Fully Charged Show: 2024 Year in Review with Imogen Bhogal, Robert Llewellyn & Jack Scarlett!

Summary

Fully Charged Show Podcast: 2024 Year in Review

Episode: Fully Charged Show: 2024 Year in Review with Imogen Bhogal, Robert Llewellyn & Jack Scarlett!
Release Date: December 23, 2024
Host: Robert Llewellyn
Guests: Imogen Bhogal & Jack Scarlett

Introduction

In this comprehensive year-end episode, Robert Llewellyn, alongside Imogen Bhogal and Jack Scarlett, reflects on the pivotal moments of 2024 in the realms of sustainability, electric vehicles (EVs), and renewable energy. The trio delves into their experiences, highlights significant advancements, shares amusing anecdotes from behind the scenes, and discusses trends shaping the future of eco-friendly technologies.

Year in Review: Highlights of 2024

Electric Vehicles and Notable Car Reviews

The hosts revisit their extensive work on electric vehicles, spotlighting standout models that have defined the year:

• MG Cyberster:
  Jack Scarlett reminisces, "The Cyberster certainly fits into that category—first of its kind, a proper convertible electric GT. They've beaten your Porsches and your Lotuses to it, which is remarkable" ([03:01]). The MG Cyberster stood out as a blend of performance and sustainability, earning acclaim for its design and functionality.

• Dacia Spring:
  Highlighted as an accessible entry point into electric cars, Jack notes, "It's less than £15,000 for the base car in the UK" ([16:40]). The Dacia Spring was praised for its affordability and practicality, making EVs more attainable for the general public.

• Renault 5 and Alpine A290:
  Imogen describes the Renault 5 as "car of the year," emphasizing its retro appeal and modern electric enhancements ([16:40]). The Renault 5's revival symbolizes a successful blend of nostalgic design with contemporary electric technology.

• Ioniq 5N:
  Jack shares his exhilarating experience, "I had more fun in that electric car that day than I thought I ever would in an EV" ([17:51]). The Ioniq 5N was lauded for its suspension, steering, and innovative software, enhancing the driving experience.

Renewable Energy Initiatives

Imogen Bhogal highlights significant renewable energy projects that shaped the year:

• Electric Tugboats in Vancouver:
  Imogen details their immersive experience on an electric tugboat, noting its benefits for marine life: "It's so quiet in the water, which is a lovely little bonus" ([07:29]). The electric tugboat represents a crucial step towards reducing pollution in marine environments.

• Cherrypicking Renewable Solutions:
  The team explored unique applications of renewable energy, such as solar-powered battery charging at Cherry Farm in New Zealand. Robert highlights, "It's hundred percent renewably powered, zero carbon" ([42:54]).

Anecdotes and Behind-the-Scenes Stories

MG Cyberster Road Trip Plans

Robert recalls an ambitious but unrealized plan to drive the MG Cyberster from Switzerland to Barcelona:
"I was going to drive Elliot to Switzerland and then drive on my own to Barcelona, which was heartbreaking because we didn't do it anyway" ([03:23]). This story underscores the challenges faced in EV road trips, particularly concerning charging infrastructure and vehicle range.

Electric Tugboat Experience in Vancouver

Imogen shares the fascinating aspects of their electric tugboat shoot:
"There's loads of whales, that kind of stuff. So, you know, that's another lovely little bonus that we learn on that" ([07:29]). The quiet operation of the tugboat benefits both operators and the surrounding marine ecosystem.

Janus Trucks in Australia

Robert and Jack recount their interaction with Janus Trucks, highlighting resilience in the face of setbacks:
"Mate, don't worry about. It happens" ([52:00]). The team's optimistic response to a truck fire incident exemplifies the robust spirit of the electric trucking industry.

Microcar Delivery Mishap

Jack describes a comical yet stressful experience with a microcar delivery:
"The car that had been delivered to me was absolutely filthy, on 1% charge, and had no number plates" ([39:41]). This anecdote illustrates the unpredictable challenges of EV logistics and brand reliability.

Discussions on Trends and Future Outlook

Expansion of Electric Fleet and Variety

Jack observes the exponential growth in electric vehicle models:
"When I started, you would just grab any electric thing that came. Oh, thank goodness. Something new to make a video about. Whereas now... it's a lovely problem to have" ([46:47]). The increasing diversity of EVs presents both opportunities and challenges for reviews and consumer choice.

Low Carbon, High Temperature Industrial Processes

Imogen expresses excitement about advancements in industrial technologies:
"We will be going to a brewery that has got this high, really, really high temperature heat pump" ([53:07]). These technologies are pivotal in decarbonizing industries that require high-temperature processes.

Emerging Battery Technologies

Robert discusses the future of battery innovation:
"There are some batteries in existence now with a thousand times the energy density of the stuff we use now... If you only need 1% of them" ([54:23]). Breakthroughs in battery technology could revolutionize energy storage and EV performance.

Concentrated Solar Power and Energy Storage

The hosts touch upon innovative energy storage solutions using concentrated solar power, emphasizing its potential in decarbonizing hard-to-abate sectors.

Notable Quotes

• Jack Scarlett on the MG Cyberster:
  "They've beaten your Porsches and your Lotuses to it, which is remarkable" ([03:01]).

• Imogen Bhogal on the Renault 5:
  "It's like when the Mini came back. It's one of those vehicles that just purely on its vibe, people are interested" ([16:40]).

• Robert Llewellyn on Emerging Batteries:
  "There are some batteries in existence now with a thousand times the energy density of the stuff we use now" ([54:23]).

• Jack Scarlett on Electric Tugboats:
  "People often film if they're doing a detective series set in Godalming, they'll film it in Barcelona... That's another lovely little bonus" ([07:29]).

Looking Forward to 2025

The hosts express anticipation for the coming year, highlighting:

• Live Shows:
  Robert looks forward to filming in Australia and New Zealand, exploring renewable projects like the zero-carbon Cherry Farm.

• Upcoming EV Models:
  Excitement surrounds the launch of new electric models, including the Fiat Panda and the Renault 4, which promise to blend classic design with modern electric technology.

• Electric Trucks:
  Robert emphasizes the potential of electric trucks, noting their environmental and economic benefits:
  "They are saving millions of pounds in fuel... extraordinary electric trucks that I'm very much looking forward to" ([51:04]).

Conclusion

The 2024 Year in Review episode of The Fully Charged Show Podcast offers an insightful and engaging overview of the year's advancements and challenges in sustainability and electric technologies. Through personal anecdotes, expert discussions, and a forward-looking perspective, Robert Llewellyn, Imogen Bhogal, and Jack Scarlett provide listeners with a comprehensive understanding of where the industry stands and where it's headed. As the hosts wrap up the year with warm wishes and reflections, they set the stage for an exciting and transformative 2025 in the world of sustainability and clean energy.

Notable Quote to End With:
"Peaceful, 2025 live." ([56:47])

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Transcript

[Robert Llewellyn]

Hello and welcome to the lovely end of year episode of the Fully Charged Show Podcast. Cue the advert.

[Jack Scarlett]

All right, ready? 1, 2, 3. Love the fully Charged Show. Then join us live in Sydney this month. Oh, you rubbish.

[Robert Llewellyn]

Was it 7, 8, 9th of March?

[Imogen B. Smith]

I think we do in. In Sydney in March, London in April. Yeah. No, no, no, Jack was right.

[Jack Scarlett]

Yeah, okay.

[Imogen B. Smith]

Yeah. Damn it. Sorry.

[Jack Scarlett]

There we go. We don't need to put the ad in now. We've nailed.

[Imogen B. Smith]

Everyone is so informed and knows exactly where they're going.

[Robert Llewellyn]

This episode of the Fully Charged Podcast is brought to you by OVO's Charge Anywhere. Charge Anywhere helps you power your car wherever you are, plan your route and pay. You'll have access to over 34,000 chargers across the UK's largest charging networks and more than 400,000 chargers across Europe. Setup is easy. Just download the OVO Charge app, create your account, add payment details, hit the road and start charging. There's no need to be an OVO customer. Either simply pay as you go or benefit from up to 15% off your charging with monthly boost packages. OVOS Charge Anywhere power your next journey with peace of mind. All I've done is try to remember what we've done this year because we've done. When I went through the list, we've done quite a lot, so it was really useful to go through it, to remember. So the, the things we know. But one of the first car ones. Let's start. Can we just start briefly that Jack, because we did have quite a lot of experience with it was the MG Cyberster. So did you. We put a show out about that really early in the year, which was. You did.

[Imogen B. Smith]

I think Elliot did.

[Jack Scarlett]

Oh, Elliot did.

[Robert Llewellyn]

Yeah, that's what it was. Because I went. I don't remember. I didn't. I didn't remember we'd done it, which is a bit embarrassing.

[Jack Scarlett]

We had it with Elliot in China. Yes. Which was. I mean, for a UK based publication, we were very much the first. And as certain other very well known UK publication got quite cross at us because they had the UK exclusive. But that didn't count Elliot driving it in China. So he's slightly undercut by accident. But yeah, that was early on in the year. And then you and I drove that this summer together, which was definitely a highlight. I think the two reviews that you and I did together were on my list of things that I most enjoyed this year.

[Robert Llewellyn]

Yeah, they were fun. And then I would love to do more of that. There was really. Because I take. I feel it takes the Weight off me having to know about the car because.

[Jack Scarlett]

Or just really preparing anything. We can just waffle.

[Robert Llewellyn]

It's great.

[Jack Scarlett]

People seem to like it. That was a special car. That was a. That was definitely a highlight. I think, you know, one of the highlights of the year for me, as a theme was more pleasure vehicles, more electric cars that have a real emphasis on being special and enjoyable. And I've got a few more on my list. But the Cyberster certainly fits into that category, right? First of its kind, a proper convertible electric gt. And they're. They've beaten your Porsches and your Lotuses to it, which is, yeah, remarkable in and of itself.

[Robert Llewellyn]

I mean, the one disappointment that. Because I was reminded of that, because I saw a friend just a couple of nights ago who was at the time, we had that working in Barcelona and I had an apartment in Barcelona that I could stay in and it was so exciting. And that was immediately after the farm brush. I was going to drive down in the Cyberster until they went. We can't really ensure it because it's only just arrived on the. In the uk.

[Imogen B. Smith]

And do you think you would have been forced to pack very, very efficiently for quite a long road trip, really? That would have been, you know, a.

[Robert Llewellyn]

Packed lunch and there was not a lot of room. And that was the thing. I was going to drive Elliot. It was so exciting. I shouldn't even talk about it because it's heartbreaking because we didn't do it. I was going to drive Elliot to Switzerland and then drive on my own to Barcelona, which actually isn't that horrendously fast, but it was. Driving back on my own was just not appealing as well. But then we couldn't do it anyway.

[Imogen B. Smith]

But I think the interesting thing about that is that obviously we work with Elliot all the time, we see him on the channel all the time, but the number of times that we've actually met him in real life are reasonably small. So I always sort of was imagining that road trip that you and Elliot had together and, you know, what happened if you'd got to Dover and then been like, ashley, we've run out of things to say to each other. I gotta go to Switzerland before we can, you know, drop him off.

[Jack Scarlett]

I'm not sure I like this guy.

[Robert Llewellyn]

I think he was quite relieved because we then drove to Godalming, which is really, in my mind, very close to Barcelona. It's a very similar city. A lot of people, they often film. If they're doing a detective series set in Godalming, they'll film it in Barcelona.

[Imogen B. Smith]

It depends on your scale. You know, it's close in the. In the grand scale of the world.

[Robert Llewellyn]

Yes, I suppose it is. But, yes, I think he was quite relieved when we got there and he could get out of the car and run. Get on a train. Didn't seem that depressed. Anyway. Yeah, that was the cyber stuff. I'd forgotten how early that we'd seen it because I remember us doing it and all the. So the shenanigans.

[Jack Scarlett]

Yeah. Elliot's episode was right at the top of the year. That was a really good one. Imogen, why don't you kick us off with one of your highlights of the year?

[Imogen B. Smith]

Oh, my goodness. Where to begin? Because I think it's probably worth sharing that we had our Christmas do last week and we were all tasked with a quiz round which was all to do with episodes that we've done this year. So we delved into the stats and went down sort of memory lane. And it is astonishing what we've done in this year. And it's, you know, as is always the case, simultaneously feels like this year has gone in about five seconds. And then you look at the episodes we did in January, you're like, what? Yeah, that was this century. Goodness me. But certainly some highlights. I mean, I've wanged on about it so much, but we had quite a significant time in Vancouver, which was just so extraordinary. Just so extraordinary. And I think this is the joy of going to different geographies is that the key driver of the clean energy transition has got slightly different forcing functions. So in Australia, for example, solar penetration is so high, so electric vehicles make sense in. In Vancouver and in British Columbia, where there's so much clean hydroelectricity. The kind of. They're like. Yeah, we get the clean energy thing, so you get a sort of slightly different flavor. And we went on this incredible electric tugboat, which I really thought that tugboats were very, very small because you obviously only ever see the next massive ships now.

[Robert Llewellyn]

They're big.

[Imogen B. Smith]

Yeah, they're absolutely enormous. And you have a crew of about between 6 and 10 who stay on there for about 6 weeks. So we had this amazing day and I have to say, we quite often end up judging shoots by the quality of lunch.

[Robert Llewellyn]

Right.

[Imogen B. Smith]

And that was an extremely good lunch on board. Yeah.

[Robert Llewellyn]

Wow.

[Imogen B. Smith]

Well, yeah, because we had the chef who's on board for the duration of those.

[Robert Llewellyn]

But wait a minute. There are six to eight weeks, like, on that tug. I don't go. Because you think, well, when it's finished pulling something, it can then go into a dock and then go home.

[Imogen B. Smith]

Well, that's what I would have assumed. But I guess like sometimes these ports are in not particularly convenient locations and actually these particular tugboats work on the Douglas channel, which is one of the longest channels in the whole entire world. So they'll bring these container ships down that channel before they go off into the sea. Ocean. Yeah, Pacific Ocean. So actually I imagine they could be on that stretch for quite a time. But that was definitely a highlight.

[Jack Scarlett]

I love that video. And yeah, for me, tugboats right up there in the kind of Pantheon of vehicles 4 year old Jack most wanted to go on along with like, you know, diggers and hovercrafts.

[Imogen B. Smith]

Oh my God.

[Jack Scarlett]

And the episode really didn't disappoint. And also it's another type of vehicle that you hear about them going electric and you go of course entirely centered around having massive torque.

[Robert Llewellyn]

Yeah.

[Jack Scarlett]

And ideally being, you know, not too pollutive to the waters. It's just another no brainer.

[Imogen B. Smith]

Well, the other thing that they're really, really proud of because exactly that huge amounts of torque they can do like donuts. It's incredible. But you know, there are two things that really stood out is that it's so quiet, obviously because it's an electric motor versus a big old diesel engine. So the captains have lost a sense because previously they're sort of calibrating what they need to do.

[Robert Llewellyn]

Yeah.

[Imogen B. Smith]

So they've kind of, they've been like. Well, it's really nice because it's less exhausting that you're not bombarded with noise. But definitely like a. Oh, having to kind of, you know, figure this out again. But it's really, really good for marine life as well because they're so quiet in the water. So you know, and that particular channel in Vancouver has loads of whales, that kind of stuff. So, you know, that's another lovely little bonus that we learn on that.

[Robert Llewellyn]

And also they're going because there's been lots of reports of this. I mean, I don't want to go off topic too much but of, you know. Oh, wind turbines disturbed. No, there's no proof or any evidence that any wind turbine out at sea has any effect on whales. But ships, a ship contact is what kills thousands of whales. Everything sort of. But that's out in the ocean. So in a channel like that, the ships are going so slowly, they're not going at speed. So they're presumably less harmful to large marine mammals. We hope.

[Imogen B. Smith]

But that has just reminded me about a wind turbine fact that I Learned on another show or in a podcast because there's lots of debate around are wind turbines bad for marine environments? And the Crown Estate are definitely looking at this of how they need to sort of co locate wind turbines with marine life and whatever. But wind turbines really good for sort of growing stuff. Yeah.

[Robert Llewellyn]

Stuff out at sea. Weedy.

[Imogen B. Smith]

Yeah, I do. I'm so glad that you also didn't know the correct terminology because I thought it's really good nature and stuff.

[Robert Llewellyn]

Yeah, some nature sticks to it.

[Imogen B. Smith]

Yeah.

[Robert Llewellyn]

Very healthy.

[Imogen B. Smith]

Yeah, Obviously.

[Robert Llewellyn]

But actually I just very briefly, a long time. So guy I worked with 25 years ago was a marine biologist and when we were in a. Possibly Inverness or a coastal Scottish town, he took me to see a mate of his who was a marine biologist doing research on cod.

[Imogen B. Smith]

Yeah.

[Robert Llewellyn]

But one of the tanks, which was twice the size of this room, had a big metal thing in the middle that was going. You could hear it.

[Imogen B. Smith]

Yeah.

[Robert Llewellyn]

And it was kind of slightly making the water move. And that was a recreation of a wind turbine tower. And they wanted to see what effect it had on the cod.

[Imogen B. Smith]

No way.

[Robert Llewellyn]

And I said, oh, God, what can you tell? It went. He said, it has absolutely no effect. It's the most boring experiment we've ever done. Nothing happens. The cod just swim. They go up to it. They don't go up to it. Nothing. It didn't do anything. So, you know, that was. But that was. Now I think about it, I didn't even know that they were offshore turbines, that it didn't make any sense at all.

[Imogen B. Smith]

So I got to tell you this because this came on the radio yesterday on BBC Radio 2, which is really giving away my age. That. That's my, like preference of radio Station Now, Radio 2.

[Robert Llewellyn]

I'm a Radio 4 person because obviously I'm allowed. I'm over the over the hill.

[Jack Scarlett]

Anyway, do you know what?

[Imogen B. Smith]

No. Because I was listening to Radio 4 and I thought, oh, I'm feeling a little fruity. I'll go to radio 2. And they, they went, see what the kids are. And part of this is because sometimes I hear names on Radio 1. I'm like, I don't know any of these. And I felt old. Anyway, they went back into the BBC archive and they found the archive of when the first generating wind turbine was launched in the uk. It was actually in Orkney. Any guesses as to what year that was? I'm going to wind turbine.

[Robert Llewellyn]

Sorry, this is late 70s.

[Imogen B. Smith]

Late 70s. Any advances on late 70s?

[Jack Scarlett]

That sounds like an educated guess. I'm going to say earlier than we think. Mid 60s.

[Imogen B. Smith]

Oh, okay. Jack is closer.

[Jack Scarlett]

Wow.

[Imogen B. Smith]

1951.

[Robert Llewellyn]

Wow.

[Imogen B. Smith]

Yeah.

[Robert Llewellyn]

That is even older than me.

[Imogen B. Smith]

Yeah, it is.

[Jack Scarlett]

It's remarkable.

[Robert Llewellyn]

Wow.

[Imogen B. Smith]

Really, really remarkable.

[Robert Llewellyn]

And that was an offshore wind turbine, so it was out at sea in Orkney.

[Imogen B. Smith]

Yeah.

[Robert Llewellyn]

Wow.

[Imogen B. Smith]

I mean, generating. Not very much as we can imagine, but, you know, it's. It's an amazing piece of BBC archive footage.

[Robert Llewellyn]

Wow.

[Imogen B. Smith]

And you can hear they're like this. This turbine is generating electricity and when the wind goes over whatever it goes over it and all this other stuff, it's. It was really interesting. Yeah.

[Robert Llewellyn]

That is incredible. I had no idea. That's. Those are. There's a good quiz fact, if you go to a pub quiz and that comes up, isn't it?

[Imogen B. Smith]

Yeah. But what's been your highlight shoot this year, would you say?

[Robert Llewellyn]

I don't know. But I don't know. I mean. I mean, I'll tell you one which was really short and like when we were in Sydney.

[Imogen B. Smith]

Yeah.

[Robert Llewellyn]

And it was. You can't even call it a shoot. I went outside and there was a camera and I had to talk to this man and he was standing next to a Tesla Model S and I had to go quick. Oh, that what you're talking about. And it was the 666.666kilometer battery pack that he just had replaced not long before. So that is 414.

[Imogen B. Smith]

Sorry. So shocking.

[Robert Llewellyn]

So shocking. 414. 247 miles on one battery pack. What was great was all the other stuff that had broken on the car. The seats, the steering, the brakes, the tires, they'd all had to be replaced. The battery, so. And even at that range, it was still working.

[Imogen B. Smith]

Yeah.

[Robert Llewellyn]

But the range had dropped, so it was annoying for that because it's a limousine. So they put a new battery in, which was under warranty, as I remember it. And that was one of those things where on the day, because it was busy and we were in the middle of the show, it didn't really sink in until. Oh, hang on. Because I've said to people for years, the batteries last longer than we think and we don't really know, but you know all those. And you go, oh, that is kind of stavemaker. That was like just short of half a million miles.

[Imogen B. Smith]

Yeah.

[Robert Llewellyn]

And this is quite, by today's standards, quite old battery technology. Yeah. It's an early model, early Model S.

[Jack Scarlett]

It's really good to. Now, you know, we've known this for a little while.

[Robert Llewellyn]

Yeah.

[Jack Scarlett]

There's no substitute for having actual Physical examples of super high and a guy.

[Robert Llewellyn]

That was not doing sort of green revolution. Yeah. Oh well, I mean the seats are broken, back axle, the steering had to be replaced, the lights got, you know, loads of other things in the car had gone wrong. But not the battery.

[Imogen B. Smith]

You know, what's that phrase like when, when you have a broom and you replace the handle and the brushes, it's still the same but it's kind of like that. But you know, it's like a battery with a car surrounding it like that, isn't it?

[Robert Llewellyn]

Yeah, yeah, I suppose after like, you know, I don't know what, 300,000 miles. Generally bearings in wheels and sort of joints on steering because that. So added onto that, which I didn't. We didn't film in a way. But for the first time this year on the Nissan Leaf, which is now 14 years old, I had to pay money to have servicing done. So two of the ball joints had gone. I had to have two new tires and some welding on the body. For the first time in 14 years I've spent anything more than 20 quid on that. On servicing that car cost 900 pounds.

[Imogen B. Smith]

I bet you. You are a frontier.

[Robert Llewellyn]

But I did think, because it was a lot of money, 900 quid. But my God, looking back and also I've been taking the same people so they. I have. We spent nothing on it.

[Imogen B. Smith]

And maybe that was their problem.

[Robert Llewellyn]

They were like that is coming up for 90 000, I think. Okay. So it's never going to be a high mileage car just because it's, you know. Yeah, it doesn't go very far on it. I mean it goes 125 miles on average this time of year. So about 140 in the summer.

[Imogen B. Smith]

Which is so fine for so many, so many uses.

[Robert Llewellyn]

Yeah.

[Imogen B. Smith]

Anyway, but, but Jack, I think you're absolutely right. There's kind of anecdotal examples because obviously we need to back up anything that we talk about in the clean energy transition, EV transition with data. But actually where it's still quite intimidating, quite new for people. You do need those anecdotes to be like, well, check out this guy over here. He's got 666,000 charges. 666. You'd be so annoyed if he just tipped it over, wouldn't he?

[Robert Llewellyn]

He was very sure that that was the exact mileage or kilometer ridge. What do you say from. Because we say mileage. What do you say if it's kilometers? I bet people still say mileage.

[Imogen B. Smith]

Clomet.

[Jack Scarlett]

I think you should from now on. That's beautiful.

[Robert Llewellyn]

Anyway, no, that was so that. Just. Because what was weird is it was a kind of non. It was a non event at the moment, at the time of doing it. And yet it's kind of one of those ones that stayed.

[Jack Scarlett]

Yeah. I had to drag you out of the hall between panels.

[Robert Llewellyn]

I think it was.

[Jack Scarlett]

Man marked you so that people didn't kind of run into the shot to get selfies with you, but just long enough to grab that very short video.

[Robert Llewellyn]

Yeah.

[Jack Scarlett]

And you're right. It was only when we came home, watched the edit, we were like, whoa. Yes. That is a remarkable piece of engineering.

[Imogen B. Smith]

What have some of your highlights been this year?

[Jack Scarlett]

We've had some great shoots this year. I said in a video recently that I would summarize 2024 in electric cars as being a great year for small stuff and a great year for fun stuff. Yeah. So in the category of the small stuff, we had the new Dacia Spring, which is obviously just joyous little vehicle. Really sets a new entry point for getting into a brand new electric car. I think it's less than £15,000 for the base car in the UK, there is a cheaper baser model, but you. The UK branch of Dacia decided not to bring that here because it doesn't have a heater or a scree or like a infotainment screen and they're worried it might just be too barren.

[Robert Llewellyn]

Right.

[Jack Scarlett]

For the uk.

[Robert Llewellyn]

So no heater is challenging.

[Imogen B. Smith]

What they need to do is bring that model out with a coat so you can absolutely get a free nice.

[Jack Scarlett]

Kind of sleeping bag that zips into the seat. So that's lovely. I enjoyed that car. The sition EC3. Underrated. Criminally underrated. Little thing. I'm not seeing many of them about, but delightful. And then where small stuff meets fun stuff. The Alpine A290 and the Renault 5. Renault 5 for me, car of the year. I don't even think that's controversial to say it's one of those. It's like when the Mini came back. It's one of those vehicles that just purely on its vibe, people are interested, they don't know anything else about it. Non car people are charmed by it. And I think that's going to be such a needle mover for one of the most inform brands at the moment in Renault. Gosh. And then just to finish things off, I think the best experience I had this year in terms of a shoot or a car was the Ioniq 5N. Getting to spend a couple of days Unbelievable vehicle. In the Scottish Highlands, we had all four seasons across two days, such as Scotland, and it was just breathtaking. I, I had more fun in that electric car that day than I thought I ever would in an ev.

[Robert Llewellyn]

Right.

[Jack Scarlett]

And it's down to, you know, the big sticky tires and the amazing suspension and the very clever steering, but it's really mostly down to that clever little bit of software they've given it that lets you pretend you've got a gearbox. And it's, it's so fascinating watching the different performance brands experiment with different ways to bring a bit of tactility and engagement to electric cars, which can be quite sterile.

[Imogen B. Smith]

Yeah, well, I think that There Are five. There Are five is a really, really interesting example because I think it's sort of similar to the Ioniq 5 versus Ionic 5N in that regard. Because I think they've recently announced that they're going to bring the R5 Turbo.

[Robert Llewellyn]

Yes. Because I got so nervous when I saw that. I think, are they going to put a petrol engine in it with the turbo?

[Imogen B. Smith]

Yeah. But I think like, when you look at the history of the Renault 5, it was all about democratization of vehicles, making it super accessible, super affordable, super efficient, because it came out like peak oil crisis in 1976 and then the turbo came out and it's got some really, really fun ways in which it's been described like one of the most hot headed little rascals that's ever featured in bedroom wall posters or something like that. So you kind of really, really hope that similar to the success of Ionic 5, Ionic 5 N that you've experienced, that the same thing happens with R5, R5 Turbo in the electric area.

[Robert Llewellyn]

Yeah. But also I think the interesting thing of the thing we've all witnessed and I've heard so much about, is I don't even want to talk about other brands, but other brands that have brought back classic marks from the 70s and 80s and everyone's gone, well, it's not like, you know, whatever, whatever thing. Except for the Renault 5. It's a really interesting one because it doesn't, if you look, if you put the two of them together, it doesn't look like the old Renault 5, but it sort of does. Enough. I've not heard one criticism where people go, well, it's not a real Renault 5, it's fake.

[Jack Scarlett]

I think to compare it to a less convincing homage in the form of, for example, the new Ford Capri.

[Imogen B. Smith]

Yeah.

[Jack Scarlett]

I think the key difference is that you can just tell with that Renault every aspect of the car they've looked at and they've gone, how do we make this interesting? Yeah. And a little bit desirable. You know, just, there's denim. There's denim on the dash. Because why not? It's fun and interesting. Yeah. It's retro done. Right. Car designers don't like it when you say the word retro, but it is and in wonderful way.

[Imogen B. Smith]

So I asked when we were at the Royal Enfield Flying Flea launch, so this is the new little electric bike maven competitor, dare I say that Royal Enfield had recently launched. And we asked about this kind of why is it that, you know, this retro futuristic design is such a, like, thing in the electric era. And he actually phrased it in such a nice way. He was like, well, it's not so much around like being, you know, paying this big homage to the past, but imagine if that vehicle had never been discontinued. How would it have evolved?

[Robert Llewellyn]

Right. Over the years?

[Imogen B. Smith]

And then what. What does it look like? And I was like, actually, if you apply that logic to the R5, it's exactly that.

[Robert Llewellyn]

Yeah.

[Imogen B. Smith]

It's. It's, you know, it's a long distance relative. But it's still got so much that. That DNA which also, again, you just.

[Robert Llewellyn]

DNA the R5 that was launched in 2006 or 2010. Those ones you've forgotten about Y. And they were all steps on this journey. Yeah, no, that's very good idea.

[Imogen B. Smith]

Yeah.

[Robert Llewellyn]

Actually not yesterday, walking through Soho in London.

[Imogen B. Smith]

Oh, you're very trendy.

[Robert Llewellyn]

I saw two parked. I can't say that Maving. Is that what they're called? Yeah, in the wild. One on Soho Square and one at the bottom of one of the Frith Street. One of those.

[Jack Scarlett]

Oh, that is very.

[Robert Llewellyn]

So, yeah. It's such a Soho bike.

[Jack Scarlett]

They are. That was a highlight for me as well, actually.

[Robert Llewellyn]

Yeah. They look really. And they were actually grubby. They were in use. They were kind of mucky. You know, they weren't pristine in a showroom. They were like parked on the street.

[Imogen B. Smith]

But that was. I mean, it was such a good video that, that you did. And Maving is. Well, we went out for lunch with Seb, who's the CEO of Maving, the day before you did that shoot. And he's extremely cool. It's no wonder that.

[Jack Scarlett]

Annoyingly lovely.

[Imogen B. Smith]

Yeah.

[Jack Scarlett]

Quite cool.

[Imogen B. Smith]

Yeah.

[Jack Scarlett]

Fairly good looking. Hate the guy.

[Imogen B. Smith]

Yeah.

[Robert Llewellyn]

I don't.

[Jack Scarlett]

I have a very, very small capacity for patriotism. It's just not really in my repertoire. But there's something about that brand just makes me proud to be English, because it's proper British engineering.

[Robert Llewellyn]

Are they made here?

[Jack Scarlett]

Little works of art. They're glorious.

[Robert Llewellyn]

Gorgeous.

[Imogen B. Smith]

And he, like, you know, he's been really careful to, to curate the best, like legacy motorbike talent that exists in the UK and be like, hey, could you come help us? Like, come make this, bring this bike to life. And it is wonderful. It's so beautifully crafted. I still stand by the fact it's a little bit too heavy for me.

[Jack Scarlett]

But perfect for something, as evidenced by the fact that you had a little. Dropped it on that shoe.

[Imogen B. Smith]

And I was also so mortified about this experience because I was like, I know that so much of this is user error versus it's not user.

[Robert Llewellyn]

It's not designed right.

[Imogen B. Smith]

Yeah. And I'd said to you, I was like, oh, I do find a bit heavy. And you're like, you know, I think you'll probably find it fine. And then I, I dropped it. And then I felt like I dropped it to, like prove a point. I was like, I haven't. I just. I just toppled over. I'm not very tall.

[Jack Scarlett]

Unfortunately we weren't rolling cameras or it would have gone in the edit.

[Robert Llewellyn]

Yes, it definitely would have been used.

[Jack Scarlett]

100% chance we'd have dobbed you in and put that into the video. The bike was fine.

[Imogen B. Smith]

Shame. And the worst thing is, is that I actually. I did drop one on the maving launch with maving, so they see me do that before.

[Robert Llewellyn]

Oh, God. You've done it twice.

[Imogen B. Smith]

I didn't realize that.

[Robert Llewellyn]

Oh, gosh.

[Jack Scarlett]

It's a good thing. We were nice about them in the.

[Imogen B. Smith]

Video and hopefully they never listen to this, so fingers cross. Oh, God.

[Robert Llewellyn]

I don't know whether we want to talk about this so we can snip it if necessary. Pause. But what about. Because I wasn't there, but there was a little bit of vehicular contact during a shoot of a certain.

[Jack Scarlett]

I think we're getting into sort of horror stories and behind the scenes anecdotes which I have a couple of zingers from this year. So we had the privilege of being involved in the world's first Datcher spring car crash on the international press launch for that car. But I say we, poor old cameraman Andy was the sort of the recipient of the crash, as it were. We had borrowed a car to use as a camera car so that we could, you know, do what we do, hang out the back of it and get lovely rolling shots of the spring on the move. The car we borrowed was like a Dacia Duster or something, which belonged to the sort of global head of marketing of Dacia, who very kindly loaned us her personal car for half an hour. And, yeah, we went out, did our thing, got the shots, came back in. Andy's pulled up in this car and then a journalist who evidently has kind of pulled into the car park of this nice hotel and then immediately looked down at his phone and just drove straight into the back of Andy in this Thatcher spring at low speed. No one was hurt, Everything was fine. I mean, the spring was pretty crumpled.

[Robert Llewellyn]

It was very crumpled.

[Jack Scarlett]

Duster had seen better days. What was most amazing is the way this journalist sort of got out, shrugged his shoulders, then went off to make a cup of tea as if nothing had happened. I. If I ever become that complacent about people giving us lovely toys to play with, I want you to punch me in the face. Robert. It was remarkable. Wow, that is quite extreme. Poor old Andy, completely mortified. Not his fault in this life.

[Robert Llewellyn]

Not his fault. No.

[Imogen B. Smith]

Because I think if there's one thing that we know about Andy, it's how well he looks after things. And I know.

[Robert Llewellyn]

So upsetting for him.

[Imogen B. Smith]

Oh, my gosh. Because, you know, for example, if I show him my laptop that has a lot of fingerprints on the screen, he's like.

[Robert Llewellyn]

It gets his cleaning kit out.

[Imogen B. Smith]

Oh, my God, 100%. So I know that for him that would have been mortifying. But I think we also should mention that he's actually purchased a dacha spring in real life. And the guy in the. The sales center was like, do you know much about this, this car? Do I know about this car? I'm actually the first one to crash one. So at least he's now wearing it as a bad bonnet. Yeah.

[Robert Llewellyn]

Now, there have been times when, when we're doing a shoot and I've turned up in our. In our MG4, our Brown MG4 that if you wash it, is white. But I park next to Andrew, who's also driven on roads and parked to the same place in a car that looks like it's actually in a showroom. It's so pristinely, immaculately spotless. His. His Model Y is just amazing how I don't know how you do that.

[Jack Scarlett]

He washes it every weekend with a little. With a little cloth, by hand. Every time I drive somewhere where I'm meeting Andy in my polestar, which is white and usually dirty, I genuinely get anxious on the driver. I was like, oh, he's going to tell me off, he's going to get out, he's going to look around it and he's going to give me that look, that little, with that little face of his.

[Imogen B. Smith]

Well, on that mating shoe. I had to give him a lift in my calm was just like, just don't, just don't look at anything. There is so much granola in here. Oh, at least he holds us to a standard.

[Jack Scarlett]

Yes, he does. I have one more, but I'd love to hear some of yours first. Some bts. What can you tell us about things that didn't go completely to plan on shoots this year? I mean, should we talk about the turbine?

[Imogen B. Smith]

I think it's about the turbine.

[Robert Llewellyn]

Excited about the turbine.

[Jack Scarlett]

Surprise to no one that watched the video because the video itself was chaos. And I mean that in the best way possible. So we're talking about the DIY Danish wind turbine.

[Robert Llewellyn]

Beautiful concept. And also it was not so much. I mean the chaos of the actual shoot was classic, but it was, the build up was so long and for the poor guys that did it to get us, this huge, complicated, transportable wind turbine was a mind boggling thing. When it arrived, it was enormous boxes and. And then we went up the hill, which I have since walked over that hill 20 times. And every time my cat blows off and the wind is so strong. Except that day because you.

[Imogen B. Smith]

What's the app that you have? Is it wonderful?

[Robert Llewellyn]

Yes.

[Imogen B. Smith]

And on that particular day, the lowest.

[Robert Llewellyn]

I've ever seen 1% of UK's generation was when yesterday, 68%. So that's the, that's the variation.

[Jack Scarlett]

Wow.

[Robert Llewellyn]

So 68% is crazy high. Sorry, no, on Sunday it was 68 because our demand is lower on a Sunday, but still it was a huge amount of wind. It was multiple gigawatts. And on that day it was 1%. I've never seen it that low ever.

[Imogen B. Smith]

So apart from this being the most elaborate kind of puzzle that we've ever seen in our whole entire lives and you know, starting to really query how portable this wind turbine actually is, it became this real team effort, didn't it? And actually say people pay hundreds of pounds to go on team building days like this. And we were doing this as part of our normal job and after many, many hours the thing was now standing. It wasn't necessarily turning because there was not much wind. And then we went to sort of do the last bit only to discover that it runs on an Android platform. None of us have Android phones or laptops, so we had to call him back up. We're all starving at this point as well. So if you Listen, so lovely neighbor.

[Robert Llewellyn]

Colin came up with his Android phone and he has as much interest in phones as I have in. I can't even think of a topic because I've got a lot of interests. A very low level of. So he uses it as a phone. Weirdo. So he didn't know anything about it. He went, I don't know how you download things.

[Imogen B. Smith]

If you listen to that, that episode in the background you can hear Amazing Katie from our team shout. Can you ask him to bring some snacks?

[Robert Llewellyn]

Oh yes, that's right. Because we were up. We didn't expect to be up there quite as long but then we gave up, packed it up, put it. And then I put it up in the garden on my own, which I'm quite proud of.

[Imogen B. Smith]

Yeah. I don't not know how you did that.

[Robert Llewellyn]

No, that was, it was good. I didn't break anything. And then we put it up in the garden and it was windy and then the crew came back and we knew how to do it and we had the battery pack and we had the, you know, the right software that we'd updated everything. We knew how to do it. And then all day we were trying to do it and it was turning and Katie was there on the ground and we. I'd sort of given up.

[Imogen B. Smith]

Yeah.

[Robert Llewellyn]

And I was kind of thinking, oh, you know, it was a brave attempt. I don't know how we make this work as a show. And I suddenly hear this fantastic high pitched scream which was the first time you could see power coming from that wind turbine down the wire into the box. Charging the battery that was going into the car. Charging the car. We were literally for a minute but.

[Imogen B. Smith]

We caught it on camera.

[Jack Scarlett]

It can be done. It can be done. It was. It's such a good watch that video. I really encourage people to go have a look if they've not seen it.

[Imogen B. Smith]

And actually I'm going to tell you this, it was our fourth best performing episode.

[Robert Llewellyn]

You're kidding. Wow. Like it is basically a wind turbine that didn't quite work.

[Imogen B. Smith]

But it's so charming and I think it was such, you know, because obviously most people who, who interact with the Free Child show and everything, Electric show, see hopefully pretty polished episodes come out. But actually this was a real peek behind the curtain, I think real testament to the perseverance of our team. And then it was a beautiful edit by. By George.

[Robert Llewellyn]

Yes. No, very well put together and so.

[Imogen B. Smith]

At least it was worth it in, in the views as well.

[Robert Llewellyn]

Yeah, yeah. But because the way, I mean the surprise one for me, which is. Which was again like why are we doing this?

[Jack Scarlett]

This.

[Robert Llewellyn]

Oh God no. I was like in a bit of a mood. Which was the. The Yang Wang because it just felt right, like we don't do super sports cars and this is a bloody hybrid, you know, Massive tank that has got. I think it's the top views of the year, isn't it?

[Imogen B. Smith]

1.8 million or something.

[Jack Scarlett]

Yeah, huge views. This was a two in one, wasn't it? You had the BYD. Is it called the U8? Yes, supercar, the U9. Thank you. That's an all electric, all wheel drive.

[Robert Llewellyn]

Yeah.

[Jack Scarlett]

It's got active suspension. It can jump on the spot. Why not? And then there was a little cameo of the gigantic kind of like sort of Defender come G Wagon sort of thing.

[Robert Llewellyn]

Actually. It makes a Range Rover look like a compact but it's also a city car. So. Huge.

[Imogen B. Smith]

It is a hybrid as well.

[Robert Llewellyn]

It's a hybrid.

[Imogen B. Smith]

So we like really didn't fit in the Venn diagram of stuff that we do. Not at all.

[Jack Scarlett]

No one assumes that supercar was what sort of pulled in the biggest news.

[Robert Llewellyn]

Yeah.

[Jack Scarlett]

What do you. What do you make of that car, on reflection?

[Robert Llewellyn]

Well, I mean I could. I've never couldn't go in it. So I've now since been in the. When we at the show we had the big SUV which is. What is that? The U. I think that might be the U8. I think sports car's definitely the U9. Anyway, the U something and they did a tank turn where all the wheels turn. And I mean that is bonkers when you're in it because you just literally go oh my God. And you can hear as the tires skid round in a donut, you know, and you go, well I, it's. I can understand why they do it because you can do it and you wouldn't be able to do that in a combustion engine vehicle, but it's bonkers. So that. That's the only one I've actually been in and I made it move along forward 2 meters. So I've driven it that far. The other one, I don't know. You know, I think we could get. I'm not sure we can even get.

[Imogen B. Smith]

In it, but I think, I think.

[Robert Llewellyn]

Oh no, we did get in it. We did get in it but didn't drive it. So I don't know.

[Imogen B. Smith]

I mean it was a studio shoot, so.

[Robert Llewellyn]

Studio shoot. Yeah, we were. We knew we weren't going to drive it but it was one of those ones where I was being Charming to the people because it's got to be polite. But I was going, why have we doing. I don't know why, how this did this come out? I couldn't. I don't remember how it was all arranged and actually, I've got to shut up.

[Imogen B. Smith]

No, but I think it is interesting that we. There is not always a correlation between effort put in and success from it. Certainly from abuse.

[Jack Scarlett]

There is a correlation and it's. It's the opposite. Yes, the opposite.

[Robert Llewellyn]

Enormous enthusiasm and we're excited and the effort and we go and we make the extra effort and no one's interested.

[Imogen B. Smith]

What is it safe to say that one was a bit of an eye roll because there was so many shoots going on at that time and everyone was absolutely exhausted. So Katie very politely was like, don't worry, guys, I've got this. She like rearranged childcare to do it and like, you know, very nobly went. And everyone's like, well, you know, whatever. So she's now very smug that she has. She is sort of responsible for the best performing episode on the channel.

[Robert Llewellyn]

Very unfair. Yeah, the team. Not that she goes on and on and on about every possible opportunity.

[Jack Scarlett]

Every year there's a couple of videos that I think just to spite us.

[Robert Llewellyn]

Yeah.

[Jack Scarlett]

Let us know that we don't know the algorithm at all because we, you know, we think we have this understanding of our audience at fully charged. So they like stuff that's more on the affordable side. Practical, sensible, clever design. And actually we often get told off in the comments for driving expensive cars. People go, this isn't relevant to most people. So riddle me the video of the million pound hypercar doing our biggest views of the year for goodness.

[Robert Llewellyn]

Makes no sense.

[Jack Scarlett]

More supercars in 2025. I'm declaring it.

[Imogen B. Smith]

Well, the other one, I think that kind of speaks to the opposite end of that spectrum that it has done. Okay. From a views perspective and I will say that the comments are beautiful and really, really overwhelmingly positive. But was the electric fishing boat, because that was low cost, super practical and stunning.

[Robert Llewellyn]

Just visually stunning.

[Imogen B. Smith]

Oh my gosh. Yeah. So for anyone who hasn't seen the episode, we went up to Scotland in the only bit of sunny Scotland that has sort of existed for, you know, the past five years. It was, it was really, really astonishing. We were in a place called Tavialock, which is about two hours north of. Of Glasgow.

[Robert Llewellyn]

So west coast. You're on the west coast with all the lovely islands.

[Imogen B. Smith]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. And like, you know, in an area where I think it's called. Someone's going to Correct Me. But like Fairy Tale Island. There's literally an island called Fairy Tale Island. And you look at it and you're like, yes, because this is from an illustration from a Grimm's Fairy Tale. It's totally stunning. And this fishing boat was incredible. Had been lovingly restored from, I think, from the 70s. Super, super cheap to run. Because it's so cheap to run, actually. There's less pressure to catch as many lobsters because you're not trying to recoup your fuel costs, all that kind of thing. And there is like. There's actually quite a big grant available to people who have small boats. I think it's like £40,000.

[Robert Llewellyn]

Wow.

[Imogen B. Smith]

To upgrade to an electric version or to wow. To a less polluting vehicle. And this guy Hans, who is just amazing.

[Robert Llewellyn]

Just such a lovely character. Wasn't he?

[Imogen B. Smith]

Such an amazing character. And he'd gone through the rigmarole of, you know, going through this process of changing his book, going through the approval processes and really sort of pointing out where the system kind of doesn't work. And now he's got this really amazing proof point. And he made this mini documentary about the whole experience, which was shown in the local village hall. And he was incredibly smug because his film outsold Barbie in Tabialik village, I should say. So it was just like a phenomenal story where you think it's people like Hans who are so vital to this clean energy transition because he's done this from a place of just love and give it a go. And I mean, safe say Louis, who edited that episode and also shot it with George, didn't like. Absolutely astounding job. It'll be lovely if it had a few more views, but, you know, we're really proud of it.

[Robert Llewellyn]

But that's the one that I got. And I've been desperately trying to remember for the last 24 hours who it was, but there was people at the BBC.

[Imogen B. Smith]

Yeah.

[Robert Llewellyn]

Commented on it, so. And I'm trying to remember where I spoke to them, and I know I did. Who went, how do you. How do you make that episode on what budget have you got? And I said, let's go. It's the transport and accommodation budget that you'd use.

[Imogen B. Smith]

And I will say not even that. In fact, our accommodation was quite scary. Oh, yeah. I mean, we. I think, safe say when we go on. On car launches, we're wind and dine sometimes we're in very nice places and it's. It's beautiful and there are certainly no complaints and for some of our other shoots, we're very familiar with the Premier Inn, which I think we hold as our kind of five star standard.

[Robert Llewellyn]

Yeah.

[Imogen B. Smith]

And then we kind of go down.

[Robert Llewellyn]

The runs, go slightly less good.

[Imogen B. Smith]

If Premier Inn is five stars, this was maybe one. And I think we're all like, is it haunted? Will that big pile of mold turn into a monster overnight? So, you know, there were some sacrifices made for that shoot, but yeah, I mean, we do things on a shoestring. There's very little cost.

[Robert Llewellyn]

They were very impressed, whoever it was. Somebody at the BBC was very impressed. And I can't remember.

[Jack Scarlett]

I've learned a lot about boats this year, electric ones, through the electric show. I could have done with that knowledge last year at our Amsterdam. Amsterdam show, where for some reason I got put on a panel, chaired a panel.

[Robert Llewellyn]

All right.

[Jack Scarlett]

About electric boats. And, you know, I thought I'd written enough questions to cover thought provoking. 30 minutes. The problem with the Dutch is they're so concise.

[Robert Llewellyn]

Yes.

[Imogen B. Smith]

So efficient.

[Jack Scarlett]

So 15 minutes in, I'm sort of glancing down and going, oh, my goodness, I've gotten through all of my questions. I'm just gonna have to freestyle this sort of chuck to Hail Mary, praying for a in depth answer. I went, so one of my panelists, do you think that enough is being done legislation wise in the city of Amsterdam to enable the transition to electric boats? And he went, yes, come on, give me something.

[Imogen B. Smith]

Those are the worst ones when you prepare for a panel. And the best panels are the ones where you never look at your sheet of questions because it's really easy conversation. And then the others, in case of that situation, you're like, I've got to have 30 extra just in case this is a pulling teeth situation.

[Robert Llewellyn]

But also the other one I've done, I've only remember doing it once, was I. While. While I introduced them, I realized that they weren't in the order that. This is a few years ago, I think, before. Well, now we've got the photographs.

[Imogen B. Smith]

Yeah.

[Robert Llewellyn]

So I'm. So I had on my thing, you know, it was David, Jonathan, Mary. And I was. There were arrows going like, he's not in there, he's there. But then I looked at one. I don't know what that means. Jonathan just waits till one of them goes, yes. Oh, good, you're okay. That's terrifying.

[Imogen B. Smith]

And the worst thing that is, then you've like had that little conversation in your head. You're like, jonathan. That is Jonathan. And then you're listening to the answers and you forget and you forget halfway through. Yeah, I've definitely.

[Robert Llewellyn]

Oh, good.

[Jack Scarlett]

I'm glad we come to our live shows. They're very well, very well for them and they're very organized.

[Robert Llewellyn]

All the presentations is of an absolute top level.

[Imogen B. Smith]

The panelists are great.

[Robert Llewellyn]

The panel is fantastic. Never their fault be true.

[Imogen B. Smith]

Yeah. Jack, do you have any other clangers from this year?

[Jack Scarlett]

I've got one more clanger. I think I can tell this story. We can cut it if we deem necessary. I won't name the brand to be safe, but I had a remarkable experience with a micro car.

[Imogen B. Smith]

Ah, yes, yes.

[Jack Scarlett]

This year, which the brand shall remain unnamed. I'm not telling you if we ended up making a video or posting a video or not, but what a bunch of cowboys these guys were. So it. It started well, the microcar in question was delivered in the back of a van. Nothing unusual about that. What was slightly unusual was when the cheerful chap at the wheel opened the back of the van, pulled out two planks of wood, sort of balanced them on the tailgate of the van and then turns me and went right in, you get back it out. And I sort of just looked at the van, I looked at the planks, not anchored by anything, and I just went, no, no. I think no. And I wish I'd said yes. Because in the end he got in it and backed it out, which meant I was left with the other job, which was anchoring the planks of wood with my feet.

[Robert Llewellyn]

Oh my God. With him coming towards you, thing is.

[Jack Scarlett]

Reversing down the ramped towards me. I remember thinking what ridiculous way to die this would be. Anyway, it was all completely fine. Got it off the back of the van, off he drove. At which point I realized that the car that had been delivered to me was A, absolutely filthy, not the end of the world, B, on 1% charge, which is not great. And C, had no number plates.

[Imogen B. Smith]

Bit problematic.

[Jack Scarlett]

So I did phoned them up and I went, I'm sorry to be a pain, this car has no number plate, so I can't drive it anywhere. And they came back to me and they went, oh, do you know what's happened is we're delivering another car today to Joe Scarlet up in Scotland, who's just planning on driving it around his private land. I think, must. We must have. We must have given you the wrong car.

[Imogen B. Smith]

Oh, my God.

[Jack Scarlett]

Which is entirely feasible, I guess. Anyway, another car appeared in a couple of days. I wasn't run over by that one. Getting it out the back of the van either.

[Robert Llewellyn]

And it did have number plates and.

[Jack Scarlett]

It did have number plates on, so that was. That was a lovely experience. It was quite refreshing, actually. We go to so many polished.

[Robert Llewellyn]

Yes. Flashed like the amount of amazing trucks that have been here. Some amazing car comes out the back of. Very different. It was.

[Jack Scarlett]

It kind of endeared the company. Company to me in a strange way.

[Imogen B. Smith]

Humbling. Yeah. And I mean, whilst we're not naming names, you did end up in the Daily Mail with that.

[Jack Scarlett]

Yes. Yeah.

[Imogen B. Smith]

That's quite an accolade.

[Robert Llewellyn]

Wow.

[Imogen B. Smith]

Not the sidebar of shame, we should say.

[Robert Llewellyn]

Right, sure.

[Jack Scarlett]

Yeah.

[Robert Llewellyn]

No, it was my positive thing.

[Jack Scarlett]

It was my. My hot takes on Brexit during the video that were. No, not really.

[Imogen B. Smith]

I suddenly like, oh no, oh no, what are. We started.

[Jack Scarlett]

That was fun. It's been, it's been a good year for off camera drama, I think it's fair to say.

[Imogen B. Smith]

Yeah.

[Jack Scarlett]

A little bit of looking forward to next year to finish off, but.

[Robert Llewellyn]

Oh, I'm definitely. Because I'm about to go to Australia quite soon and I'm definitely looking forward to the show. The Sydney show is really extraordinary. But there's. Some of the stuff we're filming beforehand is interesting and in New Zealand. First time we've ever done anything in New Zealand, which I'm really thrilled. That is an amazing treat. I don't know, I mean. Well, one of them is at the Cherry Farm.

[Imogen B. Smith]

Yeah.

[Robert Llewellyn]

Which is so weird because I'm a bit. I'm. There's a cherry farm not far from me and in the summer when they're, you know, selling cherries, I've now got a cherry pitter and I make cherry pie and cherry stuff. I just get a bit cherryish. So to be able to film. But it's a hundred percent renewably powered, zero carbon. All their equipment, all their tractors, all their machinery they use is all. Some of it's autonomous. I think it's a really fascinating place. But it's not like, oh, we'll just be there and then we'll just pop out and film this. This is remote.

[Imogen B. Smith]

It is quite remote and we do have a little bit of a job on logistics. But I think a couple of things about New Zealand. One, there is a charging station at a minimum every 50km or something like that. So really, really amazing charging network to be well served there. But also now the name totally escapes me for a moment. But the guy who runs Cherry Tree Farm, he. His background is in tech. He lived in Sydney, he went back to New Zealand and he's come, come about farming from very much like a tech background.

[Robert Llewellyn]

Right.

[Imogen B. Smith]

And he's a bit of a legend because he's sort of saying, okay, whatever, however you feel about the environment, don't care. The economics of taking this particular direction totally, totally makes sense. So I think you'll have a really astonishing issue, that one.

[Robert Llewellyn]

So I'm definitely looking forward to that. Which is an odd thing for a show that's about vehicles and energy stuff.

[Jack Scarlett]

Oh, the odd ones are off in my.

[Robert Llewellyn]

Yeah. But, yeah, I'm just hoping this will be one where people do like it. You know, it's about. This is about cherries, electric cherries, zero carbon cherries.

[Imogen B. Smith]

But you know, I think, I think what I find interesting about the stuff that we cover, not so much on the fully charged show, but definitely, definitely on the everything electric show. Is that actually a lot of the stuff? A lot of the low hanging fruit, pun intended?

[Robert Llewellyn]

Oh, yeah.

[Imogen B. Smith]

Kind of like it's fine. And actually we need to go to these edge cases to prove, well, if it's possible for farming. Yeah, it's definitely possible for Joe Bloggs who lives down the road.

[Robert Llewellyn]

Yeah.

[Imogen B. Smith]

So, yeah, that'll be pretty special. What are you, what are you looking forward to?

[Jack Scarlett]

I should know this because I just did a whole video about all the exciting cars that are coming out next year, but because it was more than a day ago, I've forgotten. New fit Panda. That's quite exciting.

[Robert Llewellyn]

Oh, yes, yes, that and that look, that's a similar to the Renault 5. I mean, I, I recognized it before I knew it was a Fiat Panda.

[Jack Scarlett]

And it's fundamentally, it's the Citroen EC3 underneath. But the difference is it's interesting to look at which I think was the Citroen's downfall. Lovely thing, Very comfortable, just bit dull. Yeah. I think the Panda rectifies that and therefore might do a bit better for the Stellantis brand. So that's exciting. And then, oh, Renault 4. I banged on about Renault an awful.

[Robert Llewellyn]

Lot, but the Renault 4, so exciting. Yeah. To have a go in that. No, I'm looking forward forward to that. It was such a nice car. I thought that was such a clever redesign.

[Imogen B. Smith]

And I think it's worth mentioning that when this podcast comes out, people have to wait two weeks before your video of Top Cars 2025 or New Cars 2025 comes out. But it is amazing. There are so many in there, it's ridiculous. Yeah, but it's a really, really good comprehensive guide, I think.

[Robert Llewellyn]

And if you think it's like literally three years Ago, four years ago, you know, there were some electric cars, there were quite a few, probably 20 or 25 different types or something. And now it's like, I have no idea how many there are.

[Imogen B. Smith]

Yeah.

[Robert Llewellyn]

And I mean, even that. I read a thing about the Australian market the other day and I. About 10 of the brands that are now available in Australia, I've never. Never heard of. And they could be offshoots of NIO or BYD or, you know, any of those things. But I wrote to them, I went, I've not heard of that. What the hell is that?

[Jack Scarlett]

Cars.

[Robert Llewellyn]

Feverishly looking them all up and they all looked relatively similar, but, yeah, different brands, but they're doing very well by those hands.

[Jack Scarlett]

I've been doing this job all the four years, not all that long. And when I started, you would just grab any electric thing that came. Oh, thank goodness. Something new to make a video about.

[Robert Llewellyn]

Yeah.

[Jack Scarlett]

Whereas now, you know, what percent do we even get a chance to cover? Do we even have the time to cover it? It's a lovely problem to have.

[Imogen B. Smith]

We say no to quite a lot of things as well. Which is a, you know, a lovely problem to have, actually. Yeah.

[Robert Llewellyn]

I would. I still feel so bad because I've still got that. I've still got that thing where there aren't any. There's only two cars.

[Imogen B. Smith]

Yeah.

[Robert Llewellyn]

Well, one of them said, you want to come and try for. We've got to go. We don't have to go.

[Jack Scarlett]

And I think car brand PRs have wised up to the fact that Robert's the nice one. Have you noticed this underwhelming new car comes out? They always email Rob and go, hey, do you want to come? Because they know. He'll be like, I would love to. And then one of us has to come to the email chain, be like, he would not love, actually. He's busy that way.

[Imogen B. Smith]

We thought we got under the radar there.

[Robert Llewellyn]

That is unfortunately, possibly true. I can't do it. I want to just quickly talk about the Lee Mega, because that was so bonkers.

[Imogen B. Smith]

Oh, my gosh. Yeah.

[Robert Llewellyn]

And it's so amazing, the interior, but also it was that thing. It did feel like a next step. Oh, that's what cars will look like, you know, and it did look like. It looks sort of subtly like any other. Like anything. But it had some change in its DNA. It was fascinating, that. And I love that episode. So good at presenting that.

[Jack Scarlett]

Thank you. I'm delighted. I'm really proud of that one. The boys shot it beautifully. We had perfect weather. It really Just came together. There was three things about that car. Its massiveness isn't one of them. That's almost a kind of red herring. But there are three things that I looked at with it and thought, I can see all of those things being normal in the not too distant future. Number one is just freakishly fast battery charging, right?

[Robert Llewellyn]

Yeah.

[Imogen B. Smith]

Oh, crazy.

[Jack Scarlett]

We talk about heat pumps being, you know, a useful thing that makes sure your battery's at the right temperature. The heat pump is one of, I think, 13 components on that battery that manage its temperature, which means it can do hyper fast charging. So that's very cool. Number two, you just talk to it and it does what you tell it. Just like, you know, seamless voice activation. If you're Chinese, I have to say, right. They did show me when they handed the car over and it was remarkable. And then I had to kind of go in the video. I promise it works. Which didn't quite come across as remarkable, but that was really cool. And then the third thing is surprisingly, distraction free experience as a driver because you've got a million screens for everyone else, all the passengers, but for you as the driver, you've got a little heads up display and a little teeny screen in the steering wheel. And that's just your little bubble of distraction free driving while everyone else is watching Netflix and, you know, playing karaoke in the back.

[Imogen B. Smith]

That's so interesting.

[Jack Scarlett]

I'd like to see that as a trend in 2025 actually. We surely are approaching critical mass where car brands are going to go, oh, my goodness, we're actually putting so much stuff on these vehicles, it's kind of distracting and dangerous. Less stuff.

[Imogen B. Smith]

And I do find it very distracting when especially you have someone who's maybe less familiar with your car you're driving, they're playing around with the screen trying to do something. And then in your peripheral vision, particularly if you sit as close to the wheel as I do, it is really, really distracting. And I think this is where so many of the Chinese brands like, okay, all right, you can talk about handling or whatever, but actually, what are the things that you touch, see, feel and how, how do they respond? And what is that kind of user experience from a tech perspective? So kind of really interesting to see that new bar set and I have to say, watch the episode on our tv. So it's amazing to see that beautiful, beautiful B roll in the big screen. On the big screen. But the generative AI painting thing for your rear passengers, so cool. I would buy on that feature alone. So cool. Just Think of the thumbnails we could create.

[Jack Scarlett]

How did you get kids out the car upon arrival is my question.

[Imogen B. Smith]

Yeah, it's such a. Such a beautiful episode. Really nice way to kind of round off the year, I think.

[Robert Llewellyn]

Yeah, it was. It was really exceptional. I'm going to say one other thing I'm looking forward to, I hope, next year, which is electric trucks, because I think, yeah, there's a lot going on and big, big electric trucks. There's a lot of proof of concept. Oh. Oh, goodness. They are doing hundreds of thousands of kilometers every year. They are. And they are saving millions of pounds in fuel. So there's a. I'm not going to talk about it now, but there is a. An avenue, potential research avenue of extraordinary electric trucks that I'm very much looking forward to.

[Imogen B. Smith]

And I think worth mentioning that we are returning to Janus.

[Robert Llewellyn]

Janus.

[Imogen B. Smith]

Janus, yes, Janus trucks.

[Robert Llewellyn]

Janus trucks in Australia. And haven't they got. They've got a solar powered battery charging. Oh, I'm very excited about that.

[Imogen B. Smith]

Yeah. So super cool and so nice to see them still succeeding and actually having a huge amount of support from the Australian government at this point.

[Robert Llewellyn]

I've got to just quickly, because that was such a brilliant anecdote that he just got time in the chaos of the Sydney show. He came up to a lovely man who runs Janus Trucks and he went. And I went on, you know, sort of gave him little hugs. I said, it was so heartbreaking to hear about the phone. I don't worry about it, mate. And they had a fire in a cement truck with one of their early ones and it burnt out and it was a disaster. And then caught. Got news and it's fine. And the owner of the things, his. The quote was, ah, mate, don't worry about. It happens. Can I have five more? That was. That was the Australian response to having a vehicle fire, you know, goes wrong.

[Imogen B. Smith]

Yeah.

[Robert Llewellyn]

And nobody was hurt, thank goodness. I mean, that was lucky.

[Imogen B. Smith]

And I think, you know, that's an amazing way to steer the sort of PR anger as well, because they are still going and they're still.

[Robert Llewellyn]

Yeah, yes. Which is. So when I first saw that story, I went, that's hot. Because they were so amazing, the engineers who do that. And to use old trucks. It just makes so much sense when you're there in their factory and you go, big, massive lumps of metal and they're not chucking them out. There's just a yard full of diesel engines that are basically about the size of a big garden. Shed. They're not little, those diesel engines, they're massive.

[Imogen B. Smith]

Can I tell you about. So I've just, I've just been thinking about what I'm excited about and I'm actually really excited but it's quite nerdy. So hopefully I don't wang on too long. I'm excited about low carbon, high temperature industrial processes.

[Jack Scarlett]

Yes, yes, I was just about to say that myself.

[Imogen B. Smith]

And there's three things in particular that I'm especially excited about. One, we're so heat pumps as we know, really, really good for like, you know, heating homes slightly struggle with higher temperatures, for example, needed in things like brewing beer.

[Robert Llewellyn]

Right.

[Imogen B. Smith]

So we will be going to a brewery that has got this high, really, really high temperature heat pump and part of the reason it can get to these really high temperatures is because it has something called a turbo claw and I think that's really hooked.

[Robert Llewellyn]

Yeah.

[Imogen B. Smith]

I want to know what this turbo claw is. So that's exciting. And then, you know, this has opened up a bit of a rabbit hole of other processes and there's a really cool company who are looking at electric heating for steel making. Right.

[Robert Llewellyn]

Wow.

[Imogen B. Smith]

And I forget. So I think they're called Coolbrook and just incredible bit of turbo machinery that. Really, really excited to see that. And then of course the last one and we're trying to see if this could work out perhaps for either for a podcast or maybe for second half next year. But concentrated solar power and storing.

[Robert Llewellyn]

Yeah, heat.

[Imogen B. Smith]

Well, storing power from sun as, as heat. So you know, phenomenal stuff going on in Australia that we've got to follow. So yeah, that kind of, you know, hard to abate. Industries in adverted commas and how we can decouple.

[Robert Llewellyn]

That is, I mean those topics I think are the things that keep me trying to get up in the morning and grunt and stumble towards doing a job. But is is the technologies that are emerging now. So the solids, I know they're not solid state, semi solid state, but there are some really interesting battery technologies that are just emerging.

[Imogen B. Smith]

Yeah.

[Robert Llewellyn]

You know I always say 90 of them are never going to work, but one if you only need 1% of them.

[Imogen B. Smith]

Yeah.

[Robert Llewellyn]

To be that kind of level of game changing. I mean there are some batteries in existence now with a thousand times the energy density of the stuff we use now. A thousand times. And they're still in experimental small state. But clearly the amount of money going into that research is possibly going to come up with some genuine results.

[Imogen B. Smith]

And you kind of think back to what was it, 1980 when John B Goodenough was working on the first commercially available lithium ion battery. Can you imagine if they'd had a little crystal ball to see where we are now?

[Robert Llewellyn]

They would not believe it.

[Imogen B. Smith]

Yeah, yeah.

[Jack Scarlett]

Still early stages.

[Imogen B. Smith]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. And, you know, one day, you know, in sort of science fiction, like Marvel films, where they kind of put in a. Like a.

[Robert Llewellyn]

Like a little thing.

[Imogen B. Smith]

Yeah.

[Robert Llewellyn]

And that powers a spaceship for a trillion years.

[Imogen B. Smith]

Yeah, maybe.

[Jack Scarlett]

Yeah.

[Imogen B. Smith]

Never say never.

[Robert Llewellyn]

That's the one last thing I wanted to say. I want to explain to people who are not in the UK about Radio 2 and it's symbolism and Radio 4. It's the BBC. There are. There are 4, 5, 6, I don't even know how many.

[Imogen B. Smith]

An array of channels.

[Robert Llewellyn]

An array of radio channels going from popular music for youth, Radio 1, popular music for slightly more mature people, Radio 2.

[Imogen B. Smith]

It's where the Radio 1 presenters sort of kind of retire to.

[Robert Llewellyn]

Yes.

[Imogen B. Smith]

Yeah.

[Robert Llewellyn]

Yes, they do. And then Radio three is the classical music, very sexually. And Radio four is. Talk, is. I don't know what you call it, people talking.

[Imogen B. Smith]

But then we get to Radio 5 and that's sports.

[Robert Llewellyn]

And then Radio 6, it's my mate, Craig Charles.

[Imogen B. Smith]

Yeah.

[Robert Llewellyn]

Funk and soul show, man. Yeah, I love it. Anyway, Yeah, I just thought we need to explain that.

[Imogen B. Smith]

A seamless explanation.

[Robert Llewellyn]

I think we should round this up.

[Imogen B. Smith]

I think we should get it over with.

[Robert Llewellyn]

Well, also because we've got some of Imogen's chocolate cookies. Chocolate brownies.

[Imogen B. Smith]

Yeah.

[Robert Llewellyn]

I've had two. Have you had three? I've only had two. They are so good.

[Imogen B. Smith]

They are. They are dangerous, I will say. Yeah.

[Robert Llewellyn]

Yeah.

[Jack Scarlett]

Is this going out before or after Christmas?

[Imogen B. Smith]

23Rd of December.

[Jack Scarlett]

Well, Merry bloody Christmas to everyone listening. How about that?

[Robert Llewellyn]

Yeah, that's very nice. And a very happy and successful and peaceful. I think it's quite a good thing to go for this year. Peaceful. 2025 live.

[Imogen B. Smith]

Perfect.

[Robert Llewellyn]

That's all. That's all we got.

[Imogen B. Smith]

Subscribe.

[Robert Llewellyn]

What else? You can like and subscribe. If you wanted to drop a.

[Jack Scarlett]

Like, would you.

[Robert Llewellyn]

You can tell some of your more annoying family members who go, batteries have to be thrown away after three years. You can tell them to watch this. That will really annoy them. And as always, if you have been. Thank you for watching and listening.