Electric Vehicles in Thailand

[Gweiloman]

On 1/19/2025 at 11:39 AM, josephbloggs said:

So many EVs in my soi now, including a lovely MG Cyberster. Anyway, my opposite neighbour has a Haval Jolion. It makes so much noise, even when parked (I've never heard the ICE running, he only uses it in EV mode) it makes this whining noise. It is so loud I can hear it from inside my house.

Just wondering if this is normal or if there is something wrong with his? I've never heard any PHEV or EV make this loud whining before. Just curious. @Gweiloman has a Haval if I remember correctly. Does yours make this noise in EV mode?

Sorry for late reply. I went to start up the Haval and no sound. It does make a whining sound when I start driving but only at low speeds.

[Pib]

2 hours ago, Gweiloman said:

Sorry for late reply. I went to start up the Haval and no sound. It does make a whining sound when I start driving but only at low speeds.

Even no whining when the inside of the cabin is hot?  Like it has been setting in the sun making the cabin fell like inside a oven.....or it's just simply hot weather even in the shade (not to be confused with the cool weather we have right now).    

 

And what temp do you keep you A/C set to?   If like something around 26C (which some of my Thai in-laws prefer) then an electric A/C compressor will rarely have to work hard..."spin fast" which can cause a whining noise since scroll type compressors (vs a piston type compressor) can have a whine when working hard/spinning fast.    But set the A/C to something like 22C or lower the electric compressor will have to do more work/spin faster "if" the cabin temp is hot.

[Pib]

On 1/19/2025 at 3:10 PM, josephbloggs said:

Thanks to you and @Andrew Dwyer - curiosity sated. Seems like that is what it must be as it does go up and down in pitch. It is so loud though, even when it is in his driveway I can hear it in my house with windows and doors closed and A/C running.

Sometimes the loudest and pitch of a sound greatly depends on your location in relation to the source of the sound.   You can be in one spot and a sound is loud/high or low pitch and move just few meters and the sound may very significantly change.   

 

Heck, just last week when my neighbor directly across from me was doing his annual cleaning of his driveway with his high pressure washer that sound from the high pitch sounding washer would come across the soi "between" my house and my adjacent neighbor's house and then bounced off the fence wall behind my house making it sound like my home water pump close to my back wall was constantly running when in fact the water pump was not running.

 

It was really strange how that high pressure washer's sound was being amplified a little as it was focused between my house and my adjacent neighbor's house and then being bounced on my back fence wall....made the sound louder and also a higher pitch than if I was standing in the soi  much closer to the actual source of the sound--the pressure washer. 

 

A similar thing happens occasionally when some one a couple hundred meters away plays a music source loudly with a LOT of low frequency bass which most Thai just love...that is a lot of low frequency bass that can rattle your bones.  When that occurs just me moving a 5 or so meters to the left or right can make a big difference in how loud the sound is..  I expect it's because of where the echoes of the sound reinforce or suppress each other depend on where the echoes happen to meet as those echoes bounce away. 

[Rimmer]

I purchased an electric vehicle a few days back, obviously for use in the garden but can drive it on the road if you want, no tax no registration, here it is being delivered and another of it being pressed into service straight away.

 

 

[Pib]

Well, it's not a BYD Seal that can accelerate to 100KmH in 3.8 seconds and impress high maintenance women, but at least it's a start into the EV world.  😜😁😉

 

And I was really surprised that little 1/2 ton pickup truck's front wheels didn't leave the ground when lowering your red machine to the ground.

[Gweiloman]

6 hours ago, Pib said:

Even no whining when the inside of the cabin is hot?  Like it has been setting in the sun making the cabin fell like inside a oven.....or it's just simply hot weather even in the shade (not to be confused with the cool weather we have right now).    

 

And what temp do you keep you A/C set to?   If like something around 26C (which some of my Thai in-laws prefer) then an electric A/C compressor will rarely have to work hard..."spin fast" which can cause a whining noise since scroll type compressors (vs a piston type compressor) can have a whine when working hard/spinning fast.    But set the A/C to something like 22C or lower the electric compressor will have to do more work/spin faster "if" the cabin temp is hot.

I must admit I never really noticed as my car is almost always kept under shade. My AC is set at 25 as the Haval AC is extremely efficient (my BYD is normally set to 20).

[Bandersnatch]

7 hours ago, Rimmer said:

purchased an electric vehicle a few days back, obviously for use in the garden

 

Bit too HiSo for my garden.

 

The vehicle I purchased for moving stuff around my garden can't even manage a single horse power

 

 

[mistral53]

1 hour ago, Gweiloman said:

I must admit I never really noticed as my car is almost always kept under shade. My AC is set at 25 as the Haval AC is extremely efficient (my BYD is normally set to 20).

In the Seal we set the temp to 25 C and 'avoid' - you must be very cold blooded to  set it to 20......... do you also have fangs......lol

[Pib]

I've played with my BYD Atto A/C temp setting between a 22C setting (where I normally set it) and a 26C setting on hot day over the last year..   it makes a BIG difference in how hard/how fast the electric A/C compressor spins along with the compressor noise level (a whine)....and how long it must spin at a high speed to initially get the cabin temp down.     And of course if you crawling along in city traffic wihch cuts down on air flow over the A/C condensor coil in the very front of the car that also going to make the electric compressor work harder compared to zipping along at highway speed with good airflow.

[JBChiangRai]

In my Seal 25 is often too cold and 26 is often too hot.

[Pib]

I always use a setting of 23C in my Toyota Fortuner ICEV and 22C in my Atto.   Anything higher than that like 26C is just not comfortable for the wife or I.   

 

Now inside our house we run A/C 24/7 and use a 26C setting which is comfortable enough because you are not dealing with a lot of sunlight easily hitting your body like in a car where there is nothing but tinted windows around you and possibly a sunroof that may be letting light thru to heat things up.  

 

Bottomline for the wife and I a 24C setting is probably our upper limit in feeling comfortable in a car, but 22 or 23C is better and preferred.  At 25C or above we don't feel comfortable.   But I know for a fact most of my Thai in-laws set their car A/C temp to 25 or 26C as that's where they apparently  feel the most comfortable.  

 

Yea, each person will be different in "what feels comfortable to them"....and when it comes to A/C that means how hard (or not so hard) the EV's electric A/C compressor will have to work/spin....the harder it works/the faster it spins means more compressor noise.

 

Preaching to the choir I know.