Pib

I expect the BYD Dolphin and Atto 3 to lead the pack again by big margins again come Oct registration stats (belated sales stats). I expect Seal sales will have very respectable Oct stats but since the Seal was only released in late Sep the Oct stats based "registrations" probably will not show full strength until Nov registration stats. Probably follow the same ramp-up like the Dolphin which was released in July I think...showed several hundred registrations for Aug....then by Sep the registrations had went thru the roof. Takes a while for the registration process (belated sales stats) to complete the process.

Correction...I'm now at Platinum. The re-indexing is definitely working.

Will do...thanks @Andrew Dwyer

To be honest when reading above I thought it would not get better in terms of restoring ranks since a similar projection was made many months ago after another major upgrade took everybody down to Newbie status but the projection was made re-indexing would restore ranks. But a few weeks later it was revealed the re-indexing didn't work as hoped...a future software patch would be needed to fix things. But I noticed last night my rank had moved up to Senior...this morning it was at Silver...and now it's at Gold....hopefully it will continue and I'll be put back at Star with my around 27,000 posts over 16 years. Good to see the re-indexing fixing the ranks.

Update on the red Atto I'm been trying to buy. The wife and I talked face-to-face with the dealership manager and our salesperson this morning.....took a look at the red Atto that had become available...it will be ready for pickup the afternoon of 25 Oct/Wed. Will go get the cashiers check cut 24 Oct. Also, this morning "before" going to the dealership, the wife and I got to talk to the neighbor on our soi who got a white Atto 4 days ago. He bought it from the same dealership we are buying our red Atto from...it took him less than a week from booking to delivery of his white Atto. A white vehicle is quick to get. We had a good 45 minute talk....he even let us take his Atto for a test drive while we talked more about the car. He's very happy with it. He said based on his 4 days of driving it "appears/his early estimate of" the real-world range for him which is predominately "in Bangkok" driving is going to be around 430Km vs the car's pie in the sky 480Km NEDC rating....but he said again his 430Km estimate is only based on 4 days of driving....he hasn't even had to recharge yet....so more driving needed to get a better estimate. He also said for a brief period he considered getting a Seal but decided against it due flooded streets that all too often occur...flooding that occurs so fast you simply can't avoid from going thru it....like even in our moobaan which occurred just last night when it rained cats and dogs for 30 minutes....the sois flooded to curb level for about an hour and then subsided. He decided to stick with the Atto SUV due to its higher ground clearance of 175mm vs 120mm for the Seal. Plus he really preferred a SUV type style due to what he needs in a vehicle...both him and I are on the same wavelength regarding that. We asked him about installation of the free wall charger. He said the wall charger installer had called him a few days after getting the car to say it would be 1 to 2 weeks to install the charger due to a big queue (lot of BYD's being sold). At the dealership today the salesperson said she would try to get the installer to call us over the coming days to get a jump on the installation process---but I'm not holding my breath we'll get a call before we actually receive the car. The dealership also confirmed it would indeed probably take 2 weeks to get the free wall charger installed due to backlog. So, it looks like the journey to get a red Atto is almost over....it appears to be clear sailing between now and Wed afternoon unless my bank goes bankrupt, the dealership burns down, the Atto is stolen from the dealership, the moon falls on the Earth, etc. Knock on wood (my head)....hopefully no such events will occur. This Saturday at the dealership here in Bangkok it was VERY busy....many people in the showroom and service center. We were there for about 1.5 hours and saw two people receive their Seals (one black, one blue) during the little delivery ceremony the dealership does with a big bow on the car....pictures, etc. And in the dealership garage area where they prep cars for delivery there were around a dozen cars, mostly Atto's and Seals with a few Dolphins, being prepped for delivery over the next few days. One busy place especially on weekends.

Update on the red Atto I'm been trying to buy. The wife and I talked face-to-face with the dealership manager and our salesperson this morning.....took a look at the red Atto that had become available...it will be ready for pickup the afternoon of 25 Oct/Wed. Will go get the cashiers check cut 24 Oct. Also, this morning "before" going to the dealership, the wife and I got to talk to the neighbor on our soi who got a white Atto 4 days ago. He bought it from the same dealership we are buying our red Atto from...it took him less than a week from booking to delivery of his white Atto. A white vehicle is quick to get. We had a good 45 minute talk....he even let us take his Atto for a test drive while we talked more about the car. He's very happy with it. He said based on his 4 days of driving it "appears/his early estimate of" the real-world range for him which is predominately "in Bangkok" driving is going to be around 430Km vs the car's pie in the sky 480Km NEDC rating....but he said again his 430Km estimate is only based on 4 days of driving....he hasn't even had to recharge yet....so more driving needed to get a better estimate. He also said for a brief period he considered getting a Seal but decided against it due flooded streets that all too often occur...flooding that occurs so fast you simply can't avoid from going thru it....like even in our moobaan which occurred just last night when it rained cats and dogs for 30 minutes....the sois flooded to curb level for about an hour and then subsided. He decided to stick with the Atto SUV due to its higher ground clearance of 175mm vs 120mm for the Seal. Plus he really preferred a SUV type style due to what he needs in a vehicle...both him and I are on the same wavelength regarding that. We asked him about installation of the free wall charger. He said the wall charger installer had called him a few days after getting the car to say it would be 1 to 2 weeks to install the charger due to a big queue (lot of BYD's being sold). At the dealership today the salesperson said she would try to get the installer to call us over the coming days to get a jump on the installation process---but I'm not holding my breath we'll get a call before we actually receive the car. The dealership also confirmed it would indeed probably take 2 weeks to get the free wall charger installed due to backlog. So, it looks like the journey to get a red Atto is almost over....it appears to be clear sailing between now and Wed afternoon unless my bank goes bankrupt, the dealership burns down, the Atto is stolen from the dealership, the moon falls on the Earth, etc. Knock on wood (my head)....hopefully no such events will occur. This Saturday at the dealership here in Bangkok it was VERY busy....many people in the showroom and service center. We were there for about 1.5 hours and saw two people receive their Seals (one black, one blue) during the little delivery ceremony the dealership does with a big bow on the car....pictures, etc. And in the dealership garage area where they prep cars for delivery there were around a dozen cars, mostly Atto's and Seals with a few Dolphins, being prepped for delivery over the next few days. One busy place especially on weekends.

No sweat. For a minute I thought to myself if any of these are a BEV or PHEV I was going to run to the nearest MG dealership and see if any are left. But even as ICEV I bet all the discounted display models were been booked/sold within hours with that healthy price reduction. Cheers.

But aren't above just regular ICE vehicles...not even a hybrid.

That design is intentional, safety, and comfort engineering as you would never want the smell of a Durian originating from the front of the vehicle to be blown into the vehicle as you speed down the road. The Durian fumes would enter the vehicle cabin in a large quantity and overpower all occupants resulting in severe nose-pinching, blurred vision, etc., and even in an extreme case of a really ripe Durian causing unconsciousness....basically, similar to carbon dioxide poisoning in an ICEV.

No secret handshake but a decoder ring with "Build Your Dreams" engraved on the inside of the ring.

Yes...I read that in the Atto manual. If I every get my Atto I will "not" routinely be letting it drop to less that 10%....in fact, I fully expect it to stay well above 50% to ensure I'm well charged. But I understand where BYD is coming from as letting any lithium-type battery drop close to zero and then charging to 100% recalibrates the charging system/state of charge monitoring to help ensure the current charge level/range estimate is fairly close. Laptop computers typically have a recalibration setting which basically first charges the battery to 100%, then discharges it close to zero %, and then recharges to 100% in order to recalibrate the charging circuit. And on some Toshiba laptops I used to have if I didn't recalibrate about once a year the percentage of charge remaining would become VERY inaccurate....like I could be at 50% charge and then suddenly it would drop to under 5%. But after doing a recalibration (i.e., charge 100%...discharge close to zero...and then recharge to 100%) that problem would go away for a year or so.

Night vision goggles is one of the secret freebies that come with every Seal.

Yea....the wife and I agree.....that's what made us switch from our "white" Atto booking to wanting red instead. When booking the white Atto the dealership had 4 of 5 colors on their showroom floor....red was the missing color. Over the next few days or so when we got to see a few red Atto's out in the wild, on the roads of Bangkok....that is when we decided to switch our booking from white to red. A white Atto is available within days to a week....but red that's turning out to be a different story.

Update from Bangkok on my Atto 3. A week ago my dealership sales girl said "hopefully" 20 Oct...tomorrow. I asked her by LINE post yesterday if any update...she read the post this morning...but no response yet. Will wait until Friday evening or Saturday before seeking my Thai wife on the dealership via phone call or visit. This morning a neighbor on my soi of 10 houses brought her new white Atto home from a dealership. Haven't had a chance to talk to them to see which dealership they used...maybe the same as me. This now makes 2 of 10 homes on my Soi having a BEV in their driveway. The other home has had a Telsa Model 3 for a couple of months. Hopefully I can soon make it 3 of 10 homes on my soi having a BEV...gosh, didn't figure it would be taking this long to get my red Atto...getting a red vehicle just takes longer in the land of white, silver, gray, and black cars.

Just think...for the price one Seal Premium a person could instead buy "three" Neta V's . I bet those who "recently" bought and received their Neta V at a cost of 549,000 baht...the car is now setting in their driveway....will by hopping mad they missed out on getting the car 50,000 baht cheaper. Boy, I would be. Below AutoLifeThailand webpage updated 4 hours ago includes a lot of Neta V pictures...more info for those interested in a Neta V. https://autolifethailand.tv/discount-price-neta-v-ev-bev-2023-thailand/

Just to add another snapshot of the Neta V Bt50K promotional discount....but as you said the car must be booked "and received" by 31 October which pretty much means just stock they have in Thailand already. Durn good price....going to be big spike in October sales for sure!!! https://droidsans.com/neta-v-new-promotion-for-october-2023/

If going with a Seal Premium....white exterior and black interior which are standard (no extra cost).....the price in Australia is 59,931 AUD which is approx 1,388,000 THB. The selling price in Thailand for a Seal Premium is 1,449,000 THB. Now since BEVs in Thailand incur a 2% Excise tax (reduced from 8% until 2025 I think) if there was zero percent excise tax that would lower the 1,449,000 THB price by 28,980 THB to 1,420,020 THB which means it's slightly cheaper to buy a Seal in Australia right now. But unless something has changed, in Australia BYD does not provide free scheduled maintenance except the very first one (see snapshot at bottom....the remaining 8 cost several hundred AUD per visit); in Thailand the scheduled maintenance is free. When considering Seal price and mx costs between Australia and Thailand I think it probably comes out to be basically even. Now when/if the Thai govt BEV subsidy goes away (maybe end of 2023) and assuming BYD would raise its prices back to pre-subsidiary levels then Thailand will once again be an expensive country to buy a BEV in compared to other western countries like Australia. https://bydautomotive.com.au/configurator/byd-seal?ref=website BYD Australia Scheduled Maintenance Costs https://bydautomotive.com.au/service-and-warranty

Yea....I noticed that when doing the pricing...basically unless you want the car in white and the standard black interior then a different color costs 1500AUD more along with another 1500AUD if wanting the blue interior. As far as I know BYD Thailand doesn't charge extra for a different colors...but I'm not sure?

I thought for a second that maybe the Australia 10% GST is not reflected in the BYD pricing. But when I went to the BYD AU website to price out an order for a Seal apparently it is included. Drive away price for a BYD Seal Premium in blue color would be 61,431 AUD which is approx 1,421,500 THB if, repeat if that includes the new & improved Seal pricing.....noticeably cheaper than the 1,449,000 THB price in Thailand. See snapshots below. The last snapshot of Atto 3 pricing still shows it a lot cheaper than a Seal Premium in Australia. Seal Price in Australia https://bydautomotive.com.au/configurator/byd-seal?ref=website Seal Price in Thailand Atto 3 Price in Australia https://bydautomotive.com.au/configurator/byd-atto-3?ref=website

The BMW X5 ICE motor was also used as a starter for the Starship Enterprise warp engines.....Scotty spent more maintenance time on the BMW engine than the warp engines.

A person's borderless/multicurrency acct is actually a subaccount of the Wise master acct maintained at a financial institution such as Community Federal and/or another partner bank Wise may use like Evolve for a US based acct. Now that Wise is switching from Evolve Bank back Community Federal that will change the ACH routing number (and possibly the acct number) of the person's borderless acct with Wise. It's not like Wise is a bank as they are not and they make that clear on their website....they are only a money services transmitter. They partner with various banks across the world which can give the illusion of being a bank but as mentioned they are not.

Actually, unless a vehicle was built "many" years ago, ICE vehicles have been a "computer on wheels" for many years. And when I say computer I mean "Electronic Control Units" (ECU) which comes in many varieties to control/monitor many different systems on the vehicle. Typically a vehicle will have a 40 to 150 ECUs spread around the vehicle especially an ICE vehicle which has all type of ECUs/sensors to monitor the combustion process. On a BEV there is no combustion process....many of the ECUs (computers) required on an ICEV and not required on a BEV. Now sure the traction battery for a BEV has a sophisticated traction Battery Management System (BMS) ECUs not found on ICEV but the rest of the BEV is less ECU intensive than a ICEV with all its combustion monitoring/control ECUs. Now the "Infotainment" display on a BEV does offer quite a few options to change certain driving characteristics of the vehicle like power response, steering feel, regenerative braking, etc., but I expect most people decide on a certain settings after driving the BEV for a few months and then rarely ever change those particular settings again. And most of the remaining settings in the "Infotainment" are more comfort, map, sound, lighting, etc., type settings/controls....kinda like the settings on a typical smart phone. So, assuming you know how to use a smartphone you are already qualified to use the "Infotainment Computer Thingie" in a BEV after reading the BEV Operating Manual. Now out and pick a BEV to buy if you are in the market for a new car!!!! ???? ECUs on a vehicle snapshots

Yes, as I talked in my post I would bet it was my bank vs Wise. And at bottom is a AseanNow post from early 2019 where this person's US bank (USAA in this case) began blocking transfers to Wise (i.e., an ACH "Push" transfer)....and this is when Community Federal Saving Bank (CFSB) was still Wise's partner....a couple of years before Wise switched from CFSB to Evolve. At this time in 2019 I also had ACH Push/Pull setup to Wise from USAA and mine continued to work fine to ACH Push funds to my Wise acct. But in 2021 when Wise switched from CFSB to Evolve I no longer could get an "actual" transfer to go thru to Enolve after verifying the new ACH transfer link via the trial deposit method or the other method which didn't use trial deposits. Yeap, could get the link setup fine/activated but an actual transfer would be thrown back in my face the next business day. Now an update to me setting up my new ACH Push/Pull link to CFSB with my US bank which also happens to be USAA. The two trial deposits arrived Wise yesterday and were immediately pulled back by my bank....all normal...the way it's suppose to work. Then also yesterday I verified those trial amounts on my bank's acct to validate/verify the new ACH transfer link to CFSB....the transfer link changed to active....ready to use...all normal....just like I had done with Evolve in 2021 and many other times over the years when setting up a transfer link to other US banks. Anyway, with the new ACH transfer link validated/active it was time to do the acid/operational test....do an actual transfer and see if it goes thru to Wise or gets rejected next day along with the bank blocking/deactivating the transfer link and sending me a notice of such action. I did the actual transfer and this morning I got notification from Wise of the funds arriving my Wise acct and checking my bank acct the transfer link is still active.....not block/deactivated....didn't get any notice of the transfer being rejected like before. So, at least for me, USAA is OK-fine with transfers to Wise partnering with CFSB although USAA was "not OK-fine" with transfers to Wise partnering with Evolve Bank. Just a security policy at my bank that was affecting me...and probably others also. I'm not sure how many US folks have setup up a borderless acct with Wise...it's free...and instead they just use an ACH "Pull" transaction initiated from the Wise end like I had to start doing for transfers when ACH Push transfer to Evolve didn't work for me. But if the folks did setup a borderless acct and ACH "Push" money into it (ACH is free at the great majority of US banks) when they do accomplish a Wise transfer to Thailand, say $5000 worth of baht instead of a Wise fee of $37.74 for doing an ACH debit (Pull) transaction (not to be confused with debit card) to fund the transfer the fee would be reduced to $30.32....almost a 20% reduction in the Wise fee. Plus, if you already have the money setting in the Wise borderless acct the transfer occurs faster since Wise already has the money....no need to wait until it arrives from your bank.

Whether and/or when to make the "ICE to BEV" big jump or go the "ICE to Hybrid then to BEV" with two small jumps can be tough choice to make for many people. For me, I decided against the interim step of buying a Hybrid because a Hybrid is a mixture of ICE and Electric which means you have two completely drive systems that must get along with each other...basically, you have more stuff (i.e., hardware, electronics, traction battery, etc.) that could break. Plus Hybrids come in so many different flavors of mild, full, plug-in, etc., which complicates the buying decision even more. Additionally, unless it's a Plug-in hybrid in most cases you really don't gain a big fuel mileage/efficiency increase over an ICE vehicle Also, I keep vehicles so long (over 10 years...like my 15 year old Fortuner I bought new) if I bought a Hybrid now I wouldn't buy another vehicle for at least a decade....by then we might have flying fusion-powered vehicles and I would have completely missed the BEV epoch. Yes, I know many Hybrids are being sold (so, so many vehicles with the Hybrid badge) as it's a way to transition from ICE to BEV for manufacturers and their customers. Manufacturers who are late to the BEV game, specifically Toyota and Honda, will milk Hybrids as long as they can to buy time to roll-out BEV models. So, for me, while I'm keeping my 15 year old Fortuner which still runs & looks great in buying my next vehicle I decided for the aforementioned reasons to skip a Hybrid vehicle and go for a BEV...the Atto 3 which I will hopefully get in about one week.

Community Federal Savings Bank (CFSB) was the U.S. partner bank Wise used up to 2 years ago but then transitioned to Evolve Bank. I remember it well...and review the 2 year old Reddit post at bottom for more info when Wise sent out a notice back then saying they were switching from CFSB to Evolve. Now Wise is switching from Evolve back to CFSB. Flip-flopping. Apparently Evolve Bank didn't work out well. Before the partner bank switch. money I would send/push from my U.S. bank to Wise to fund a transfer/top-up my Wise USD acct/wallet using the CFSB routing/acct number worked with no problem...never a problem...I did numerous such transfers. When Wise switched from CSFB to Evolve two years ago I changed the ACH transfer links from the U.S. bank I use from CSFB to Evolve. Setting up the a new ACH transfer link to Evolve Bank using the two trial deposits/withdrawals method worked fine. HOWEVER, whenever trying to do an actual transfer my U.S. bank would reject the transfer the next day and then block/deactivate the ACH transfer link. The rejection message given was invalid routing number although the routing was indeed valid as I used the routing number to successfully set the ACH transfer link using the trial deposits method. When talking to my bank Customer Service they couldn't figure out the problem since the routing number was indeed valid, but I figure the bank's Security Dept was just rejecting Evolve Bank for actual transfers "to Wise." And when talking to Wise they couldn't understand why the reject occurred either. So, I deleted the deactivated ACH transfer link and set it all up again....two trial deposits successfully arrived my Wise acct and were successfully pulled back. I verified the transfers amounts and now my ACH transfer link at my US bank is setup again. I tried another actual transfer of funds and once again the next day the transfer was rejected and the transfer link deactivated by my bank. It was like the Ground Hog day movie. Phone calls to the my bank and Wise trying to figure out the real reason once didn't reveal anything....both couldn't figure out what is going on....but I figure it was just my bank rejecting actual transfers to Wise using the new Evolve Bank account. Ever since then I have just let Wise do an ACH Pull of money from my bank to fund the transfer....costs a little more that way versus me being able to do an ACH Push but the ACH Pull methods works fine. Yesterday I initiated the setup of an ACH transfer link with CFSB using the trial deposit methods. Will take around 3 business days for that process to complete. Then I will try to do an actual transfer again...hopefully, it will not be rejected next day since CFSB use to work fine for such transfer to Wise. Time will tell. 2 year old reddit post below talking about the Wise's switch from CFSB to Evolve Bank. What goes around comes around with Wise announcement a few days ago they are now switching from Evolve Bank to CFSB. A flip flop.