Gweiloman

What car was that ?

Exactly. That’s why it’s a worthwhile purchase if you do a bit of travelling around Thailand. I once also plugged it in overnight at a resort I stayed in but I felt guilty so I tipped the reception 100 baht although I probably only used about 50 baht worth of electricity.

We are very similar then. I would never ever ever buy anything US made.

Doable if in BKK or maybe Pattaya. Not so in other parts of Thailand.

As far as I know, the Ft is some sort of a surcharge. The government plays around with this to give discounts. A few months ago, it was around 90 satang per unit and currently, it’s only about 20 satang. Out of curiosity, what size is your solar installation?

Yes, these are real and valid concerns. But then, everyone has different risk profiles, in life and in financial matters. Some people go rock or mountain climbing, some others ride bikes. I try not to look at what might go wrong but on the positives instead.

Lots of reasons. Quick stretch of the hands after 2 hours of continuous driving, lighting a cigarette etc. Unless you’re a seasoned driver, you probably won’t know.

Your tyre might get punctured. Better to walk I guess..

It does. You can see in one of the images that it is a 2 pin plug. I’m no electrician so I’m not too familiar with these matters but maybe @Bandersnatch or @JBChiangRai might be able to give a better insight.

Another excellent feature of the Dolphin is that you can use it to power your home in the event of a power outage. Or if you’re out and about, it also serves as a power point for a fan or laptop charging or grilling meat on the electric grill :)

https://www.pea.co.th/Portals/1/Knowledge PEA/Electricity Tariffs JAN66 Unofficial Translation.pdf?ver=2023-01-27-133655-423 This should help.

https://s.lazada.co.th/s.OM6d1 Another advantage of the variable power is that depending on my solar output, I can use the lower power setting if my solar is not producing sufficient power. As I’m on TOU, daytime peak rates hurts (about 7 baht per kWh lol)

Actually in my case, I locked the door with my app. Reason I did that was because I wanted to fold the wing mirrors but was too lazy to get in the car and start it up to fold the mirrors and get out of the car. Another time, I tried locking the door by pressing the lock button on the door with my key in my pocket but it wouldn’t lock because my spare key was in the car.

Not sure about the Seal but the Dolphin stop and start is quite smooth. For sure, smoother than a new relatively inexperienced driver but probably not as smooth as those of us that has been driving for over 40 years. The one thing I don’t like about the adaptive cruise control is when a car comes into your lane. Both my Dolphin and Haval are nervous “drivers” and tend to “brake “ quite hard so I only engage the cc when the road is clear and disengages it when I see heavier traffic up front. With pilot assist, I only engage it when I need to take both hands off the steering for a few seconds. Easy to do on the Dolphin. Just a button press on the steering wheel.

I guess those who claims that Toyotas and Hondas are good value for money hasn’t really researched what else is available. Their loss I guess. Another thing I like about vehicles with regenerative braking is when going downhill, you end up with more range than at the top of the hill. Maybe not an issue in places like Bangkok or Isaan but in CM, coming down from Mon Jam or Doi Suthep, the miser in me is full of glee lol

Yes, the OEM granny charger requires an earth. I purchased a variable power charger off Lazada that doesn’t require an earth. Also, when in Isaan where a lot of houses are only 5/15 A, I set the power draw to 6A in order not to trip any breakers when the ac is running as well.

Most impractical for driving in CM city with its narrow sois and sharp turns.

So why do they have it in premium cars such as Mercedes, BMWs etc? I assume you don’t have it in your car so you probably don’t know what you’re missing. Adaptive cruise control for example is fantastic for city driving with stop and go traffic. Blind spot monitoring is really useful particularly in Thailand where bikes ignore turn signals and zip by on your left when you want to turn into a smallish soi. TPMS takes the guesswork out of kicking your tyres. Lane keeping assist can be useful if you need to take both hands off the steering wheel for a couple of seconds for whatever reason. Dashcams reduces your insurance premiums and an integrated solution is just so much more elegant. Automatic tailgate is really useful when both hands are occupied. You could always go back to crank starting your car if you don’t need modern conveniences and safety features.

It’s been a while since I sat in any of the Hondas and Toyotas mentioned above. Do they have all the modern safety features like lane keeping assist, adaptive cruise control, electronic parking brakes, TPMS, blind spot monitoring, integrated dash cam, automatic tailgate etc etc?

Most of the ones I’ve seen are rather slow at 25 kWh although I did stop at one the other (ROI Et) that was 50 kWh. I also stopped at one in a 7/11 parking lot that was 120 kWh (Phrom Phiram). PEA Volta CS.

I had a Mazda 2 for 5 years which I recently sold to a family friend. Good car for city driving, economical. Problem free except for the last year when the key sensor became defective and Mazda CM couldn’t fix it (car couldn’t start as it couldn’t detect the key. Nothing to do with the batteries, problem eventually solved when we put in a new sensor). Not sure about the newest models but the infotainment system was sad, to say the least. Also nowhere near as comfortable as the Dolphin and you couldn’t fit 3 adults in the back.

To be fair, I believe that Ford has announced that they are stopping EV production as well as basic models and focus only on premium models. Apparently their strategy is profit per vehicle sold and not absolute sales. What I would like to address is the certainty that anti EVers have that there is no future. Private investment firms/banks such as Blackstone are pumping in hundreds of millions, investing in charging infrastructure. I don’t think they would do that unless they believe they will get a return on their investment. I also think that I trust their judgment about the future of the EV industry a bit more than that of some retirees in Thailand.

If it’s mostly for city driving, I would go for the Dolphin standard range. Chiang Mai traffic can be pretty bad and the traffic lights take a long time to change. Sitting in a quiet EV with air con running and not burning fuel ($) and not emitting fumes is an attractive option. Furthermore. the fuel savings mount up very quickly, even more so if you have solar at home. The charging infrastructure in CM is also excellent. The Dolphin is around 700k. For the money, the build quality is excellent. The infotainment system works very well and the OEM sat nav is among the best I’ve come across except for the repeated speed warnings which I can’t seem to turn off. It has has wireless Android Auto (not sure about Apple CarPlay) so you can use Google maps or Waze if you prefer. Spotify app is preinstalled but very easy to add whatever apps you like. I installed Google Home to be able to easily close and open my electric gate without having to fumble for the remote control. I thought I would miss the physical buttons and switches to control the aircon thermostat and fan speed but it is actually easier to just tell the AI to set the temperature and fan speed. Same with opening and closing all the windows. The extended range has seat ventilation for both front seats; I believe the standard range does too. Very comfortable for 5 adults as there isn’t a transmission tunnel. The floor is completely flat. Costs nothing to go for a test drive. If you’ve never driven an EV before, it’s a great experience.

Based on this reasoning, you should not purchase anything as the technology will be better next year and the year after that. Except for ICEVs of course, as it has reached the pinnacle of its technology. Who knows, in 10 years we may be able to teleport with the help of Scottie and cars won’t even be needed anymore.

And based on this one example, you are warning people about Chinese batteries…