JBChiangRai

Do you know what I like about the 540i? It's because its acceleration is good, not as good as an EV, but for the day, massive torque in any gear. It didn't sound like a V8, on the contrary it just had a muted hum.

Apart from the silly car shape on the roof, it ticks some of my boxes for good architecture, penetration of light & use of space.

However, the best version of that car by a wide margin was the 540i

I would like to see the terms of the battery warranty, I'm sure the devil is in the detail. I think all the Chinese manufacturers could drop the prices 10-20% if they wanted to. I think the main advantage of PHEV is to give ICE drivers the confidence to move to EV later. If I was regularly driving long distances, I would probably buy another PHEV. I had the Mercedes E class PHEV in 2018 and liked it a lot. I think the range is 4 times longer now, I could only get 19km then. The furthest I generally drive is Chiang Mai and I don't need to charge at all. I've been to Kamphaeng Phet and I can just about make that without charging, or one short break for a coffee.

The ABB wall box that BYD supply is actually an excellent product. It can also change the charging current on the fly, which is most unusual, but necessary if you link it up to your solar installation. I hope someone can develop something on a raspberry pie to control it.

You don’t have an 11Kw wallbox. Your wallbox is 7.2Kw single phase or 22Kw 3 phase wired up single or 3 phase. Importantly, your cable supplying the wallbox is rated at 32 amps (per phase).

I have given up charging at BYD, my last charging session should’ve been free and cost me about 320 THB, charging at home is free because I have Solar, however, I do have to pay at my daughters house in Chiang Mai and it really hurts having to pay five times less than an old BMW per kilometer

I had a quote for the Seal Performance today from Asia Direct (Rabbit something or other). 29,000 baht for 67 year old male with no claims. The underwriter is Viriyah.

Yawn! and Zebedee said "Time for bed"

Agreed, they are closing the factories because of weak demand.

I have 28.8KwHrs of LFP batteries, 18Kw of grid-tied inverters and 16.5Kw of Hybrid inverters (currently used as UPS), however, if I was to do it again, I would do away with the batteries and go grid-tied 6-10Kw of inverter. My issue with batteries is they are cycled too often and are very expensive to replace in 5-10years.

Well if it is so rosy, why are they closing 5 factories?

I think it would be useful to split fire stats into PHEV & HEV.

They said they are refunding me sometime in the next 30 days. 10,000 THB from MG Thailand and 5,000 from MG Lanna Chiang Rai. I could live with the battery being NMC but right now I don't have any confidence in the pricing over the next 12 months or so.

I made 2 deposits, one to the dealer in February 2023 before reservation opened, and another in late 2023 when MG Thailand started the "Prestige Reservation".

FWIW, I would classify a PHEV as an EV, but not a Hybrid. Or to put some ridiculous marketing spin on it hoping customers are totally ignorant Not a "Self-Charging Hybrid".

You've lost me. How could it be an expense when my deposits will be refunded?

You're right, I was mixing Honda with Nissan, what I should have said was... A week or so ago Nissan posted their results for the preceding 3 months. Nissan said its operating profit had collapsed 99% to 995m yen (225M THB) in the three months to 30 June, with worldwide sales flatlining at just under 800,000 units. It is Honda however that is closing 5 of factories worldwide due to weak demand.

I just canceled my long-time order for one ("Prestige" with 100k discount). Because.. (a) the battery is not LFP, and (b) I have no confidence it won't be 25% cheaper in a year. I asked for 12 months price protection and they refused, I offered to sign an NDA too.

11kw chargers are rated at 16amps per phase, with the Seal only having a single face connection, the charger will tell the car to draw no more than 16 Amps

I just completed this quiz. My Score 80/100 My Time 80 seconds  

I double checked my Seal, it only has the single-phase pins in its socket, the 3 phase pins are missing. This means it will only charge at 3.6Kw (max) on an 11Kw charger.

But Akio Toyoda said it would peak at 30%

I think you are right. The Japanese failed to invest in EV's and are now paying the price. Honda's worldwide sales were down 40% last year, their profit dropped by 99% and they are closing 5 factories all over the world. Thailand and Norway show what an enlightened government can do. The market share of EV's has grown every month in Thailand since February and the corresponding market share of legacy cars has decreased. Tesla made it fairly obvious many years ago where we were heading. I dislike both Toyota and Tesla for the same reason, they are both driven by one man without the necessary checks & balances of strong board members. Tesla is Elon Musk and Toyota has been Akio Toyoda until last year but he is now Chairman and still has far too much input on strategy and he's a self-confessed EV hater. The other Japanese automakers tend to follow Toyota except Nissan who have lost their way since the demise of Carlos Ghosn and risk going bankrupt (S&P downrated their credit status to Junk in March this year). Japan may be late to the market, but IMHO they would be better trying to play "catch up" than their disinformation campaign on EV's and stop lobbying governments to slowdown EV adoption.