The latest Fleet News Group podcast features CEO of London-based Fully Charged Dan Caesar. He talks about the You-Tube star channel expanding to host electric vehicle and home shows around the world, including Everything Electric at the Sydney Showground in February.
“We would sum it up as a festival of electrification,” said Caesar.
He said the attraction of electric vehicles for many is just how tech advanced they are.
“The further you get away from the environmentalists, and the more you get into the mainstream, the thing that seems to really work is it’s progressive. It’s cool. It’s new, it’s the best tech,” said Caesar.
Concerns about electric vehicles are being usurped by appreciation for their quietness, their responsiveness, and their safety.
“I think the thing that’s under spoken about is how easy these cars are to drive. I’ve driven gears and stick shift my whole life. But actually, once you get into a car, it’s much simpler to drive and therefore much safer,” said Caesar.
In an anecdote about how life changing an EV can be, Dan talks about using his electric vehicle as a refuge from the home and kids, kitted out with connection points for lap tops and phones.
“We are sort of consciously using electric vehicles as that kind of aspirational tool to bring people into this bigger world of energy and transport,” said Caesar.
It was Fully Charged’s second time in Australia. They dipped their toe in the water last year and got a big welcome from the local enthusiasts, industry and general crowd. Caesar said Australia is one of its biggest audiences. Out of millions of followers, Australia is home for many. And Sydney has a stronger interest than Brisbane or Melbourne. Caesar said they’ll be back again in 2025 with a show planned for March in Sydney.
Fully Charged was set up in 2010 by Robert Llewellyn, a mechanoid in the sci-fi tv series Red Dwarf. Llewellyn also hosted a popular UK series Scrapheap Challenge, an engineering gameshow. Caesar said the big following on YouTube doesn’t translate to making money.
Meanwhile, Fully Charged is monetising its brand doing consumer business shows in Vancouver, Canada, and London and Yorkshire, in the UK.
“YouTube doesn’t pay the bills. So we had to find a clever way to talk about electric vehicles, all shapes and sizes and clean energy around the world. And so we started doing events in the UK in 2018.”
