JBChiangRai

Far more sensible to switch to an EV I haven't bought any fuel in the last 2.5 years.

The Performance version sounds like a great car. I just read this in my morning routine Review: is the new BYD Seal better than the Tesla Model 3? (msn.com) Basically, it is better!

Range anxiety is something I suffered when I was a new EV owner since I never noticed EV Charging stations before, now I see the CS everywhere and it no longer worries me. I wouldn't think twice about jumping in my EV and driving to Bangkok, I wouldn't even bother planning Charging stops, there are that many. I would plan a hotel with free overnight AC charging though. I have used a Fast DC Charger once in 2.5 years of owning EV's and that was to test it for 10 minutes or so. I have used lots of free AC Charging stations in places like Central Mall, Coffee Shops, Restaurants and a hotel. The hotel was the only one I needed as it was an overnight stay before leaving Kampheng Phet for home, the other AC chargers I used because I was there for food/coffee/shopping and they were free (so why wouldn't you!).

Mostly not. The people I know who use these agents don’t have 800k in the bank, they have no choice but to use an agent. .

I don’t play golf, don’t like massage and living in Chiang Rai the limo service is unavailable, so the no frills ESE service is all I need.

No, renewing the retirement extension requires 800k in the bank continuously for 3 months before granting and 2 months after. I think that's correct, I've been on the elite ESE for nearly 5 years with 15 years left so I am out of touch.

Lead poisoning must be why so many stoner’s are as dumb as a bag of rocks.

I should have been clearer, the scam is the visa agents in conjunction with corrupt immigration officer issuing retirement extensions when people don't meet the requirements vis-a-vis savings/income. I believe Big Joke called it "window dressing", window dressing won't last forever.

Most grid-tied inverters will ramp up their output until they either reach the rated capacity and stay nailed close to that or Ramp up their output voltage until they hit the maximum voltage allowed and then error and restart. I suspect yours is the latter. This happens on a weak grid connection because there is insufficient local demand on your side of the transformer.

Calculating the 20 year ESE is only 200k more than Retirement extension was exactly my thought process too. It's more than 25 years since the Retirement 800k has had a review, at some point soon I believe the 200k extra will become a saving in real terms. As far as the agent route goes, I think that scam scheme will be ending well before your 20 year ESE expires.

Tunisia is one of the driest countries in Africa, and has just suffered three years of drought. Yet the EU sees the country as key to producing “green hydrogen” for export to Europe. The trouble is, this fuel is obtained by splitting water into oxygen and hydrogen with electricity generated by renewable sources. Tunisia has lots of sun but precious little fresh water. The only way of producing the raw material needed for green hydrogen is sucking up Mediterranean water and desalinating it. But a report last year for the Heinrich Böll Foundation, affiliated to Germany’s green political movement, warns that this would be a dirty, energy-intensive, water-guzzling process – and put the high cost of decarbonising the rich world on to the shoulders of poorer nations. Many sun-drenched countries, especially in the Maghreb, have been sold a future as export hubs for green hydrogen. The pitch is seductive. As 1kg of hydrogen contains about three times as much energy as 1kg of petrol, it is no wonder that hydrogen is being touted as a fuel of the future. Europe’s green deal, which aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 55% by the end of the decade, relies on green hydrogen production in north Africa and Ukraine. Producing green hydrogen in Europe is not impossible. But it is expensive compared with fossil fuels, with even wind-based generation needing larger subsidies. Without big government support packages, it remains an open question whether European consumers would be prepared to foot the very significant price rises needed to go green in this way. Last year, the EU proposed doubling green hydrogen imports by 2030 to 10m tonnes a year. The continent’s heavy industries cannot use electricity, however environmentally friendly, for all their requirements; they need fuels for high-intensity heat. So to make sure that these energy sources are less carbon-intensive, Brussels is pushing industries – such as steel or petrochemical manufacturers – to adopt green hydrogen. The benefits of such a strategy – with the desirable goal of low carbon emissions in Europe – cannot come at the cost of environmental destruction abroad. Raoudha Gafrej, one of Tunisia’s top water experts, warned in the Heinrich Böll Foundation report that the degradation of marine ecosystems from the toxic sludge produced by desalination plants would be irreversible. Hydrogen produced by renewable energy has a role to play in future energy systems. Its “green” version can be converted to ammonia, a key feedstock for fertilisers, with other uses in shipping fuel, power generation and steelmaking. There are also significant energy losses to consider: about a third of the energy used to produce the gas through electrolysis is lost. Transporting hydrogen requires additional energy, equivalent to 10% of the energy of the fuel itself. From the perspective of African nations, as the recent Just Transition report points out, that energy could be used locally to address immediate needs rather than being directed to produce hydrogen for use in Europe. Less than 0.04% of total hydrogen production is “green”. This proportion is bound to grow as governments worldwide wager that it will play a key role in cutting carbon-heavy emissions in industries such as cement manufacturing. With the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere already at 422 parts per million (ppm) – much higher than the 350 ppm generally considered a relatively safe level – there is no scope for worsening the problem. Transitioning to net zero emissions globally should not mean the rich gain at the expense of the poor. source: The Guardian view on hydrogen hype: it’s perhaps not as green as you think (msn.com)

Great Chinese Brand Volvo.

As a Brit going for about 10 days I see I am entitled to Visa Exempt Entry, do I need to prepare any paperwork? or just rock up?

The nearest charging point I would ever need is about 150km away, actually there are lots nearby but I will never use them. I charge at home, if I were to travel somewhere 200km away, I might want to charge on the way back somewhere.

The MG4 has LFP batteries and there is no way to tell it to stop charging before 100%. I do mostly charge to about 80-85% but I do it by starting charging and look at how long it's going to take on the display and unplugging the car an hour early. You do need to charge to 100% about once a month because the BMS features passive balancing and it only balances the battery pack after it reaches 100%. Some manufacturers include active balancing and there's no need to do an equalisation (balancing) charge as it's happening constantly. What the car tells you is 100% is probably about 95%, they lock out some of the battery when full and also when empty to stop you from damaging the battery pack.

Not what I am saying. I am saying that we won't need all these petrol stations in town converting to CS because most people will charge at home & wake up to a full battery every morning. What we need is CS on the roads, so if you go on a road trip, vacation etc you can charge whilst out & about. We already have enough for the number of EV's on the road today, but they will need to be expanded massively as EV's go mainstream. MG advertise that they have a fast charger every 150km in Thailand, their network is available to other manufacturer's EV's but you need to register with MG which is no easy task, like most salespeople in Thailand, they don't know their A$$ from their elbow.

I think a lot of companies will get burned building CS in towns, for sure we will need some, but not many. A CS in my town is likely to be used by someone making a trip from Chiang Mai etc, local people won't want to pay the premium over charging at home.

The difference with the Yaris, is you're unlikely to get anything like that in town, the EV will do it's mileage figures all day long. My youngest daughter has a Suzuki Ciaz, that's an ECO Car and will do 20km/l on a run, in town it's more like 2/3rds of that. You might find you can negotiate something better on the price with your condo. Nobody wants to be getting out of bed at 3am to unplug and move the car.

It is more expensive than charging at home, but it’s still a lot cheaper than petrol or diesel. 350 baht for 400km in an MG4 or equivalent.

It could be 3 phase 22Kw, which means your car will draw whatever on-board charger it has. Most on-board chargers are 7.2Kw, a few are 11Kw, very few are 22Kw (It's a 100,000 baht option on a Porsche Taycan for example). In the 2nd graphic you posted, they are talking about 22KwHr delivery, they don't specify the Kw. I think you can be confident it will deliver 7Kw so it's a rate of about 7 baht / KwHr which is not unreasonable, if you can charge at 11 or 22Kw then it's a bargain.

I can't find anything on that link to say Shell's strategy is to build them in towns.

Why? I tell it like it is

The UK has great tariffs available to charge off-peak much cheaper than domestic tariffs. Companies like Ovo & Octopus for example.

30 minutes would take me to 80%, about 350km That’s a good reason, not to buy a Tesla, it’s not a good reason not to buy an EV

You should try it. It's completely practical today.