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Electric Vehicle Charging Network in Thailand

Lammbock

By Lammbock
in Thailand Motor Discussion

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Lammbock Gold Member

Lammbock

Posted
Posted

Hello,

 

I am planing to buy a new car, preferable a BMW in Thailand. Looking at their website gives me many hybrid options to choose from. e.i. 530e, X5-45e etc.

But I do like to know how is the charging station network in Bangkok and around Thailand these days? Like Tesla in Europe and the US where you literally have chargers all over, how is it in Thailand? I wonder how is this system setup in Thailand? Are there many brands? Can you pay by cc or is it for free? Or is it like in the west where each brand has their own network of charger and are there many of it?

 

Thank you for your feedback and have a nice weekend.

Cheers

Liverpool Lou Star Member

Liverpool Lou

Posted
Posted (edited)
47 minutes ago, Lammbock said:

I am planing to buy a new car, preferable a BMW in Thailand. Looking at their website gives me many hybrid options to choose from. e.i. 530e, X5-45e etc.

But I do like to know how is the charging station network in Bangkok and around Thailand these days?

https://www.bmw.co.th/en/topics/fascination-bmw/bmw-i/charge-now.html

 

 

There's 42 charging stations in Bangkok and other places for you to choose from via BMW.

Edited by Liverpool Lou
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LarrySR Gold Member

LarrySR

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Posted

Any business owner with at least 2 functioning brain cells would be installing them in their parking lot and listing them on Google Maps so the cars navigation system will show available charging stations within range. 

 

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malathione Silver Member

malathione

Posted
Posted

Right now, they're pretty much only in the big cities and not plentiful there either. Being that I travel a fair amount within the country, I decided against a PHEV at this point even though there as some real nice ones around. Perhaps the replacement in a couple of years...

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Khun Yogi Senior Member

Khun Yogi

Posted
Posted
14 hours ago, Liverpool Lou said:

Obviously, the number of charging stations will be increased, of course.

And the power will be produced using coal powered power stations. that's about all Thailand has. !!!!

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malathione Silver Member

malathione

Posted
Posted
14 minutes ago, Khun Yogi said:

And the power will be produced using coal powered power stations. that's about all Thailand has. !!!!

Coal fired is about 20%, 60+% natural gas and the bulk of the rest is hydro including imports from Laos.

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Liverpool Lou Star Member

Liverpool Lou

Posted
Posted
57 minutes ago, Khun Yogi said:
15 hours ago, Liverpool Lou said:

Obviously, the number of charging stations will be increased, of course.

And the power will be produced using coal powered power stations. that's about all Thailand has. !!!!

So what? The OP's question was about the accessibility of charging stations, that's all.

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JBChiangRai Ruby Member

JBChiangRai

Posted
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Posted

I have a BEV, the network is there currently but you have to plan carefully.  It’s set to improve dramatically over the next year, the CP/MG partnership will see another 450 stations appear, mostly outside of BKK in 7/11’s which is already well served.  PTT are investing heavily too.

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hotchilli Star Member

hotchilli

Posted
Posted
23 hours ago, Lammbock said:

But I do like to know how is the charging station network in Bangkok and around Thailand these days?

About as common as hens teeth.

hotchilli Star Member

hotchilli

Posted
Posted
21 hours ago, LarrySR said:

Any business owner with at least 2 functioning brain cells would be installing them in their parking lot and listing them on Google Maps so the cars navigation system will show available charging stations within range. 

 

So not anytime soon then.

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panengfan Newbie

panengfan

Posted
Posted

Live in Phuket.  Bought a BMW 330e M Sport hybrid (i.e. gasoline and electric) at end of last month.  Not sure about the rest of the country, but, if Phuket is anything to go by, there appears to be just the one charging machine, which is in the Central mall near Phuket Town.  Otherwise, it’s a case - if you’re fortunate enough to have a private driveway or similar - of getting a local electrician to install a suitable charging point (for us, Bt3,200, against BMW’s supplied “charger box” costing Bt.65,000.

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Grusa Gold Member

Grusa

Posted
Posted
On 9/18/2021 at 5:17 PM, LarrySR said:

Any business owner with at least 2 functioning brain cells would be installing them in their parking lot and listing them on Google Maps so the cars navigation system will show available charging stations within range. 

 

"Any business owner with at least 2 functioning brain cells"......Aye, there's the rub, for in the truth of TIT, theres damn few and they're a' deid.

 

(To paraphrase a couple of quite well known poets).

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watboy Apprentice Member

watboy

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I did a lot of research around this earlier this year when I was considering buying a PHEV or a BEV. I ended up with an X5 45e. I'm a very detailed type of guy who does lots of research.

 

Do not buy a PHEV unless you can readily charge over night. PHEVs may have smaller batteries then BEV, but they do not have fast DC charging, only AC charging that tops out at only 7.2kwh charge rate, The X5 has one of the largest batteries for the PHEV (24kw gross, 21kw usable) but comes with the slowest AC onboard charger of only 3.6kw. It takes 7-8 hours to charge from empty to full. These cars were designed for people who can overnight charge at home as you have your combustion engine to take over if the battery is flat. You could charge from a regular 3 pin, as long as it can handle 12amps, but that will take 24+ hours. My condo let me install a wall box, and since I have access to three phase, I went ahead and future proofed myself with a 22kw AC charger. I charge every time I plug it in, and get 65-70km of EV range. My gas tank is still full since I got the car in May. The combustion engine only kicks in if you floor it and want all 390ponies, but urban / slow moving traffic, the 110hp electric engine is more than enough, the instant torque gets the big car moving for that 0-30 bit that's really important.

 

Good luck finding an X5, due to global chip delay, its very hard to get. I may have gotten the last one, as it was blue (which I wanted anyway) and Thai's seemingly only want white or black. Back in May, they were not taking any more orders for white or black, and that deliveries for those were slated in 1Q 2022. I would also carefully look at the features because the 2022 model year has dropped many previously standard items due to the global chip shortage (fog lights, Harman Karmon upgraded speakers, and others). The previous X5 in Thailand came almost fully loaded, it was only missing advance driver aids, heated/cooled seats, premium leather, and illuminated disco moonroof, not sure what the 2022 will be like. I thought it was a bargain relative to the Cayenne.

 

I did seriously consider an Audi e-Tron, which is BEV, but can take 100kwh fast DC charging and 22kwh AC charging. It should be able to do about 300km on a full charge. For a BEV, you want to be able to slow AC charge it at home and on single phase power you can get a 7kwh wall box installed. You don't need to do a full charge over night, just top it up. I guess in Bangkok, you could just go to the Audi dealer and get a charge for free on their 100kw AC fast charger, would take just over an hour from empty. You only need an outside charging network for when you have trips longer than the range of the BEV. I could barely make a round trip to Khao Yai with the Audi, but a trip to Hua Hin would require some charging there. There is a network of Provincial Electric Authority (PEA) 50kwh DC chargers around, and in most places I would go to. There's also a small but growing paid charger network. But you just need one bad experience to ruin your weekend such as charge out of order when you arrive, or some idiot with an X5 on a slow charger hogging the fast charger. I really liked the Audi, and tried to get it to work. If I got it, it would require some amount of planning for making any long trips, and all the trips I thought I would make was doable and I'm ok with with having to take 1 hour breaks to charge, but the reliability of the network not dependable enough for me.

 

Here's a great channel about EV life in Thailand and what a bad day looks like

 

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Lammbock Gold Member

Lammbock

Posted
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Posted
1 hour ago, watboy said:

I did a lot of research around this earlier this year when I was considering buying a PHEV or a BEV. I ended up with an X5 45e. I'm a very detailed type of guy who does lots of research.

 

 

 

Very informative reply. Thank you very much. I am really eyeing the X 5 45e. Which dealer didn't accept any orders for a black model? How long did you wait for yours for delivery?

Thanks!

dj230 Gold Member

dj230

Posted
Posted (edited)

lots of condos have them now in bangkok, even cheaper condos but not plentiful, few chargers in the garage, I can't imagine how people will charge their EV's if theres only a few chargers in the condo garage and a bunch of people have EV's

 

Edited by dj230
JBChiangRai Ruby Member

JBChiangRai

Posted
Posted

Since I bought a Taycan in June this year, the charging network has already vastly improved, not too difficult to drive to BKK now, I'm hoping to get to Khao Lak in it in December.

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watboy Apprentice Member

watboy

Posted
Posted
10 hours ago, Lammbock said:

Very informative reply. Thank you very much. I am really eyeing the X 5 45e. Which dealer didn't accept any orders for a black model? How long did you wait for yours for delivery?

Thanks!

BMW runs a sort of shared inventory in Thailand. As I understand it, when dealers get their car allotment, they have a certain exclusivity window to sell it. Afterwards, if another dealer has a customer, the inventory gets moved. I called lots of dealers, most said they didn't have any. You have to actually go to dealerships and be a credible buyer for them to really help you. I went to the Bangkok motor show in last December and narrowed down my list and started shopping for real in Feb. By then the global chip shortage was really in. I could not find an Volvo XC90 at all to test drive and they were not taking orders. BMW, X3 I could not find one to even look at, only X5 I could find to test drive was the manager's personal car. They had blue and graphite in inventory, but white or black would not be available until 2022, this was in Feb. I ended up ordering a Range Rover Sport PHEV, which I ended up having to cancel as it looked like my 6month wait would be 9 or 12+. So went back to BMW in June and found one blue X5 45e in inventory and bought it immediately (in retrospect, probably better I got the X5 than the RRS). Dealer said only reason it was on the lot for more than a few days was the color, and even then I had to put down a deposit within in that day or another dealership was going to take it. It was one of the last unsold X5s in the country and at that point they said they were no longer taking any more orders, and all the orders from earlier in the year won't be delivered until 2022. They still had some 5 series, but X1,3,5 and 3 series, completely gone. Similar stories at other brands, Mercedes, called and visited multiple dealers asking to see a GLE diesel and couldn't even get the time of day from them. Audi, had 1 Q8, no Q5 or Q7s. They had about 2 E-Tron's per month trickle in, they had one available if I were willing to wait a month.

 

Porsche, if you willing to wait 4-6months, and willing to pay $$$ for options that are standard on a Kia. The X5 45e M-Sport came well equipped at 4.7mn. Cayenne e-hybrids start at 6.3mn, but get it similarly equipped it came out as 7.8mn.

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