Electric Vehicles in Thailand

[Bandersnatch]

Official BYD Finance - just sent to me by the dealer 

 

[Pib]

Thailand digging deep to keep the subsidy going if now using funds earmarked for "...emergency or necessary expenditure."   See below The Nation 27 Sep 2023 report.

 

https://www.nationthailand.com/thailand/policies/40031395

 

Quote

 

WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 27, 2023

 

The Cabinet agreed during its weekly meeting on Tuesday to allocate 1.024 billion baht to support measures and promote the purchase and production of electric vehicles in Thailand.

A source said on Wednesday that the allocation under the EV3.0 policy was proposed by the Finance Ministry. The funds will come from the amount earmarked for “emergency or necessary expenditure” in the central budget.

Under the EV3.0 policy, EV importers are granted tax incentives and the price of electric vehicles is subsidised by a maximum of 150,000 baht per vehicle. This policy is set to expire on December 31.

The National Electric Vehicle Policy Board (EV Board), meanwhile, has said that without a top-up, the subsidies would have run dry due to a rush to purchase electric vehicles.

The original budget approved for the EV3.0 policy was 29.23 billion baht.

The incentive package under the policy includes a 70,000-baht subsidy for an EV car with a 10 to 30kWh battery for completely knocked-down (CKD) and completely built-up (CBU) units.

The subsidy rises to 150,000 baht for vehicles with a capacity of more than 30kWh going at a recommended retail price of less than 2 million baht.

An 18,000-baht subsidy is also available to buyers of electric motorcycles with a recommended retail price of less than 150,000-baht from eligible manufacturers.

According to the Electric Vehicle Association of Thailand (EVAT), some 37,000 electric vehicles were registered in Thailand during the first seven months of this year, which is far higher than in 2022, which saw some 9,600 registrations.

EVAT believes total EV registrations in 2023 will surpass 50,000 units.

 

 

 

[macahoom]

I can’t believe I forgot about this from the test drive:

 

Below 25kph, or thereabouts, the car emits a sound which is designed to alert pedestrians that there is an EV close at hand. In most countries, EVs are required to have such a sound for safety reasons.

.

That’s well and good, but the Seal’s sound is pretty bizarre. It sounds like they sourced it from a Hollywood sound effects library filed under Banshee Wailing Sound or Eerie Wind Noise in a Haunted House. The pitch of it varies, y'know, just like the sound a banshee makes.

 

Very strange!

 

I’m surprised none of the other testers mentioned it.

 

Wooooooohhhhh!

[Bandersnatch]

30 minutes ago, Pib said:

Thailand digging deep to keep the subsidy going

Thanks for posting an English version- made much more sense than the Thai news source I found.

[Andrew Dwyer]

34 minutes ago, macahoom said:

I can’t believe I forgot about this from the test drive:

 

Below 25kph, or thereabouts, the car emits a sound which is designed to alert pedestrians that there is an EV close at hand. In most countries, EVs are required to have such a sound for safety reasons.

.

That’s well and good, but the Seal’s sound is pretty bizarre. It sounds like they sourced it from a Hollywood sound effects library filed under Banshee Wailing Sound or Eerie Wind Noise in a Haunted House. The pitch of it varies, y'know, just like the sound a banshee makes.

 

Very strange!

 

I’m surprised none of the other testers mentioned it.

 

Wooooooohhhhh!

Same as the Atto 3 ?, under 30 kph emits a pedestrian awareness synthetic sound, 2 actually which have been described as a space ship or ice cream truck !!

Heard it in a Seal YouTube video with that Irish fella.

 

On the Atto it is possible to unplug the speaker under a plastic cover right at the front of bonnet, of course safety concerns means some people aren’t prepared to unplug this.
But wrapping the speaker with a couple of layers of tape seems sufficient to reduce the sound, still audible outside but less so inside.

 

Of course, it may be hard wired in the Seal or difficult to access, time will tell.

[Bandersnatch]

55 minutes ago, macahoom said:

I’m surprised none of the other testers mentioned it.

Old cloth ears here probably wouldn’t have heard it anyway, but the AVAS might have been switched off in my demo car.

 

[Bandersnatch]

8 hours ago, Bandersnatch said:

how to change regen levels? It wasn’t obvious and the girl knew less about the car than I did.

No button in the Seal, have to use the screen.

 

 

You can see your regen level at the top of the driver’s display (#3)

 

 

[motdaeng]

the finance business is making a nice profit!

 

i know some people (including foreigners) who think it's a good deal to pay only 1.88%.

in this example it's around 3.65% because you reduce your debt every month, but you still

have to pay every (48) months the 1.88% interest on the initial debt!

 

[Bandersnatch]

Price of the BYD Seal in Thailand v Europe. So much cheaper here.

 

 

 

[macahoom]

12 minutes ago, Bandersnatch said:

Price of the BYD Seal in Thailand v Europe. So much cheaper here.

 

 

 

Yeh, and I wonder what "freebies" are included in Europe.

 

I can't imagine insurance, for a start. 

[mistral53]

30 minutes ago, Bandersnatch said:

Price of the BYD Seal in Thailand v Europe. So much cheaper here.

 

 

 

It appears the Chinese manufacturers are loath to get challenged for dumping products as the French car companies have their panties in a tangle........ with vehicle prices like this in Europe, the EU anti-dumping probe will be another demonstration how to screw their own people

[JBChiangRai]

28 minutes ago, Bandersnatch said:

Price of the BYD Seal in Thailand v Europe. So much cheaper here.

 

 

 

I am tempted to order the Performance version, the only thing stopping me is common sense, I know I should wait until I know how much the Cyberster is next year.  If it's silly money, this Seal is at the top of my list.

 

Eldest daughter wants my MG4 so I will be getting back her MG EP+ which is probably worth keeping for rainy days unless my youngest daughter wants it.

[JBChiangRai]

Going off the Seal pricing, the MG4 X Power should be about 274k more than the standard, that would be 1,243,000 if old price and 1,143,000 if new price.

[Alotoftravel]

jbchiangrai,

any idea when the the mg4 x power or the 61khw mg4 comes to Thailand?

[JBChiangRai]

8 minutes ago, Alotoftravel said:

jbchiangrai,

any idea when the the mg4 x power or the 61khw mg4 comes to Thailand?

I am not sure they will come, the salespeople at MG know nothing about the product.  The sales manager said she expects the X Power to come, as for the other big battery variants, I don't know.

 

One area of concern is battery chemistry, current MG4 is LFP, UK long range cars are NMC which only get's half the charge/discharge cycles.  NMC is not ideal for Thiland's heat, it's ok, you just to have live with the knowledge.

 

The Cyberster is definitely coming 2nd half of next year.

[Pib]

3 hours ago, Bandersnatch said:

Price of the BYD Seal in Thailand v Europe. So much cheaper here.

 

 

 

 

Since the EU applies a 10% import duty tax on Chinese cars (the U.S. applies a 27.5% tax) compared to Thailand which does not charge an import duty on Chinese cars, has lowered the BEV excise tax from 8 to 2%, and currently has a healthy BEV cash subsidy it appears above EU and Thailand price difference boils down to taxes/subsidy. 

 

Who would have ever thought one day it could be cheaper to buy a new car in Thailand compared to the EU/US.

 

Ref for above EU 10% duty reference

https://edition.cnn.com/2023/09/13/cars/europe-china-electric-car-subsidies/index.html

Europe levies a duty of 10% on cars imported from China. That compares with duty of 27.5% in the United States, and China’s manufacturers have taken advantage to carve out a significant and rapidly growing foothold in the European market.

[Bandersnatch]

31 minutes ago, Pib said:

Since the EU applies a 10% import duty tax on Chinese cars (the U.S. applies a 27.5% tax) compared to Thailand which does not charge an import duty on Chinese cars, has lowered the BEV excise tax from 8 to 2%, and currently has a healthy BEV cash subsidy it appears above EU and Thailand price difference boils down to taxes/subsidy. 

Good point. Normally EVs are more expensive here. Be interesting to see the BYD Seal price in Australia when it’s announced next month.

 

Tesla model 3 was much more expensive here than in Australia 

 

 

[Andrew Dwyer]

Yes, we have it pretty damn good here for EV prices 

 

The standard range BYD Dolphin here costs US$19k , the same car has just been launched in Mexico for US$31k !!

[matchar]

2 hours ago, Pib said:

 

Since the EU applies a 10% import duty tax on Chinese cars (the U.S. applies a 27.5% tax) compared to Thailand which does not charge an import duty on Chinese cars, has lowered the BEV excise tax from 8 to 2%, and currently has a healthy BEV cash subsidy it appears above EU and Thailand price difference boils down to taxes/subsidy. 

 

Who would have ever thought one day it could be cheaper to buy a new car in Thailand compared to the EU/US.

 

Ref for above EU 10% duty reference

https://edition.cnn.com/2023/09/13/cars/europe-china-electric-car-subsidies/index.html

Europe levies a duty of 10% on cars imported from China. That compares with duty of 27.5% in the United States, and China’s manufacturers have taken advantage to carve out a significant and rapidly growing foothold in the European market.

Not to mention 20% VAT compared to Thailand's 7%.

[JBChiangRai]

Elon Musk’s Tesla could have dominated Thailand if he got the price right.

 

I am sure BYD will leave him for dust.

[Andrew Dwyer]

This is handy for checking the differences between the 3 specs of BYD Seal and the colours available etc .

 

https://autolifethailand.tv/unofficial-price-byd-seal-ev-bev-thailand/

 

I don’t see any mention of the built in dash cam that was in the Atto 3 but missing from the Dolphin ( although the camera can be bought and fit to the Dolphin very easily ).

Anyone ?

[Pib]

Another kind of tax that impact new auto prices is VAT. 

 

Like in the EU, VAT varies from 17 to 27% depending on the country (see below chart)....that is a VERY healthy tax!  I think the UK VAT is now 20% (another VERY healthy tax)....and the Australia VAT 10%.   Thailand's VAT is 7%.  The U.S. doesn't use the VAT system but a system of state sales taxes which range from 0 to around 8% depending on which of the 50 states you are buying in...and there might also be a city/county sales taxes of a few percent. 

 

All the different import duties, excise taxes, VATs, sales tax, subsidies, etc., can cause new vehicle prices for the exact same model to vary greatly from country to country.   

 

At least for Chinese made BEVs sold in Thailand (%0 import duty tax on Chinese made vehicles), Excise tax reduced from 8 to 2%, a healthy Bt150K subsidy, and a VAT on the low end compared to most other countries that use the VAT system currently makes Thailand a good place to buy a BEV right now.

 

 

https://www.acea.auto/figure/share-of-vat-in-net-price-of-cars-by-eu-country/

[Pib]

16 minutes ago, matchar said:

Not to mention 20% VAT compared to Thailand's 7%.

Yea...ain't that the truth....I was writing my post above about how VAT also has a BIG impact on vehicle prices (and many other things)....I hit Submit on my post and then saw your post on the same subject. 

[Andrew Dwyer]

Anyone looking to buy a used Atto 3 ?, now is the time, seen about 12 wanting to sell on FB today.

The day after the Seal announcement …….. coincidence ? ….. i think not !

 

Looks like BYD aren’t taking part exchange or just giving the usual p1ss poor price for the “ turn “.

Anyone ?

[Bandersnatch]

58 minutes ago, Andrew Dwyer said:

I don’t see any mention of the built in dash cam that was in the Atto 3 but missing from the Dolphin ( although the camera can be bought and fit to the Dolphin very easily ).

Anyone ?

Asked the girl during the test drive and she said yes it had a dash-cam but I will try and follow up with her - we have left her a bunch of Qs she couldn’t answer. 

[Andrew Dwyer]

3 minutes ago, Bandersnatch said:

Asked the girl during the test drive and she said yes it had a dash-cam but I will try and follow up with her - we have left her a bunch of Qs she couldn’t answer. 

Okay thanks, a few Dolphin owners were surprised to learn that although the relevant button was on the info screen and the slot for sd card was there the dash cam wasn’t working, only to learn that a camera wasn’t fitted !, but can be bought for 3k and fitted diy.

[ExpatOilWorker]

15 minutes ago, Andrew Dwyer said:

Anyone looking to buy a used Atto 3 ?, now is the time, seen about 12 wanting to sell on FB today.

The day after the Seal announcement …….. coincidence ? ….. i think not !

 

Looks like BYD aren’t taking part exchange or just giving the usual p1ss poor price for the “ turn “.

Anyone ?

You have a link to the FB cars?

[Andrew Dwyer]

2 minutes ago, ExpatOilWorker said:

You have a link to the FB cars?

Here’s someone asking for an Atto in white or gray, low mileage, good condition.

Plenty of replies to this post and others wanting to sell, all around the 1.0 to 1.1 million mark which is a bit hopeful I think.

[JBChiangRai]

1 minute ago, Andrew Dwyer said:

Here’s someone asking for an Atto in white or gray, low mileage, good condition.

Plenty of replies to this post and others wanting to sell, all around the 1.0 to 1.1 million mark which is a bit hopeful I think.

Should be 20-25% cheaper than new

[Andrew Dwyer]

11 minutes ago, JBChiangRai said:

Should be 20-25% cheaper than new

Yup, a few desperate souls out there after taking a look at Seal.

 

Here’s one asking 1.1 million with 20k on the clock.

But he has put every accessory going :

sidestep, spoiler, black roof , ceramic coating, 15.6” screen, Frunk and gas struts, kick sensor and wheels and tyres !!