Behind the government-backed effort to create a national EV charging network
On Point with Meghna Chakrabarti
WBUR
4.3 • 3.9K Ratings
🗓️ 9 August 2022
⏱️ 48 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
The federal government is spending big to usher in an electric vehicle future.
What ideas can make sure the money is well spent? Samantha Houston and Alexander Laska join Meghna Chakrabarti.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This is on point. I'm Megna Chocro Bardy. |
| 0:02.9 | Over the weekend, I fell down one of those YouTube rabbit holes. |
| 0:08.0 | You know, when you kind of click from video to video, |
| 0:10.4 | well, what I was doing is I was watching a lot of videos about Volkswagen's new, |
| 0:16.2 | all-electric bus. |
| 0:19.1 | And to me, the launch videos were kind of hilarious. |
| 0:23.9 | I mean, taking a 1960s automotive icon and souping it up for the 21st century requires |
| 0:29.9 | things like modern celebrity endorsements and cross-promotions. |
| 0:34.3 | So VW has a video of actor Ewan McGregor doing his best to Obi-Wan. |
| 0:40.2 | These are not the buses your father drove. |
| 0:43.1 | Product endorsements there? |
| 0:45.3 | Absolutely. Yeah, I've been a Volkswagen enthusiast pretty much all my life, |
| 0:49.2 | I think it's true to say. |
| 0:50.6 | Sorry, guys, I couldn't help it. |
| 0:51.8 | So apologies to the late Alec Guinness, but I'd argue that the new VW bus called the ID |
| 0:58.2 | Bus is actually more droid than van, because it's basically a computer and battery on wheels, |
| 1:06.7 | albeit with a nostalgic two-tone paint job. |
| 1:10.7 | And Volkswagen is hitting that nostalgia button hard. |
| 1:15.1 | And this for a good reason. |
| 1:16.9 | In the 60s, the Volkswagen Microbus stood for a new feeling of independence and great love. |
| 1:25.5 | We still long for that today. |
| 1:28.1 | ID Bus takes up this attitude of life and transfers it into our time. |
... |
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