Exploring the Future of Automotive: Emissions Regulations, E-Bikes, and the 2024 Jeep Wrangler Rubicon Review

Welcome to another In Wheel Time podcast, a 30 minute mini version of the In Wheel Time car show that airs live every Saturday morning 8 to 11am central From the world famous Sugar Shack in Texas, usa. It's the In Wheel Time car talk show Coming up. Bill Clems is going to join us and we're going to have the upcoming events calendar. This hour, mars reviews the Jeep Wrangler with the big bad motor in it. Plus, you'll hear the stories making automotive news headlines. That and more just ahead in this edition of the In Wheel Time car talk show. Good morning to you. Along with us today is Mr David Ainsley, and you say well, why? Well, because Mars is still sick. Of course he is in Neaterville. Mars, get well. We know you're watching, we know you're listening, anyhow. Anyhow, we have here King Conrad DeLong. We always need more Jeff Zeek and I'm, don Armstrong, so glad that you could join us today. It's been a fun filled hour preparing to get on the air with you this morning because, needless to say, with Mars on the other side of the earth, An airplane mode in the room. An airplane mode in the room.

The computer rebooted and it went into airplane mode and right away Conrad thinks it's aliens or something. I don't know.

I have to go get my aluminum foil hat out of the car.

Anyway, all right. Well, instead of me retyping all of this and redoing this, I'm just going to go with what was supplied to us by Mr Bill Clem. Recent reports found that 200 million gasoline or diesel fuel vehicles would still be on the road in 2032. After the EPA's plans to set new emissions limits, this figure would represent 80% of total vehicles on the road, even after incentives the EPA is putting in place to boost the sale of electric vehicles. Bill Clem is the chairman and CEO of a company called E-Bliss and he's an early collaborator of Carfax, a fallbrook CEO who oversaw the development launch of the new Vinci Continuously Variable Transmission. He was at Ford Motor Company for a while. The list goes on and on. He's an impressive kind of guy and we're going to talk to him right now. Bill, good morning to you and thanks so much for joining us.

Hey, good morning from Houston. I mean from, let me see, I'm in Baton Rouge today. Good morning.

Listen, I've been on the road, I know how that works. You're going to bed at night and you think, okay, I'm in Baton Rouge, where am?

I.

Yeah. And then you wake up the next morning and you think I don't know where I am right now I can relate. So, Bill, Bill, tell me what you're doing today.

Well so so E-Bliss Global is a e-mobility OEM, so we manufacture today we manufacture and sell high quality e-bikes. So we make, we make transportation vehicles, but that's our, that's kind of the first product that we're taking to the marketplace. So that's what I do today is we design and manufacture generation three e-bikes for sale predominantly in the United States.

Awesome. Well, clearly you have an automotive background and have been involved in the auto industry, I guess since you got out of college or even before that, and you know you've led some pretty interesting companies throughout your career and now you're into bikes. But tell me how you've gotten into this this? Look, see at what the EPA is doing and where we stand today, with, you know, the EPA coming down with the manufacturers and saying, look, we need to have 100 miles per gallon by such and such a date. I know I'm exaggerating, but how does this all play into what you're doing?

It's interesting there's 119 million rides in America in a car every day. 29 million of those are less than a mile. If you really think about what's happening in the United States, consumers are beginning to choose the way they move themselves and their materials. In addition to that, there's also cargo and delivery. That's happening in urban environments that the urban environments can't take. All the trucks in these markets there's a need for a much better way to distribute humans and to be able to move them around. We believe that the one mile if we can help consumers make that choice 29 million times a day we think that's probably the biggest impact you can make in the marketplace. Because it isn't about the number of cars on the road. Clearly that's a numerical value. It's really around the decisions consumers make on what they're going to ride.

Well, it's interesting. First thing that comes to my mind are these communities, mainly in Florida, where they're basically a golf cart transportation they go to the store, they go to exercise, they go home, and it's all within their own community in golf carts. Why not that's?

exactly what my mother did.

Well, you guys are actually pointing out today it's a golf cart. What's the real mode of transportation? I grew up in Detroit. I wanted to work for the Ford Motor Company since I was five years old. I got an opportunity to follow my dream and do that. I helped some leadership positions there, learned a ton, started the help start the e-bike business in Europe through the transmission that we were designing and building. Now really trying to do that here I think this comes back to the point is consumers are choosing on what they're going to use. Your golf cart idea that's 100 percent right. There was an article that came out a couple months ago I think it was Fortune or Forbes and I don't remember exactly but the article said automakers need not to fear other automakers. They need to fear the golf cart makers, because it's really around the decision of what consumers are going to do. The other thing that happened is COVID changed a lot of the behavior, fundamentally about where people commute and where they drive. There's still a lot of people working from home. The homes are being dealt with differently. We're wearing out our homes because now we're living them as our offices. There's a ton of changes that are going on. As you think about regulations. So you mentioned this whole notion of the EPA. It's not a bad thing to set targets. The problem is that the targets are relatively unrealistic as far as the technological capability of the United States system. We don't have a grid that could support broad-based everybody in a Tesla. We don't have a grid. I want you to think about 300 million cars in the United States and the amount of energy that's in their gas tank. I want you to think about the reality of converting all of that energy to electric energy in the grid. The math just doesn't work right now. As I think about it, there's probably a thousand different inventions that have to happen commercially to be able to electrify the transportation system in the United States. We're not prepared to make those sacrifices as a country. Then the other thing is that I believe that the government is taking the wrong approach. I think setting a goal is the right approach, but I think not supporting the industries and in an organized way to be able to achieve those goals. I think that's what I call the farce in all of this. If you go back to the early 1960s when John F Kennedy stood up in front of the world and said we're going to go to the moon. All of John F Kennedy's advisors said we have no technology to get us to the moon. We don't know how to do that. Well, eight years later, we were on the moon. That's because the government and industry got together to solve the problems as a unified country. Right now, we've set ourselves up in an adversarial relationship with the government and industry rather than trying to collaborate and coming up with realistic paths. To me, that's the most frustrating part about what you're asking who?

is it that comes up with these unrealistic EPA goals that we know may be capable, but they're not affordable by any stretch of the imagination for the regular person? Lobbyists why did they come?

up with those things? I always, you ever, wonder who the theys are.

Exactly.

Who is that Right? I have testified in Congress before on the Jobs Act. I've been around Washington DC. I really don't know. I think it's a relatively convoluted process. Clearly they didn't ask the guys who know the math before they did this. Again, I'm all for setting a big, hairy, audacious goal. I'm all for that. That's how you change the society and change the country. What I'm against is not giving the industry the capability, the incentives, the investment credits, all the things that are required for for freedom, all the things that are required for CEOs and shareholders to be able to make decisions. That's the part that, to me, is a big disconnect.

Yeah, they make these grandiose objectives and then try and force everybody to fit through this tiny little funnel to get there. That's just not the way innovation works. You talked about how many hundreds of inventions would have to happen to move in that direction. What area of invention do you think is going to have the greatest impact? In the propulsion device? In the battery technology? Where do you think that invention's got to be driven the most?

Again, great question. I think about this as an ecosystem. You can't have one thing. You've got to bring it all up. You have to make impact across the system. If you don't make impact across the system, you're going to sub-optimize everything. The other question that was asked was why are we in eBikes? Well, if you really think about it, imagine if 29 million times a day so almost a quarter of our rides imagine if all of those were on an e-bike or in a golf cart. You would absolutely change the profile. Or you would change the climate issues in major metropolitan areas. I mean, you would improve the air quality dramatically. If you just did that and that's achievable these are 110, you plug it in the wall and you can ride your e-bike. Our e-bikes go almost some of them go almost 100 to 150 miles on a charge. So that is a realistic form of transportation in which you can make real impact. To me, people, they want them. In the comment was made, they go for the headline, they go for the emotional headline, the sound bite, and they think that's the goal. Again, that isn't the goal and it's not realistic to be able to get there.

I live three miles from the grocery store. I could walk it, but I'd rather ride in an e-bike or a golf cart or something much more economical than drive the gasoline powered vehicle. Most of the stuff that I do personally out here where I live is probably within a five mile radius. Is that where?

you 100 percent agree. Listen, I did this job, I started this company and I said you know what I'm going to live this. So I ride my e-bike to the grocery store, I put a backpack on, I go to the grocery store. It's easy once you try it. But that's the other thing, consumers. Whatever there's changed, there's loss. So whenever you change the way you do things, there's an applied loss because it's what you are used to. Once consumers start to trial, you can start to see that Last year there was a million e-bikes sold in the US. This year maybe 1.8. Europe's already at 5 million. You're really starting to see a fundamental shift in the way people are deciding how to transport themselves. That's the consumers deciding. If you go back to the early 1900s, henry Ford was running around. He's made a quad recycle. There was no roads, so policy and infrastructure followed consumer demand. Consumers do want to change the way they drive. They absolutely do. The data is very clear to me. But what they don't want is to be dictated around an unrealistic solution and the companies again as shareholders. Right, we all have investments in companies and the last thing we want to see is a company that we've invested in. Take some wild harebrained investment on some electrification thing that they can't sell and can't make money on. That is not a sustainable business model.

And there are plenty-. Plus, the e-bike is a smaller device that's going to allow a wider range of technologies to be applied at a lower cost. That, if proven on the e-bike, can be advanced to a four passenger vehicle.

I gotta tell you that's a fantastic point of view. When I started my company, fulbright, Technology you can send me my royalty check. Absolutely. Just let me know where to send it. So when I started Fulbright Technology it's one of the things I did I had 800 patents on a proprietary, continuously variable planetary drive. And one of the guys I sat with was the head of product development for a large automaker I'm not gonna say who was, but it was one of the big ones and he said to me flat out we can't decontent cars enough to get them affordable and to get what people want and to get what people need it, there needs to be a reengineering of the automobile and of the system. And the bicycle is the most advanced, is the most efficient drivetrain ever created by man. And if you really think about cycling, right, you know everybody thinks a bicycle kind of a simple device. Not so, not so fast. Orville and Wilbur Wright took their designing bicycle frames and turned it into making the frames of aircraft, right? Henry Ford's first vehicle was a quad recycle. I mean, these are, these are fundamental things that that again you can start to think about a platform. That's what we're doing at Eblis, so we have the ability to make about anything that I decide I want to make. We're going to start making the best bicycles in the world. We're going to get people and e-bikes in the world. We're going to get people on them, we're going to understand what people want out of their vehicles and then we'll design the next set of vehicles. So, again, I think that's the smart approach. All for clean energy, all for cleaning up, all for lowering carbon. By the way, one of the other points that was made on riding a mile, you know, the worst thing you can do for a 63,000 component internal combustion vehicle is drive it a mile.

That's right.

Yeah, you never get you never get the fluids heated up, so you have the most emissions, you have the most wear and tear, you have the lowest fuel economy on that one mile trip. So the way I think about it, if we can solve the one mile, we can make an impact, and that's where we're focused, bill.

I have to tell you I'm an early adopter of the hybrid technology and, matter of fact, my experience started back in the mid 1960s with a hybrid and it was called a moped and it had a little bitty tiny motor on it and you would pedal it like a bicycle until you wanted to go faster, and then you hit the button and here you go down the street To the e-bikes the e-blasts.

Do they have charging challenges as well as the normal EV?

vehicles. No, it's where you can charge your. You can charge our e-bike in several hours and you're in your home. Plug you can. This is again in my world. I live my life by trying to make the necessary easy. If it's necessary to charge it, let's make it easy. So we make it very easy to simply plug them in. We make folding bikes. We make everything we do doesn't have a chain. Everything we do has a sealed transmission, has a belt, no maintenance. You know, the only thing I want consumers to worry about is replacing brake pads and tires over time and not have to worry about anything. So again, these are purpose built vehicles. A lot of what has come up so far in e-bikes are what I would consider bicycles that somebody straps an electric motor to, and they have some issues. We've seen some of the fires and things in New York City on lithium batteries and some of that stuff. That's largely due to what I call the Amazon loophole of not having to inspect or certify anything that's imported in the United States under $800. And so every a lot of people in China who are making these lithium ion batteries are shipping them through that loophole and again. But all that stuff I think is kind of washing through and everybody's kind of getting there. So we think this is amazing time for us to be able to introduce what we're doing in the marketplace.

Bill, it's wonderful to talk to you. What a involved conversation that we all are focused in on you so much. Where can we get more information on your company?

Yeah, so our website is out there Again. We've been a little opaque because I didn't feel the necessary to go blast out what we're doing. So I'm on this kind of a roadshow, talking to people like you guys. So wwweblisglobal is where you can find us. We will be. You will be starting to see some announcements coming out here pretty soon. One of the things I think is very interesting Is if you look at the 17,000 auto dealers in America, it is the largest pool of capital and any transportation distribution system in the world, and today they, they, they aren't viewed as consumers, as being E or E conscious. So I think there's a huge opportunity to partner with with auto dealers, with e-bikes. So I think that that'll give you a little bit of a tease by what we're going to be doing.

And you're going to call us as soon as you got something to talk about. We'll talk about.

I promise you guys are definitely on the list. Adam knows where you are. We will get to you, thank you.

Great.

I enjoy it.

That we do too. Thank you so much, Bill. Great to talk to you. Bill Clem E-Bless. Very cool, yeah, Very, very cool.

What a great view of what he's trying to do and how all of that integrates into the E technology that's out there.

But not only a bicycle. I would like to see it in a tricycle format for getting around town. Like you say, seniors in their neighborhood going to the golf course or whatever the case, A trike would be cool.

Speaking of E With saddlebags. Speaking about E things. How about E-Vents and the E-Vents calendar that Conrad?

has been dying to talk about it's a segway.

It is a segway. Thank you, Jeffrey.

Thank you, Jeffrey.

October 7th again is a Mustang Club of Houston's fall open car show at Planet Ford in spring. October 14th is the all British car show at the Butler House. If they could get them all there, well they bring a wrecker. October 28th or October 20th is the 38th annual Wolf Creek car truck and bike show in Cold Spring, texas. Cypress Cars and Coffee is August 12th, which is today Started at 8 am. Lone Star Drift is August 19th at Motorsports Resort in Angleton. September 16th is Schulenberg Take Flight Cruise and that's going to meet at 8.30 am at the Buckeys in Waller and then cruise out to Schulenberg. That could be a pretty decent little cruise.

Yeah, I was going to say that'd be fun.

And then Northside Mustang car club is having their fall open car show November 4th at Bull Salis Park in New Caney, texas, and one I think is the best name out there, saturday October 28th, is the Oak Turbo Fest at the Carrom Shriners in Waco, texas.

Thank, you, sir. Time now for this hour's car review. Mr Mars has recorded a nice little piece on the Jeep Wrangler, and here it is.

I had the chance to drive the 2024 Jeep Wrangler Rubicon 392. Now this is a midsize SUV, five passenger, based on the four door limited Jeep Wrangler. The Wrangler does come in six trim levels the Sport, the Sport S, the Rubicon, the Sahara, the high altitude and the Rubicon 392 that we were driving Now, new for this year. It has a factory installed, 8,000 pound worn winch. It's got a new seven slot grill design up front, even integrated the antenna to kind of smooth out the lines on the vehicle. Up front you're going to find fog lights, tow hooks all around and skid plates underneath at all the critical places. It does have a two inch suspension lift with Fox shocks. Because this is the Rubicon, we also had the optional Sky One Touch Power Top. This vehicle rose on some 17 by 8 inch beadlock capable wheels and because of that they reinforce the entire spare carrier mechanism on the back tailgate, because that's a big, heavy tire and wheel combination. Now you get into the inside you're going to see we've got leather seating. The front seats are heated. They are electric adjustable in the Rubicon but they have been water crossing tested just in case you get in a little too deep. We have the 12.3 inch touchscreen. The little small screens are gone now in the Rubicon 392. All your convenience controls are there, much easier to get to because of the larger screen. Navigation, the Uconnect system is all there and it even has a front camera there for when you're out. Rock crawling Helps a whole lot. For audio, we had the Alpine Premium Audio System. That will fill up the inside of that Jeep real well with some nice quality sound and make sure all your neighbors know what your favorite songs are. Now if under the hood, this is part of what makes this vehicle special. 6.4 liter V8 SRT engine, 475 horsepower, 470 pound-feet of torque, backed by an 8-speed automatic. This vehicle is capable of towing 5,000 pounds when properly equipped. Now the EPA says you should be looking for 13 miles to the gallon city, 16 out on the highway. I drove the vehicle 388.5 miles the week I had it. I got 13.0 as an average. I will say the 392 provides a lot of smooth power. It's easy to ease around wherever you want to go and I can imagine rock crawling, because I don't have any rocks down here. We've got a lot of sand. You'd have to be a little touchy with that accelerator pedal because it'd be very easy to goose at the wrong time. But you put the hammer down on that thing out on the highway it will sing nicely. It does have a firm ride out on that highway but with that heavier engine I actually think it improves the ride a lot because it feels more solid, more attached to the highway. There's still road noise. It's a big vehicle with big tires on it so it's going to make some noise but it does drive better, in my opinion. Now the base model price is $49,990. Now the base trim price in that Rubicon level is $87,595. As tested, we're looking at $95,945 with the options Some of the other competitors don't have 24 pricing out. So a 2023 Ford Bronco starts at $35,890. However, you look across at the Bronco Raptor, which would be the closest thing to this Rubicon $75,375 to start. 2023 Land Rover Defender starts at $56,420. 2023 Toyota Ford Runner starts at $4,191. So you take all these competitors and you stack them up against the Wrangler Rubicon 392 and you look at the power and you look at the performance you're getting out of it, both on the highway and off road. Then you really start to see where the Jeep is going to take you. Something definitely worth driving, and that's my review of the 2024 Jeep Wrangler Rubicon 392. You know he doesn't sound sick.

Yeah, he did. We know he is, though, yeah.

Well sick in the mind, but he's not. He's not, doesn't sound like you. Oh, mama, death bed Doesn't sound that way. Okay, Thank you, mr Mars. Time to have some of the cars that were sold on Hemings last week. There you go. I like doing this because it's fun. 69 Chevy C10 pickup truck what they call a square body. I don't know why they call it that, but whatever, it's a vehicle for $23,100. C10, that is nothing special about it.

It's crazy the money those trucks bring.

Yeah, stupid money. 72 Chevy Corvette with no horsepower 25,000, 725 dollars. Really, here you go speaking of British 1972 MGB oh gosh, remember that thing.

Oh yeah, $9,500 worth of trouble well, 72 was the small front bumper cars. It wasn't till 73 and 74 they put them big old honking bumpers.

Well, the Mazda folks with their Miata killed that car. 2007 Saturn Sky always like those, so for 15,750 dollars, a lot of money to see 79 Chevy C10 another square body $17,000. A 1950 this is for you, conrad. A 1950 Willis Overland Jeepster 23,625 dollars. It looks like it's all restored.

It's pretty 23 is a good price.

I was gonna say 23, because it's a convertible. You know it's been redone 72 Bronco, that looks like it is okay.

Got 72, still the small one.

It's got Mustang hubcaps on it $26,000. Wow, I mean, I got to go through a couple of pages here to get down to what else I've highlighted for you a 72 Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme $24,000 I Don't know how much you paid for yours, but you could get one for that and the family truckster. A 1978 Ford Country Squire Woody a Woody $8,000. Let's go and buy it, we can make it the company car.

No, we could do the lemons in it, oh yeah, but it's too nice. I know it's too expensive to it's all straight metal five or 67 Volkswagen Dune buggy $10,250 I'd be interested in something like that.

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