JBChiangRai

THAILAND, the hub of go fund me campaigns. It would be a lot cheaper to cremate here and send the ashes back.

Many people said that about those new fangled horseless carriages over a century ago and look where we are now….

They sound like some of the EV haters on here, ignorant and bigoted. Do they also think the earth is flat?

The road between Chiang Mai & Chiang Mai regularly gets flooded, I've passed through it twice driving down the center of the road when only pickups were getting through. All the cars had to wait for the flood to clear and were parked up on the side of the road. The first time the police were there and advised me not to try, I went straight through even though the front camera was under water, I think they were waiting to laugh at the stupid farang when he got stuck. I had the last laugh as I emerged the other side and then drove off. EV's don't like standing in floods but many of them will drive through a flood where an ICE car cannot, often you're advised to turn off your air conditioning first on some models.

Really?

Please give their locations and I'll check them out online

I don't think you've noticed the EV stations, Thailand has a plethora of high-speed charging stations on its highways, roughly every 20km. Rarely are they full.

It is suggested longevity of EV’s should be comparable to ICE but with less maintenance required. Batteries are expected to outlast the vehicle.

I have a 7kw home charger and a 3.5kw charger in the next stall. I don’t want or need anything faster. As long as I can charge up overnight or during the day and soak up surplus sower power I’m happy. Supermarkets generally have slow AC chargers and they usually put them in the most convenient place to park with results that people who don’t need to charge their EV will park there and charge up because they have less distance to walk to the supermarket. I’m guilty of this in central shopping mall too. I’m quite happy to pay ฿50 to charge my car up unnecessarily instead of hunting for a charging space with a longer walk to the entrance. The average EV uses 4 kWh per day of electricity, it’s not difficult at all for the grid to cope with that, and the grid can be expanded faster than manufacturers can deliver EV cars. There is no shortage of electricity and EV uptake is pushing countries to go green with their power generation too. I note you have intermittent power problems where you live, this is where an EV comes into its own, as you can run your house from the car during a power cut, we do that automatically in my house.

Some MG EV's have the batteries warranted for life. Batteries expected to last 18 or more years, I'm sure we will see an industry build up to repair batteries, there are already a few companies doing this in DUST (disunited states of trump) because TeSSla charge so much for a new battery.

All new energy vehicles have drawbacks, but right now battery electric is the best alternative and that is what is selling. With what we are seeing in terms of battery development, I can't see any possible better solution, it's not perfect, but it will be as near as dammit in under a decade. There will be a place for Hydrogen, but even the Hydrogen producers (plug hydrogen, shell) say it won't be for passenger cars for fairly obvious efficiency drawbacks.

On the journey you describe, I would leave Chiang Rai fully charged, potter around CM as you described and I'd stop for KFC at Mae Kachan and plug the car in whilst I ate there. 10 minutes would be long enough. If there was a queue (I've never seen one), I'd stop at the next one 12km further down the road. There's not much call for charging stations between CM & CR as most people start with a full battery in CM or CR and don't need to charge. If you don't drive an EV you probably won't notice the charging stations, PTT's have a big blue EV sign on the pole outside

I agree with everything you said in your post except this “At this point Thailand doesn't even have the infrastructure to handle EVs. ” Thailand has an excellent EV charging infrastructure. Yes, and I have done it with just under 20% SoC left.

I bought 2 dozen Lamptan LED bulbs on Lazada, all failed so I bought Philips on Lazada. No failures yet. i still buy downlighting on AliExpress, I think I got lucky, 1 failed in nearly 200 fitted 3.5 years ago. I agree that the quality of these items where no warranty is expected can be variable. There are some products from China that I wouldn’t buy, power tools as you suggested are one. Incidentally, I am also an Electronic Engineer by training, got the degree, never used it, far too nerdy.

Don't forget, your battery state of charge increases as you come down after hill-climbing as kinetic energy is converted back to electricity and ultimately chemical energy in your battery. There are a few of slow AC chargers between Doi Saket and Mae Kachan at coffee shops. There is a fast charger just before Mae Kachan at the large services with KFC and another 12km past that, a further one near Mae Suai. I have never needed to use any of them.

To describe Elon Musk as a Nazi is ridiculous. The Nazi's made excellent cars.

I don't agree that making pieces of a product in different places in anywhere near as good or cost effective. I'm reminded of my Mitsubishi & Daikin air conditioning units where the casing and vanes go yellow at different rates. There is none of that so far with my TCL air conditioning units. BYD make somewhere around 75% of the total content of their cars in-house, contrast that with Japanese & German car manufacturers who are typically around 25%. BYD make their own semiconductors, plastics, seats etc. You don't get the integration issues we have so often seen, eg industry wide air bag recalls because in effect the car manufacturer was let down by an OEM. On a German car I had, it was trailered to Bangkok twice because of a worldwide issue with air conditioning pressure sensors failing on all their models. BYD cars have a huge degree of innovation and integration which accounts for cost savings around 30% compared to what the West can achieve. For example, their 12 in 1 drive unit. Included among the 12 are items such as the electric motor, silicon carbide electronic controls, high-efficiency reducers, DC converter, battery manager, and intelligent boost modules. Claiming a world first by itself according to BYD is the motor which is the world highest speed mass-produced electric drive motor for a car reaching 23,000 rpm. Another claimed first is the laminated laser welded silicon carbide power module.

The only Chinese items I've had of questionable quality were some LED lamps 11 years ago.

I think China was exactly like you describe 10 years ago. They have learned a lot in that time.

If you watch the UBS video I posted, you'll find the conclusion is that it's both high quality AND cheaper than the West can make. The video explains why.

Lots of Chinese products. Installed over a dozen TCL air conditioners 2 TCL washer/dryers My daughter had a Chinese MGEP+ EV We replaced it with a Chinese MG4 EV I have a BYD Seal Lots of Chinese mini PC's 2 of TCL TV's None of these has ever had a problem. You can read about UBS's teardown of a BYD Seal here (spoiler, the quality is equivalent to a premium German car but at least a generation ahead with far higher vertical integration) https://www.bloomberg.com/news/videos/2023-09-19/ubs-on-its-teardown-of-byd-seal-video

Batteries, especially made in China, wear out. Please provide a link to substantiate your nonsensical claim

Speaking as an EV and plugin HEV owner, I would tend to avoid HEV's. Whilst I think the HEV's offered by Toyota and Honda are fine cars, I think the hybrid system adds a layer of complexity, expense and above all else, risk for a limited reward. HEV's are about 130 times more likely to catch fire than an EV and about 10 times more likely to catch fire than an ICE without the hybrid system. There are many sources of statistics, they all broadly agree, this is just one. https://www.familyhandyman.com/article/are-electric-vehicles-more-likely-to-catch-on-fire/ The battery is charged/discharged several times on every short town journey which I suspect could lead to premature failure and they can be very expensive to fix. Some HEV's will not operate at all with a failed battery, Mercedes Benz Bluetec Hybrid for example and the repair bill exceeds the value of the car at about $20,000. parts and $31,000 total https://thehonestmechaniccolorado.com/mercedes-e300-hybrid-problems/ IMHO, HEV's offer the worst of both worlds and little more than a marketing gimmick, mostly used by Japanese manufacturers who have been caught with their pants down in the EV revolution. German manufacturers initially offered HEV's but quickly transitioned to Plug-in HEV and full EV's.

Most fuel stations will end up closing as the requirement for fast EV charging stations is much smaller. Fast EV charging stations will mostly be on highways for people traveling inter-city, there will be a few in town too, but probably less than 5% or thereabouts of current gas stations as there is no market for them. I travel between Chiang Mai and Chiang Rai every 2-3 weeks. My EV can get there and back without requiring a stop to refuel. There are currently 3 fast EV charging stations that I know of between those two cities and dozens of slow charging stations at coffee shops, shops, restaurants and hotels. Choosing Chiang Rai & Chiang Mai as representative pairs is not a good comparison. Most people will start off with a full tank of electrons and even the EV with the shortest range will not stop to charge on the way, certainly neither I nor my daughters ever have with our 2 EV's.

I am an everyday driver and won't be buying anything with an internal combustion ever engine again unless it is made compulsory. I speak from experience @Andycoops