Gweiloman

Agree with JbChiangrai and Pib. What sort of meter do you currently have? 15/45 or 30/100? If the former, you can either upgrade or have PEA fit a 2nd meter, like I did, for your wall charger. If you go down this route, it’s not a bad idea to fit another two electrical outlets for extra power points. My consumer unit has 4 fuses. A 40A for the wall charger, 2 x 20A for 2 electoral sockets and a spare one for the fun of it.

Servicing means plugging in a diagnostic machine. No need to change engine oil even. As to parts, I assume you mean bits and pieces like nuts and bolts? Not many parts in an EV compared to ICEV.

One of my challenges is to make sure I run the ICE regularly in order to prevent the fuel from becoming stale. The car has two modes; EV and HEV. Even in the HEV mode, it defaults to pure electric driving unless I step more aggressively on the accelerator pedal to engage the ICE. I haven’t put in any petrol the last few thousand kms.

A lot depends on individual circumstances. I do long trips regularly, 800+ km each way. That’s why my primary vehicle is a PHEV with a battery range of 160-180 km plus an ICE range of over 500 km. My EV is my second car. With a range of 480 km around CM, I plug it in overnight once or twice a week, easy peasy. I would not hesitate to take it on long distance trips either, depending on time constraints, if any.

It’s does not make sense to compare the owning experience of an EV in the UK vs Thailand.

I really like EleXA except for no off peak rates and PT stations have very little to offer in terms of passing the time.

I definitely won’t be looking at the Neta nor the Altis as my primary car. If that’s your budget, then definitely go for an ICEV. it seems to me that you are looking for reasons and justifications for why you won’t buy an EV at the present time. Spending 30-40 mins at a PTT once a week is not really that much of a bother. A lot of the stations have a food court or a KFC or Burger King or other options where you can have a decent meal. They also have a Cafe Amazon as well as a 7/11. Plus very decent toilets easy parking. I mentioned in a previous post that ICE owners think like ICE owners. Owning an EV requires a slight modification and change of habits.

Another reason to thank China for improving our lives lol. Well thought out post, hence the +1 from me. I have always stated that if one doesn’t have charging possibility or does frequent long journeys, then EVs might not be a suitable option. I’m slowly starting to change my mind about the first point, especially for city dwellers in places like Bangkok. An EV with a decent range of about 400 kms really only require charging once a week or so, it’s not really that difficult to spend 30-40 minutes per week at a fast DC CS, charging to about 80%. When one considers the cost savings, I think it can make good sense even.

I don’t disagree with your first sentence. 6 years ago, I paid around 600k for a Mazda 2 HB. It was a good car, nifty, economical and problem free until about a year ago when it sometimes won’t detect the key and Mazda CM tried to give me all sorts of bs reasons like the Panasonic CR battery is fatter than Mazda CR battery (Mazda doesn’t make such batteries afaik). Situation got resolved in Mazda Yasothon by the family friend I sold it to. She’s loving the car as it suits her needs perfectly. I recently shelled out a bit more for a Dolphin, 850k. You could say it’s a significant increase in percentage terms but not that much in absolute terms unless funds are tight. However, the Dolphin is in a completely different league, driving, performance and technology terms. 2 things lacking compared to the Mazda is no HUD and no rain wiper sensor. But the Dolphin has electric front seats, panoramic sunroof, fantastic infotainment system, phone app, much higher level of materials and finishing, comfor, performance… the list goes on. So in my mind, the value for money is on par if not higher than that of ICEVs.

Thanks. You’ve convinced me to take the card out of the car and maybe even make a 2nd card for emergencies. I’ve always kept the card in the car so that I could at least drive it in case I lose or misplace my keys. I still think that’s not a bad idea so getting a 2nd card for the wallet is an excellent idea as well.

When and how do you envisage using the NFC card? I can’t think of a situation whereby it’s more convenient and practical than the actual car keys themselves.

I see. I’m not sure how my setup is but I think it might be different. SOLA on my consumer unit is solar. The little box to the right is where my manual selector switch is.

Yes, but I can’t figure out how to hook it up to my consumer unit. My electrician mentioned also that the manual selector switch can’t support the required wire gauge to bypass the mains electricity (meaning I might need a bigger switch?)

Since I wrote that post, I believe PTT has changed its time slots from hourly to half hourly so I don’t know if the current system is different from before. What I meant was that when you are charging at a EV Station Pluz at a PTT, regardless of the time you started charging, the charger will automatically stop charging at 5 mins to the hour, for eg, 10:55, 14:55 etc. I believe this is due in part to the booking system, meaning someone might have booked the charger for 11:00 or 15:00 in the examples above. If no one has booked it, you can restart a new charging session at 11:00 / 15:00. You will still pay for the amount of energy you used, regardless of the time spent. Hope this makes sense. H

@Bandersnatch I wanted to do the same with my Dolphin. I have a solar installation but without batteries. It uses a Huawei inverter (system installed “professionally”). I had a manual switch selector installed that was meant to switch between the grid and my car battery. However each time my electrician tried to hook up the car battery to one of my lighting circuits, the battery would shut down. The circuit is on a 32 A fuse but my electrician bypasses the circuit breaker for testing purposes so it should have been an isolated circuit on its own. What I noticed also is that is too much power is drawn at the start, say for eg trying to start up an appliance of over 2 kWh, the car battery would also shut down. I presume this is a battery protection feature which is fine but surely a lighting circuit would not be drawing this much power. Any ideas or suggestions?

After 3 months and 4,000 kms driven, I’m yet to charge my Dolphin at a CS. I’m itching to see if my Dolphin can charge at the claimed 80 kWh speed.

Like I mentioned in another post, ICEV owners think like ICEV owners, not like EV owners. They just can’t seem to wrap their heads around the idea that they don’t need to frequent a filling station every few days. Guess they’ll never learn till they own an EV, if ever.

Aha, I see. For a moment there, I thought I got duped by BYD into buying an outdated model lol.

So I guess you personally went to Congo and counted up the kids? I live in Chiang Mai which some could conclude as Nakhon Nowhere. Fortunately, I’m not biased or gullible and ignorant.

Are you guys sure that the Dolphin has an actual HUD and not just the instrument cluster? Mine doesn’t have the HUD unless there has been some sort of upgrade to the vehicle?

I don’t doubt that there maybe 1 or 2 small mines where the unscrupulous owners are exploiting children. But one must really be living in the middle of Nakhon Nowhere and ignorant to think that the large China owned mines are relying on inefficient manual labour as opposed to heavy machinery. You probably still believe in debt trap diplomacy and Uyghur genocide

Just because your wife is a lousy driver doesn’t mean everyone else is …

The reason no one is talking about this “HUGE” problem is because it’s not really a problem. The real problem is that anti-EVers still thinks about operating an EV the same way they operate their ICEV. They are used to going to the filling station regularly to fill up their fuel tank. EV owners don’t have to do this. I haven’t charged at a public station for a long time and don’t intend to unless I’m taking a long journey. Owning an EV requires a different approach to the issue of covering the required distance. Each journey is different and requires some thought. If this is too much trouble for you, then the simple answer is to not get an EV. For many others, this is a walk in the park @KhunLA

I find your post extremely puzzling, to say the least. Anyone sitting and idling extensively in their ICEV, unless at a traffic light should be rightly criticised. The fumes generated are toxic and extremely unpleasant to smell and in some cases can even be fatal. What difference does it make when I’m using aircon, powered by electricity, whether I’m in my EV or at home? Are you advocating a ban on using electricity generated by coal powered plants?

I work outdoors so very often, I sit in my car with the aircon on to cool down or to have my lunch on the go. I also have those mini car fans to help cool down faster. No one complains as no fumes are being emitted. I would never go that in my diesel work truck.