GreenCars, The Podcast

For years, Kia was seen as little more than an alternative to buying a used car. Today it's one of the most closely watched automakers in America, and James Bell, Head of Corporate Communications and Public Relations at Kia America, has had a front-row seat for the entire transformation. A former automotive journalist himself, he explains what separates Kia from its Hyundai and Genesis siblings, why the company is pressing ahead with electrification while others retreat, and what kinds of vehicles could be next in line for range-extended electric power. He also explains why Kia is sticking with sedans after Ford and Chevrolet walked away from theirs, shares what keeps him up at night about the American market, and offers candid advice for anyone hoping to build a career in automotive PR, along with one unforgettable story from a press launch gone sideways. Join Craig Cole and co-host Sam Abuelsamid as they dive deep with James to find out how Kia flipped the script and where it's headed next, before looking back on the highlights of the season, in this episode of GreenCars, The Podcast.Chapters0:00 - Introduction5:10 - From Journalist to Kia's PR Chief10:33 - Behind the Scenes of a Press Launch14:20 - What Makes Kia Different21:21 - Kia's Electrification Strategy26:10 - Range-Extended EVs Are Coming30:00 - Why Kia Is Sticking With Sedans31:58 - Ionna, Charging & the Road Ahead37:49 - Is Automotive PR a Good Career?39:44 - A Press Trip Gone Wrong44:04 - Three for the Road48:48 - ConclusionsCheck out our Buyer’s Guide at https://apps.greencars.com/buyers-guideVisit GreenCars on YouTube for EV and hybrid reviews and much more:https://www.youtube.com/@greencarshq Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Race cars have always been rolling laboratories, but the experiment has changed. Thomas Chevaucher, Technical Engineering Director at the FIA, and Pierre Villez, the federation's F1 and Sport Sustainability Lead, help write the rules for Formula 1, Formula E, and the World Endurance Championship, and today those rules are as much about efficiency and emissions as they are about speed. They explain what the sustainable fuels powering today's race cars are actually made of, how technology moves between the racetrack and the cars we drive every day, and why that relationship doesn't work quite the way most people assume. The conversation covers how far Formula E has come since its awkward early days, how much energy its newest cars recover on the move, and the biggest source of racing's carbon footprint, which has nothing to do with what happens on track. And yes, they explain exactly what a virtual fuel tank is. Join Craig Cole and co-host Sam Abuelsamid as they dive deep with Thomas and Pierre to find out how the world of motorsport is getting greener, and what it means for the car in your driveway, in this episode of GreenCars, The Podcast.Chapters0:00 - Introduction5:32 - What Is the FIA?8:04 - Why Sustainability Matters in Motorsport11:11 - Formula 1, Formula E & WEC Technology14:09 - Racing's Impact on Passenger Cars15:36 - Formula E's Decade of Progress21:31 - Racing's Hidden Emissions24:09 - What's in Sustainable Race Fuel?30:11 - How a Virtual Fuel Tank Works37:08 - Four for the Road43:20 - ConclusionsCheck out our Buyer’s Guide at https://apps.greencars.com/buyers-guideVisit GreenCars on YouTube for EV and hybrid reviews and much more:https://www.youtube.com/@greencarshq Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Chinese auto industry moved faster than almost anyone expected, and the numbers are hard to argue with. Legacy brands that once dominated the world's largest car market have watched their collective share collapse in a matter of years. Tu Le, founder and managing director of Sino Auto Insights, spent well over a decade living and working in Beijing and still travels there regularly, which makes him unusually well placed to explain what actually happened and what it means for Detroit.He gets into whether the aura around Chinese EVs is deserved or overblown, why the long-promised consolidation of China's crowded auto industry keeps failing to arrive, and how Chinese drivers now regard the foreign badges that used to be aspirational. He also makes an argument that runs against almost everything you hear from American executives: that catching up to China is neither realistic nor even desirable, and that the smarter play looks quite different. And he suggests the biggest long-term threat to Detroit may not be the East at all.Join Craig Cole and co-host Sam Abuelsamid as they dive deep with Tu to find out what the West still doesn't understand about the world's most competitive car market, in this episode of GreenCars, The Podcast.Chapters0:00 - Introduction5:06 - Meet Tu Le9:33 - Are Chinese Automakers Really Innovators?14:44 - Can the US Ever Catch Up?23:38 - How China's EV Boom Actually Happened27:35 - Why Consolidation Never Comes33:42 - How China Views Foreign Brands36:21 - Chips, Nvidia & the Silicon Valley Threat46:10 - Chinese Car Culture & the EV Debate52:59 - Charging in 12 Minutes56:01 - Three for the Road1:00:51 - ConclusionsCheck out our Buyer’s Guide at https://apps.greencars.com/buyers-guideVisit GreenCars on YouTube for EV and hybrid reviews and much more:https://www.youtube.com/@greencarshq Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

To build the 2028 Fathom, Ford went off and started a car company inside its own car company. A small team in Southern California, deliberately kept at a distance from the Dearborn, MI HQ, spent four and a half years rethinking how an electric vehicle gets designed and manufactured, and the first result is an electric pickup that will start under $30,000. Alan Clarke, Vice President of Advanced Development Projects at Ford and a Tesla veteran before that, runs the skunk works that made it happen. He explains why the team is staffed largely with people from consumer electronics, EV startups, and Formula One rather than from inside the auto industry. Contrary to conventional rhetoric, he also explains why studying what Tesla and the Chinese automakers have already shipped is what he calls “rearview mirror analysis.” There’s also the question of the name. Fathom beat out hundreds of candidates, but why? And when Ford held an open call for mapping software to every provider in the business, Apple came out on top, which Alan walks through in detail. As for the truck’s range, he knows the number, and we grill him to try and get a clue. Join Craig Cole and co-host Sam Abuelsamid as they dive deep with Alan to find out whether Ford has really found its Model T moment, in this episode of GreenCars, The Podcast.Chapters0:00 - Introduction4:52 - From Tesla to Ford's Skunk Works11:56 - Vertical Integration at Long Beach20:01 - The Universal EV Platform Explained27:19 - How Ford Hit a Sub-$30,000 Price29:37 - Solving Ford's Software Problem34:36 - Where the Name "Fathom" Came From37:26 - Why Apple Maps Beat Google40:08 - How Much Range Will Fathom Have?42:18 - Batteries, Towing & Charging Trade-Offs47:34 - Three for the Road50:39 - ConclusionsCheck out our Buyer’s Guide at https://apps.greencars.com/buyers-guideVisit GreenCars on YouTube for EV and hybrid reviews and much more:https://www.youtube.com/@greencarshq Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Everybody worries about the battery when they think about buying an EV. As it turns out, that worry is mostly misplaced, and the data proves it. Scott Case is the co-founder and CEO of Recurrent, a company that tracks the real-world health of tens of thousands of electric cars to give buyers and sellers a clearer picture than they have ever had. He explains why a used EV is a far safer purchase than most people assume, and why the batteries are holding up better than almost anyone predicted. The conversation also digs into why the range number on the window sticker is misleading in both directions, with some cars quietly overdelivering while others fall short of their promised mileage. Scott also makes the case for a smarter way to think about charging speed than the specs automakers advertise. And, he explains how the data your car is collecting as you drive can be harnessed for eye-opening insights for you and the broader EV-buying public. Join Craig Cole and co-host Sam Abuelsamid as they dive deep with Scott into all this and much more in this episode of GreenCars, The Podcast.Chapters0:00 - Introduction1:03 - Green Cars We're Driving6:07 - What Is Recurrent?13:29 - Should You Worry About a Used EV Battery?14:38 - Why EPA Range Numbers Are Wrong16:12 - What Data Your EV Is Sharing23:19 - Best Used EVs to Buy25:47 - A Smarter Way to Measure Charging Speed32:35 - Does Fast Charging Hurt Your Battery?37:58 - Three for the Road44:46 - ConclusionsCheck out our Buyer’s Guide at https://apps.greencars.com/buyers-guideVisit GreenCars on YouTube for EV and hybrid reviews and much more:https://www.youtube.com/@greencarshq Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.