Electric Vehicles in Thailand

[KhunLA]

17 minutes ago, Yellowtail said:

I know what it is, I just do not see the point of it. 

 

It's like seat-covers, spending money now, for something that does not look as nice, in hopes of a higher resale value later seems silly to me. 

That depends on the seat.  Our's would be much hotter without being covered, along with the dog punching holes in them with her nails.

[Bandersnatch]

Think I’ll pass

 

 

 

 

 

[KhunLA]

3 minutes ago, Bandersnatch said:

Think I’ll pass

 

 

 

 

 

Whoa, some of those prices are the cost of a new paint job, and then some.

[JBChiangRai]

You can get PPF in 4 flavours

Clear Shiny

Clear Matt

Clear Shiny self-healing

Clear Matt self-healing

 

I had my Taycan (Dolomite silver) wrapped in Clear Shiny self-healing.  It cost 65,000 baht.  It got no swirls in 2 years because it fully self-heals, in the demo they scuff it up with wire brush and put it in the sun for 5 minutes and all the scratches have gone.

 

There are 2 ways to install.  Patterns computer controlled cut off the roll to fit each panel.  Actually, they are about 2mm short for each panel.  The issue with those is the edges collect the dirt, but because they aren't wrapped around 180 degrees on the panel edges, they don't come loose.

 

The 2nd way is without patterns and the install overlaps each panel my about 10-12mm and wraps it underneath out of sight.  It's a much neater installation but it is prone to peeling underneath.  This what I had (manufacturer Rhino I think).

 

My experience is installation is an iterative process.  They do the whole car, then a couple of days after you have picked it up, they have to repair or re-wrap some panels and in my case it took maybe 4-5 attempts.

 

I am not sure I would do it again.  The car was like showroom new after 2 years. but the process is a PITA, and you probably need to redo it every 5 years.

 

I could be tempted to do the matt PPF but probably not self-healing (half the price) and replace it when it swirls, although I would be worried the glue damages the paint, the longer the warp is on the bigger the risk.

 

 

 

 

[Pib]

Maybe keep the paint protection simple but a lot better than wax and a lot cheaper than ceramic coating applied at a detail shop.   Ceramic coating products like below are cheap but work really well....simple to apply once you get the paint good-and-clean/smooth....and looks really good afterwards.  Apply every year or so.  I've been using it on my 15 year old Fortuner.

 

 

 

[JBChiangRai]

2 minutes ago, Pib said:

Maybe keep the paint protection simple but a lot better than wax and a lot cheaper than ceramic coating applied at a detail shop.   Ceramic coating products like below are cheap but work really well....simple to apply once you get the paint good-and-clean/smooth....and looks really good afterwards.  Apply every year or so.  I've been using it on my 15 year old Fortuner.

 

 

 

I had my Benz Ceramic coated.  They advertise it as 9H or 10H and claim it's super hard, in reality it doesn't protect from stone chips or scratches at all (though they dubiously claim it helps).  It did remain hydrophobic for about 2 years, and it is the best shine you can get on your new car.  I haven't bothered with the MG, just get the detailer to wax it every 6 months.

[Yellowtail]

1 hour ago, KhunLA said:

That depends on the seat.  Our's would be much hotter without being covered, along with the dog punching holes in them with her nails.

Yeah, anyone with a loose, poorly behaved dog, or cheap seats should use covers. 

[Yellowtail]

Nothing will maintain automotive paint better than good, regular maintenance.  

[JBChiangRai]

The test I use at a car wash is I look at the guys doing the washing, any rings, watches, necklaces, jewelry, buttons, belts and I move on.

[Pib]

Yea...No argument from me that ceramic coating is way overhyped when it comes to protecting from chips/scratches but it's much better than wax for shine, repelling water & grim, lasting power, etc.

 

And when it comes to protecting against stone chips/scratches even PPF can't prevent all of them....especially the aggressive ones.  

 

My Fortuner which I bought new in late 2008 which now has 315,000km under its odometer has very few minor paint chips/scratches (all on the front bumper area from stone's or doors from other cars opening their door against your door).  95% of the kilometers accumulated on roads within a 100km radius of Bangkok.  PPF would probably have helped in protecting against most  (not all) of the stone chips but probably not the door chips.  

 

PPF is definitely better than wax or ceramic coating but it comes at a high price.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[BKKBike09]

On 9/30/2023 at 11:21 AM, vinny41 said:

I think the FB post must be confused about safe wading dept for seal has mixed cm with mm  as it mentions 60cm and it states seal is better than atto 3

Seal Ground Clearance Unladen (mm) 120  (12cm) 

Atto 3  Ground Clearance Unladen (mm) 175 (17.5cm)

Seal Overall Height (mm) 1460 ( 146cm)

60cm wading for seal would equal 41% of total height of seal

I think Ford ranger with standard wheels has a safe wading dept of 800mm (80cm)

60cm for seal would be impressive if correct

It would be a brave person indeed who tried to drive a Seal (or any saloon) through a 0.6 m deep flood!

 

That FB post makes all sorts of claims about how Seal is so much better than Atto including that the main battery is better protected against water and not under the car like the Atto. All sounds a bit rum. I'd rather have the extra clearance to start with, which is one of the reasons I bought the Atto.

 

Have to say the Seal is a good-looking car though, as is the performance.

 

[Andrew Dwyer]

On 10/2/2023 at 8:19 PM, Bandersnatch said:

Black seems to be the crowd favorite, but I ordered a white one because I don’t want anyone to think I’m driving a Tesla 

Some people go to great lengths to disguise their wealth.

 

[Bandersnatch]

MP didn’t want a driver, wanted to drive himself.

 

[macahoom]

1 hour ago, Bandersnatch said:

MP didn’t want a driver, wanted to drive himself.

 

Marco Polo?

[ExpatOilWorker]

2 hours ago, Bandersnatch said:

MP didn’t want a driver, wanted to drive himself.

 

 

[mistral53]

7 hours ago, Pib said:

Maybe keep the paint protection simple but a lot better than wax and a lot cheaper than ceramic coating applied at a detail shop.   Ceramic coating products like below are cheap but work really well....simple to apply once you get the paint good-and-clean/smooth....and looks really good afterwards.  Apply every year or so.  I've been using it on my 15 year old Fortuner.

 

 

 

For me, the whole point of ceramic coating is the paint preparation by a qualified detailer, i.e. polishing to max the shine and sparkle. Ceramic coating just seals in the shine, protects from bird droppings (or the tokay gecko who is always aiming for one of our cars) tree sap, nail polish etc.

[DavisH]

On 10/4/2023 at 6:30 PM, Bandersnatch said:

Not sure if anyone is in the BYD Seal Thailand FB group. The admin of the group has a black Seal and was planning to wrap it in PPF but got hit before he could. The black colour clearly shows the white undercoat. 
 

Anybody thinking of getting a PPF wrap?
 

He tested the depth of paint and said it was a good standard.

 

 

Here is the video of the damage. Apologies that that it’s in Thai

 

https://www.facebook.com/groups/bydsealclub/permalink/1007526720466067/

 

 

 

PPF could be 30-40K just for the hood, front bumper and front wheel arches. I did look into that. We have ceramic coatings on both out cars - they are good for minor scratches that are easy to remove, but they wont stop stone chips. The PPF can help there - avoid repainting if possible. I've not had a lot of success with properly matching panels. My wife's car got a small stone chip. I did use touchup on it an managed to sand it a bit. Looks ok, but not perfect. 

[DavisH]

On 10/3/2023 at 6:06 PM, Pib said:

Here are some real world testing stats for the Seal like energy usage (i.e., range) when the next time (or first time) it gets down to a -10C here in Thailand. ????    But fortunately the site also shows energy usage at 23C a little bit closer to Thailand's temperature.

 

RWD model

https://ev-database.org/car/2001/BYD-SEAL-825-kWh-RWD-Design

 

AWD model

https://ev-database.org/car/2002/BYD-SEAL-825-kWh-AWD-Excellence

 

 

One user on TH Facebook page claimed most of the battery in the performance model was drained from a  290km return trip to Chonburi. This was at speeds of 120-160km/h. I imagine it will be much better at 100km/h

[Melpomene]

On 9/30/2023 at 7:12 PM, KhunLA said:

Yes, with 3 settings of regen.  I leave it on the highest (3), and when in Nan, made a huge difference, as some quite steep hills.  At one point, I wasn't 'using' any energy that wasn't being totally replaced.

 

That's some pretty techie stuff.  

Out of interest is there any reason, other than personal preference of driving style, that you wouldn't want the highest levels of regen at all times?

 

I'm still learning about everything EV, and this seems like the best setting to have - additional range, less wear on the brakes etc. Just wondered if I'd missed something?

[KhunLA]

6 minutes ago, Melpomene said:

Out of interest is there any reason, other than personal preference of driving style, that you wouldn't want the highest levels of regen at all times?

 

I'm still learning about everything EV, and this seems like the best setting to have - additional range, less wear on the brakes etc. Just wondered if I'd missed something?

No, you didn't miss a beat, as seems the way to go.  2 is less regen, and 1 is almost non existence.  Slows you down not much more than a normal downshift in a manual transmission vehicle.  You get used to it very fast, and not much more centrifugal force than coming up to a stop and using brakes.

 

As stated, takes a few times to get used to, as first 10ish times playing 1 foot driving, you stop a bit early to your turn or traffic in front of you.

[macahoom]

31 minutes ago, Melpomene said:

Out of interest is there any reason, other than personal preference of driving style, that you wouldn't want the highest levels of regen at all times?

 

I'm still learning about everything EV, and this seems like the best setting to have - additional range, less wear on the brakes etc. Just wondered if I'd missed something?

Having different levels of regen is essential.

 

You take your foot off the accelerator which activates the level of regen which suits the level of deceleration you want to achieve. You most certainly do not always want the maximum level.

 

For example, if you were coming down a very steep hill, you’d set the regen to maximum. Whereas, If the hill had only a slight gradient, you’d use the minimum setting.

[Bandersnatch]

For those that missed it, after BYD launched the Seal in Thailand getting 1,000 orders in the first hour, Tesla listed the Highland Model 3 on it’s Thailand page at a substantial discount. In all other countries that I have seen, the price has been raised over the previous version.

 

One other thing to note, in Thailand no delivery date is listed, unlike in other countries. My thoughts on this is that Tesla wanted to show a reduced price to disrupt sales of the BYD Seal even thought they had no immediate plans to sell the Highland model 3 here.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[JBChiangRai]

10 hours ago, DavisH said:

I've not had a lot of success with properly matching panels. My wife's car got a small stone chip. I did use touchup on it an managed to sand it a bit. Looks ok, but not perfect. 

I rejected a Toyota Camry here 17 years ago when the main dealer painted the door after my then partner crashed it and it was a different colour, I told them to do it again and blow into the front wing and back door, and they did.  I warned the paint shop who repaired by daughter's MG EP+ that if it wasn't perfect we wouldn't accept it, and I checked it thoroughly, it was a perfect job.  She parked it at her boyfriends hall of residence and a glass blew off a high balcony and chipped 5 panels. The important thing is not to sign for it if it's not right then the insurance company doesn't pay them.

 

1 hour ago, Melpomene said:

Out of interest is there any reason, other than personal preference of driving style, that you wouldn't want the highest levels of regen at all times?

 

I can't speak for the Seal but on an MG, the advantage of maximum regen is that you use the brakes a lot less, and instead of turning forward motion into heat with the brakes you turn it into electricity and it goes back in the battery.

 

You can typically use the brakes for the last few km/hour to bring the vehicle to a complete stop.

[mistral53]

1 hour ago, Melpomene said:

Out of interest is there any reason, other than personal preference of driving style, that you wouldn't want the highest levels of regen at all times?

 

I'm still learning about everything EV, and this seems like the best setting to have - additional range, less wear on the brakes etc. Just wondered if I'd missed something?

Yes, there are reasons not to use that max regen, and that is comfort: At max regen level, at the moment of disengaging cruise control, everybody's head bobs quite violently. because the regen comes on instantly at max deceleration. BTW - this is the same with the MG, except on that model I can give 2 quick pulls on the paddles before disengaging.

The Seal does the same instant max decel when lifting, but that can be compensated by lifting the foot from the accelerator gradually. However, with different cars in a household with different decl behavior, the boss of the house made me change the regen to standard, her driving style is not conducive to constantly change to different cars, she just wants it smooth. Since the Seal has brake blending, the amount of regenerated energy should be the same in both settings.

[JBChiangRai]

8 minutes ago, mistral53 said:

Yes, there are reasons not to use that max regen, and that is comfort: At max regen level, at the moment of disengaging cruise control, everybody's head bobs quite violently. because the regen comes on instantly at max deceleration. BTW - this is the same with the MG, except on that model I can give 2 quick pulls on the paddles before disengaging.

The Seal does the same instant max decel when lifting, but that can be compensated by lifting the foot from the accelerator gradually. However, with different cars in a household with different decl behavior, the boss of the house made me change the regen to standard, her driving style is not conducive to constantly change to different cars, she just wants it smooth. Since the Seal has brake blending, the amount of regenerated energy should be the same in both settings.

My daughter prefers minimum regen too.  We change each other's settings every time we drive each other's cars.

[mistral53]

41 minutes ago, JBChiangRai said:

I rejected a Toyota Camry here 17 years ago when the main dealer painted the door after my then partner crashed it and it was a different colour, I told them to do it again and blow into the front wing and back door, and they did.  I warned the paint shop who repaired by daughter's MG EP+ that if it wasn't perfect we wouldn't accept it, and I checked it thoroughly, it was a perfect job.  She parked it at her boyfriends hall of residence and a glass blew off a high balcony and chipped 5 panels. The important thing is not to sign for it if it's not right then the insurance company doesn't pay them.

 

I can't speak for the Seal but on an MG, the advantage of maximum regen is that you use the brakes a lot less, and instead of turning forward motion into heat with the brakes you turn it into electricity and it goes back in the battery.

 

You can typically use the brakes for the last few km/hour to bring the vehicle to a complete stop.

To support JB's point - this is a brake disk with 5,000 km........the grinding pattern on our MG was still visible.

[Yellowtail]

12 hours ago, mistral53 said:

For me, the whole point of ceramic coating is the paint preparation by a qualified detailer, i.e. polishing to max the shine and sparkle. Ceramic coating just seals in the shine, protects from bird droppings (or the tokay gecko who is always aiming for one of our cars) tree sap, nail polish etc.

Nail polish? 

[KhunLA]

48 minutes ago, mistral53 said:

Yes, there are reasons not to use that max regen, and that is comfort: At max regen level, at the moment of disengaging cruise control, everybody's head bobs quite violently. because the regen comes on instantly at max deceleration. BTW - this is the same with the MG, except on that model I can give 2 quick pulls on the paddles before disengaging.

The Seal does the same instant max decel when lifting, but that can be compensated by lifting the foot from the accelerator gradually. However, with different cars in a household with different decl behavior, the boss of the house made me change the regen to standard, her driving style is not conducive to constantly change to different cars, she just wants it smooth. Since the Seal has brake blending, the amount of regenerated energy should be the same in both settings.

You could simple accelerate a bit while disengaging the CC.  Avoid the deceleration at speeds.

[Alotoftravel]

2 hours ago, Bandersnatch said:

 

For those that missed it, after BYD launched the Seal in Thailand getting 1,000 orders in the first hour, Tesla listed the Highland Model 3 on it’s Thailand page at a substantial discount. In all other countries that I have seen, the price has been raised over the previous version.

 

One other thing to note, in Thailand no delivery date is listed, unlike in other countries. My thoughts on this is that Tesla wanted to show a reduced price to disrupt sales of the BYD Seal even thought they had no immediate plans to sell the Highland model 3 here.

 

 

 

 

 

Even with the reduced pricing , there are good reasons to go with BYD:

-does not include 1st year insurance and car registration 

-only 1 service center in BKK for repairs , warranty and maintenance.

-need to pick up new car in BKK and drive back to far away province home .

-longer car And battery warranty 

-24 hour road side assistance for 8 years 

-Recharge cable and v2l cable included

-less expensive car insurance premium

etc . 

 

[Bandersnatch]

4 minutes ago, Alotoftravel said:

Even with the reduced pricing , there are good reasons to go with BYD:

-does not include 1st year insurance and car registration 

-only 1 service center in BKK for repairs , warranty and maintenance.

-need to pick up new car in BKK and drive back to far away province home .

-longer car And battery warranty 

-24 hour road side assistance for 8 years 

-Recharge cable and v2l cable included

-less expensive car insurance premium

etc . 

 

All good reasons and I why I ordered a LR BYD Seal.

 

Talking of which got contacted by SCB yesterday (who I have banked with for over 20 years) about the finance on the Seal. They asked for a copy of my UK tax return for 22-23 and Land Registry documents for my UK properties which I sent them. They turned up at the house yesterday wanting a tour of the house and the grounds - all seemed a bit OTT