Bandersnatch

I have basically been “off-grid” with solar and home batteries for 5 years now and I have posted my solar journey in this forum. With Solar you are basically paying your electric bill forward and I understand that many people are unable or unwilling to make that investment. For those that do, they are shielding themselves from price rises and power cuts. Even if your pay-back was ten years then your return on your investment would be 10%, assuming electricity prices don’t rise, which is better than you would get in the bank. The reason I post is to share my experience, show what is possible and be available to answer questions.

Not everybody who watches my videos lives in Thailand

Toyota Hybrid Camry 0-100 of 8 seconds BYD Seal AWD Performance 0-100 3.8 seconds BYD Seal comes with 6 Tesla Powerwalls of backup power and I can charge it for free for excess solar power in the middle of the day.

My EV is a BYD Seal AWD Performance and cost ฿1.6m. There are cheaper EVs with Vehicle to Load (V2L) I have 2 EVs and an electric Motorbike all of which are charged at home from my solar system. My new EV has 580km of range. As I said in the video, that the car has the equivalent of 6 Tesla PowerWalls of backup power in addition to my home batteries. Remember I am using the EV as a backup. It’s not the main source of power. The car has 82.5kWh of battery storage (think 82.5 units from PEA) The Car has an 8yr 70% warranty on the battery and as they are LFP batteries that have a very long life. We run 2 aircons at night. I don’t think that the government should be helping to keep Diesel prices artificially low as pollution from Diesel trucks is adding to Thailand air pollution.

Did you watch the video?

Now solar panel prices have dropped to ฿5/Watt, solar makes a good off-grid solution. I have an electric pole 10m from my house, but I have chosen to give my meter back to PEA. I have solar and home batteries and I use my EV which has bi-directional charging for extra backup power.

Are you “Neil the watcher from Thailand” ?

“Registration of 100% electric cars in Thailand in January 2024 total 13,653 cars. The ratio of 20.5 % of all new cars across the country 65,067 cars” https://autolifethailand.tv/register-ev-bev-thailand-jan-2024/ Not sure I agree with their maths, closer to 20.9% (21%) than 20.5%, but feel free to correct my pre-coffee calculations. AutoLifeThailand quoted 25% of all vehicles sold in December as full EVs. I thought this might have been inflated due to concerns about the removal of EV subsidies so good to see EV numbers are still strong. On a side note I am currently powering my house 100% from my BYD Seal - that never gets old.

As Tesla started selling cars in Thailand at the end of 2022, their Y2Date figures for 2023 looked good compared to EVs that went on sale later in the year. Now all that is stripped out we see month 1 figures of about 8,000 cars for BYD and about 50 for Tesla. Looks like all those who really wanted wanted a Tesla have already bought one. Or maybe everyone is waiting for the Juniper Model Y

Maybe you are not familiar Toyota's bZ4X but it has had a few problems Toyota finally found a way to keep wheels from falling off its electric SUV https://edition.cnn.com/2022/10/06/business/toyota-bz4x-wheel-fix/index.html The Toyota travelled only 307km (191 miles) – way short of the car's 470km (292 miles) stated range on the WLTP cycle. Tester Fred Magne Skillebaek was so shocked he repeated the test – with much the same result. https://www.carmagazine.co.uk/car-news/first-official-pictures/toyota/bz4x/

The BYD Seal does come with 8 years of completely free servicing (see below) However the main point for me is watching the technician walking round the car with a clipboard - he wasn’t doing any servicing. So even if you were paying for a service on your EV it’s definitely going to be cheaper than an ice car.

Why do the EV haters always claim “servicing” an EV will be more expensive? I have just put my BYD Seal in for it’s first “service” Maybe it should have been called check and inspection, because they didn’t do any “servicing”

Ouch this is a cutting review

MG 4 Electric X POWER, 100% electric car. Preparing to launch in Thailand in March 2024! Dual motor 429 horsepower. Torque 600 newton meters. Acceleration 0-100 km/h within 3.8 seconds. Battery 61.7 kWh. Support DC Fast Charging up to 150 kW. https://autolifethailand.tv/mg-4-electric-x-power-ev-bev-coming-thailand/

I have never experienced unusual tire wear in my EVs compared to when I drove ICE cars. Weight is always quoted as a factor in tire wear and people claim that EVs are heavy, which they are, but my EV weighs less that than the average pickup or SUV driven here in Thailand, but I never hear anybody complaining about the damage they do the roads or that they will collapse multistory car parks etc. EVs come with a lot of technology which improves the driving experience and makes the vehicles more efficient. One factor that definitely effects tire wear is wheel spin, the smoke you see is burning rubber. My EV has traction control and torque vectoring that sends power to which ever wheel needs the power most. My EV has a 0-100km/h of 3.8 seconds and I have never been able to spin the wheels. Another factor that effects tire wear is locking up the wheels under heavy breaking. You are literally scrubbing the rubber off the tires. My EV uses regenerative breaking to recharge the battery. The fact that the car also has anti-lock breaks is actually pretty redundant. I have never been able to lock up the wheels. Another factor that effects tire wear is incorrect tire pressure. I get a notification on the app and a message when starting up the car if any parameter of the car is out of optimum spec. Picture from my car this morning, the rear tire pressures are a little low, probably due to the cooler temperatures.

D segment Saloon/Sedan sales EV+ICE in December. Ora 07 (previously known as Lightning Cat) started selling in December so expect their numbers to rise this year.

How do you explain all BYDs sold in Thailand getting 5 star EURO NCAP ratings? https://www.euroncap.com/en/results/byd/seal/50012 https://www.euroncap.com/en/results/byd/dolphin/50011 https://www.euroncap.com/en/results/byd/atto+3/46635

Drives a P.O.S. Mazda, that keeps breaking down and calls all BYDs "pieces of Chinese garbage" - oh the irony https://aseannow.com/topic/1314394-this-ecu-reading-from-check-engine-light/

We can see what you said. EV haters are so happy to post BS all the time, they think nobody will call them out on it. You still haven’t posted any evidence of EVs breaking down in hot weather. Mr B.S.

My dream is a buy a new car with 8 years of completely free servicing (parts and labor)

You only quoted part of my post making your statement incorrect as you missed that my post was about choosing between a Tesla and a BYD in Thailand. Yes CTs have V2L but you can’t buy them in Thailand and currently you would struggle to buy one in America “I purchased a BYD Seal AWD Performance and it was cheaper than the cheapest Tesla you can buy in Thailand.”

Says the biggest idiot of human history However, just like @zhounan I haven’t provided any evidence to support my argument So like @zhounan I am probably incorrect So I am forced to withdraw my assertion that @zhounan is the biggest idiot of human history due to lack of evidence

@BritScot waiting for you to post some evidence to support your claim that EVs breakdown in hot weather.

You have your location as Pattaya so I think you have nothing to worry about.

Post a picture. You must have taken a picture so that you crow about EVs in hot weather. “EV, after EV” Post the picture and prove that you’re not a BS merchant. I have been driving EVs in Thailand for years and never seen any loss in performance in my EVs. I am an active member of a number of Thai EV forums and never heard anyone talking about EVs breaking down in the heat. Batteries now have active cooling management in EVs, but you probably didn’t know that. ICE car engines continue run in traffic jams and overheat but EVs just shut down when not needed, but you probably didn’t know that either.