Electric Vehicles in Thailand

[Bandersnatch]

“Shut the door too hard in an EV and the battery catches fire”

 

There are a number of excellent Lithium Iron Phosphate battery cars available for sale now in Thailand: Any BYD, MG4, RWD Teslas any more I missed?

 

 

 

 

 

[Pib]

Are any of you BEV owners using a OBD2 adapter to periodically check your vehicle's condition/any trouble codes, etc.?  Seems a lot of Youtube videos use OBD2 data during their videos but don't identify what adapter they are using or the few that do list a pricey adapter costing several thousands baht.

 

Since there are so, so many different OBD2 adaptors sold ranging from Bt50 (like the Elm 327 Mini sold on Lazada/Shopee) to thousands of baht AND since all OBD2 adapters are not created equal do any of you have recommendations for a low cost OBD2 adapter that works well on a BEV?   And maybe available on Lazada/Shopee?

Edited October 11, 2023 by Pib

[In the jungle]

 

[JBChiangRai]

19 minutes ago, In the jungle said:

 

Drove mine through 45cm flood with no issues, no recall either.

 

“shouldn’t drive it” - balderdash!

[In the jungle]

Just now, JBChiangRai said:

Drove mine through 45cm flood with no issues, no recall either.

 

“shouldn’t drive it” - balderdash!

 

You know this guy is an EV zealot right?

 

[macahoom]

1 hour ago, In the jungle said:

 

You know this guy is an EV zealot right?

 

He may be an EV zealot, but he's prone to hyperbole and speculation. He often reports "news" which turns out to be more guesswork and rumour than substantiated news.

 

The recall he's referring to: Starting from October 16, 2023, Porsche will recall certain Taycan cars produced between September 22, 2022, and August 3, 2023 - totaling either 231 or 2,570 vehicles, depending on which report you read.

 

Reason for Recall:

For some vehicles within this period, there's an insufficient amount of sealant between the high-voltage battery frame and the battery cover. This might allow liquid to enter the interior of the high-voltage battery.

 

And if he's such an EV zealot, it's about time he learnt how to pronounce Porsche and Taycan. It's Pore-shuh Tie-kan.

Edited October 11, 2023 by macahoom

[JBChiangRai]

9 hours ago, In the jungle said:

 

You know this guy is an EV zealot right?

 

I have watched a few of his videos, they seem to be more scaremongering than factual.

 

My Taycan was delivered to me in June 2021, no recall on my vehicle other than 3 air conditioning pressure sensors.

 

 

[Pib]

Many youtubers are only into creating videos due to money earned from the number of subscribers/views/likes they can get.  I have nothing against that. Many of the videos are good and many are just bad, click bait videos.

 

But many of such youtubers who must continually make new and very frequent videos to keep the money following in (and maintain an influencer/celebrity status) end-up making videos that are nothing more than "their opinion editorials."  Really just entertainment videos mastcaraiding as fact.   Take many youtuber videos with a big grain of salt.

[Gweiloman]

There’s a YouTuber called MacMaster who owns a Taycan. I used to enjoy his EV videos as I found it amusing and entertaining. But recently he has lost the plot and gone full anti-EV. He is telling everyone and anyone not to buy an EV but in actuality, the message should be NOT to buy a Taycan. One cannot equate a Taycan with a “normal” EV like a MG or BYD.

[Bandersnatch]

1 hour ago, Pib said:

But many of such youtubers who must continually make new and very frequent videos to keep the money following in

I agree.

 

I started my Channel

https://www.youtube.com/EcoHouseThailand  as an extension of my Blog: https://EcoHouseThailand.com

 

Neither are monetized and I only post when I think I have something to say that perhaps hasn’t been said before or could be of value to others. Over the years they had led me into conversations with many foreigners wanting to do eco builds, install solar or get an EV in Thailand.

[mistral53]

The BYD Seal has a Cd of 0.219 - that's probably why they also have shutters. Its a cool feature, but also scary, being another gizmo that will fail at some point, and adds debatable complexity. It also shows that the Chinese are not afraid to go all in if they deem it necessary in their pursuit of market leadership. 

 

[Pib]

5 hours ago, Bandersnatch said:

I agree.

 

I started my Channel

https://www.youtube.com/EcoHouseThailand  as an extension of my Blog: https://EcoHouseThailand.com

 

Neither are monetized and I only post when I think I have something to say that perhaps hasn’t been said before or could be of value to others. Over the years they had led me into conversations with many foreigners wanting to do eco builds, install solar or get an EV in Thailand.

Thanks.   Since I'm in the processing of buying an EV (Atto 3) I was interested in one of your videos titled "How to make a dumb EV charger a bit smarter" where you said after fully charging your house solar batteries you then use the  EV wall charger powered by the house battery to charge your EV because you don't want to use power from the grid...all understandable. 

 

However, then you say when you forget to turn off the wall charger it drains your house battery which is understandable but you say it's like a bad thing when you intentionally power the wall charger from the house solar batteries..."or" maybe you meant it can completely drain the house battery "down to zero."    

 

Not knowing how big your house solar batteries are (a lot bigger or smaller than the EV battery) and/or when any charger will stop drawing significant power once a battery is full, whether in your EV or smartphone, I'm somewhat confused on what you mean in the video about it can completely drain your house batteries.  I guess the size of our house batteries is key....if significantly smaller than the EV battery then I understand.  

 

Thanks for your channel....looks like all your videos are meant to pass along good info.

 

 

 

Edited October 12, 2023 by Pib

[JBChiangRai]

3 hours ago, mistral53 said:

The BYD Seal has a Cd of 0.219 - that's probably why they also have shutters. Its a cool feature, but also scary, being another gizmo that will fail at some point, and adds debatable complexity. It also shows that the Chinese are not afraid to go all in if they deem it necessary in their pursuit of market leadership. 

 

The MG4 has active shutters too.

 

My sister and her husband are visiting me and are going to order an MG4 X-Power when they return to Australia. They have borrowed my MG4 and love it.

 

We are currently in Vietnam, and have seen Vinfast EV’s in the shopping mall, practical but very ugly.

[Bandersnatch]

12 minutes ago, Pib said:

Thanks.   Since I'm in the processing of buying an EV (Atto 3) I was interested in one of your videos titled "How to make a dumb EV charger a bit smarter" where you said after fully charging your house solar batteries you then use the  EV wall charger powered by the house battery to charge your EV because you don't want to use power from the grid...all understandable. 

 

However, then you say when you forget to turn off the wall charger it drains your house battery which is understandable but you say it's like a bad thing when you intentionally power the wall charger from the house solar batteries..."or" maybe you meant it can completely drain the house battery "down to zero."    

 

Not knowing how big your house solar batteries are (a lot bigger or smaller than the EV battery) and/or when any charger will stop drawing significant power once a battery is full, whether in your EV or smartphone, I'm somewhat confused on what you mean in the video about it can completely drain your house batteries.  I guess the size of our house batteries is key....if significantly smaller than the EV battery then I understand.  

 

Thanks for your channel....looks like all your videos are meant to pass along good info.

 

 

 

My Grid connection is switched off so if I am charging the car from solar and if it starts to rain, I might not know as my house is basically a bunker. Then we are draining the house batteries into the car. If the house batteries get down to 60% before I realise we might not have enough battery for the rest of the day and the night. 
 

When the seal arrives I will feed V2L into my inverters to power the load (run the house) not charge the batteries for a few hours. Then I will have fewer hours to run the house from home batteries.

 

Hope that is clear. 
 

I have investigated solar diverter EV chargers like myenergi zappi they claim to only charge your EV with excess solar power, but they determine that by monitoring exported power via a CT clamp. Unfortunately they don’t work in off-grid situations like mine.

[JBChiangRai]

29 minutes ago, Bandersnatch said:

My Grid connection is switched off so if I am charging the car from solar and if it starts to rain, I might not know as my house is basically a bunker. Then we are draining the house batteries into the car. If the house batteries get down to 60% before I realise we might not have enough battery for the rest of the day and the night. 
 

When the seal arrives I will feed V2L into my inverters to power the load (run the house) not charge the batteries for a few hours. Then I will have fewer hours to run the house from home batteries.

 

Hope that is clear. 
 

I have investigated solar diverter EV chargers like myenergi zappi they claim to only charge your EV with excess solar power, but they determine that by monitoring exported power via a CT clamp. Unfortunately they don’t work in off-grid situations like mine.

I used an over/under Chinese voltage protection device to trigger a changeover contactor.

 

So when the sun comes out as the grid-tied voltage increases the contactor powers off sending power to the EV Charger, and cutting off again if the sun goes in.

 

You could vary this with a Chinese timing device, so the timer starts when the charging begins and stops after a preset amount of charging.

 

This wouldn’t work for you Bandersnatch, but it would work neatly for anyone using grid-tied inverters.

 

Powering off when the sun goes in only works once or twice, eventually the car flags an error, but making the contactor latch with timer is a modification I think I will make.

 

What would work for everyone is a cheap Chinese timer and a contactor, start charging and stop automatically a few hours later.

[macahoom]

I just got word from my dealership today that I should have my Seal in "about two weeks". 

 

Up until today, I wasn't getting anything other than vagueness from them when I asked when I might be getting the car.

 

Let's see.

 

[Pib]

5 minutes ago, macahoom said:

I just got word from my dealership today that I should have my Seal in "about two weeks". 

 

Up until today, I wasn't getting anything other than vagueness from them when I asked when I might be getting the car.

 

Let's see.

 

Hopefully it will come true. 

 

About three weeks ago we I booked my red Atto the delivery estimate given by the "manager" of the dealership was about two weeks.  As posted earlier after that two weeks had come and gone the Thai wife and I went to talk to the dealership a few days ago regarding "when" is delivery going to occur.   Still could not get anything firm...but the dealership promised an updated to us within two days.    Those two days end midnight tonight....we haven't been contacted yet....but they still have till midnight.  I'll be very surprised if I do get an update today.   Time will tell.

[Bandersnatch]

1 hour ago, JBChiangRai said:

What would work for everyone is a cheap Chinese timer and a contactor, start charging and stop automatically a few hours later.

Not sure if you’ve seen the video @Pib was discussing but it was about installing a smart WiFi breaker. You can setup various routines in the Tuya app including automatic switching off.

 

 

[Bandersnatch]

51 minutes ago, macahoom said:

I just got word from my dealership today that I should have my Seal in "about two weeks". 

 

Up until today, I wasn't getting anything other than vagueness from them when I asked when I might be getting the car.

 

Let's see.

 

Great news, I’m still in the vagueness stage of maybe this month or next.

 

I heard that BYD have delayed the launch of the Seal in Australia, maybe it’s a stock issue. 

[JBChiangRai]

 

13 hours ago, Bandersnatch said:

Not sure if you’ve seen the video @Pib was discussing but it was about installing a smart WiFi breaker. You can setup various routines in the Tuya app including automatic switching off.

 

 

I hadn’t thought of that, I have 3 of them on my grid-tied inverters so I can turn them off on meter reading day if I am not at home.

 

With the over/under voltage control you could integrate them to only start charging on sunny days automatically and use the timer function to stop a few hours later or at (say) 4pm.

[Pib]

14 hours ago, Pib said:

Hopefully it will come true. 

 

About three weeks ago we I booked my red Atto the delivery estimate given by the "manager" of the dealership was about two weeks.  As posted earlier after that two weeks had come and gone the Thai wife and I went to talk to the dealership a few days ago regarding "when" is delivery going to occur.   Still could not get anything firm...but the dealership promised an updated to us within two days.    Those two days end midnight tonight....we haven't been contacted yet....but they still have till midnight.  I'll be very surprised if I do get an update today.   Time will tell.

Update: was not surprised...no phone call came. 

 

The Thai wife and I still discussing when to follow-up again with the dealership about a firm or firmer delivery date.  The wife is not pleased a phone call didn't come...a promised phone call that was suppose to come even if the dealership said no firm date yet but they are still trying to get a date. 

 

Yea, if you bump into a not-so-happy Thai woman today please beware as it could be my wife looking for a neck to squeeze tightly....yes, beware.  

 

 

[SingAPorn]

No issue as to own or not a EV.

 

The point here is that the roads are a constant threat to drivers and not to mention the corrupt BiB who love targetting farangs on the road,

[KhunLA]

21 minutes ago, SingAPorn said:

No issue as to own or not a EV.

 

The point here is that the roads are a constant threat to drivers and not to mention the corrupt BiB who love targetting farangs on the road,

If you've actually driven the roads, you'd know how silly your statements are.

[Pib]

Yea...I drive daily in the greater Bangkok area/surrounding provinces.  Up to about 6-8 years ago I frequently come upon traffic police check points where you had to drive thru slowly so the police could look for your annual regristration sticker which is suppose to be on your windshield  and/or glance in the vehicle.  But now the checkpoints are much, much less and focus on commercial trucks & vehicles that standout like a sore thumb in terms of a traffic violation.

 

And here in the Bangkok area it use to be very common to be ambushed by a traffic cop after making a turn at an intersection who then wanted to give a ticket for supposedly not making the turn properly, being in a wrong lane, etc.  But once again the great majority of that disappeared a half dozen or so years ago.

 

I attribute this change to police leadership now relying on traffic cameras to send you tickets in the mail and the Thai public complaining about bad traffic being made worst by way too many checkpoints.  And maybe just a dash--just a small amount--of wanting to reduce some traffic police corruption that was getting out of control in many locations.

 

Heck, here in the Bangkok area it's got much harder than years back to see any traffic cops on the roads...you still see them but much fewer and much less frequently.

[josephbloggs]

6 minutes ago, Pib said:

Yea...I drive daily in the greater Bangkok area/surrounding provinces.  Up to about 6-8 years ago I frequently come upon traffic police check points where you had to drive thru slowly so the police could look for your annual regristration sticker which is suppose to be on your windshield  and/or glance in the vehicle.  But now the checkpoints are much, much less and focus on commercial trucks & vehicles that standout like a sore thumb in terms of a traffic violation.

 

And here in the Bangkok area it use to be very common to be ambushed by a traffic cop after making a turn at an intersection who then wanted to give a ticket for supposedly not making the turn properly, being in a wrong lane, etc.  But once again the great majority of that disappeared a half dozen or so years ago.

 

I attribute this change to police leadership now relying on traffic cameras to send you tickets in the mail and the Thai public complaining about bad traffic being made worst by way too many checkpoints.  And maybe just a dash--just a small amount--of wanting to reduce some traffic police corruption that was getting out of control in many locations.

 

Heck, here in the Bangkok area it's got much harder than years back to see any traffic cops on the roads...you still see them but much fewer and much less frequently.

And how were they "targetting farangs" exactly? Just typical AN paranoid nonsense.

[Pib]

2 minutes ago, josephbloggs said:

And how were they "targetting farangs" exactly? Just typical AN paranoid nonsense.

I didn't say such...maybe you meant to reply to SingAPorn's post?

[josephbloggs]

1 hour ago, Pib said:

I didn't say such...maybe you meant to reply to SingAPorn's post?

Sorry, correct, my mistake.

[Pib]

2 minutes ago, josephbloggs said:

Sorry, correct, my mistake.

No problem...cheers.

[mistral53]

4 hours ago, Pib said:

Update: was not surprised...no phone call came. 

 

The Thai wife and I still discussing when to follow-up again with the dealership about a firm or firmer delivery date.  The wife is not pleased a phone call didn't come...a promised phone call that was suppose to come even if the dealership said no firm date yet but they are still trying to get a date. 

 

Yea, if you bump into a not-so-happy Thai woman today please beware as it could be my wife looking for a neck to squeeze tightly....yes, beware.  

 

 

Have you been reading the user's manual while you are patiently waiting for your car to arrive? I know, nowadays its almost heretical to read said manuals, especially here in Thailand people rather go to FB and ask the most ludicrous, idiotic questions........ anyway, about the operating manual of your soon to be delivered car - I did spend some time to read some pages, and lo and behold, there are quite a few juicy details that I did not realize - case in point: breaking in of the drive-train for the first 2000 km? Petrol heads know how important it is to break in a new vehicle to make engines and gearboxes last longer and perform better.........strangely, BYD recommends to break in the Seal for the first 2000 km in Ecco mode – probably for the gear box?

or to completely discharge the battery to 0% and charge it 100% again every month? or max. acceleration is achieved when the battery is charged obve 95%?

etc.......

 

 

 

[Pib]

1 hour ago, mistral53 said:

Have you been reading the user's manual while you are patiently waiting for your car to arrive? I know, nowadays its almost heretical to read said manuals, especially here in Thailand people rather go to FB and ask the most ludicrous, idiotic questions........ anyway, about the operating manual of your soon to be delivered car - I did spend some time to read some pages, and lo and behold, there are quite a few juicy details that I did not realize - case in point: breaking in of the drive-train for the first 2000 km? Petrol heads know how important it is to break in a new vehicle to make engines and gearboxes last longer and perform better.........strangely, BYD recommends to break in the Seal for the first 2000 km in Ecco mode – probably for the gear box?

or to completely discharge the battery to 0% and charge it 100% again every month? or max. acceleration is achieved when the battery is charged obve 95%?

etc.......

 

Oh yea, I have the manual downloaded and been reading it for a couple of weeks now to include the Break-In Period paragraphs on page 95 (snapshot below).  Plus maybe watched ever Youtube video on the Atto3.    But I will have to admitted I have not read the manual from beginning to end....I just been quickly scanning some parts, scanning some parts at a slow rate, and also doing the slow, deep reading on other parts.   Typically I begin wondering "something specific" about the car (like maybe Break-In guidance) and then try to find info on that specific something in the manual. 

 

The manual break-in guidance is drive the vehicle in Eco mode for the first 2,000Km and avoid emergency breaking for the first 300km.  Expect it very similar on all BYD model...Atto, Seal, Dolphin.   Summary: drive it easy for the first couple thousand kilometers.