100 Electric Taxis Coming To Suvarnabhumi

[webfact]

100 Electric Taxis Coming To Suvarnabhumi

By Jintamas Saksornchai, Staff Reporter

 

 

BANGKOK — A fleet of electric taxis is coming to service Suvarnabhumi Airport early next month, officials said Thursday.

 

In an effort to promote renewable energy, Sanit Promwong of the land transport department said a fleet of 101 electric taxis will be in service by Sep. 9 with a goal of increasing the number to upward of 1,000 next year.

 

Full story: http://www.khaosodenglish.com/news/business/2018/08/17/100-electric-taxis-coming-to-suvarnabhumi/

 

-- © Copyright Khaosod English 2018-08-17

[canopus1969]

Great news so as the price of electricity is less than their fuel the cost of the are will go down ???

[Cadbury]

4 minutes ago, canopus1969 said:

Great news so as the price of electricity is less than their fuel the cost of the are will go down ???

Customers can only he hopeful.

But these are VIP cabs. The cost of VIP electricity is much higher than normal electricity.

[Esso49]

Well I hope they quickly put he infrastructure in place for battery charge ups.  If not Bangkok will become a spiders web of very long extension cables

[mok199]

LIKE...

Edited August 17, 2018 by mok199
S

[Hayduke]

18 hours ago, Cadbury said:

Customers can only he hopeful.

But these are VIP cabs. The cost of VIP electricity is much higher than normal electricity.

 

Never fear...the Lo-So (non-VIP-battery-operated) taxis are on order...

 

Edited August 18, 2018 by Hayduke

[AhFarangJa]

They just have to install the meters and they are good to go........

[HAKAPALITA]

Hope they dont have to wait 3 months for spares n bits like we do in Norway when Teslas go wrong..


Sent from my iPhone using Thaivisa Connect

[mike324]

The company that sold these taxis to the government is the local distributor for Ducati, irobot, and recently Lamborghini. I think the company is very well managed, the owners are young and have a good vision. I think its safe to say if the government have them manage it, it would go well. But if the government just buys these cars from them and try to manage it, its going to go downhill very fast.

 

The fact that the government is setting the fair at 150 baht, its counter productive in trying to get people to take electric taxis. They should set it at around 70-100 baht. So its just a tad higher than local taxis, and will entice people to take it.

[digger70]

20 hours ago, canopus1969 said:

Great news so as the price of electricity is less than their fuel the cost of the are will go down ???

Not on ur Nelly,If one thinks that Electricity is Cheaper and Cleaner think again,,, How do they Make it and What are they Using to Make it and how much is the Mark up Price,,, how far can one go on a Charge ,,, than stop for a meal an a sleep while the car gets Charged ,,,, If there 's a charging station . If there's not a suitable Power outlet  Call a Tow Truck to take it to the nearest Charging station.

[yellowboat]

21 hours ago, canopus1969 said:

Great news so as the price of electricity is less than their fuel the cost of the are will go down ???

About half the taxi's in Shenzhen (BYD, same as the taxi's shown in the story) are electric and almost all of the buses are too.  Also there are huge food delivery services that rely on electric bikes.  Spoke to one of the delivery drivers at 2am.  He said he made B50K a month. 

 

Given how bad traffic is, they use less energy sitting in traffic, so they are perfect for Bangkok. 

[Redline]

Finally sensible good news

[cookieqw]

2000 bt to pattaya   thats double what i pay

[Henrik Andersen]

and they use they meter so perfect or do i just dreaming 555

[Cheops]

11 hours ago, yellowboat said:

About half the taxi's in Shenzhen (BYD, same as the taxi's shown in the story) are electric and almost all of the buses are too.  Also there are huge food delivery services that rely on electric bikes.  Spoke to one of the delivery drivers at 2am.  He said he made B50K a month. 

 

Given how bad traffic is, they use less energy sitting in traffic, so they are perfect for Bangkok. 

But where is the needed electrical charging infrastructure in Thailand? I have never seen a elec. charging point in Thailand, ever!

And is it really cheaper? I can't imagine it's cheaper than LPG/NGV which is used by most (if not all) taxis in Thailand.

Then maybe it's cleaner? But aren't the power plants in Thailand still using coal? Hmmm

[yellowboat]

5 hours ago, Cheops said:

But where is the needed electrical charging infrastructure in Thailand? I have never seen a elec. charging point in Thailand, ever!

And is it really cheaper? I can't imagine it's cheaper than LPG/NGV which is used by most (if not all) taxis in Thailand.

Then maybe it's cleaner? But aren't the power plants in Thailand still using coal? Hmmm

Never seen charging points in China either, but they say there are many.   Given the sheer volume of vehicles, were would need to be many.   Guessing BYD and their backers, The Oracle of Omaha among them, have provided the necessary infrastructure for Thailand.  

 

In the long run, it would be cheaper than CNG, as electric cars need almost zero maintenance.  The revolution has taken hold in China.  Shenzhen is well on its way to being fully electric.   CNG is very clean, but the internal combustion engine is a complicated nightmare in comparison that needs many parts to keep running.    When a lithium or other battery has the power to weight ratio as a fuel tank, the internal combustion engine will be phased out.  

[stud858]

On 8/17/2018 at 1:48 PM, canopus1969 said:

Great news so as the price of electricity is less than their fuel the cost of the are will go down ???

Electricity will be free from the sun with solar charge station.

Go Solar. Its now!

 

[Cheops]

7 hours ago, yellowboat said:

Never seen charging points in China either, but they say there are many.   Given the sheer volume of vehicles, were would need to be many.   Guessing BYD and their backers, The Oracle of Omaha among them, have provided the necessary infrastructure for Thailand.  

 

In the long run, it would be cheaper than CNG, as electric cars need almost zero maintenance.  The revolution has taken hold in China.  Shenzhen is well on its way to being fully electric.   CNG is very clean, but the internal combustion engine is a complicated nightmare in comparison that needs many parts to keep running.    When a lithium or other battery has the power to weight ratio as a fuel tank, the internal combustion engine will be phased out.  

I agree that we slowly, but surely move to electric vehicles, but your argument that "the internal combustion engine is a complicated nightmare in comparison that needs many parts to keep running" is of course not the main reason. My Toyota Fortuner runs fine with minimum maintenance and so do many other cars. The current technology is very mature for internal combustion engines. Did you ever think about the fact that if all vehicles change to electric, a lot of people who work in the spare parts for combustion engine vehicles will be out of work, which is a lot of people? Sure, there will be new factories for electric parts, but not as much.

 

Anyway, there are some problems with electric vehicles. One of which is the inevitable battery waste problem: https://www.coresponsibility.com/electric-vehicle-battery-waste/

 

About the needed elec charging infrstructure. Sure, China will have this covered, but we are talking about Thailand here and we all know how they 'manage' things.

 

To recycle a battery, it currently costs €1 per kg. But the value of raw material reclaimed is only a third of that. Recycling lithium costs five times as much as extracting virgin material. Hence, only 5% of lithium-ion batteries are recycled in Europe.

 

And this is in Europe where things like battery recycling is setup in quite a good way, where as in Thailand most batteries end up with the normal garbage and trash!

 

 

Edited for spelling.

Edited August 19, 2018 by Cheops

[yellowboat]

1 hour ago, Cheops said:

I agree that we slowly, but surely move to electric vehicles, but your argument that "the internal combustion engine is a complicated nightmare in comparison that needs many parts to keep running" is of course not the main reason. My Toyota Fortuner runs fine with minimum maintenance and so do many other cars. The current technology is very mature for internal combustion engines. Did you ever think about the fact that if all vehicles change to electric, a lot of people who work in the spare parts for combustion engine vehicles will be out of work, which is a lot of people? Sure, there will be new factories for electric parts, but not as much.

 

Anyway, there are some problems with electric vehicles. One of which is the inevitable battery waste problem: https://www.coresponsibility.com/electric-vehicle-battery-waste/

 

About the needed elec charging infrstructure. Sure, China will have this covered, but we are talking about Thailand here and we all know how they 'manage' things.

 

To recycle a battery, it currently costs €1 per kg. But the value of raw material reclaimed is only a third of that. Recycling lithium costs five times as much as extracting virgin material. Hence, only 5% of lithium-ion batteries are recycled in Europe.

 

And this is in Europe where things like battery recycling is setup in quite a good way, where as in Thailand most batteries end up with the normal garbage and trash!

 

 

Edited for spelling.

Many Japanese cars are well engineered, and they are at their peak of reliability and efficiency, but an electric motor is easier to maintain and it just lasts longer.  Hybrids will be around for a while perhaps, but when batteries become better, the uses for the internal combustion will be limited. 

 

Many will loose their jobs, which is unfortunate.   The LCD replaced the CRT.  The LED in replacing the incandescent and florescent lights.  The smart phone has limited the number of notebook and desktop computers sold.  Clock radios are gone.  Streaming is killing terrestrial and cable TV.    News will be a hold out, but movies, TV shows will be streamed.  

 

You are correct about battery technology.  It needs to be more ecologically friendly.    Zinc batteries are used stabilize grids in Indonesia.  Zinc is friendly and can be re-used.  

 

I have worked on many engines and I will not miss any of them. 

[Cheops]

6 minutes ago, yellowboat said:

Many Japanese cars are well engineered, and they are at their peak of reliability and efficiency, but an electric motor is easier to maintain and it just lasts longer.  Hybrids will be around for a while perhaps, but when batteries become better, the uses for the internal combustion will be limited. 

 

Many will loose their jobs, which is unfortunate.   The LCD replaced the CRT.  The LED in replacing the incandescent and florescent lights.  The smart phone has limited the number of notebook and desktop computers sold.  Clock radios are gone.  Streaming is killing terrestrial and cable TV.    News will be a hold out, but movies, TV shows will be streamed.  

 

You are correct about battery technology.  It needs to be more ecologically friendly.    Zinc batteries are used stabilize grids in Indonesia.  Zinc is friendly and can be re-used.  

 

I have worked on many engines and I will not miss any of them. 

Don't get me wrong. As an electrical engineer I'm all for new technologies and being Dutch you can see that the Netherlands is quite far with electrical vehicles. In most public parking garages you can find elec charging stations for example. But I don't see these kind of things in Thailand, hence I'm a bit sceptic of the introduction of elec vehicles in Thailand. In the Netherlands even a lot bicycles are now electric.

 

And what would the cost per km in Thailand be for electric cars? And what about the frequent blackouts in Thailand?

My car uses LPG, which makes it quite cheap, but even the gasoline is quite cheap here compared to the Netherlands, so the economical reasons are less.

[Peterw42]

You can have 1,000 electric taxi's, it still doesn't achieve much if the electricity to run them is generated in a coal/gas fired power station, as is the case in Thailand. 

The power station is burning fossil fuels, CO2 gases etc, instead of the car.

Edited August 19, 2018 by Peterw42

[stud858]

12 minutes ago, Peterw42 said:

You can have 1,000 electric taxi's, it still doesn't achieve much if the electricity to run them is generated in a coal/gas fired power station, as is the case in Thailand. 

The power station is burning fossil fuels, CO2 gases etc, instead of the car.

Each taxi driver who purchases an electric car is given a free solar charge system at their home by the government. Why. Because the government cares about the environment, improving transport, and taking care of its citizens.Solar panels and batteries, inverter etc.all included. Small Taxes returned will pay for the initial outlay.

 

Dream of mine.

 

 

 

[Cheops]

35 minutes ago, stud858 said:

Each taxi driver who purchases an electric car is given a free solar charge system at their home by the government. Why. Because the government cares about the environment, improving transport, and taking care of its citizens.Solar panels and batteries, inverter etc.all included. Small Taxes returned will pay for the initial outlay.

 

Dream of mine.

A Thai friend of mine just installed a 3kW solar panel installation with inverter in his house. But he told me that currently he can only install legally the on-grid version (which uses electricity from the MEA/PEA in case the solar panels don't provide enough). The MEA/PEA are blocking any solar installations in which the over-supply will go back into the MEA/PEA system. The government also doesn't support or subsidizes this.

[stud858]

14 minutes ago, Cheops said:

A Thai friend of mine just installed a 3kW solar panel installation with inverter in his house. But he told me that currently he can only install legally the on-grid version (which uses electricity from the MEA/PEA in case the solar panels don't provide enough). The MEA/PEA are blocking any solar installations in which the over-supply will go back into the MEA/PEA system. The government also doesn't support or subsidizes this.

Really? Off grid systems are illegal?  Have you got any more info? That's nutts if true.

 

[Cheops]

52 minutes ago, stud858 said:

Really? Off grid systems are illegal?  Have you got any more info? That's nutts if true.

 

At least he told me that the with the on grid system it needs to be installed in such way all electricity will be blocked from going back in the MEA/PEA system. I will ask him tomorrow at work about off grid systems, but he said a lot of things are not considered to be legal, which I don't understand as well.

 

He's the only one in his moo ban and a lot neighbors came asking him already about the details ?

The setup looks quite good with a wifi connected controller and an app on his phone to monitor all.

He paid about 95k THB for a 3kW capable installation (but without battery storage etc., which he planned to add later).

The system has 10 solar panels, each generating about 300W.

[stud858]

2 minutes ago, Cheops said:

At least he told me that the with the on grid system it needs to be installed in such way all electricity will be blocked from going back in the MEA/PEA system. I will ask him tomorrow at work about off grid systems, but he said a lot of things are not considered to be legal, which I don't understand as well.

 

He's the only one in his moo ban and a lot neighbors came asking him already about the details ?

The setup looks quite good with a wifi connected controller and an app on his phone to monitor all.

He paid about 95k THB for a 3kW capable installation (but without battery storage etc., which he planned to add later).

The system has 10 solar panels, each generating about 300W.

Thanks.

Good on him. More expensive setup cost here than oz, but oz gov helps out its citizens.

Either way he'll get his money back. And the solar setup will keep its value anyway. So its all positive stuff. Shine on!

[Cheops]

Just now, stud858 said:

Thanks.

Good on him. More expensive setup cost here than oz, but oz gov helps out its citizens.

Either way he'll get his money back. And the solar setup will keep its value anyway. So its all positive stuff. Shine on!

Yep, he's an engineering colleage, who always extensively investigate things before continue.

Indeed the gov here doesn't support these things. I bet a lot of people could benefit from solar here.

He said he waited a couple of weeks before the shop had time to support his installation. They are doing good business.

Payback time is under 10 years with the current rate of electricity costs, but for sure the elec costs will go up, which will benefit solar installations.

[stud858]

7 minutes ago, Cheops said:

Payback time is under 10 years with the current rate of electricity costs,

If you consider the panels and inverter as adding value to the home and elec prices sure to go up then an even better position.