Winter tires for an EV? EV mandate? // QCC #223
Welcome to the Motormouth YouTube channel. I’m Zach. I’m Andrea. This is Questions Coffee and Cars 223. How do you get questions in Andrea? Follow along on Instagram at motormouth_andrea. Every Sunday I put a post out asking for questions. Once we gather them, the post is deleted and we start the show. Time now for questions, coffee, and cars. Your questions from Instagram. What are your thoughts on the 2026 electric Rivian R2 scheduled to come out in mid 2026? Can’t wait. I think it’s I Yeah, because it was supposed to be like as a 2027 model. That one, if it comes to market, if it’s priced well, we’ll sell. Yeah, I think uh price-wise I I don’t know. I think that’s going to be a tough one, but hopefully they can keep the price down and uh it’ll sell well. I think it’s cute, too. Super cute. All electric car companies right now are struggling. Uh Rivian included. Tesla sales are down. Anyway, we’ll have to watch this space. I recently purchased the 2025 Santa Fe hybrid calligraphy. While I love it, I think it needs another gear, at least seven. This leads me to my question. What goes into an auto brand going with a 6, 7, 8, etc. for their gears? What about 1.5 L versus 2 L inline versus flat? Flat like a flat four like Subaru’s box or Yeah, I’m just thinking because we’re mixing apples and oranges here. Um, it might actually be because of packaging. Remember when we drove um the Grand Highlander and it said it had a six-speed with the hybrid max system? Yeah. And we said, “Why doesn’t it have an 8-speed?” And the chief engineer was there and he said it wouldn’t fit. Yeah. So, it could just be as simple as that. Not sure because they use that six-speed in many applications, Hyundai and Kia for different size vehicles. So, I’m suspecting it’s not packaging. Not sure why they go with 6B. I I Yeah, I don’t know either what makes them decide that. Uh I know with Mazda with the CX70 and the CX90, they had a very reliable six-speed automatic transmission, and people complained that it wasn’t enough gears, so they went with an 8-speed automatic, and they’ve had problems with it. And we said should have just stuck with the six-speed. Yeah. But everybody complained, so they couldn’t win. Um, I actually like their six-speed. I think it’s quite good. And then when it comes to like a 1.5 L versus a 2 L, typically the 1.5 L or 1.3 L is turbocharged and the 2 L is a non-turbo. So many manufacturers have moved to a 1.5 L turbo for fuel economy, but I feel like it doesn’t really work out that way because every time you use that turbo, your fuel economy isn’t great. And I think that the 2 L non-turbo has um a more predictable fuel economy uh number. Except in those Hyundai Kia hybrids, they’ve got 1.6 six liter turbos, but they have the electric motor doing some of that initial launch torque, which is where you tip into the throttle and get the turbo to work. So, anyway, their hybrid system really does work, even though it is turbocharged and has only six gears. I suspect you drive a lot on the highway, which is maybe why you notice it could use an extra gear. So, uh four cylinder, the cylinders going this way in a typical gas engine. With um uh Porsche and with Subaru with their flat fours, the cylinders go this way. And they’re called boxer engines. Why are they called boxer engines, Andrea? Cuz they’re boxing. Cuz it looks like So the pistons go in and out. Uh back in the old days with Volkswagen, the Beatles, all the air cooled cars, they were called horizontally opposed. Um but flat four, the packaging of that, back to packaging, uh Subaru because the engine is going this way instead of this way, the center of gravity, the mass is lower in the platform. It gives you um lower center of gravity overall. So, the lower you can move things down in the chassis, which is why electric cars have that big battery at the bottom, um, gives you, you know, great cornering because the center of gravity is low. That’s one advantage. And then you’ve got automatic transmissions with less or more gears and you’ve got Acura using an Honda 10-speed automatic transmission. Uh, it doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s better. Uh, it it all comes down to how the vehicle is tuned. And then you see some using a CVT like Subaru. Um you see with hybrids, uh Toyota uses ECVT. So does Lexus in some cases unless you get that hybrid max with the six-speed automatic. So with ECVTs, they’ll and CVTs for that matter the matter, they’ll do it for fuel economy, um which uh really helps with efficiency. If the predictions are true, lithium ion batteries that now power all EVs will soon be replaced by aluminum ion or solid state batteries. Does it make economic sense to buy an EV now when the current technology will soon be obsolete in a few years? Well, this is the whole problem with uh jumping into a technology cycle is when do you jump in? I wouldn’t hesitate to buy. There’s so many of these. Um and and the other thing is you wait till you see the price of solid state batteries. Okay. So I suspect that the solid state technology is going to be introduced on luxury cars first. We believe for the Toyota group it’s going to be Lexus. They did talk about that two years ago at the Japan Mobility Show that they’re going to have the solid state batteries um coming probably in 2027, but that would be an Alexus product. So these are not going to be the same price. I think the current battery technology is going to be used for many many years until they can get the price of the new technology down. So you have to decide when you want to jump in on the technology cycle. Yeah. And I also think it’s we’re we’re still a bit away. And I I would just lease an EV. Depreciation is not great. We just put out a video on BYD uh when we were at the Japan Mobility Show and a lot of people wanted to see what BYD is offering. So, we did like a whole interior um tour of BYD models on display. And the thing is we ran into an Australian journalist and he said in Australia BYD has been a massive hit. not only is it a reliable brand, but resale value is very good on it, which makes people want to jump into BYD. And he said it’s not the same for other brands. And we see a huge depreciation issue with electric vehicles. So, frankly, unless you’re going to buy a used one where somebody else takes the hit, I would just lease it. I just want to jump in on that. The big problem we’ve had over the last five years is a lot of the EVs or the maj I will just rephrase that. The majority of EVs have been expensive. They have not been value plays, right? So a lot of luxury brands, a lot of high-end trims sold as electrified. So they were expensive. Historically in the automotive market, I the line I always use is the bigger they are, the harder they fall. the more expensive cars are initially, the the faster they depreciate. And that’s shown up to be true with electric vehicles. My con my hope is that we’re going to have some lower priced EVs coming to the marketplace. General Motors has just announced the new Chevrolet Bolt. They’ve said there’s going to be a whole family of less expensive EVs coming. So, those ones, even though they depreciate, the the amount they depreciate is less. So that might be why BYD is holding their value because they were maybe less expensive to start with probably. The other thing is I have no problem with Chinese vehicles being offered uh in Canada or in North America as long as they’re built here. So if you’re going to ship them in from China and uh and dump them, I don’t agree with that. But if you actually want to sell these models and you want to employ North American workers, I’m all for that. But that’s not what’s being offered being offered. So, if you’re not aware, the whole issue with the Chinese EV um space is that there’s been so much um so many incentives placed by the Chinese government and regional governments. So what happened was the Chinese government said, “We’re going to stimulate this technology. We want to put all this seed money in to get electric vehicles and the supply chains and the batteries and all the rare earth materials.” And they basically cornered a lot of that stuff, especially the rare earth stuff. And then you had regional governments like different provinces say, “We want to have a factory in our area.” So then they subsidize them even more. There’s over capacity of Chinese EVs. They’re subsidized to the point where a lot of these brands, they haven’t made money and they won’t make money and a lot of them are going to go out of business, but these cars are stacking up and then what happens is they dump them in uh jurisdictions, maybe Europe and uh Australia at at a loss. Well, that’s not fair to the people who are making cars here. You can’t dump cars. So, Andrea’s point is well taken. If you’re going to make them, they’re not going to be making them for the same price here. Of course not. You can’t. And that’s the problem. they just want to dump them in our market. Um, and in Australia, Australia doesn’t produce its own vehicles. So, for them to bring in BYD, this Australian journalist said it’s not really a big deal cuz it’s not displacing jobs. Exactly. So, it’s been okay. So, I would lease. And there’s a ton of money, ton of money on the hood of these electric vehicles in North America right now with low interest rates because they’re not moving. So, they got to move iron. Get into uh, you know, a fairly affordable one. We’re driving our Equinox EV and loving it. And I have a question about winter tires for longevity of use. Do we need to buy tires especially designed for an EV? Our current tires are the 21inch ones that come with the RS trim, but would rather not spend an arm and a leg to get the 21in EV winter tire suggest supplied by GM. Any suggestions for tires or tire brands we should look at? So, first off, you don’t have to get a a tire that’s made specifically for an electric vehicle, but you do have to factor in the weight of the vehicle, how fast it goes, these types of things. You have to get a tire that is appropriate for your electric vehicle. Many people who own an EV actually go without an EV tire because they feel that they have better grip in the winter, but also the ride comfort is better. It’s it’s not as noisy inside the cabin. Okay. So, you can just get steelies. They’re called steelies. Steel wheels. Just um cheap steel wheels. And then um winter tires. So, the one thing about electric vehicles is they have typically what are called low rolling resistance tires. So, it’s typically a higher um a harder compound, which is what you don’t want in winter. You want a softer compound. So, the weight of the car and the softer compound on a winter tire can scrub through those tires very quickly. So, if you’re not aware, we bought a Bolt uh recently, a Chevrolet Bolt, and I was on all kinds of forums, and the number one issue with the Bolt owners is the cars chew through tires. That’s going to be the case for any EV, they’re just very heavy, and winter tires are soft, so you’re going to scrub through those quickly. My advice would be put them on later, late in the season, like December 1st, and take them off as soon as you can. The other factor you have to fig the other thing you have to factor in is um tire repair kit, run flat tires, not sure off the top of my head what the Equinox is, suspect it’s a tire repair kit. So, so things like that all have to go into the equation. So, go on an Equinox Facebook group, type in Go on Facebook and type in um Equinox group and there’ll be a few dozen of them. sign up to the biggest ones and see what other people are using uh for winter tires and go with their recommendation. And the Equinox EV is a tire repair kit. So there you go. You have to factor that in. I understand there’s a mandate for 26% EV sales in British Columbia. British Columbia is where we live in Canada, but there still is not enough charging stations available outside of the Lower Mainland. Living in the Coupney is a prime example of this. You’re right. So right now as it stands, British Columbia by 2026 has a second that’s like two months away. 26% of sales have to come from bavs or plug in hybrids and then uh by 2035 100%. Now the federal government has paused their program as it stands and some are asking well is BC going to do the same? Well, Adrien Dixs, who is our ministry, uh Minister of Energy and Climate Control, uh he says they have no plans to pause it. However, they’re open to making some changes to it. They announced this summer they were doing because because they’re not going to hit um 26% by 2026. Not going to happen. So, if you’re not aware, the penalty to a car company, say you’re Ford Motor Company and you don’t sell 20, it’s not 20 26% of overall sales, it’s 26% for each company. Now, that’s not a problem for Tesla. It might not even be a problem for General Motors because they have a lot of electric cars, but it would be a problem for some brands. So, as it stands right now, if a car company doesn’t hit that 26% in 2026, the regulations are written that every non electric vehicle will have an extra $20,000 added to the price. Yeah. Like, that’s just financial suicide for the car companies and it’s not going to happen. So, they announced in the summer they’re they’re having and it’s supposed to be happening right now um a rethink on all this and then they’re going to report back. I would suspect it might even be by the end of questions, coffee, and cars. We don’t know. But any day now, they’re going to have to announce that wait a second, uh 26% isn’t going to happen. And uh they’ll just kill the car industry if they did 20 grand per car. And Adrian Dixs uh has said, “Do we want to be with the rest of the world and and uh the environment or do we want to go with President Trump and his views on climate?” It’s got nothing to do with President Trump. It’s got it’s got to do with an ideology versus reality. And the reality is they’re not going to sell 26%. So you can’t add $20,000 to every single car. Imagine you go in there and you want to buy a $30,000 Hyundai Elantre. And then they go, “Yeah, by the way, it’s now 50 grand.” Like, it’s just not going to happen. And so they’re rethinking it. guarantee you that the regulations will be rewritten or they’ll pause it as well. Like brands such as Subaru and even Mazda for that matter really struggle with meeting that target for sure. And the $20,000 is brutal for them. Now, you can buy credits if you don’t make your target from brands like Tesla, who obviously have a ton because they only sell electric vehicles. So Elon Musk will sell credits to these manufacturers. The whole thing is just really silly. Well, I remember doing radio interviews like 2, three years ago saying, “Oh, we’re going to go 100% EV by 2035.” I said, “In a that’s a fantasy. It’s not going to happen.” And the thing is that people vote with their wallet and they also voted the ballot box. Back to your Donald Trump question. Um, and there will be ramifications for governments that make these silly, it’s really silly, uh, laws. Not going to happen. It will not happen. The $20,000 will not happen. They’re going to have to backpedal on this. And BC had a high uptake on electric vehicles uh, you know, for the past couple years, not 26%. But, um, in the low 20s. Yeah. Did well. And that was because our gas prices were through the roof. Well, now gas prices have come down and people are looking at the gap between buying a gas model, a hybrid, and a plug-in hybrid to a a BAV, and they’re saying, “Look, I don’t think that I’m going to make up the difference.” So, I’m just going to go with a hybrid, and possibly a lower trim or a gas model. So, just quickly, off the top of my head, the last numbers I saw, we were as high as 23% in British Columbia, but that was overall. That included Tesla, not individual brands. Like I said, if you broke out each individual brand, there’s no way you’d be at like 20%. So 23% was kind of peak EV in BC and right now we’ve rolled down to about 15%. That’s right. So it’s Anyway, those are the numbers and I have to say Tesla here in British Columbia, well at least in Vancouver, I shouldn’t say British Columbia, uh because there’s a lot of different factors at play, but in Vancouver Teslas are a dime a dozen. In fact, manufacturers who come out to Vancouver are shocked by the amount of Model Y’s and Model 3s on the road. Yeah. But the sales have gone way down because of the whole Doge thing. Now it’s General Motors is the winner. They’re the winner. The Equinox is the number one selling EV in Canada. I currently own a 2024 VW Taos Black Edition with the redesign for 2025 for Taos and now nearing year end. Would it be in my best interest to see if I can get a good deal on a 2025 model? Or in your experience, would you think that trading in a one-year-old car is not the best move? Keep the car you have. Listen, like it’s the fear of missing out. It’s not that big a change. They gave it a facelift and they reconfigured a bit of the interior. It’s it’s a it’s it’s what we call a mild facelift. Uh the biggest change was they got rid of the dual clutch transmission and they went to a conventional torque converter automatic. But if you’re happy with the way that you uh the car you drive now, just keep it. I mean, you can run the numbers. There might be, but the to is selling like crazy. You don’t think there’s going to be killer deals out there. Um, you know, that’s just that’s just financially not smart. I actually prefer the dual clutch transmission, but it was changed because there were too many complaints. People didn’t understand um the jerkiness. They they just didn’t get it. Whereas, I actually like the driving dynamics that the dual clutch offers. Look, if you’re leasing your house and you go into your dealership and they’re willing to give you a great price and a swap, go for it. But if they’re not, definitely keep it. Just keep it. What are your thoughts on the 2026 Kia Sarrento Hybrid? I like the Sarrento Hybrid. It’s well done. Yeah, nice vehicle. Um, it’s the same as the Santa Fe. Similar platform, same kind of size. I like the looks of it. Me, too. I think they do a great job at Kia. I I just prefer Kia styling over Hyundai generally. And I think Sarrento’s nice looking. I think they did a nice job. Yeah. I mean, the only thing is um if if you were to go for like a plug-in hybrid, the the range isn’t as great as some of the other vehicles that are offered, but you’re talking hybrid. I really like the hybrid system. Okay. Both of us wearing green today. Andrea, how do you get your question in? Follow along on Instagram at motormouth_andrea. Every Sunday I put a post out asking for questions. Once we gather them, the post is deleted and we start the show. Thanks for watching.
This is a Motormouth couple car video answering your questions from Instagram, like:
0:00 Intro
0:21 Thoughts on Rivian R2?
0:57 Sanata fe Hybrid needs another gear?
5:10 Current batteries absolete soon?
10:10 winter tires for EV?
12:38 Thoughts on EV mandate?
17:56 Trade in 1 year old car?
19:16 Thoughts on Kia Sorresnto hybrid?
Andrea Instagram https://www.instagram.com/motormouth_andrea/
Zack Instagram https://www.instagram.com/motormouth_auto/
