JBChiangRai

You probably rubbed him up the wrong way, you are fairly masterful at that.

I stand corrected, and I am somewhat surprised.

Nobody would build a bus with the traction battery on the roof. They have to be placed as slow down as possible to keep the center of gravity low. It sounds like an electrical fire, but nothing to do with the bus being an EV, more likely to be lighting wiring.

Let’s start with the BYD Atto, there WAS NO FIRE. Educate yourself on what it was (fumes from leaky air conditioning). There is no evidence the warehouse holding batteries was either (a) EV batteries or (b) was caused by a battery. There have at time of writing been no Chinese EV fires

My daughter’s aunt just got a Toyota pickup in under a week. I think the fast sellers are ex-stock.

I think we have already seen many of the motorshow bookings, the EV’s are typically ex-stock unless a future model. Toyota’s are typically ex-stock too.

on second thoughts, I think it would be quite common for husbands to say to their wives. I need to pop out for an hour and charge up the EV, when they really want to meet with their mates and have a coffee I need a suitable excuse to get out the house

I would love too that photo, since nice you visit regularly it won’t be too long will it?

That’s not my experience, their electronics are first rate (Electronic Engineering Degree held here).

The stealing of the debit card details could be at the OP’s end with a compromised mobile phone, somewhere across the long distance phone call, or at the car hire company’s end. The latter could be a corrupt employee or customer who placed a bug there compromising their phone. I note the OP found a cheaper place to book another car and perhaps there is more to this than we are being told…

I wouldn’t be surprised to see March figures down on January either, January was a special case because it included all the sales in December, and the end of a better EV subsidy. What is important, is how March figures compare to March last year, I expect them to be higher than March last year.

One swallow does not a summer make. I think you’ll find that February was a blip because most of the manufacturers tried to get their sales done by the end of the year and EV buyers in particular were concerned about the drop in rebate. My friend was appointed sales director at Rolls Royce motor cars in Crewe 25-30 years ago, he discounted the Mulsanne/Brooklands LPT, they didn’t like that, he only lasted a year.

I think all the ICE vehicle dealerships are worried.

I think you have a good chance of getting a higher spec ICE car cheaper. I also think ICE car makers who have historically made a much higher profit on high spec cars will reduce the gap so their top model in each range is more affordable, perhaps only selling the top model. Chiang Mai has lots of Toyota dealerships, Chiang Rai and other cities usually have 2 or 3, I can see those consolidating.

A thorny problem. Some think EU and UK are laying the groundwork for a pay per mile tax

Here’s another prediction for you. I made it middle 2023. You will start to see ICE dealerships close or consolidate.

Strange, I have never seen EV owners waiting around at Charging Stations, having a coffee? Sure. Coming aware of how silly they look? Absolutely not, most EV owners wouldn’t have a heartbeat’s hesitation in buying another EV. You don’t need solar for an EV to make sense, even if I didn’t have a home Charging Station, I would still drive an EV. I am not saying everyone would, because for sure it makes it a bit more difficult.

I have been posting for some months now that legacy car makers are very scared. EV sales are accelerating enormously and they aren’t a separate market. you either drive an ICE car or you drive an EV, but you do not need both. Companies like Toyota are spreading FUD (fear, uncertainty, and doubt) by saying firstly, they won’t take off and now their market share will never exceed 30%. Studies and off the wall websites are being funded to say EV are not the future, they catch fire (false), hydrogen is the future, water engines are the future, every imaginable thing to downplay EV’s and slow or prevent adoption. Some legacy auto makers are openly discounting their vehicles, others, like Ford are doing it more subtly with adverts saying special prices, inquire at your dealership. in summary, the future is EV, most legacy auto makers cannot make them at even close to the price the Chinese sell them at and they face going the way of the dinosaur.

2 Charging points may be enough today, I am sure they will add more as needed. In Chiang Rai we have a large condo building (The Condotel) it has 200 rooms and 50 parking spaces. Parking is tight but it seems mostly adequate. If we work on a ratio of 4:1 Rooms:Car Spaces then I am going to assume you have 2 charging points for 170 cars or 85:1 Using 9,000km as the average annual mileage in Thailand (you will find that number on the Internet) that’s 25km per day, an EV will want to charge up every 10+ days. So you have enough Charging Stations for 20 EV’s maybe 30 EV’s as lots will have charging facilities at the places of work. Does the building have 20 EV’s yet? I think you will find they are currently underutilized.

My first BEV was a Porsche Taycan. When the government announced they would pay 230k ฿ towards the purchase of the MG EP+ plus I ordered one for my daughter My daughters got in to Payap University in Chiang Mai and I found I was commuting every fortnight and so I bought an MG4 to keep the miles off the Porsche. I found I was favoring the MG4 almost every time over the Porsche (yes they really are that good) and so I decided to order the MG Cyberster (due H2 2024) and I sold the Porsche after exactly 2 years. It was unreliable and had to be trailered back to Bangkok twice. The warranty expired at two years and the first service was due so I saved 120k THB on the third year insurance, the first service fee (I don’t know how much would be) and also it needed four new tires which was another 100k THB. The BYD Seal purchase was entirely unplanned. My brother-in-law was visiting in October from Australia, and asked me to take him to the BYD dealership to look at the cars. They wouldn’t let him sign for the test drive because he had an Australian license. So I signed and drove half the route, and then he took over and drove the other half. We were both knocked out with the car and went back to the dealership where I ordered a new one and whilst I was ordering my new one he ordered one in Australia Online and paid the deposit. My daughter decided she would prefer my MG4 as it’s a bright color, more sporty and has the dealer fitted body kit, so we sold the MG EP+ and got a great price for it, so don’t believe reports that they depreciate massively, they don’t. None of our Chinese EV‘s have ever had a fault, it’s the first time in 40 years of buying new cars that I have not had to return a car to have something fixed. The German, EV, and prior to that German PHEV both had to be trailered back to the dealers for various reasons, so my experience is good for China and not so good for German.

Many PEA chargers are on major routes, you will find fast DC chargers every 20-30km on highways

Who do you use? Do you recommend them?

And the world is flat and let’s not forget EMF from 5G phones causes Covid !!!

Transman, come out, come out wherever you are

No, it’s just that one of us has a sense of humor, and it’s not you!