BKKBike09

The Seal is a fine looking vehicle (saw a black one on the road yesterday). My main worry with it would be flooding; my soi floods regularly and much worse in last two years (to the extent of having 3 inches of water in the house once last year and once this year). The water also goes down much more slowly than before (I've lived in that soi 15 years), so although the Seal battery is, indeed, 'sealed', it could be sitting in water for several hours. Would be interesting to test drive, though. Particularly to see how well developed the various 'adaptive' tech really is. As I've said in other posts about the Atto, things like the adaptive cruise control and autonomous emergency braking are sub-par. Last thing you want if really pushing a car is assistive tech that's okay but not great. Sometimes better (and more fun) to turn it all off and see how things go ...

28 confirmed dead.

Volkswagen DSG auto box (I have a (now very old) Scirocco) gives that experience - in fact you could argue better than manual because you don't need to lift off at all when shifting and the shift is quicker than a manual change. Now if only they'd made the Scirocco AWD or RWD. I've also got a BYD Atto. Handles like a boat on the stock rubber / suspension, but it's a very relaxing car to drive if not hammering it. If you can charge at home and your journeys are typically less than 300 km round trips, EVs are great. But certainly not suitable as a blanket replacement for ICE, at least not until charging takes 15 min or less and chargers are literally everywhere. Which is going to take a long time. Where all that power will come from is another thorny issue.

^ Actually it seems there are 4 videos covering taking apart through to integrating into home storage system.

For anyone who finds it strangely fascinating watching people take things apart - two interesting videos (only posting link to first here) of a EV-qualified engineer dismantling a battery from an Atto. Some of his posted comments are very useful eg this one about the battery's water resistance: "There is a thick gasket all around the outside where the top plastic case bolts down onto the aluminium base and there are O rings around all the connections. The pack also had a couple screw vents on top that equalised pressure when I undid them so the pack is air tight"

Does the WD40 tip work on teeth? Because I've been using toothpaste on them for 50 years and they still look the colour of pilau rice.

Only ever made Outpatient claims. Pretty straightforward so can't complain about that. However they won't pay for some medicines / treatments. If the hospital has these on an exclusion list then you pay for that at the hospital. But I've also had hospital ask me to reimburse them for something that PC said later wasn't covered. However PC underwriters are definitely not on my Christmas Card list. They will try to exclude as much as they can from coverage when you apply. They are also incredibly slow to assess / respond (in my experience). My antipathy towards them stems from them retroactively excluding coverage for something at renewal after having a policy for several years (and no claims related to the new exclusion). This was despite me making full disclosure of medical history when I applied for the policy. Took several very stressful months to argue with them and finally get them to be more reasonable.

Hmm. Let's see. Wacko shoots people with a modified blank firing pistol and the news since then has been all about control of illegal guns and crackdowns on online sales ... so let's agree to sell a modified blank firing pistol to someone anonymous online ... who turns out to be the police ...

From one of the linked articles: The Surat Thani Immigration Chief Colonel Suppakorn Pankosol stated to the Thai press, “We found that these guns and bullets were ordered online from the northeast of Thailand. Mr. Adam used these guns to practice shooting at a shooting range on Samui Island. He also posted on social media that he likes to collect guns. Many of his online posts also seemed to threaten other foreigners. Mr. Adam has fitness businesses and has stayed in Thailand for a long time.” I suspect 'Mr Adam' may be in for an extended stay in Thailand, but perhaps in less enjoyable surroundings. <deleted>.

Others have already answered but no, you pay flat rate regardless of how long it takes to get the power. If you had two cars connected at the same time to the charger in your example, they'd share the total power available between them. Also looks like that charger might not get the rated supply anyway, at certain times of high general demand in the area. THB 9 per kWh is pricey, though.

Those speeds are total output per charging station. I know from experience (with both PEA and PTT's EV Station) that once you connect more than one car to a station, the total output is shared between them. Some stations can charge 3 cars using different charging set ups so it's quite possible to be plugged in to a 160 kW charger and only get 50 kW (or a PTT 50 kW one and only get 20 kW). If your car won't charge faster than say 80 KW (eg Atto) then not getting top speed isn't so much of an issue. But it must be frustrating to have a car that could take 120+ and only be getting 50 ...

Legally, I don't know. In practice: I have a friend with a big Beemer (X4 I think) who's had it on red plates for more than 3 years. The dealer (in Bangkok) doesn't seem to care.

This speaks to the pressure on the Govt from the legacy car makers, especially Toyota (which has about a third of the auto market), Honda and Isuzu, none of whom have yet to embrace EVs or, alternatively, some other alternative to ICE. These companies still dominate the Thai auto market and have massive clout with government, thanks both to domestic sales, export earnings and the whole associated auto parts supply chain. Don't forget that the surging EV sales are still only a small % of the total market, which is expected to be around 850,000 this year. Toyota recently said their target for the year is 290,000 vehicles (including pickups). Total auto market in August 2023 was 60,234 (down nearly 12% y-o-y). That included: Toyota - 20,871 (down 10.6%) Isuzu - 11,380 (down 28.2%) Honda - 7,084 (up 0.2%) If these guys aren't very worried, they should be. Reminds me slightly of BlackBerry. "Ignore disruptive tech - we will tell consumers what they want". I also think Tesla could be heading for a massive fall if it doesn't a) diversify its line-up ASAP and b) introduce a cheap and cheerful model (USD 25K or less) to attract younger buyers to the brand and build future loyalty to it. All the fear about Chinese cars / spyware etc also won't mean much, if anything at all, to the next generation of car buyers, who will likely be hostile to the very thought of an internal combustion engine.

The longer it takes to get the white plates, the 'newer' the car is when registered i.e. you buy in Oct 2022 but don't get registration book/white plates issued till Apr 2023, car can be described as '2023' model when selling. Also, red plates = no speeding tickets ...

Bring it on, big boy.

The Atto region is always on. Either Standard or High. Standard is feeble. High really kicks in at highway speeds. Lift off at 80 km/h plus and it slows you down noticeably. Can certainly use it instead of braking ie when approaching slower moving traffic. It won't bring you to a stop. PS - the Atto cruise control is hopeless.

Yet to get a ticket. Largely because a) I drive slower than in my ICE and b) I got so many tickets on Hwy 7 in the past that I've got a cheat sheet with all the camera locations listed (as per the km marker number on the ticket). Given tickets are only 500 baht whether you're 3 km over the limit or 30 km over, might as well put pedal to metal ...

Anything over 100 km/h will start eating battery. I go BKK-Jomtien-BKK regularly in the Atto. Uses about 80% of the battery to do the 270 km round trip at speeds of between 110-125 km/h on the highway. That equates to a real range potential of about 340 km from the 60 kW/h battery (vs official range estimate of 420 km).

You'll likely be paying for that reduction in other ways. It's costing billions of USD (yes, USD) to do this. Not to mention billions more for subsidised diesel and LPG. This was from July 2022 - so add another 15 months of subsidy burden up to Oct 2023. EGAT has shouldered Ft almost 100 billion Baht over the past year, while a loan of 25 billion Baht for liquidity support is still not enough for its operation. To prevent effects on energy security in the long term, EGAT calls for government support. The retained earnings gained from managing its assets to generate and transmit electricity are not cash; therefore, they cannot keep electricity tariff rate. https://www.egat.co.th/home/en/20220719e/

It would be a brave person indeed who tried to drive a Seal (or any saloon) through a 0.6 m deep flood! That FB post makes all sorts of claims about how Seal is so much better than Atto including that the main battery is better protected against water and not under the car like the Atto. All sounds a bit rum. I'd rather have the extra clearance to start with, which is one of the reasons I bought the Atto. Have to say the Seal is a good-looking car though, as is the performance.

I'd generally agree with you on this ... however, if you read some of the other reports about this, there are ones saying that much more is intended, viz: "As for shooting ranges, Anutin stated that these must also be controlled, particularly in respect of children who have not yet reached the age of majority, who should not [be allowed] to practise shooting guns. The Department of Provincial Administration is to consider whether people who go to a shooting range must have a permit to carry a gun and people who shoot for sport should deposit their gun[s] at the shooting range, and not be able to take them out [from the range]" https://www.pptvhd36.com/news/การเมือง/207315 ส่วนสนามยิงปืน นายอนุทิน ระบุว่า ต้องควบคุมด้วย โดยเฉพาะในเด็กที่ยังไม่บรรลุนิติภาวะ ก็ไม่ควรเข้าไปซ้อมยิงปืน และผู้ที่จะเข้าสนามยิงปืน ต้องมีใบอนุญาตพกพาปืนด้วย และผู้ที่ยิงปืนเป็นกีฬา ก็ให้ฝากปืนไว้ที่สนามยิงปืน ไม่สามารถนำออกมาด้วยได้ ก็เป็นแนวทางที่ให้กรมการปกครองนำไปพิจารณา I can't see any of the above actually happening. The shooting sports world is quite influential and it's impractical to say sport shooters have to leave weapons at a specified range, given that matches are held at different ranges all round the country. And no shooting range is going to want the responsibility of storing hundreds of firearms. One thing all ranges and organisers of shooting matches could easily do - which would be a visible action towards ensuring only legally-held guns are used at ranges / matches - would be to ask that every gun be accompanied by its permit (since in Thailand you need a permit for each firearm), and to check that the licensed owner of the gun is the person who brought it to the range / match.

Exactly. An RD 'Order' written on the back of a napkin after lunch one day cannot void all previous acts / regulations / interpretations / orders etc. There are various tax experts (e.g. head of tax practice at Baker & Mackenzie) saying that only the Tax Court can make such a ruling and that, as such, this latest RD Order can/should be ignored by taxpayers until it has been through due process of scrutiny etc.

I don't have a Dolphin - I have an Atto 3. When I booked it the Extended range was all that was available. But if there had been a choice I'd also have paid more to get Extended range. Don't take the range estimates as accurate. Work on getting maybe 80-90% of the WLTP range (ie instead of 420, work on 350-380). TBH I don't really see the point of not getting the model with the most range / most power available. Better to have more range / overtaking capability than you may need rather than find yourself wanting more. Can't upgrade once you've bought it ... Also I am sure the Extended range will be easier to sell if/when etc.

The drive mode stays where you set it, as does regen. But those are really easy to change on the fly (there are two toggle switches in the central console). All the other c**p (lane keeping, auto braking, collision warning) requires pressing buttons on the screen AND the car to be stopped and in P. You can't change them while driving or while the car is stopped, but still in D. That's why it will be excellent if it's really now possible to select permanently off (I'm not in Thailand at the moment which is why I can't say for sure that it's permanent, although it certainly looked like it).

Upon further investigation it also looks to be the case - praise be! - that owners can now permanently disable the 'safety' features of Predictive Collision Warning, Autonomous Emergency Braking and Emergency Lane Keeping. Previously these could only be disabled temporarily (start the vehicle, disable, switch off vehicle, they're all back on again). Now it appears that, if selected off, they stay off when the car is powered back on. Switching any of them off still gives the message that it's only valid for the current 'ignition cycle', but that just seems to be a legacy message and not actually the case. If these really all can be permanently disabled it's a huge plus. The Autonomous Emergency Braking is particularly hazardous in Bangkok traffic; I've had it activate twice when moving slowly forward in heavy traffic and a m/c has filtered through the gap between me and the car ahead. It's a full on braking action and it's more likely to get you rear-ended than to prevent an accident. Same with Lane Keeping; if you don't indicate (e.g. edging over the central divider to see if you can overtake safely etc), it aggressively tries to pull you back into your lane. So very happy to see the back of all these 'features'.