JBChiangRai

It's interesting what China is doing. They have transitioned from producing low quality, low cost goods to producing high quality, low cost goods and nowhere is this more evident than their EV cars. I believe this is an attempt to achieve market domination and put all the other manufacturers out of business. The market is already polarising into two, Tesla and all the other Chinese suppliers. We will still have a few specialist car manufacturers with brand loyalty like Mercedes Benz, but we are going to have to get used to paying double for their products. Even these sectors are going to be attacked with premium products from new Chinese Co's we are yet to see. Part of this strategy is acquiring Western manufacturers like MG & Volvo. Anyone who thinks an MG has anything to do with Great Britain or a Volvo has anything to do with Sweden is sadly mistaken. Yes, they keep a design team in their historic countries but this is really nothing more than window dressing. IMHO, it's a very good thing, I wouldn't have bought an MG4 & EP+ for my daughter if it were still a GB Co., nor would I have bought a Volvo if it were still a Swedish Co. A British MG would be unreliable and poorly made and a Swedish Volvo would have been slow and handled like a tank. I can see them acquiring other companies if they get into trouble. There will be a lot of "also ran's". Fiat, Citroen, Peugeot, Mitsubishi, Nissan, Toyota, Honda, they will most likely all disappear, anything now is too little, too late. This strategy of low price, high quality is already bearing fruit for them in other sectors. 4 years ago, there were 3 Chinese Air Con companies in Thailand and together they held a 6% market share (source Clasp). Today, according to Lazada, the #1 model sold is TCL in all the popular sizes (no data available elsewhere). What TCL have achieved in Air Con they are rolling out to TV's, Washing Machines & Fridge/Freezers. I recently bought a TCL 10kg Wash/7Kg dry machine for 9,700 baht. I moved my LG machine to a rental property and kept the TCL, I have confidence in the brand. I bought a TCL American style Side-by-Side Fridge Freezer for the rental property for 11,000 baht. Previously I had to hunt hard to find anything around 30,000 baht. Once China dominates the markets it wants, what happens next? lack of competition always results in price increases. If I were Xi, my strategy would be simple, control the supply of rare earth metals, grow my market share in sectors where the West would find it difficult to compete, buy more Western brand names, encourage Musk to grow his investment in China and when it's all paying off, make it a bit more difficult and uncompetitive for him to manufacture in China. Musk is a clever guy, he knows what's happening and it's why he's slashing prices, he has to if he wants to stay in the game and it's why he's concentrating on sources of rare earths/Battery Giga factories. Regarding Hydrogen cars. After experiencing BEV's, nobody wants an ICE, so the ideal of running an ICE on H2 is a dead duck. If we can't get enough supply of Lithium then we will see H2 Fuel-Cell cars proliferate alongside BEV's. But in my opinion, it will come to availability. BEV's will be seen as a premium product and the less attractive alternative will be a H2 Fuel-Cell. There are lots of reasons why. The H2 car will still have a Lithium battery albeit a lot smaller, it has to because the Fuel Cell doesn't generate the kind of power people are getting used to in BEV's nor is it as responsive to ramp up/down power production. H2 is going to be more expensive per km compared to BEV because of all the extra steps involved in producing H2. For now, we can enjoy what is coming, BEV's are going to get faster and more prolific. Faster because it doesn't cost the manufacturer a lot to add another motor and makes the driving experience better and it's much more expensive for H2 Fuel-Cell technology to compete with a fast BEV.

It does make you think. If my daughter's weren't at University in Chiang Mai, the Citroen Ami would have coped with all except one of my journey's in the last 2 years. But for me, driving is about pleasure and I can't see me enjoying driving a Citroen Ami. I followed a Fomm One yesterday, looks a fairly similar type of car to the Ami, I think it's going to take a little while for the populace to accept them, early adopters are likely to be viewed as hilariously brave.

You can check degradation through the OBD port, but you need a scanner. Current thinking is that 85% SoH (State of Health) at about 500,000 kms, there's a post on here somewhere about it.

You don't need to sue, defamation is a criminal offence, simply document and report it to the police, or with a lawyer you can cut out the police and go straight to the court who will issue an arrest warrant for her. Latter step is useful when you suspect police are cozy with perpetrator.

Funny that, not my interpretation at all

Putin changed the law in Russia to allow enemies of the Kremlin to be assassinated on Russian or Foreign soil. I wouldn't put it past him to have an assassination team here to kill a few draft dodgers to send an implied message at home. It's very much his style.

Yes, but he doesn't like the answers.

Groan

You’re like a broken record

Had one in the UK, if they made it as a BEV I would have ordered one, I don't want ICE ever again.

Very boring & pedestrian performance

Or you only put 7Kg in for a wash/dry cycle. I have had a great experience with TCL air cons and TV's, so recently bought an American style side-by-side fridge/freezer for 11,000 baht and this washing machine. Too early to say about longevity, except the air cons are a fantastic product, right up there with the best.

Try leveling it for that wobble. Last month we got a TCL 10kg Wash, 7Kg dry machine with 1200 spin and 95C. 9,700 baht on Lazada. It's too early for me to recommend it, I am not a fan of washer dryers, but it's handy for towels or when it's raining. No vent needed for drying as it's condenser technology.

I like NiFe a lot, it might be difficult to program your inverter/chargers for NiFe but it’s fantastic for longevity, very heavy so only suitable for stationary applications.

Just to be clear, I kept my EV for 2 years, I bought in new from the main dealer in Bangkok and lost only 15% depreciation over the 2 years. I didn’t even have to pay any servicing.

I have 4 of these little mini's, 3 of them have 4K TV's/projectors as screens. All intel Ix with intel's 7th gen or later graphics (needed to offload 4k processing from the CPU). They are supposed to do HDR but they won't. Actually, I don't like HDR, mostly the pictures are too dark.

OK

Where appropriate and the meaning isn’t lost

Some of the enlightened already are

Oh yes we could cue: pantomime

My came with a new fangled Nuclear Backup Battery

No I only smoke the anti-EV’ers silly arguments

What are you smoking? I haven’t seen any EV owners here. Afraid of questions.

We have a very weak grid connection, I can't charge more than 2Kw at night, so I choose to charge it during the day at 5.3Kw I commute every 2-3 weeks to Chiang <ai where my daughters go to University, we have a 7.2Kw charging point there but it's not solar. I have only ever charged on one trip at any other public or private CS, obviously that is not solar either. 90% of my charging is from my solar system during the day here in Chiang Rai. I didn't buy EV's or Solar for the greenness they may have, it's purely economic for solar and mostly pleasure for EV, I love the way they drive.

You won't be getting your UK state pension at 65 years old, I think you will find you need to be 66.