BKKBike09

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'.

BYD has just put out a software update for the Atto 3; the only thing that leaps out as new is that there is now the choiice between Standard and Dynamic estimates for range. Not sure how accurate it will be because although the range does drop when selecting Dynamic over Standard, it still reads much higher than I'd expect. The first pic is the Dynamic estimate; the bottom one is the Standard estimate. At 15 kWh/100 km average consumption the 60 kWh battery should give max range of 400 km. So logically at 92% remaining it should estimate 368 km. Not sure why it still overestimates so much.

The 180kmh cap is a global Volvo safety thing, nothing to do with the battery. I think it was brought in in 2020 - they limit all their cars to a 180kmh top speed: petrol, hybrid, electric - and it is part of their pledge to eventually have zero fatalities in a Volvo car. Not sure I agree with it, but I rarely feel the need to go over 180kmh on the road these days (have done it plenty of times in my younger days). I should point out that although the ex30 is very fast it is kind of ridiculous talking about it in comparison to a 911. A 911 is a pure bred, highly focused, mid-engined sports car. An ex30 is a small family SUV. Totally different beasts, but alas, we do live in interesting times and I am all in favour of them. Even in comparison to a 911 the EV performance is addictive as it is instant, it is such a different feeling. I rented this beast for 24 hours in Dubai to race up and down some mountains and it was incredible. Faster on paper (0-100kmh in 3 seconds) but there's a lag, albeit small. A fast EV has no lag and just feels faster. Having said that I would take the 488 Italia Spider over the Volvo in an instant. ???? Lots of good points in this post. Volvo's 180 kmh limit is nannying nonsense. It's all the more pointless if they're then going to sell a car weighing nearly 2 tonnes that has supercar performance 0-100 kmh. "Speed KIlls" n all that. As you rightly point out, many EVs that can post a quick 0-100 kmh are not designed to be thrown around. Won't surprise me if there are quite a few crashes caused by this. Heavy SUVs handle like, well, heavy SUVs unless you spend a ton of money on suspension, tyre and brake upgrades. The cheap and cheerful Atto 3 will easily do a sub 7s 0-100 kmh but that's as fast as you'd want without all those upgrades. As to the different feeling of ICE vs EV performance, couldn't agree more. EV instant torque is great but it's hard to beat the sounds of highly tuned engines. Be interesting to see whether there are ever EV rally cars.

Meanwhile, back on topic ... Will be interesting to learn just how (according to BYD) a wire leading to the 12V battery was "damaged" in such a way that it became a heat source. The battery in the BYD Atto is a typical small car battery (12v / c 35A). But unlike a typical modern ICE small car, it's not squeezed in to some tiny space next to a hot engine block. There's bags of space around the Atto battery and under the hood in general, so the wiring to/from battery is very easy to see/access. I'm not sure why the battery comes wrapped in a nylon or whatever insulator blanket: maybe a legacy from cars destined for markets with cold winters. If it's taken off it does mean the negative terminal is exposed bare metal unless it's covered with a suitable insulator.

Thanks for the trip down memory lane. Astonishing really that back in the early 80s sub 10s 0-60 mph was considered 'performance'!

Just came across this graphic showing new EV passenger car registrations Jan-June this year vs last year. 31,600 odd up from 9,600 Y-on-Y.

It's a little off topic (for rented property) but Samsung have a range of ACs that have what they call 'Wind Free' feature. Basically the cover for the air vent is perforated; you can either run the A/C with the vent open or closed. I bought one a couple of weeks ago and it works very well. Diffuses the air flow very effectively. Whether the little holes will clog up with dust after a while remains to be seen but it can be removed and cleaned easily enough.

True (amps vs volts) but not relevant to BYD's statement on the cause as being: “After thorough investigation, our engineers have found damage to a wire connecting to the 12-volt battery”. AFAIK they haven't said anything yet as to how a wire on a brand-new vehicle came to be "damaged" / what exactly "damaged" means, such that it could generate enough heat to melt a hole in part of the aircon system (which led to the white smoke).

Er. Thanks for the insight.