Bandersnatch

99% of my journeys are within my own province and are powered for free from my home home solar. Recharging at home takes no time. I am 99% immune to fuel price rises and fuel shortages. My EV travels further in stop go traffic as it recharges itself from regenerative breaking. I have traffic jam assist which means that I don’t have to use the break or accelerator in slow moving traffic as the car follows the car ahead on it’s own - far less stressful and far less tiring. My EV has far better acceleration and torque than the equivalent ICE car, quieter and smoother to drive, doesn’t pollute my local environment. Cheaper to Tax EVs are cheaper and easier to service and have longer warranties than ICE cars I conclude that EVs have many points

I was hoping it was going to be a bit cheaper than the Tesla Model 3

Unfortunately, Toyota has announced the bZ3 will be a China-only model

Toyota actually make a very good PHEV, I’m not sure why it’s not available in Thailand as I’m sure it would sell well.

The all electric Toyota bZ4X is now showing on the Toyota Thailand website at ฿1.8m+ It has a rocky start with some unfortunate headlines: Good YouTube reviews are actually hard to find as most are “First Look” reviews from about a year ago where the reviewer has only a short time with the car under controlled conditions with Toyota press cars. Two channels that have more recent in depth reviews: Here is one of the “First Look” reviews from a year ago so you can see the car in more detail, but they have to take the Toyota stats as given.

BMW diesel parked in the only free EV charger at Robinson’s today. There was a free slot without charger next to it, but would have meant laying the cable across the BMW, which I was keen on doing, my wife was less keen. ????

This just came up on my Tesla Line Feed. Not sure what to make of it. maybe it was a suggestion from Elon’s new friend Ron DeSantis

My 9kWh LFP batteries with 6,000 cycle life cost me ฿68k. For me having power when all around are in darkness is worth it. Solar installations in Thailand cost a fraction of what they cost "back home" My solar system powers my house electric car and electric motorbike payback is 6 years.

Please keep us posted - would be interested to hear how the batteries standup to life in Thailand.

I think that they are manufactured in a free port designed for companies wanting to manufacture for export. Once the batteries enter Thailand they are treated as being imported and are subject to import duties!

@Muhendis I was interested in RedFlow's Zinc Bromine Batteries particularly when I heard that they were manufactured here in Thailand. So back in 2018 I contacted the reseller ([email protected]) and they quoted me US$16,000/AUS$24,000 for a 10kWh ZBM2 which at the time was twice as much as you could buy the same battery after it had been shipped from Thailand to Australia!

Tesla Model Y was the 4th best selling model world wide last year and all indications are that it will be number one this year.

China's Great Wall Motor plans EV battery assembly and research center in Thailand GWM plans to invest up to $30 million to set up a new battery pack assembly plant in Thailand, where it will start making a compact electric car next year, according to a company official. GWM is also considering establishing a research and development centre in Thailand that could work on battery powered pickup trucks (pickup trucks accounting for more than half of sales last year in Thailand) Thailand, the world's tenth-largest auto manufacturing economy, aims to use tax cuts and subsidies to help convert about 30% of the country's annual production of 2.5 million vehicles into EVs by 2030, according to a government plan. https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/chinas-great-wall-motor-plans-ev-battery-assembly-research-thailand-2023-05-30/

The new BMW iX1 is getting good reviews in Europe priced at ฿2.1m but when I asked BMW staff at the BKK motor show about it coming to Thailand they didn’t know when it was coming here. BMWs are always much more expensive here in Thailand so I am not expecting it to be Tesla money. However there is news of Plug-in Hybrids coming to Thailand. xDrive25e TwinPower Turbo 3-cylinder petrol engine, 1.5 liter Acceleration 0-100 km/h in 6.8 seconds xDrive30e - ฿2.8m Acceleration 0-100 km/h in 5.7 seconds Both plug-in hybrid models are equipped with 14.2 kWh batteries and electric motor that gives 89 km of EV only range. https://www.bmw.co.th/th/all-models/x-series/X1/2022/bmw-x1-overview.html

BYD Seal Champion Edition gets lower prices, new specs and new colours in China. Still hasn't arrived in Thailand - but I was told at the BKK motor show that it is coming here. In addition, the Seal Champion Edition 650km four-wheel drive performance version comes standard with a light-sensitive panoramic sunroof (optional for the 700km range model) I'm not sure what's a "light-sensitive panoramic sunroof" - maybe a solar roof? or translation issues from Chinese

Lot's of EV options from MG and Fast DC charging at dealerships

Neta will be made in Thailand soon and the model that most impressed me at this year’s motor show was the Neta S. Front and Rear mounted motors 91kWh battery 650km CLTC (Chinese) range 0-100km/h 3.9 seconds I am a fan of the “EV Girls” channel but it’s in Thai so just a link to their video if you want to check it out. https://youtu.be/owFtGc0sI6g

V2L is a key feature that I’m looking for in my next EV. Like you I have solar and batteries. I can’t justify buying anymore batteries that I might only use twice a year, but having an EV with V2L would be ideal.

We have a solar water heater which we installed when we built the house a few years ago. I think you are going to want to have manual control at the shower, because the temperature of solar thermal water in Thailand varies from near boiling to pleasantly warm. I have a “cold” feed blue pipe from a tank of filtered rainwater and a hot feed from the solar thermal. I vary the percentage of hot from 0-100% depending on the season. My Thai wife’s preferred percentages are obviously different to mine. I don’t think you are going to have to re-tile as you can drill through from the tile side of the bathroom to accommodate a 20mm green pipe without breaking tiles if you use plenty of water and a diamond tile bit (plenty of videos on online to help you)

100% agree with what you said. Would just add an advantage for Teslas is the charging: #250kW is faster than most EVs. #Tesla superchargers have the highest uptime of any charging network. #Roll up to a Supercharger and plug in and it starts charging straight away, no apps or cards. #Don’t unplug when you’re fully charged and get hit with idle charges which helps keeps queues short. #Tesla superchargers are Tesla only in Thailand.

Still obsessing about trying to get a cool (not hot) EV with a stupid glass roof. Thinking about buying a Tesla and don’t want to have to pay ฿50,000 extra for white colour (the free colour everywhere else) https://youtu.be/iDVrfLad3Es Then buy a Black car and wrap in white or silver including the glass roof. https://youtu.be/iDVrfLad3Es

Update on Tesla Supercharger/Destination charger locations in Thailand, which are all currently located in central Bangkok. Tesla previously listed “coming soon” on it’s charger map, but that is no longer the case. Current roll-out rate is less than one location per month. None of the chargers are open to non teslas. Tesla does have a link on it’s website for anyone interesting in hosting a supercharger location.

This is the sort of thing I would like to use if it was avaible in Thailand: https://enteligent.com/dc-coupled-dc-evses

7kW for single phase, but someone like myself with solar 3 phase or even DC is very attractive as I can make 20kW of power in the middle of the day and it would be a shame to waste it by only putting 7kW of power into the car.

As previously stated many new EVs sold in Thailand come with either a sunroof or large glass roof like the Tesla model 3&Y and the soon to arrive BYD Seal. The Seal does come with a sun shade included and Teslas do have aftermarket versions available online, but to be honest I haven’t seen a version for the Tesla that impressed me. Suggestion from @Andrew Dwyer was to add DIY foil and foam insulation. I agreed to test this but the weather has been very mild since. I have added heat reflecting film to my car: Today’s weather: My foam is silver on one side and about 5mm of foam which I tucked under the sun roof on top of the sun screen. Temp of the film coated sunroof (you can see the clouds) temp through foam and foil: Temperature through foam/foil and sun screen: