← Charged Up with Tim Allard
Charged Up with Tim Allard
Beyond the Big Box Store: Ego's Leap into True Commercial Grade Tools Ep. 24
00:38:40
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- [00:04]
A
Welcome to Charged up, the podcast where the cutting edge meets cutting grass. We're diving deep into the electrification and automation revolution, transforming lawn care from the ground up. Whether you're a weekend warrior, a green tech enthusiast, or a landscaping pro, we're here to keep you powered up with the latest in robotic mowers, battery breakthroughs, and the smart tech reshaping your backyard and beyond. Your host, Tim Allard, has opened over 15 years in the industry and has been charged up about the electric revolution for years. So plug in, power up, and let's get charged up.
- [00:48]
B
Hey, thank you for joining me this week on the episode of Charged Up Podcast. Today, my guest is Barnaby. He is from ego. We had the pleasure of meeting about five months ago on the way back from a quip expo, and it's kind of a funny story that I landed next to you. No pun intended, on the. Landed. Yeah, at least we landed. Yes. We won't even go down that rabbit hole. But, yeah, it was just a kind of a fluke. I won't even call it a coincidence. Things happen for a reason. So, you know, we. Our flight had gotten delayed originally. We were connecting through another airport. When ours got delayed, I ran over to the wonderful lady working for Delta and said, hey, is there any way you can change our flight? And so she was able to get us on. She bumped us up to first class, and that somehow landed me next to you, so.
- [01:47]
C
Right. Not a usual first class passenger myself. I got bumped up, too.
- [01:52]
B
Yeah. So, Yeah, I do when it's cheap, but that just happened to work out that day, and. And lo and behold, you were coming from the same place that I was, and.
- [02:03]
C
Yeah.
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B
And, you know, you found out that you worked for Ego, and we talked about all kinds of stuff, and Yeah,
- [02:09]
C
I think I saw your hat and I was like, charged up.
- [02:13]
B
And so it's great to connect with you. I know we've kind of gone back and forth. It's been crazy in my world, as. As I'm sure it's been crazy in yours. And so finally we. We are able to lock something down here. And so welcome. Thanks for coming on. I appreciate it. Talk to me and my audience a little bit about who you are, what you do for Ego, and then. And then we'll go from there.
- [02:39]
C
All right. I'm a father of one. Got married when I was 46. I had a kid at 48, so. Late bloomer on that one.
- [02:47]
B
Yeah. How old's your son?
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C
22.
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B
22.
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C
He actually earned money for his first car pushing EGO mowers around at my rental properties, so I just. That was a torture track. But anyway, I've been with EGO ever since they rolled out about 13 years ago. I was a TV news reporter all over the country.
- [03:08]
B
Yep.
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C
Specializing in live. And one day just, uh, got a, uh, a bug in my bonnet. It's about, uh, you know, hosting a tool review website.
- [03:18]
B
Yeah.
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C
So there I am. I. I did it for about a year and a half and got picked up by EGO because they said, you are the man. You talk real good.
- [03:26]
B
Nice.
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C
So, yeah. So I just been so excited to be involved with this from the ground up because as you know, this is the future.
- [03:35]
B
It is, it is. The future is bright.
- [03:39]
C
It is. Absolutely. If only people would open their eyes.
- [03:41]
B
I know, I know.
- [03:42]
C
And then they could see how bright the future is.
- [03:45]
B
So, yeah, with that, I mean, you've been there quite a while, obviously. I know as a consumer a lot's changed. You and I were talking because I know a lot of listeners know EGO is, you know, the battery powered stuff you can buy at Home Depot. And, and then talking to you, you're like, no, we have commercial now. So because I know you had some commercial, you know, stuff over the last couple years, but now you have true commercial.
- [04:13]
C
That was Gen 1.
- [04:14]
B
Yeah.
- [04:14]
C
So, yeah. So I mean, it worked. When we rolled it out, we had what I call the scuba tank battery, which was like, what steel has, you know, a heavier battery that you wear on your back. Weighed about 28 pounds. And I don't know, people just, they said, why don't we put the, the regular batteries that go on the residential stuff on the commercial? And we said, well, of course we can, because every battery we make is commercial ready. It's bulletproof. I mean, it's tried and true. There's 30 million of these things on the landscape. So we understand the power. And the commercial was no more powerful with the 28 volt backpack battery. It was just heavy. So now you've got the versatility of snapping all these different batteries. Any EGO battery fits and runs. Any EGO tool. So why wouldn't you do that? Right, Right. And now the, the Gen 2 commercial is just, boy, it is unbelievably technologically advanced. Still bulletproof. It's not like it's frail. Right. Like, oh my God, can't drop your cell phone. You can still drop your string trimmer. You can leave it out in the rain. You can, you know, the batteries, you can do whatever to them and they're gonna still come back for another lap tomorrow. So yeah, it's a great line of tools. But I think what would be of greatest interest to your audience would be the charging system because let's make an assumption that every battery powered commercial tool depending on regardless of manufacturers is going to work great.
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B
Right.
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C
But how do you charge the batteries? We have got what is the PGX charging system that will charge 70 batteries overnight on a 15amp circuit, no special wiring necessary. You can take battery charging into the field with our high capacity 40amp hour batteries and charge batteries quicker in the field then you can discharge them on a tool. So I mean it really solves every problem that any landscaper would ever face and it opens up the door to business galore. To make a rhyme right there. Yeah, I mean it's just a crazy thing. It's a win win. People just have to open their minds, give it a try and there'll be devotees for sure.
- [06:26]
B
Yeah, I, to be honest, so when we got into landscape, I mean I've this iteration of getting into landscaping. My brother and I partnered in 2016. Ish, probably Roundabout. Gosh, 20, 21, 22. Somewhere in there we had, we brought on a horticulturist and her team used ego. She had. That was my first experience with the battery powered stuff.
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C
Right.
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B
We were still gas at that time. You know, she rolled around in a truck with her crew. They had an ego, you know, blower, they had ego hedge trimmers. And I was like, this stuff's pretty cool, you know. So when she, she'd parked the truck at our place on the weekends and you know, sometimes borrow it and like
- [07:16]
C
it's pretty cool stuff.
- [07:18]
B
And so that was sort of my first introduction to battery powered equipment. And then, you know, in 20, was it 22, we finally went electric. Mostly I always say we're hybrid because nobody's fully electric in this industry right now. I mean it's, there's, I think they're coming. But you know, Billy Goat doesn't have a battery powered leaf loader right now. And so I think it's. Some of that bigger commercial equipment is yet to surface, but I'm sure, I'm sure it will. But yeah, the thing I loved about it is it was clean, it was quiet. You didn't have to run to the gas station to pick up gas. You didn't have to worry about somebody putting the wrong gas and the wrong, you know, thing. And so ego was my first time that I had to had any like interaction with battery powered landscape equipment. And that's not the Direction we ended up going in just because at the time you guys didn't have a lot of quote unquote commercial. You didn't have the commercial zero turns. And we were kind of looking for that full suite of one stop. Everybody's got everything, you know. But as, as time goes on, I mean, I, I saw a glimpse of some of your commercial zero turns this year. I didn't pay a lot of attention. I ap to that. I definitely will next time because, you know, it's, it's good to see what is new and what's out there. And of course, the, the podcast was relatively new and, and so, you know, expanding my mind, expanding our knowledge on different brands and what's out there. And that's kind of why I was like, oh, wow. Yeah. I mean, you and I talked a lot about that on the plane. Is.
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C
Yeah. Funny, because I never talk to people on planes. You were different.
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B
A lot of people say that.
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C
Right. But, you know, it's interesting. I think. I'm not sure exactly who your audience is, if they are people using battery power or landscapers that are just out there doing it and looking over the horizon to see what's up. But I would say that you really have to pick a team, as you did. Right. You say what's currently available, what's going to work for me, what's the most cost effective, what has the greatest versatility, what has the fastest charging. And you know, then go for it because you can't go. Onesie, twosie, you can't go. I've got manufacturer A, I got the string trimmer over there. Then you manufacturer B, you got the blower. Because, I mean, they don't talk to each other.
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B
Sure.
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C
Right. Yeah.
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B
So, yeah, no, it definitely, it, it made sense for us at the time, you know, and I think each, each brand has its own sort of image. You know, it's, it's, it's, it's its own thing. And, and none of them are really the same. They're offering similar stuff. But, you know, some of them have headed in more of one direction, some are headed in more of another direction. And so I think the thing that intrigued me is when I saw the commercial zero turns. Yeah. You know, before you guys had, you know, Joe, home owner, light duty commercial, you know, stuff, stuff that, and obviously I get the fact that, you know, when you get into true commercial, that price tag is something that Joe homeowner is not going to buy. You know, it's way, way priced outside of their range. But they're Mowing their lawn once a week, they're parking it in the garage or the shed, and then, you know, it's going to last them years. Yeah. What was the big shift for ego in that commercial realm? What. What kind of drove that? Because it seemed like you were doing well as far as really pushing more towards that commercial market. Because I feel like you guys had a nice sweet spot with the homeowner products. I mean, yeah, they seem to go really well. Never heard anything bad about them, for sure. And so what was kind of the pushing factor to get you guys to start really focusing more on a. A commercial line?
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C
Well, it is when you, you know, we started out and, I mean, you walked in any big box store and battery was like maybe 1, 2 tools on the shelf. Now you look at it and it's primarily battery power. So we feel like what we did was we went to school on ourselves, we kept evolving, we kept developing, we kept innovating on the residential side. And then it's a certain point we go, well, you know what? Now that we have this pretty much down now, let's move into the next opportunity, which is going to be the commercial. Because I have always said, and this is inexact science on my part, but I'm just an observer in life. I always figured that if a residential owner to be saw commercial people using ego, they would necessarily say, ah, good enough for them, good enough for me. And that's maybe just a soft selling point going forward. But we just, we understood that we had the best battery on the market as far as just the power and the performance, the longevity, the technology inside, the ability to withstand impact, the fact that it runs long, runs cool, charges fast, does all the things you would ever want a battery to do. And then we developed the tools that just cut grass just like gas. And we thought, all right, if we can do that with residential boom, brave new frontier in commercial. So what then we had to do? Because we already had the battery system down. As I mentioned before, we have the charging system, which is crazy. If anybody just wants to play a quick memory game of themselves, it's three letters, P, G, X. Right. That's the name of the charging system. After this podcast, just Google it and look at it and see what it can do, because it really is. It's a modular system so you don't have to. To your point, you know, residential people, they spend a certain amount on a tool commercial. They go, whoa, this is a lot more than the residential. What am I getting? Well, you're getting the Ability to kind of be not a modular, but, you know, you just buy as much as you need as you go. Right. So with the EGX charging system, you buy one hub, that's about 400 and something bucks. You plug it in like you unplug your cell phone out of the wall. You plug this in. Now you have the ability to charge 70 batteries overnight if you want to. They come in docks of three. So let's say you only need to charge six batteries. Buy two docks. You want to go 70 batteries by 24 docks, but only as you need to invest. Right. So I've got a buddy that is a landscaper in Montclair, New Jersey that went totally ego residential to start on his trailer.
- [14:09]
B
Yeah.
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C
And I mean, this stuff has been tried and tested by independent testing organizations and they have dual certification now. Some of these organizations do where they say, hey, residential, it's perfect for that commercial. Okay, let's put it into the hands of the commercial users and test it exhaustively. And we were the first one with one organization to get dual certification. The same tool that's good for residential is good for commercial. And that was before we introduced commercial. So we knew we were onto something as far as the longevity. But we understand too, a commercial people high volume.
- [14:44]
B
Yeah.
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C
Blow and go rough throwing their tools on the truck. Right. It's got to be built to last. And so that's where we really, really bear down on things. We said, how do we make sure these tools can go the distance if we're going to put them in the hands of commercial? So once we understood that, we had a winner all the way across the board. Ta da. The big debut of Generation two.
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B
Yeah. I saw, I took a quick stop. There were so many people there. When I stopped by the ego booth real quick, I just kind of.
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C
Our booth was crowded.
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B
Yeah, it was crowded. It sort of peeked in. I saw you had a trailer there with some stuff and.
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C
Yeah.
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B
So definitely. I feel like you guys kind of kicked it up a notch this last year to quip. I felt like you had a much bigger presence, you know, more product, more staffing. It just, I mean, I think you had two booths almost side by side, right?
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C
Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. It's a, it's a thing, you know, you know, it. It's a wow factor. People walk in, they go, whoa. I had no idea this is what was possible. And then when you do walk around equipped, like I remember, gosh, 12, 13 years ago at Equip, our first show, I think we were the only battery Manufacturer there, maybe Black and Decker was there, but that was it. And everybody's like, that's never going to work. Battery power. Now you go to equip and it's like, look at all the battery power. It's crazy because it's such a smart way to do things, right? To your point, it's not going to the gas station to get gas. You leave the shop with your full complement of fuel. You don't have the time suck of having to go back to the truck and you know, just mix some gas, put it in, clean some filters. Oh, man, the thing won't start. I mean, every time push the button, boom, you're off to the races. So it's, you know, it's, it's a great way to make money. And if I could, in my stream of consciousness that I'm famous for, talk to you about that guy, that landscaper, New Jersey that started out with ego, this is, I think, the lead line for any landscaper that is thinking about going battery power. And you can choose whatever platform you like. Can't, you know, say you're right or wrong to do this or that. But if you want to make more money, this guy, no advertising. Like zero advertising, word of mouth. Only 260 clients called him in the first year and a half. I talked to him yesterday. He said he is getting referrals that are third, like three times removed. Yeah, friend of a friend of a friend recommended and he's dropping like for spring cleanups and big jobs. He's like, it's like 5,000, 8,000, 20,000, all this stuff because these giant properties are saying, hey, we want you to come and do our work for us. And I don't think that's a problem that a lot of landscapers have, which is too many people calling them.
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B
Yeah, right.
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C
I mean, it's a fight to find new customers. This is all word of mouth because you're quiet because you're a mission free. And it's not the green that the people are signing on for. It is that quiet and everybody wants it. So I don't know, you can either do it now or do it later, but it's the way it's going.
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B
Oh, yeah, well, and that was sort of, that was sort of our thought, you know, and I may have mentioned this to you when we met is it was. It was kind of one of those, you can either get out in front of it now and, and be in. In the front of it, or you can wait until everybody's doing it and it's it's funny because I have seen so many guys that I associate with that I've met through a quip and whatnot, that, yeah, they've been very reluctant, but they've started to switch. They've started to get into the handheld stuff at least. Blowers, trimmers, you know, hedge trimmers, the noise. Yeah, I mean, all, all of that stuff. And, and that alone, I mean, even if you still ran gas powered mowers, just the ease of that, I, I think it's a, it's a hands down game changer and I've really pushed the electric and not any, you know, not any brand in particular. You know, we had a good relationship with the company that we started out with. You know, we don't have a bad relationship with them now. But you know, I think because of this industry and how it is, you guys have been around, you were kind of quiet, you know, you were just doing your thing, you know, head down, nose to the grindstone, getting out there, producing a product, testing it, getting it out in the public, in the residential sector. But you've stayed focused, you've stayed very focused on what you're doing and you add some new stuff here and there, but you haven't gone off course like you had a mission and I feel you've stuck with it. I feel some other companies have kind of meandered, you know, shiny object syndrome sort of, and, and, you know, lost a little bit of focus. And, and I think you see that in any industry, the auto industry, any technology based industry. And so I think to Ego's credit, you have done that, you have stayed true to, to your roots and you just keep expanding on it, which, which is very admirable. And for a guy like me that looks at the bigger picture of stuff, I'm like, you know, I, I never gave you much of a thought in the beginning because you were more residential. It just didn't fit my need. But now that I see you coming out with the other stuff, you've, you've done it well. And I think Ego will be very successful. As, you know, time goes on, other companies, who knows, you know, it's. Will they continue to grow? Will they veer off course? I'm not sure. You know, it's, it's wait and see.
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C
But you know, what we see is the, the gas people, right? The guys that are born of gas, they're making the switch or at least adding it to their portfolio. Yeah, because I think it is. I mean, why would you stick with something? I mean, you could go all day arguing about EVs, gas cars, you know, that sort of thing. But I mean I drive an EV and my son who's 22 again, he goes, I don't like that car at all. It lacks soul. Turbocharged car.
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B
Yeah.
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C
You know, it's, I'll take him off the line every time. I don't know where what is rating on, you know, what a cool car is, but man, my car is just jacked up. But so it's, you know, I think to your point, you got to just try it, you know, get a blower on your truck, get a string trimmer on your truck and then just see what the customer says because I, I guarantee you they are listening. They don't like as, as cool as landscapers are. They don't necessarily like it when you show up. Yeah, right. Because it's loud. It is, it's just necessary. It's an evil that, you know, combustion engines, right. So they're going to go like, wow, that's awesome. That's so totally different. Yeah, that's fantastic. Years ago when I was in LA for a big event because I used to live in California and I just love the California vibe where it's like, dude, these people are coming up to me. Really, if, if Tesla made a blower, that would be it right there. And then one guy just goes, hey, I want to get this blower for my neighbor's gardener. Because everybody in LA has got a gardener. I'm like, why would you do that? He goes, so I can sleep in the morning. Right. So it's not woken up. So it is quiet as king and queen and prince and princess. It's everything you gotta do.
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B
It is.
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C
Yeah.
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B
Except for when it comes to the auto industry, I gotta side with. I know, you know, when I, when I saw them start, you know, Dodge started veering away from the, you know, the gas powered Challenger and charger and I'm like, I just putting that noise through a speaker just is not the same.
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C
Well, I heard that in motocross, like in stadiums they're going to go battery power eventually. Yeah. Because of the lack of emissions. And then they said they necessarily will have to put the vroom, vroom vroom over the speaker system because hey, you're going to hear all the riders swear. But B, you know, it's just, it's faster. Have you ever ridden a battery powered motorcycle?
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B
I haven't, but no, I can. I would agree. I mean I've written about battery powered zero turn definitely goes, you know it, it takes off. It doesn't have that lag. It's. And, And I can imagine in the motocross, just the smell. I mean, just all of the smell and the noise and this.
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C
I kind of love that stuff.
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B
Yeah, well, too strong, right? Yeah, well, and I think that's where it's a no brainer because I mean, realistically, environmentally, two stroke is probably one of the most inefficient things.
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C
Brutal. Brutal.
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B
Yeah. I mean, it's.
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C
Yeah, you're. I mean, I. All the landscapers out there that might be watching this, this is the thing that astounds me most about people using two stroke is the hedge trimmer. When they're up here, just. I mean, the exhaust is like right here. You're like, really? I mean, you might as well just grab a hold of a tailpipe and just start inhaling.
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B
Yeah.
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C
You know, you got to go battery. I mean, certainly if it's, if you're concerned about your lungs, your ears, your fingers with the vibration, I mean, but I do get it. I get that people are invested. Right. This is what I know. I mean, I was looking at an article today that's from 2018 and it was all the arguments for battery power back then for commercial landscapers. Like, this is not a new story, but I think there is a lot of misinformation out there. Like, I know I've got good connections in the municipalities that are going for blower bands, which totally ticks people off because nobody wants to be told what to do.
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B
Right.
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C
But it's interesting. If the government is telling you what to do, I don't like that. If the customer is telling you what to do, it's like, oh, okay, sure, you want me to go battery power, I'll go battery power. But you know, the misinformation is that battery power is expensive.
- [25:10]
B
Yeah.
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C
Okay. In this 2018 article, just to rip off some facts and figures, they said for the average backpack blower, you're going to spend about fifteen hundred dollars a year on fuel and that's at three bucks a gallon. Where are we now? Right. So, I mean, you start looking at that. The thing about battery power is you're going to look at the cost of the batteries and go, whoa, they're kind of expensive. But it is all the fuel you're ever going to have to buy. Realistically, because, I mean, it's 0.03 cents per kilowatt hour to charge these things. It might be 20 bucks a year to fuel your backpack blower. Right. So not only Are you saving money on fuel, travel, maintenance, noise emissions to the user? But you're also probably going to be like, going, I got to hire more people. The business is falling into my lap all over the place. What am I going to do? I mean, you get one hoa, and that's going to be your mission in life. Right? I mean, you might have 400 homes and that's what you're doing every day for the rest of your life is those 400 homes. And that's not a bad problem to have because you're walking from property to property because everybody wants quiet.
- [26:18]
B
Yeah, I mean, one of the things, and, and like, you just mentioned the gas. I mean, there's so many. It depends on the scale. Like, I think with this, you, you probably had a ton of resistance. I don't remember because DeWalt's been around for so long. Some of those, you know, Black and Decker. But I'm sure at the time people were, you know, losing their mind about going cordless with their power drills. I mean, yeah, you know, what do you wet this? It's not going to work. And, and I also get the skepticism when the government tries to push it down your throat because the government is not known. You know, they're, they're not known for looking long term. They're always looking for the short term. You know, I look at some of these electric school buses. Biggest mistake ever. Like, we're just not there yet.
- [27:11]
C
Look at Amazon. I mean, all those trucks are battery power.
- [27:13]
B
Yeah, yeah, yeah. But I just, you know, and, and obviously there's some, there's some security in knowing that, you know, your electric bill is not going to double next month.
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C
Right.
- [27:28]
B
Your gas bill may, you know, we're seeing right now. You know, I saw a report, a guy that was saying that the cost to run an electric school bus was about $3. I can't remember how the equation was basically like $3 per. I don't remember gallon equation or whatever versus, I think with the diesel bus, it was like 30 cents. It was huge. Now, obviously diesel is up to almost $6 a gallon. So that equation probably flops the other other way.
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C
Now start walking to school.
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B
Yeah, but I mean, we just had some electric buses that caught fire recently here in our district. Now, I assume it was only one, and then the one caused the second and the third and the fourth because they were all parked next to each other. But. And I'm not sure if they've reasoned out what it was. I don't think it was the batteries. I think it was probably something to do with a charging system. Who knows?
- [28:28]
C
But still, kids, some kid like to smoke on the car. Yeah.
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B
This happened later in the evening. I want to say it was 10, 12 o' clock at night, so.
- [28:37]
C
Yeah. But it's hard to know.
- [28:38]
B
Right. You know, I just. Certain things I don't think were entirely there when it comes to battery powered. Certain things I think we are. I mean, definitely. I mean you look at, look at the battery powered tool industry when it comes to, you know, drills and.
- [28:55]
C
Yeah.
- [28:56]
B
You know, impact is impact. Yeah. I mean everything. So I mean Milwaukee has, has really come out of the gate strong over the last couple years. DeWalt obviously dominates that market.
- [29:08]
C
Yeah. And we own Skill.
- [29:11]
B
Yeah.
- [29:12]
C
So all the battery technology that goes into Ego, you can get a sense that of course we're going to apply our big brains to our batteries. Over on skill side, we own Flex, you know, which is a German company. Yeah. So I mean we're, we're knee deep in battery. It's been joked that we are a battery company that makes tools.
- [29:27]
B
Ye. Well, and I think that's, I think that's what a lot of you guys are. I mean you look at DeWalt, I mean DeWalt's Black and Decker, but they also, I think own works or whatever it is. And. But yeah, that technology has been around for a long time.
- [29:42]
C
Yeah.
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B
I don't even know how long, but it's, it's been a while.
- [29:47]
C
Well, they had battery powered cars back in the day of Edison.
- [29:50]
B
Yep.
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C
Yeah. It's not new technology. It's not a new thought, it's all new technology. Sure. Yeah. And here's one to twist your brain. I read somewhere that in, I think it's in Norway where they have a lot of islands. They are using battery powered planes.
- [30:07]
B
Yep.
- [30:08]
C
Short hops, right?
- [30:09]
B
Sure.
- [30:10]
C
I mean the disconnect about, you know, boy, is this going to work? It sure better work if you're up in the air.
- [30:15]
B
Right.
- [30:15]
C
Well, apparently, unless they're pontoon planes, then you can always land.
- [30:20]
B
We're the home of Beta Technologies here. They're right, right there down the road. And so they're, they've got their electric planes and I don't know if I'm ready to hop in one yet, but.
- [30:31]
C
Right.
- [30:31]
B
I mean, I guess anything can fall out of the sky. We've seen that. So it doesn't matter if it's jet fuel or battery powered. But I think we're all just, we're all slow to evolve. We, we don't like to change what we know.
- [30:44]
C
What's up with that, right?
- [30:45]
B
I don't know. I don't.
- [30:47]
C
I mean, I remember back in the day when artisanal beers were first coming out, right? And I was sitting at a bar and this guy orders a Bud Light and I said, hey, you should try this Sierra Nevada Pale Ale.
- [31:01]
B
Yeah.
- [31:02]
C
And he's like, what's that? And I go, well, it's from a microbrewery. Yeah. I'm never going to change. I'm like, dude, you. There's no taste to that beer that you're drinking. Yeah. What I got going on over here. But it was like, nope.
- [31:13]
B
Yeah.
- [31:13]
C
I'm like, okay, well, opportunity missed. And even like in. In the realm of NA beers, I mean, just to take it to the next level, I stopped. I stopped drinking over a year ago. I wasn't drinking very much, but I thought, you know what if I could still get the taste without any alcohol going into my system, why wouldn't I do that? Right? So it's almost like battery powered thing. It's like, does everything that regular beer does except get messed up and then it still tastes great. It's refreshing, less calories, you know, So I don't even miss it. I just, I. I'm electric now.
- [31:44]
B
Yeah. Yeah, It's. It is weird. It's weird to. To look back, you know, and think over the years, all of the technology
- [31:56]
C
that's come and this is the benefit of being older. Right?
- [32:00]
B
Right.
- [32:00]
C
Talking to kids and they're like, you don't know what you're talking about. It's like, dude, what are you talking about? I've been around for X number of decades.
- [32:07]
B
My first cell phone, it was in a bag, plugged into a light.
- [32:10]
C
What's it like? You were cool. You had one of those, right?
- [32:14]
B
Yeah, that was my first one.
- [32:17]
C
Did you ever have a phone that the cord attached to the wall?
- [32:20]
B
Oh, growing up.
- [32:21]
C
I know.
- [32:22]
B
All right, it. It was, you know, it was a cord that was. Gosh, that thing must have been stretched out to like 30ft because, you know, anytime somebody. It was in the kitchen. So anytime you were on your phone with your friends or girlfriend, you know, it's like down the hall in another room, close the door.
- [32:40]
C
Right.
- [32:41]
B
I was saying that somebody the other day, you know, it's just.
- [32:45]
C
That's your point. I mean, you just. You think everything is great the way it is. Yeah. I mean, you got it. I mean, look at even AI, you know, I mean, everybody, Gemini, Claude, you know, everybody is looking for answers now differently, nobody's going, hey, Google.
- [32:59]
B
Yeah.
- [33:00]
C
Now they're going with other things. Yeah. It's easy. Yeah. Ask my wife. She'll tell me what's true. Yeah, yeah.
- [33:08]
B
The part with the AI stuff, though, is it is a little scary because now, like trying to differentiate between what's real and what's not, it's impossible. Some of it is so realistic and so, I mean. But as you know, we're talking about tools and that is, AI is a tool. It's not the answer. It's a tool and if you use it properly, it's a good tool and it's beneficial and it's just like anything else. Right back to ego.
- [33:40]
C
Yeah. What I'm going to tell you, we have Iot on our tools, right. On the commercials of the Internet of Things where you can. With the PGX charging system, you can check in via your phone to see how the batteries are charging. You can eventually, in the near term here, you'll be able to look inside each battery and see how many charge cycles there are left so you can start budgeting. That's emerging technology for us. We have locator tools to say if a tool has been used or not. So if the client calls and goes, hey, great job on everything. But the edging you didn't edge, it's like, hold on, let me check. And you just go into that tool on your phone and just say, no, we see that it was used for 12 minutes, we're assuming it was edging. Let me come out and see what the edging job was. But you will be able to keep track of things. Sure, yeah. So is that.
- [34:30]
B
Is that technology live right now for most of them?
- [34:34]
C
Well, that. To. To know that it has been used, I believe that is live. Right. The Power manager and the fleet app are two different apps. I can talk about the Power manager in a second, but the Fleet app is going to give you the visibility into the tool with charge cycles. I think that is still maybe one step forward for us, but we're working on it. I think the ability to track tools, not unlike a tile, I think that is something that we're working on and getting very. To cracking the code on. I think the one that says, yes, I've used this tool for X number of minutes, that is available to the best of my knowledge right now, but the most usable tool for anybody watching this. And again, clear just a little more space in your brain. There's PGX charging system. You're going to look up after the podcast and Then there is the Power Manager app. This is going to get you over the hump when it comes to understanding what you're going to have to invest of your hard earned dollars to get into the Ego commercial, because you simply go to the Power Manager app that's@egocommercial.com and it's just like ordering on an electronic menu, right? You just kind of go, okay, so tell me about your workday. How many people in your crew hit the button? How long are you working every day? Subtracting downtime x number of hours. Okay, now let's talk about how many string trimmers, how many blowers, how many mowers, how many edgers, how many put those values in. And now comes the hard part where you're gonna have to actually keep track of things for a minute. Like over a day's time. How long are you on the trigger for each one of these tools? Put that value in, Boom. It's going to tell you how many batteries you need, how many chargers you need. Of course, you'll put in the value of how many tools you have. And then you hit the submit button and it'll go, this is what it's going to cost you. So everything is at the palm of your hand. Then we have a fleet discount because you'll sit there and go, huh, Okay, I don't like that number. I wish it was lower. If you spend 3,500 bucks or more, you get a 15% discount. That lasts for a year. So if you buy, say, 3,500 bucks today, 3,500 tomorrow, 10 bucks the next day, 10 bucks the next day, whatever. It's always going to be 15% for that year. If you spend 7,000, it's going to be 20% off and it lasts two years. So that's pretty good, right? So realize you got to just relax your mind. Look at. I'm sure everybody that's in business understands what they spent on fuel last year. Yeah, look at that number. And then think, okay, now let's look at a couple bucks to keep all the batteries charged each day. Multiply that by the number of days you work. Okay, there's my fuel cost there. Add on the cost of the batteries and the charging system, go. Okay, now it's an apples to apples comparison. And I think in a little over a year's time, you're going to have a wash. But then you have to factor in all the new business, right? No, no downtime. Going to the gas station. Oh, I got to get a burrito. Oh, you're gonna get a burrito. I gotta get a Slurpee. Oh, wait a minute. I gotta go over here. You know, before you know it, it's like, geez, we've been here for an hour. What are we doing right? And no repairs. Virtually.
- [37:42]
B
Guys, think. Thanks for joining us for part one of this week's episode of the Charged up podcast. That was my guest, Barnaby from ego. We will follow this conversation up next week on the next episode. So stay tuned and thanks for joining us. We really appreciate you listening and we look forward to seeing you on the next one. This is your host, Tim Allard.
- [38:05]
A
That's it for this episode of Charged up, where tech meets turf. If you enjoyed the ride through the world of electric and automated lawn care, don't forget to follow the podcast. Leave a well worded five star review and share with your fellow green thumbs and gearheads. To connect with Tim, check out the show description. Thanks again for listening. And until the next time, stay sharp, stay smart, and stay Charged Up.