Gweiloman

In your opinion, what is the future then? Lots of countries are banning the sale of ICEs within the next 10-15 yrs. What kind of vehicles will replace the Ice? Personally, I think the way to go is PHEV. This is the best of both worlds.

Amazing that after 4 pages, you still haven’t registered the fact that this is open to all foreigners, not just mainland Chinese. But if Thailand were to be colonialised, which it won’t be, better it be by China than any declining western power.

Wonder why that is. Could it be because the Chinese are hard workers as opposed to the striking, slackers in the west?

I cannot hope nor do I wish to change your mind about the practicalities of EVs at the present moment. What I like to do however is to debate relevant issues about owning an EV. Firstly, charging. As discussed, if one lives in a landed property, home charging is more convenient and cheaper than going to a gas station. Living in a condo might be a bit more challenging unless one lives in a condo that is able to provide the owner with a charging point in your designated parking bay. Not sure about Thailand but know for a fact that this is being done in quite a large number of condos in Malaysia. Long distance driving is fairly easy unless you have to drive over 400 km every day. In that case, EV won’t be suitable either now or in 10 years time. Secondly, battery life. EVs has been around for more than 10 years and with very few exceptions, battery degradation hasn’t really been an issue. Most manufacturers give an 8 year warranty on the battery (degradation no more than 80%) which means a drop in range from 400 km to 320 km. No big deal (for me) over 8 years and once again, no issue except possibly for long distance trips. Furthermore, if you observe the price drop for batteries over the past 10 years, then I would imagine replacing a battery in 10 years time would be considerably less than it is today. Thirdly, battery management, care and durability. With the exception of the Leaf, battery systems nowadays have thermal cooling. This extends the life of the battery and also prevents it from overheating in day to day usage. They are also fully sealed against water ingress and I would venture that an EV would fare much better than and ICE (no air intake and all that). Watch the video of the fully submerged Volvo C40. Fourthly, and this is the real killer. Maintenance and running (cost per mile) costs are a fraction of a comparable ICE. So what’s not to like? If you’re a home owner or renter, long trips might take slightly longer. If I need to make a long distance trip in a hurry, I’ll just take my ICE vehicle.

I do believe we are getting somewhere in a constructive discussion. On condo dwellers vs landed property. Outside of downtown Pattaya and Bangkok, I would argue that more vehicle owners live in landed property as opposed to apartments. This is based on personal observation after 15 yrs in Thailand (Bangkok, Chiang Mai and frequent visits to Pattaya and Isaan). Thus I would argue that for a majority of car owners, home charging is very practical. It has been debated many times on this thread and others that travelling long distances in Thailand is very doable. Plenty of English speaking videos on YT about this. Travelling from BKK to CM might add only an extra hour if you want to do the journey in a day. Breaking up the journey with an overnight enroute at a resort won’t even add any extra time as you can charge overnight at the resort. The savings in petrol can already pay for the overnight. Directly across the Makro nearest to me is a Bangchak with 2 charging points. I can easily see myself charging there with the aircon, reading Aseannow while the wife is shopping at Makro. Easy peasy ????

IMO, you are making a very fundamental mistake in your argument against EV ownership. You equate charging an EV to filling up at a gas station. If you own an ICE, you are limited to filling up at the station or buying gas, putting it in a Jerry can and taking it home to put into your petrol tank.. EV owners generally don’t do that. They charge their vehicle at home or at their destination as much as possible. Public charging tend to be more an opportunistic move or a last resort. Thus, there isn’t the need for as many charging stations as there are for gas stations. Condo dwellers have to put in a bit more effort ie taking their EV to a charging station once or twice a week and leaving it there for a couple of hours, if they don’t have any other option. I haven’t really come across any cases of EV owners stranded on the roadside due to no charge left. Same as ice owners having no gas left.

You are so right. Before I got interested in buying an electrified vehicle, I hardly knew of the existence of a single charger, much less saw one. Now however, I see them everywhere, especially in Bangchak stations, PEA offices etc.

Smart EV drivers won’t let their range drop down to such levels on a long distance trip. Not so sure about ICE drivers though.

Electricity price in the UK is going up to £0.56 per unit which is about 24baht. It will take a long time (definitely not in my lifetime) for electricity to hit such prices in Thailand. So while you are correct in saying the gap in savings is closing in the UK, it’s definitely not the case here.

Possibly similar to how the Capitol police officers felt when told that Jan 6 rioters were regular tourists lol

Don’t complain! America is land of the free and values human rights more than any other country in the world!

I wonder if the PEA TOU rate is a myth. I divide my monthly usage with the cost and come to approximately 4 baht per unit but I use a similar amount of electricity at night as I do during the day. If TOU is real, I would expect my overall unit rate to be around 3baht.

These EVs are not designed for long distance driving. If you regularly make long distance trips, then BEVs should not be your vehicle of choice. However, if you are like most people with average work commutes, then you can easily go 4-5 days before charging your car once, at home, overnight. No need to even go to a petrol station. It will be more inconvenient if you don’t have charging capability at home (living in an apartment for eg) but not undoable.

There’s been a lot of China bashing in recent years. Main reason is because China posts a threat to the hegemony of the West, particularly USA. However, history rolls on and whether we like it or not, the next few decades will be that of Chinas’.

When I’m driving on the roads, I’m not in a race. When I need to overtake another vehicle, I do so only when it’s safe, depending on the traffic situation and the vehicle that I’m driving. I have a 150cc scooter as well as a 1000cc bike. I’m able to overtake other vehicles safely on either bike. Ps: my scooter can’t reach 120kmh even when wind assisted ????

If human driven cars are so safe, I wonder why kids are still being run over and people getting killed driving into a moat like what happened in CM.

You really should educate yourself more and not just watch Fox or Sky News Oz or Wion.

I have a 2011 Ford Ranger 2.2 XLT. Can cruise at 140kph on the highway which would bag me lots of speeding tickets. Why bother with unnecessary mods?

There are programmers and there are programmers. Some can program a rocket to land on Mars, some can’t even program 90 day reporting. Which one are you?

Yet, there are those (including one on this topic) that thinks that American tech is far far superior to Chinese tech. Personally, I wouldn’t get into a driverless car yet but once full scale adoption of 5G is completed, then it might be safer than getting into a Thai taxi.

The Teslas are grey imports, mostly from HKG. No Tesla superchargers in Thailand and the sat nav doesn’t work in Thailand. No point whatsoever therefore to buy a Tesla, especially when it’s not a well manufactured car compared to the legacy manufacturers.

The Mazda MX30 is basically the electrified version of the CX30. However, most of the reviews have been negative. Kia Niro, could be possible that your friend bought it as a grey import, like the Teslas here

I have no idea but I do know that the Outlander has been a best seller all over the world. If I’m not mistaken, it’s one of the first ever PHEVs.

Top is the model selling in Thailand. Bottom is the latest model already being sold in other parts of the world

Also; Kia Thailand sells the Soul EV as the only electrified vehicle here Mazda does not have any electrified vehicles for sale in Thailand Mitsubishi is still selling the previous generation of the Outlander In Malaysia, Hyundai sells both the Kona and Ioniq 5 whereas Hyundai Thailand does not have any electrified vehicles for sale. Ridiculous situation when you consider the charging infrastructure in Thailand is probably 10 times better than in Malaysia.