Bandersnatch

The deal I got was completely free servicing for 5 years. I have had one service so far and it cost nothing - they washed the car inside and out and left the car on a charger (for free). At home I was able to monitor the state of charge on the app on my phone and when it had sufficient charge to get home I got a lift down to the dealer to pick the car up. I for one will never buy another ICE car and why would I as all new development is being put into EVs and not ICE: Six major automakers — including Ford, Mercedes-Benz, General Motors and Volvo — and 30 national governments have pledged to phasing out sales of new gasoline and diesel-powered vehicles by 2040 worldwide, and by 2035 in “leading markets.”

No Price on the Thai website for Mercedes EQS that I could find https://www.mercedes-benz.co.th/en/passengercars/mercedes-benz-cars/models/eqs/saloon-v297 I think the Chinese made BMW iX3 would probably be better value

This one?

For me my ROI greatly improved once I purchased an electric car. Payback: Main Components 20,000 Watts of PV @ ฿9/W = ฿180,000 9kWh LiFePO4 Batteries ฿68,000 x 3 = ฿204,000 Inverters ฿36,000 x 3 = ฿108,000 = ฿492,000 Savings: Gasohol saving ฿5,000/month PEA saving ฿3,500/month = ฿8,500/month ฿102,000/Year saving Payback = 5 Years - after which free electricity Assumptions: Electricity and Gasohol costs never increase Cost of Tax, service and Maintenance on an EV same as a Petrol Car

My system is off-grid and does not feed-back and so cannot spin the meter backwards. So you would think my relationship with PEA would be stress free, unfortunately that is not the case. PEA thought my meter was broken again. This is my fifth meter - just because it’s not spinning doesn’t mean it’s broken!

Great idea - if you make this very clear in the opening post we can all block the fossils and continue with the discussion without them

In the 15 years I have worked and been retired in Thailand I have purchased 6 new cars. I always buy made in Thailand cars as they represent the best value for money. My current car is a MG - it is the most expensive car that MG sells in Thailand and it is certainly is a luxury car. I have owned it for 8 months and really enjoy driving it. I have had no problems with it in that time and would certainly consider buying another MG perhaps the MG Marvel R

As my profile picture attests. I am happily living in Thailand and driving a car powered by sunshine. I am no longer going to waste my time fact checking anti EV/Renewable rubbish. Instead I will continue to block anyone who demonstrates that they are in fact an idiot

You can reserve one here: https://www.mgcars.com/th/Promotion/Detail/prestige-reservation

Luckily most of us on this forum live in Thailand where ฿350,000 a year makes a middle class lifestyle eminently achievable If the definition of intelligentsia is the ability to post an internet link correctly, then consider me a member.

Agreed charging at Condos is difficult, but not impossible. When I was on a condo committee in Thailand we received many requests from Condo owners and we always considered them on how they would impact the other owners and particularly what the financial impact would be. If I was was still living in a condo and wanted to charge my electric car I would make a proposal something like: Owner agrees to pay for the wall charger, it's installation and maintenance The wall charger becomes the property of the building when the owner sells his unit The building can charge the owner double the MEA electricity rate plus B100/month admin fee The owner gets a reserved parking space with his number plate clearly visible There is ฿1,000 clamp release fee for anyone else parking in the spot (split 50:50 owner and building) The building agrees to transfer any profits from the program into a sinking fund to be used for the upgrade of the common area electrical system

Electricity infrastructure originally consisted of a few giant coal power plants producing all the power and stepping up the voltage to avoid power loss on the long journey to substations close to where it was going to be used, at which point the voltage was stepped down to a usable voltage for busines or household use. The problems with this system are obvious: - a break in the long distance cable or problem with the power plant plunges large parts of the country into darkness - just see what happens when it snows in Texas. A micro-grid is a local grid, so if I am feeding power from my solar/home-batteries or EV back into the grid it is being used by my neighbours. Such a system is far more resilient and does not need a massive infrastructure upgrade.

As previously stated - I am an active member of EV forum in the UK and there is much discussion about the the best Time of Use Rates. EV owners are already charging over night when demand is low and supply is high, but that is only part of the way that EVs can help to stabilize the grid. As V2G (Vehicle to Grid) becomes more widespread that 80kWh battery sitting on your driveway or parked up at your office can be used to supply power back to grid at times of peak demand or charging up excess supply from the grid when it's cheap. If you want to know more about virtual power plants:

Private imports yes, but I am waiting for a more official arrangement

Hundreds of Teslas waiting in shanghai for shipping overseas - how long before they start shipping to Thailand?

Back to EVs Don't want to be seen driving a Chinese EV? Then you could be leasing a BMW iX3 for ฿30,000 a month (It's made in China but the neighbours won't know that)

Let’s blame all the electricity price rises on renewables ???? https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-12-30/europe-has-never-paid-so-much-for-power-as-2021-costs-hit-record “Europe’s energy crunch was a result of shortages of natural gas just as demand rebounded following 2020’s lockdowns. The crisis was also aggravated by lower than normal wind speeds and nuclear power outages that have strained power grids, forcing the region’s energy companies to burn polluting fossil fuels”

One of the reasons for me installing an off-grid solar system was due to the number of brown-outs and black-outs experienced in rural Thailand. My experience is my solar system is far more stable and reliable than PEA here. I was challenged by the installer of my home charger who claimed (out of ignorance) that solar would damage the charger. I showed that PEA voltage fluctuated between 190-250v and my pure sine wave inverters produced a rock steady 220v.

Anybody wanting to read the background to this https://insideevs.com/news/537120/ev-chargers-switched-off-uk/ To quote from the article above: "The government argues that the new legislation could help drivers of electric vehicles save money by pushing them to charge their EVs during off-peak night hours, when many energy providers offer “Economy 7” electricity rates that are far below the 17p ($0.23) per kWh average cost. In the future, Vehicle-to-Grid (V2G) technology is also expected to mitigate strains on the grid in combination with V2G-compatible smart chargers. Bi-directional charging will enable EVs to fill gaps in power when demand is high and then draw power back when demand is extremely low." I am an active member of a UK based EV forum. The price of UK electricity has doubled over the last 10 years and is expected to increase by 50% in April. Many on the forum are considering adding solar and certainly everybody seems to be very aware of time or use rates so I doubt if it will be much of a problem as very few EV owners would be stupid enough to charge at peak rate prices.

In the report I quoted it states “Elon Musk said that Tesla plans to add solar and batteries to all Supercharger stations and eventually disconnect most of them from the grid.”

https://electrek.co/2021/04/27/tesla-power-all-superchargers-with-renewable-energy-this-year/

Many EVs including mine are charged from solar

Hundreds of Billions of dollars more are still being spent on supporting fossil fuels over green technology and this has been going on for decades! How much is spent supporting fossil fuels and green technology?

Lucky they come with Firmware Over The Air updates, so hopefully the bugs will get fixed