Electric Vehicles in Thailand

[Bandersnatch]

Tesla is for sale in Malaysia far cheaper than in Thailand and with White colour for free. In Thailand white costs an ฿50,000.

 

 

[Alotoftravel]

Hi BKkbike09,

 

do you mean if there are there are 3 cars using this charging station at the same time ,

 

We might be paying the 9 baht for 120 Khw but getting less output kWh since all 3 cars are charging, thus more time charging and unfairly charged ?

 

 

 

 

 

[macahoom]

6 minutes ago, Alotoftravel said:

We might be paying the 9 baht for 120 Khw but getting less output kWh since all 3 cars are charging, thus more time charging and unfairly charged ?

I think you'll pay for what you get.

 

It clearly states "By energy usage 9.00 THB/kWh".

[Gweiloman]

20 minutes ago, Alotoftravel said:

Hi BKkbike09,

 

do you mean if there are there are 3 cars using this charging station at the same time ,

 

We might be paying the 9 baht for 120 Khw but getting less output kWh since all 3 cars are charging, thus more time charging and unfairly charged ?

 

 

 

 

 

Post not addressed to me but I’ll chip in anyway.

 

Answer is no. You pay for the amount of power drawn, regardless of whether it takes 5 mins or an hour.

 

[Alotoftravel]

Thanks ,

so 9 baht kWh. We just get a slower charging output , just more time needed . 

[Andrew Dwyer]

Here’s an accessory in the design stage:

 

 

Hopefully the finished product will be in a more substantial material ????

[mistral53]

2 hours ago, Bandersnatch said:

Looks good, did you buy and fit yourself? How much?

The part is less than THB 900 on Lazada, shipped. I am not sure I can post a link here, but it is easy to find when searching under BYD Seal.

 

[macahoom]

55 minutes ago, mistral53 said:

The part is less than THB 900 on Lazada, shipped. I am not sure I can post a link here, but it is easy to find when searching under BYD Seal.

 

Did you install it yourself?

 

Could an imbecile like me install one?

[mistral53]

1 hour ago, macahoom said:

Did you install it yourself?

 

Could an imbecile like me install one?

Do you have a 3 yo kid in your household or the neighborhood? Promise them to sit behind the wheel for a minute in return and it's done.....lol

[BKKBike09]

20 hours ago, Alotoftravel said:

Hi BKkbike09,

 

do you mean if there are there are 3 cars using this charging station at the same time ,

 

We might be paying the 9 baht for 120 Khw but getting less output kWh since all 3 cars are charging, thus more time charging and unfairly charged ?

 

 

 

 

 

Others have already answered but no, you pay flat rate regardless of how long it takes to get the power.

 

If you had two cars connected at the same time to the charger in your example, they'd share the total power available between them. Also looks like that charger might not get the rated supply anyway, at certain times of high general demand in the area.

 

THB 9 per kWh is pricey, though. 

 

[Andrew Dwyer]

BYD Seal owners, don’t get caught out with a flat 12v battery early doors especially as the 12v battery is not easily accessible.

 

Well here’s a short video explaining how to use the fuse box facility, it’s in Thai but you get the gist and can clearly see the positive and a nut for the bare metal.
 

 

https://fb.watch/nAqVYeytue/?mibextid=K8Wfd2

[Pib]

On 10/6/2023 at 1:45 PM, Andrew Dwyer said:

Regarding regen: I think it would be foolish not to use it at some level.

This Guy reckons it makes up for 25% of his battery energy, the other 75% comes from charging.

 

 

( I tried to play the video but won’t play now, anyone else ?? )

I hope this guy is right that regenerative braking generates 25% of the electricity pumped back into his Atto battery and only 75% comes from a charger. 

 

But when looking at the Accumulated Charge Energy reflected in his OBD2 data below (see snapshot 1 below...I marked with an arrow point to it) and substract the Accumulated Discharge Energy which this guy used in his calculations (which he circled) the result is 30KWH less discharge energy than charged energy which indicates 2% of charge may have come from regenerative braking.  And if the 30KWH was really just a 50% charge put on the Atto Extended Range 60KWH battery when leaving the factory with no kilometers accumulated then regenerative braking hasn't added any range---but I'm pretty sure even if using this method it's not correct/accurate.  So much depends on knowing exactly what the various charge and discharge metrics really mean, how measured, etc.     

 

Based on my googling in  trying to find out what percentage of a person's driving typically comes from regenerative braking all I've come across is like where it talks how how much energy regenerative braking can possibly recover from "kinetic" energy which goes on to say that does not mean all of that converted kinetic energy ends up as charge going to the battery.  See Snapshot 2 below.   

 

As to how much electrical energy finds its way to the battery is affected by a whole bunch of things such as losses, how long the regenerative braking lasts (maybe just a second or two while braking from a slow speed, maybe a long time if coasting down a mountain, etc), how frequent is the regenerative breaking, etc.    For this guy to gain 25% it seems he might have to be during VERY frequent stop & go driving like in city traffic all the time, driving/coasting down hill a lot (but you eventually have to drive back up that hill burning off charge), etc.  Plus, when braking to a stop while regenerative energy is being feed back to the battery at a certain percentage that percentage will be less than the amount of energy that must be expended to get the car back up to speed again. 

 

If I ever get my red Atto (still supposedly inbound from the China factory....could have had another color two weeks ago) I surely hope I get 25% of my range from regenerative driving, but I'm highly doubtful right now.  If anyone knows of some website(s) that give some good info/stats on how much range regenerative braking typically adds for a typical EV please provide the link as it will hopefully help to satisfy my curiosity on this subject. 

 

Once I get my Atto I'll surely do some testing on my own probably by adding a specific amount of charge...say 30KWH to reach a specific charge percentage....then drive a 100Km...and then recharge to the earlier specific charge percentage to see how many KWH it took...then do the math.   If I only had to add say 25KWH to get back to the pre-100Km charge percentage then I will know 17% must have come from regenerative braking.

 

Snapshot 1 from the youtube video...the guy circled the discharge number he used but the charge number I point to he didn't use.

 

 

Snapshot 2 from some googling

 

 

 

[macahoom]

1 hour ago, Andrew Dwyer said:

BYD Seal owners, don’t get caught out with a flat 12v battery early doors

I can't think why you are saying this. Is there something about the 12V battery that can be problematic?

 

And what's "early doors"?

[Bandersnatch]

BYD Seal RWD LR (Premium) purchase update.

 

Found out today that finance has been approved. The sales girl said she hoped to get us a white premium this month. Clearly all the stock they had has been sold. 
 

I thought buying White rather than the cool Black and also not choosing the popular performance version would help with delivery but apparently not.

[Andrew Dwyer]

24 minutes ago, macahoom said:

I can't think why you are saying this. Is there something about the 12V battery that can be problematic?

 

And what's "early doors"?

No problem at all, just saying as it is a different method to jumpstart, if required, I thought it handy to know.

 

Early doors meaning, early in the ownership of the vehicle.

 

No ulterior motive intended, have not seen any mention of the 12v battery being problematic, only wished to pass on useful information.

[macahoom]

2 hours ago, Bandersnatch said:

and also not choosing the popular performance version

I got the impression, from the Seal forum, that the Performance was not being ordered much.

 

At the close of business on launch day, only 2 Performance models had been ordered in Phuket, both of which had been reserved before launch day.

 

 

[Bandersnatch]

1 minute ago, macahoom said:

I got the impression, from the Seal forum, that the Performance was not being ordered much.

 

At the close of business on launch day, only 2 Performance models had been ordered in Phuket, both of which had been reserved before launch day.

 

 

Maybe you’re right. My dealership is only posting pics of AWD version and seen a few pics of Black AWDs on the Seal Forum but they might be the same car. I know Admin has a Black AWD

[Pib]

34 minutes ago, macahoom said:

I got the impression, from the Seal forum, that the Performance was not being ordered much.

 

At the close of business on launch day, only 2 Performance models had been ordered in Phuket, both of which had been reserved before launch day.

 

If I needed to take a Seal to the race track each weekend to actually race and impress my fellow racers where the Performance model would overshadow with pure power the Premium and Dynamic models then I would want to go to the race track with a Performance model.  But since I don't race....just make Big C and Lotus type runs....drive the roads of Thailand not exceeding the speed limits too much the Premium model is definitely the one I would buy primarily due to it's 650km range compared to 510km for the Dynamic model and 580km for the Performance.    

 

Now if Mom/Day was really paying from my new Seal then I would go with the Performance model. ????

[JBChiangRai]

1 hour ago, macahoom said:

I got the impression, from the Seal forum, that the Performance was not being ordered much.

 

At the close of business on launch day, only 2 Performance models had been ordered in Phuket, both of which had been reserved before launch day.

 

 

 

17 minutes ago, Pib said:

If I needed to take a Seal to the race track each weekend to actually race and impress my fellow racers where the Performance model would overshadow with pure power the Premium and Dynamic models then I would want to go to the race track with a Performance model.  But since I don't race....just make Big C and Lotus type runs....drive the roads of Thailand not exceeding the speed limits too much the Premium model is definitely the one I would buy primarily due to it's 650km range compared to 510km for the Dynamic model and 580km for the Performance.    

 

Now if Mom/Day was really paying from my new Seal then I would go with the Performance model. ????

I am surprised, I thought the performance version would be the most popular..

 

And just think, with the performance version you could get to Big C & Lotus a few seconds earlier!

[Pib]

4 hours ago, Pib said:

If I ever get my red Atto (still supposedly inbound from the China factory....could have had another color two weeks ago).....

The Thai wife and I went to our BYD Dealership this morning to ask face-to-face when our red Atto is projected to arrive as the two week estimate given to us 2 weeks and 1 day ago hasn't come true.  In one telephone follow-up to the salesperson via phone last week there still wasn't even a projected delivery date as the dealership simply couldn't get a firm or even projected date....some date they felt confident in.    Fortunately both the manager and the salesperson we had been dealing with were there.  After some initial discussion to ensure the manager understood our frustration he spent about 15 minutes on the phone trying to get more delivery info.  

 

As it turned out that during that phone call he was able to confirm another person's order of a red Atto had just fell thru as Financing fell thru at the last minute.   The dealership had already installed the Solar Guard Premium window film/tinting the buyer had ordered.   So, the manager offered us that red Atto which we got to look at in their warehouse behind the showroom if we would accept the car with the Solar Guard tinting.  But the tinting was way too dark for the wife and I....it was 80% on the sunroof and 60% on all remaining windows.  No problem with 80% on the sunroof (darker the better) but this particular brand of Solar Guard 60% on all remaining windows was just way too dark.   

 

As I have talked in this or a related Atto thread the "slang" way of calling film in Thailand  80%/60%/40% of visible light being blocked is a bad way to order film...a person actually needs to see a sample and look at the specs to see how much light is really blocked.  It's typical for a slang 80% film to really block 90 to 95% of visible light...and 40% could be closer to blocking 60% which is way too dark for me for the windshield.   Yea, a person needs to look at the specs and a sample of the particular film...or even better see another car with the tinting already installed to see what it really looks like.  

 

Anyway, the manager was not willing to replace the Solar Guard film already installed just a day ago with the Lumina film we want for our Atto unless we also paid for that Solar Guard film that would have to be removed.  Leaving the Solar Guard on the sunroof would have been fine...darker the better....but the tinting on all remaining windows was just too dark for us and we are not willing to pay for a film installation ordered by someone else only to have it removed and replaced with what we ordered.  Kinda like paying twice for the tinting.  I expect the manager knows he can sell the car quickly with the really dark Solar Guard tinting and don't want to absorb a loss on the tinting.

 

So, we are still waiting.   Once again the dealership said we could get another color like white or green like tomorrow...but we'll wait for a red one which I'm still hoping to occur over the coming weeks. 

 

More discussion with the manager and salesman (and confirmed by us talking to another dealership in a nearby province this past weekend) two ships carrying thousands of BYD vehicles will arrive Thailand in October.   The manager said he had approx 300 cars on backorder just for his dealership alone. And he expressed big frustration in getting cars which have already arrived Thailand released from Customs as he said the govt is so slow in processing vehicles thru Customs to ensure whatever tax is due is indeed paid.    Anyway the manager promised an update in two days....both the wife and I felt the manager will truly do his best to roundup another red Atto as soon as he possibly can.  Time will tell.

 

[Pib]

27 minutes ago, JBChiangRai said:

 

I am surprised, I thought the performance version would be the most popular..

 

And just think, with the performance version you could get to Big C & Lotus a few seconds earlier!

Actually, right now I would not take a Seal to my local Lotus because due to all the rain a person has to drive thru a standing pool of water approx 150mm deep and aprox 3 meters in width due to poor drainage in the area.    Since the Seal only has 120mm unladen ground clearance the Seal would be surfing on its traction battery.  

 

[JBChiangRai]

25 minutes ago, Pib said:

Actually, right now I would not take a Seal to my local Lotus because due to all the rain a person has to drive thru a standing pool of water approx 150mm deep and aprox 3 meters in width due to poor drainage in the area.    Since the Seal only has 120mm unladen ground clearance the Seal would be surfing on its traction battery.  

 

I took my German electric car through a 450 mm flood with no adverse effects

[Pib]

2 hours ago, Pib said:

 

As I have talked in this or a related Atto thread the "slang" way of calling film in Thailand  80%/60%/40% of visible light being blocked is a bad way to order film...a person actually needs to see a sample and look at the specs to see how much light is really blocked.  It's typical for a slang 80% film to really block 90 to 95% of visible light...and 40% could be closer to blocking 60% which is way too dark for me for the windshield.   Yea, a person needs to look at the specs and a sample of the particular film...or even better see another car with the tinting already installed to see what it really looks like.  

 

I was able to confirm with the salesperson a few minutes ago what the specific Solar Guard film was installed on that red Atto....the film that was way to dark (and black) looking to us.   It was the Solar Guard "Black Phantom" series.   I wanted to confirm in order to look up the specs for the film.

 

What the dealership was calling 80% film (as in blocks 80% of visible light) in this Solar Guard series of film was Black Phantom "BH-5" which really only allows 5% of visible light to shine thru thereby blocking 95% of visible light.   What they called 60% was the Black Phantom "BH-15" which lets 14% thru and blocks 86% of visible light.   And what they called 40%"was the Black Phantom "BH-30" that allows 30% thru and blocks 70%.  With BH-15 on the door windows and windshield (86% visible light blocking) I expect night driving would been challenging with only 14% of light being allowed thru....would make having a good night view of what is in front and around you kinda tough...or what you just ran over.  And while setting inside the car today it just seemed too dark for our tastes...not enough light coming thru.   See snapshot of specs at bottom.

 

As mentioned before, best to check out the actual specs/see actual film samples/maybe even set in a car with certain film installed as there are so, so many films sold by many film manufacturers versus relying on the slang method of 80/60/40/20%.

 

Plus this particular series of Solar Guard film appeared really black when standing outside the car...guess that why its called Black Phantom...too black for our liking.  But I realize many people like a really black looking film, others prefer more of a soft charcoal color or gray, a few even prefer silver, etc.  

 

The wife even called the dealership again this evening to see if they would provide the red Atto "without" the price of the current film installed (i.e., free film) since we would have to take the car to a shop to get most of the film replaced to what we wanted.... but that turned out to be a no-go with the dealer.   I took it as a no-go when we were physically talking to the manager earlier today but the wife wanted to try again.  Expect it's was a no-go since the dealership was contractually bound to pay/had already paid the Solar Guard team called into the dealership to install film on different vehicles right in the dealership's delivery preparation warehouse.  The dealership didn't want to eat that cost as they know it will not take long to sell the vehicle to someone else which will include the cost of that Solar Guard film already installed.

 

 

Solar Guard Black Phantom Series Specs

 

 

 

    

 

[Melpomene]

7 hours ago, Bandersnatch said:

BYD Seal RWD LR (Premium) purchase update.

 

Found out today that finance has been approved. The sales girl said she hoped to get us a white premium this month. Clearly all the stock they had has been sold. 
 

I thought buying White rather than the cool Black and also not choosing the popular performance version would help with delivery but apparently not.

Congratulations, hopefully you'll now not have to wait too long to collect the car.

 

If I remember correctly you mentioned you were doing the finance in your wife's name, but based upon your income from outside of Thailand - have I got that right ?  We've always paid cash for our cars, but I may be tempted to finance this one as I didn't realise this would be possible, so it's good to know you can do this.

[Melpomene]

I think I've seen them mentioned on this thread before, but I'm currently driving an EV that I hired from EVme https://evme.io

 

I wanted to see what it was like living with one before I commit.  I'm very impressed both with the car (Atto 3) and the service.  It's very easy to book through their app.  Collection is also straight forward and they'll deliver within Bkk.  Price wise they're comparable with other hire car companies and they have almost every model available including the Seal.  Definitely recommended if you fancy trying before buying...

[Pib]

9 minutes ago, Melpomene said:

I think I've seen them mentioned on this thread before, but I'm currently driving an EV that I hired from EVme https://evme.io

 

I wanted to see what it was like living with one before I commit.  I'm very impressed both with the car (Atto 3) and the service.  It's very easy to book through their app.  Collection is also straight forward and they'll deliver within Bkk.  Price wise they're comparable with other hire car companies and they have almost every model available including the Seal.  Definitely recommended if you fancy trying before buying...

 What does it cost per week, month, etc., to hire at Atto 3...total cost to include insurance, fee, tax, etc.?

I looked at the site but didn't see any pricing but maybe if it was a snake it would have bit me.   Thanks.

[Melpomene]

2 minutes ago, Pib said:

 What does it cost per week, month, etc., to hire at Atto 3...total cost to include insurance, fee, tax, etc.?

I looked at the site but didn't see any pricing but maybe if it was a snake it would have bit me.   Thanks.

They offer 3 day, 1 week, 1 month and then longer options.

 

For the Atto 3 it starts at 7499 for 3 days inclusive. For a month it goes up to about 40k.  It's not exactly cheap, but it's a similar sort of price for what you'd pay for an SUV with other hire car companies.

[Bandersnatch]

1 hour ago, Melpomene said:

We've always paid cash for our cars, but I may be tempted to finance this one as I didn't realise this would be possible, so it's good to know you can do this

This is the 7th new vehicle I have bought in Thailand. The first 5 I paid cash.
 

I had seen the MG EP EV at a show and wanted to test drive it. My local dealer didn’t have one so I tested another car that was twice the price. I told the dealer it would take me some time to arrange the money and they suggested financing. I was surprised it worked but I now prefer to pay for cars from income than cash in investments.

[Bandersnatch]

BYD Seal Performance v Tesla Model 3 Performance

 

Tesla model 3 price is pre facelift as new price is not available.

 

LFP batteries are less energy dense per kg 

 

 

video of the drag race (in Thai)

 

 

[KhunLA]

27 minutes ago, Bandersnatch said:

BYD Seal Performance v Tesla Model 3 Performance

 

Tesla model 3 price is pre facelift as new price is not available.

 

LFP batteries are less energy dense per kg 

 

 

video of the drag race (in Thai)

 

 

I can think of better things to do w/700k than spend to have a abstract 'T' on the front & back of the car.