Bandersnatch

I don’t want to cross-post, but just want to direct your attention to a post that I have made over in the alternative/renewable energy forum. https://aseannow.com/topic/1292076-solar-powered-hybrid-dc-bi-directional-fast-ev-charging/

I have decided to post this in the alternative energy forum rather than in my EVs in Thailand discussion over in the Thailand Motor Forum as it is quite technical and we would probably get more discussion here. https://aseannow.com/topic/1257405-electric-vehicles-in-thailand I am not sure how many readers of this Forum are EV owners or are considering an EV, but this has been my experience powering an EV from solar in Thailand: Overnight I power my house from my home batteries. As soon as the sun comes up my solar panels start to produce power and start to meet the power needs of the house along side the batteries until there is enough sunshine to meet the power needs of the house and start to charge the home batteries. By mid morning my home batteries are full and I can start to charge my electric car and electric motorbike. All good so far. First problem is that domestic EV wall chargers (yes I know they are not really charger) are AC. Solar DC is converted to AC by the home inverter (power loss) then sent to the car where the car’s on-board inverter converts AC back to DC (power loss) to charge the batteries. So a lot of power loss due to inefficiency. Second problem is that the speed of AC charging is determined by the EVs on-board charger - normally 7kW although some cars have higher 3 phase charging of 11kW - I am not going to pay for 3 phase. My home solar makes more power than the house, home batteries or EV can use, so my excess solar is curtailed, because I can’t put into the car fast enough. Solution: There is now a way to have a switch to switch DC power from the home inverter into the car and charge the car at up to 25kW and so not waste any solar production. This technology has not been released yet but it looks very promising.. https://enteligent.com/dc-coupled-dc-evses

Tesla Model 3 upgrade code named “Project Highland” Soon to be followed by “Project Juniper” upgrade to the model Y. Obscure movie references:

“We all seen how rubbish most are” can you post what batteries you are using. My nRuit LFPs have a 6,000 cycle life and I haven’t seen any capacity loss in 2 years. If you have discovered a battery that others shouldn’t buy that information would be helpful to others. As for expensive, I paid ฿7/Wh for CATL cells which I think is very reasonable, but @Seeall what do you consider expensive?

Many BYDs sold in China are PHEVs that is not the case with those sold here in Asia and Australasia. I have been unable to find any results for BYD car fires in Thailand, Aus or NZ. It is not clear in the video if the fires originated in the ICE BYD blade batteries use a LiFePO4 chemistry which is inherently safer than lithium ion and is one of the reasons I chose LFP for my home batteries.

Judge for yourself about the integrity of the battery system after these crashes. euro NCAP Crashes of EVs have never resulted in an EV fire.

When I lived in the UK, I never considered purchasing a new car as used cars represented far better value. I have lived and worked in Thailand for 15 years and I purchased 6 vehicles here in that time, all of them were purchased new from a dealer. The commonly accepted advice was that used cars in Thailand may never have had an oil change and only to consider buying a used car if you knew the owner and the car’s full history. EVs don’t need oil changes, Teslas don’t even have a recommended service interval. I would certainly consider buying a used Tesla if I could get it for a reasonable price.

I actually like hub motors as they don’t need a belt/chain drive. The motor is sealed/waterproof as you wouldn’t be able to wash it or drive in the rain. If you want a more professional bike and are happy to pay three times the price I have posted before about the sleek it does have three times the power, but our use case is for my wife to pop round the village and local shops, we couldn’t justify it when we have an EV as well.

Don’t have power cuts myself as I power my house and EV from my solar system. All the villages around me were without power yesterday for 3 hours in the middle of the day and it was scorching???? I would be happy to share my excess back to the grid, but someone at EGAT has decided that’s a bad idea..

Tesla - Big Price cuts in Aus; NZ; USA but not Thailand.....yet.

The bike has 3 power modes In addition it also has a super sport button that gives 15 seconds of boost for overtaking. Top speed is 65km/hr. If you want more power then move up from the 1 kW motor as this is the base model. It seems fine for driving on dual carriage ways compared to my Honda Click. Quality seems good

Top tip for buying an electric motorbike - check that it can be registered for the road. My Deco Hannah was plated, taxed and insured by the dealer for free within 24hours - good service.

Tesla Autopilot wasn’t told that driving in Thailand is well… different. Tesla user complained that Tesla Autopilot thought that people standing at the back of a Baht bus were actually standing in the road and applied emergency braking.

I will be charging my new electric bike from home solar, but even if you don’t have solar, electric power is so more efficient and cheaper than gasohol. 1.258kWh @฿5/kWh = ฿6.29 for 60km

I went to visit my local Deco dealer in June 2022 but the government EV incentives weren’t available. Glad I waited

Just bought another EV, only cost ฿30,640 after government EV incentives. 60km range per change removable battery (replacement ฿10,000) Road Tax ฿50 per year. https://decogreenenergy.com/index.php/en/

Mine likes EVs as they don’t have a transmission tunnel and many have a space for a hand bag. The “handbag test” is required for any new EV we sit in.

The HiPhiX looks like a very cool car. I am not familiar with the brand hopefully it will come to Thailand, the more options we have the better.

Domestic Solar, Home Batteries and EVs will have increasingly important roles in helping to flatten the demand for electricity and share power to reduce peak demand. Domestic Solar and home energy storage is expanding. Around 30% of Australian homes have rooftop solar. Increasingly new EVs come with Bidirectional Charging giving access to battery storage with discharge rates of 4.5kW in the BYDs and 3.6kW with Hyundais and Kias. We are not talking about running your 80kWh car battery dry, just discharging a few kWhs at times of peak demand. Tesla is expanding into Solar Microgrids and Virtual Power Plants with owners being paid $2/kWh https://cleantechnica.com/2020/10/29/tesla-expanding-solar-microgrids-virtual-power-plants/ What is needed is Smart energy tariffs and feed-in rates that track the market rate for electricity.

I have been driving a Chinese electric car for 2 years now, would I buy another one - definitely. Would I consider a BYD - definitely. I was at the Bangkok motor show last week and they look great. If BYDs are really so dangerous why are they getting 5 star euro NCAP safety ratings? https://www.euroncap.com/en/results/byd/atto+3/46635

Thanks for this Andew - I think I’m too old and fat for the BYD Seal - definitely more of an SUV man - will be watching out for the Sea Lion Me stuck in a Seal:

My MG voice controls are in Thai but I connect my iPhone to Apple car play and use Google Maps in English. The voice control button on the steering wheel then connects to Siri for “play Sting on Spotify” etc

If you were referring to the BYD Seal, then no it is clearly aimed at the Tesla model 3 which starts at ฿1,759,000 so it won’t cost more than that. The xc40 is ฿2,690,000. If you were referring to the Hyundai Ioniq 5 then yes it will probably be a similar price to xc40 due to the 40% import duties from Korea

The Denza D9 interior is worth checking out. Denza is definitely BYD’s Lexus brand and I will be worth watching for future cars coming to Thailand. Denza launches new electric N7 SUV in China https://www.electrive.com/2023/03/16/denza-launches-new-electric-n7-suv-in-china/