with kids, a rear seat infotainment system entertainment system is really handy.

A lot of the SUV's and stuff have the screens in the back of the seat headrest.

But for, you know, my Tesla Model Y, I've got a big screen on the front and I've got nothing in the back.

And even if I'm driving, that front screen does not show movies and stuff, but it can stream Disney plus and all that stuff.

So what this is, it goes on the back of your, I guess your compartment console.

And so it plugs right there and integrates directly into the system and you can stream stuff right there on the back.

The kids can watch that if you're not.

If your family member, the EV owner in your life doesn't have a Tesla, another good idea would be just some kind of rear entertainment system that they can put.

We've had the ones in the past that go over the headrest and Velcro in.

I hate those personally because there's cables everywhere and my kids get in and out of the car, they step on the cables.

You know, it's just a recipe for disaster.

When my daughter was little, you know, I had the mom van and ours had.

It was on the back of the console and you would lift it up and there was a screen and there was a VCR player in the console.

So we've come, certainly have come.

I'm dating myself, but we certainly have come a long way from that.

But that is definitely, I think most parents that have kids in the back, that's a plus.

So the price point for that, I will say it was a little hot, was like 599 was their regular price.

But it was on sale when I looked at it yesterday for 239.

So act quickly and maybe you can catch.

There's different ones.

And I guess the only thing I would tell you is these are not like officially Tesla licensed.

So do your research, make sure that it's going to be safe and that sort of thing.

And another thing, I guess this is probably a good time to say too, we don't get any sort of feedback, kickback or anything.

If you decide to buy any of these, there's no.

This is just us kind of researching.

Yeah, yeah.

Okay.

So this next one again, I think this one's very doable.

Yeah, I think this is more of a stocking stuffer situation and it can be for anybody.

Like I wouldn't mind having one of these myself.

So this is the.

I don't know how to say this.

Tiff Ty Carvey.

I don't know.

Anyway, I don't know the brand name, but it's a cleaning gel.

And I've seen these advertised like you'll see them on the little reels on the social media or whatever where it just looks like it reminds me of that slime that the kids had.

You know, just like a ball of that goo and.

But you can take it and it will get the dirt.

Like you can put it in different.

Your cup holder or whatever and it gets the gunk out.

Yeah.

And this is another one you can get for any vehicle.

You can actually use it for keyboards.

I mean there's all sorts of cool applications.

I do have this.

And so whenever I wash the car I have the kids help me.

And I'm pretty fortunate because I don't have to really twist their arm.

They just kind of volunteer.

But what they will do is they fight over which one gets to do the gel because it's cool to them to play with.

It's like Silly Putty.

And you're rolling it around and I will tell you it's gross.

The stuff that it picks up, the stuff that you're driving around and you had no idea.

But it's perfect for those seat cracks that you can't get in.

The vacuum cleaner doesn't pick it up.

You just kind of rub that on there and it pulls that stuff out.

And it looks like my car is detailed after about an hour and a half just washing it in the driveway.

So then what do you do with that?

Is it a one time use or you just let it just lives there forever and then eventually you.

The gel eats it?

I don't know.

Yeah.

What I do and I don't know if this is the right way, but eventually I guess it's gonna run out of its useful life.

But I just kind of fold it back up and just roll it back in another ball and start rolling it around again and it starts pulling stuff up.

So it's kind of gross.

I know.

But it really does make a difference on cleaning the car.

Well and the price point on that is like 999.

So I mean you could get a couple.

Get one for each car.

So the next one on the list is a power tire inflator Portable air compressor.

That's a mouthful.

And I could see how this definitely would come in handy.

So tell us a little bit about that.

Yeah, I mean it's just pretty standard.

This one though has a battery that you can remove.

And so it looks like a sort of looks like a drill really.

And I think there's a 12 volt and a 20 volt battery that you can put on there so it pumps your tire up fast.

Again, this could apply to any vehicle but the EVs specifically if you have a tire issue.

And fortunately EVs, they have less maintenance issues, but they are pretty rough on tires because they're such heavy vehicles.

And if you do have an issue, there is no spare tire.

So if you can get some air into that thing and get to a place where they can help swap the tire out, it's really helpful.

It's something I really need to put in the back of my car to have with me at all times.

Maybe a can of fix a flat to go with it.

Yeah.

So, okay, so the price point ON that is 89.99.

And I mean you can just pick that flix a flat up anywhere and give it as a combo gift.

And so, you know, I'll tell you one of the reasons I have this one in there with the rechargeable batteries and stuff.

My car has a cigarette lighter thing.

You know, you can, a lot of those tire inflators have this, but you have to really search for it.

So some of these EVs, they get to where the 12 volt power supply is like a micro USB.

It's hard to find one of those cigarette lighter things.

So just if you're going to get a tire inflator for someone, make sure somewhere in their car they have the power source available if it's not a battery powered.

Okay.

So I think last year this was on our list.

This looks very familiar to me.

So I'm thinking this was on our list last year.

You have put it back on the list this year.

So this is.

And maybe if you are new to the EV world, you just got yours, you may not have this yet.

So it's the extension cable, the J1 772 extension cable for charging.

So tell us about that.

Yeah, well, this is really handy, especially this time of year.

People are traveling, visiting family and the family where you're going, they might have somewhere you can plug your portable charger in.

But it's not convenient because it was set up for, you know, a deep freeze or something like that.

And so you can't really pull your Car right up to it.

I had that situation happen where my dad had a 240 volt outlet and I could plug into it, but I couldn't get all the way there.

So what's nice about this, you can't just grab a 240 volt extension cable.

In fact, sometimes if you try to do that, it'll recognize it and say, this is not recommended.

And so with having an extender that's sort of a little more official and designed for that, it could be the difference between trying to move everything out of the way to back your car all the way in to plug in, or just being able to snap it together and get a full charge.

And the price point for that, and we just found that on Amazon and the price point for that was 1 69, but that was for a 21 inch.

So you can get them in all different lengths.

So your price obviously would vary with the links.

So this next one was a little different.

This next pick, which I thought was kind of, listen, we're trying to give a wide variety of things, but I do think this would be interesting.

So this is either purchasing a DVD or, you know, a lot of people don't do DVDs anymore, but you can purchase the streaming of it as well.

And it's a documentary.

Who Killed the electric Car?

So first, have you seen this and why are you recommending it?

No, I haven't seen it.

I'm actually hoping you mentioned.

Maybe my wife's listening.

Oh, maybe she is.

Here's another one.

Hopefully this will be one in the stars.

Do I need to send her a list after this?

I think somebody's got to.

Yeah, no, I haven't seen it, but I need to take time to watch it.

This is really cool.

True story about the first.

It's not the first electric car, but it was one of the most important first manufactured electric cars by one of the big automakers.

And it's got a cool story.

Martin Sheen is in the movie.

And of course we've talked about our friend in the car club who drove a one of these vehicles for a little while.

So it's really interesting.

One of the things I love about the car club is that a lot of times you'll send an article to a friend and they'll read the headline, but they won't read the article.

Ev people are just different.

They'll read the whole article.

So if you've got that ev person in your life and they're curious, they're interesting.

I'm sorry.

Interested in Learning more self learner.

This is something they're going to really enjoy.

Yeah.

And again, this is a great, a great price point.

You know, depending on whether you stream it or you and you know, what level of, you know, if you're Amazon prime or you know, whatever, it could be anywhere from $3.59.

And then if you want the DVD for $13.97.

So that's a really good price point.

So the next one, which I think again can be for anybody, this is just.

And in today's world, I think it's good to have.

And that is a.

You have the Ventura S Pro dash cam.

S1 I think or S.

I don't know.

But anyway.

Yeah, I mean I've got a dash cam on my car and the amount of times that I've been thankful that I had it being parked in a place that I'm not usually parked and wondering am I, am I tight?

Am I going to get hit?

Taking your car to the repair place.

And I had a situation where we were traveling and it wasn't with my car, it was my wife's car.

We were trying to get something fixed and when we picked it up, the windshield was broken and they told us it was like that when we brought it in.

Well, it's my word against their word.

There's really nothing I can do about that.

But with the dash cam you get all that storage.

It's super handy.

Yeah.

And the price point, we saw that on Amazon.

Of course there's all different makes and models on that.

But the one that we were looking at and again, you know, we're just, we're just googling good things.

So you might want to do a little more research on which one.

But this one was around $219.99.

So this last one, this is the last one we have.

And I think this is another great.

You can pick your price point.

You can.

Great stocking stuffer.

Great whatever.

And that is gift cards for Chargin or for downloading different car functions for your car.

Yeah.

So you know me and you have talked.

I've had a month demo of full self driving.

I think that that's $100.

But there are different functions that you know, the cars now are kind of like an iPhone and so I can download an app to it.

So there might be someone in your life that wants a month of full self driving and you could provide that to them or the supercharging network or various DC fast chargers out there.

There's all sorts of ways to give somebody a prepaid card that would allow them to basically charge up for free and it's kind of like a gas card.

I remember when I was especially young married and we got gas cards in our stockings from my parents and my in laws.

That was the thing everybody wanted was gas card.

So this would be kind of equivalent to that.

So again, that was our top 10.

And again, want to reiterate, number one, we're not getting any kickbacks for any of this.

We just got on there and googled and thought this would be neat, this would be neat.

And number two, remember the price points that we have given out their sales, their whatever.

So these may not be accurate either.

So make sure to check that out.

Amy, let me jump in too and say that some of the coolest things I ever hear about are from car club members.

So if you're listening to the podcast or you're watching it and there's a cool gift that you got or you gave someone, send it to us or go to the Facebook group, put it out there because there's all sorts of cool stuff that we don't even get to, we don't even run across.

So share those fun ideas.

Yeah, we need to start building our list for next year.

So certainly, certainly.

And if you get any really cool gadgets for Christmas that you think we need to share next year, let us know.

Also, we will link all of these in the show notes so you can check them out there.

But thanks to everybody that is listening.

I hope everyone has a very magical, wonderful Christmas season and you're enjoying riding around in your EV looking at Christmas lights this year.

So hope this helps our little list as you're doing your Christmas shopping.

And if any of you have any questions about MTE's EV Ready program, the Night Flex rate, the EV Car Club or anything EV related, go to DriveEV.com or email us@evcarclubte.com and until next time, plug in, power up and drive safe.