Electric Vehicles in Thailand

[Bandersnatch]

1 hour ago, Pib said:

From quickly watching the first video I noticed at about the 27:40 point in the video the Seal has a healthy spaceship sound (i.e., the pedestrian & soi dog warning sound).  Gosh, I understand the intent of the sound but both the wife and I find that sound to be annoying. I guess all the BYD models have that sound below 30KmH unless the little sound box behind the radiator gets unplugged not that I would ever do that. 

 

If the Thai version is the same as the EU version, I will be selecting the "Ice Cream Van" jingle and see how many kiddies come running at the sound 😇

 

 

 

[sirineou]

9 minutes ago, Pib said:

Don't buy an OBD2 adapter...problem solved.

Only kidding Pib. this is a learning experience for me, as it is for most of us. Don't even know what an OBD2 is. Sounds to me like one of the robots in Star Wars, you know, the mouthy one, si I am defiantly not getting one of those.  😂

Does the Thai version of the Atto 3 have the option to run electric appliances of off it?  I could certainly use that at my farm

[Andrew Dwyer]

8 minutes ago, Bandersnatch said:

 

If the Thai version is the same as the EU version, I will be selecting the "Ice Cream Van" jingle and see how many kiddies come running at the sound 😇

 

 

 

I think I will see if some tape around the speaker to stop it being annoying inside the car, failing that will unplug it.

Recently was in a car park when an Atto 3 was cruising looking for a space, it certainly got some strange looks as the sound is loud outside ( as it should be I suppose ) , I personally don’t need the attention.

I live in a moobahn with a speed limit of 20 km/h and 4 speed bumps to traverse so i would become a local celebrity ……. and not in a good way !!

 

A selection of normal sounds would have been more accepted I think, just a beeping sound like a reversing truck would make more sense.

 

Edited October 26, 2023 by Andrew Dwyer

[sirineou]

42 minutes ago, Andrew Dwyer said:

A selection of normal sounds would have been more accepted I think, just a beeping sound like a reversing truck would make more sense.

Or perhaps an option of sounds, Perhaps  the sound of the exhaust of an expensive supercar, ot my personal favorite The Macarena 

You drop below 30 and it starts to play the macarena, it will probably be the only time that the wife would ask me to drive faster, LOL

[Bandersnatch]

1 minute ago, Andrew Dwyer said:

I think I will see if some tape around the speaker to stop it being annoying inside the car, failing that will unplug it.

Recently was in a car park when an Atto 3 was cruising looking for a space, it certainly got some strange looks as the sound is loud outside ( as it should be I suppose ) , I personally don’t need the attention .

 

A selection of normal sounds would have been more accepted I think, just a beeping sound like a reversing truck would make more sense.

 

My MG makes a unintrusive sound like a spaceship which is perfectly acceptable to me. Not sure if it's a generated sound or a slight whine from the electric motor, but ice cream van sound  - really

[Andrew Dwyer]

14 minutes ago, Bandersnatch said:

 

My MG makes a unintrusive sound like a spaceship which is perfectly acceptable to me. Not sure if it's a generated sound or a slight whine from the electric motor, but ice cream van sound  - really

I think there’s 3 options on the Seal, as on the Atto 3, but all weird so i’ll definitely be looking at eliminating or reducing it.

[macahoom]

Just drove my Seal Performance AWD the 15 kms home from the dealership.

 

My initial impression: Wow! Better than I could have ever imagined. It feels like a million dollars. I’m going to follow BYD’s recommendation and take it easy for the first 2000 kms, so it’ll be a while before I can run it through its paces.

 

As for the colour: BYD call it Velocity Blue. It’s a bit of a stretch to call it anything blue. I would describe it as a mixture of blue, violet, purple and grey; it changes colour depending on the ambient light. Certainly not flamboyant; quite restrained.

 

The colour is unusual, for sure. Luckily I like it, as it was not at all what I was expecting.

[Bandersnatch]

3 hours ago, macahoom said:

Just drove my Seal Performance AWD the 15 kms home from the dealership.

 

My initial impression: Wow! Better than I could have ever imagined. It feels like a million dollars. I’m going to follow BYD’s recommendation and take it easy for the first 2000 kms, so it’ll be a while before I can run it through its paces.

 

As for the colour: BYD call it Velocity Blue. It’s a bit of a stretch to call it anything blue. I would describe it as a mixture of blue, violet, purple and grey; it changes colour depending on the ambient light. Certainly not flamboyant; quite restrained.

 

The colour is unusual, for sure. Luckily I like it, as it was not at all what I was expecting.

 

Great to hear, please keep the reports coming e.g. was there a sun shield for the glass roof?

 

We paid our deposit for a White Seal Premium on 29th September (The price was announced at 6pm on 28th September) Seem to be plenty of performance models available  - discussed with the wife if we haven't heard anything by the end of this month, we will ask if we get a AWD any quicker 

[macahoom]

2 minutes ago, Bandersnatch said:

was there a sun shield for the glass roof?

Yes, we got the shade for the roof.

 

But... we were told, although all Seal buyers will receive the shade, they may have to wait for it. We got ours today because I am so handsome and charming.

[JBChiangRai]

Just now, macahoom said:

Yes, we got the shade for the roof.

 

But... we were told, although all Seal buyers will receive the shade, they may have to wait for it. We got ours today because I am so handsome and charming.

Splendid & Tremendous!

[Bandersnatch]

More electric cars spontaneously combusting after driving over a twig in the road

 

 

[macahoom]

39 minutes ago, Bandersnatch said:

 

Great to hear, please keep the reports coming. 

 

we will ask if we get a AWD any quicker 

Also received a V2L cable and a granny charger. The installation of the 7.4kW wall box "in 2 weeks".

 

With regard to choosing which of 6 insurance companies: We enquired about this and were told we couldn't choose. We got Dhipaya.

 

I think you should go for the AWD. You get more than just blistering acceleration.

[josephbloggs]

47 minutes ago, Bandersnatch said:

More electric cars spontaneously combusting after driving over a twig in the road

 

 

 

Great video - I don't know how anyone could ever get in to one of these poorly made Chinese fiery deathtraps.

[Pib]

As mentioned earlier picked-up my Atto yesterday midday...rest of the day was just a few short drives in my immediate area...and just tinkering with the car.  But today the wife and I did our first drive leaving the safety of our immediate area as we did our weekly visit to the Thai mother-in-law to show family the car, gets some car blessings by three lovely old ladies that also blessed our Fortuner 15 years ago.  Since the Fortuner still looks and runs great after 15 years I figure those lovely ol' ladies blessings may have helped and we wanted the Atto to start off with the same blessings.  I will continue to maintain the car well over it's lifetime to assist the blessings. 😄

 

Now for a quick review of the drive which went from western Bangkok and almost all the way thru the neighboring province of Nakhon Pathom where the MIL lives. Mostly on road #4/Phet Kasen Road with some on a rural two lane road.  We started with a 100% battery charge level.  It was mostly highway speed driving at around 80-90KmH but some very slow, stop-and-go, congested driving when still in Bangkok. 

 

The ride was very smooth and quiet.  No wind noise even at 95KmH....all you heard was the normal tire noise.  The air con worked great...nice and cool when set at 23C.   I had the car in ECO mode which still provided plenty of power/get-up and go.  Will be leaving it in ECO mode for the first 2000Km break-in period as recommended by the manual.   Got to tinker with the infotainment system while driving which helped a lot to better understand/experience it...the camera system on the car is very good...so is the GPS map system.  The voice command system (a.k.a., Hi BYD) really works great and greatly reduces the need to actually tap the screen to change some setting, switch to different functions/apps, etc.  

 

The roundtrip was 137.6Km...charge level went down to 74%...it's been plugged into the granny charger since getting back home to bring it back to 100%.  Will be nice to get the wall charger so recharge/top-up can happen a lot faster....but the granny charger will easily suffice until we get the wall charger in a few weeks.

 

Now, 137.6Km divided by the 26% charge used equals 5.2923 Km for each 1% charge used.  If multiplying 5.2923 by 100 (for 100% charge) that gives a range of 529Km vs the Atto's advertised 480Km NEDC range. HOWEVER, BUT such a calculation assumes the Km per each 1% power used would be linear from 0 to 100% which is unlikely.  But it does gives me a warm-fuzzy indication that after more driving the car's real world range should be at around 400Km....if more--great....will have to wait and see over the coming months.

 

Yeap, PIb's long test drive went just fine.   Another couple of hours on the granny charger and the car will be back to 100% charge...fully mission capable for tomorrow's mission (driving).  Cheers. 

 

 

Edited October 26, 2023 by Pib
Corrected a math error

[Pib]

Oh, one more thing to add.  If I had done above 137.6Km drive in my Fortuner 3.0L Diesel (which I've done at least once weekly over the last 15 years) the trip would have cost me Bt396 in B7 diesel fuel.  But in the Atto the electric fuel cost is Bt125....a 68% savings/cost reduction.

[Pib]

10 hours ago, Andrew Dwyer said:

I think I will see if some tape around the speaker to stop it being annoying inside the car, failing that will unplug it.

Recently was in a car park when an Atto 3 was cruising looking for a space, it certainly got some strange looks as the sound is loud outside ( as it should be I suppose ) , I personally don’t need the attention.

I live in a moobahn with a speed limit of 20 km/h and 4 speed bumps to traverse so i would become a local celebrity ……. and not in a good way !!

 

A selection of normal sounds would have been more accepted I think, just a beeping sound like a reversing truck would make more sense.

 

Yea...a neighbor on my soi got his Atto about 5 days ago and every time he leaves and comes home he has to drive by my house...the sound is just freaken annoying "to me" at least...maybe just a case of still having good hearing and just not liking the spaceship sound even even a little bit.  But as mentioned, I'm now silent running in my Atto.

[Pib]

10 hours ago, sirineou said:

Only kidding Pib. this is a learning experience for me, as it is for most of us. Don't even know what an OBD2 is. Sounds to me like one of the robots in Star Wars, you know, the mouthy one, si I am defiantly not getting one of those.  😂

Does the Thai version of the Atto 3 have the option to run electric appliances of off it?  I could certainly use that at my farm

Yea...the Atto comes with a vehicle-to-load adapter which takes battery voltage and converts it to 220V to power your TV, fan, laser cannon, etc., during picnics.  I doubt I will ever use it unless there is an extended power outage for hours and hours (extremely rare for me here in Bangkok) and I need to power my refrigerators, fans, recharge the smartphones, recharge some battery lanterns, etc.  But it feels good I have a BIG battery setting in my carport to power some stuff in my home if needed during an emergency....hope I never have to use it.

 

[Pib]

9 hours ago, macahoom said:

Just drove my Seal Performance AWD the 15 kms home from the dealership.

 

My initial impression: Wow! Better than I could have ever imagined. It feels like a million dollars. I’m going to follow BYD’s recommendation and take it easy for the first 2000 kms, so it’ll be a while before I can run it through its paces.

 

As for the colour: BYD call it Velocity Blue. It’s a bit of a stretch to call it anything blue. I would describe it as a mixture of blue, violet, purple and grey; it changes colour depending on the ambient light. Certainly not flamboyant; quite restrained.

 

The colour is unusual, for sure. Luckily I like it, as it was not at all what I was expecting.

 

Congrats...you having that new car smell high right now!!!....enjoy it!!!!  

 

This morning I stopped by my dealership to ask a insurance question before starting my 137.6km drive and I noticed the black Seal they normally had on display in the showroom was missing.  The showroom normally has one Seal, one Dolphin, and two Atto's on display.  The Dolphin normally on display was also missing.  I asked the salesperson why so few display models and he said they sold them due to high sales (especially for the Seal right now).  He said they should getting more Seals, Dolphins, and Atto's very soon...within days...and one shipment today.   I was really surprised they would sell their "only" Seal and Dolphin models on display...expect some HiSo insisted on getting his black Seal "now!!!"...and maybe even that HiSo also wanted a Dolphin now!!   

 

When the wife and I was returning from our trip this evening we drove by the dealership and an 8 vehicle carrier truck was unloading Atto's...there were 6 gray Atto's still on the carrier....don't know if it  arrived fully loaded with 8 vehicles....maybe all Atto's...maybe one or two Seals and/or Dolphis also.   White and gray seem to be the most popular Atto colors based on seeing them in the wild...green is pretty popular also.

[KhunLA]

31 minutes ago, Pib said:

Yea...the Atto comes with a vehicle-to-load adapter which takes battery voltage and converts it to 220V to power your TV, fan, laser cannon, etc., during picnics.  I doubt I will ever use it unless there is an extended power outage for hours and hours (extremely rare for me here in Bangkok) and I need to power my refrigerators, fans, recharge the smartphones, recharge some battery lanterns, etc.  But it feels good I have a BIG battery setting in my carport to power some stuff in my home if needed during an emergency....hope I never have to use it.

 

I used ours once, but just as a tester, to make sure it works.   I travel with water kettle, coffee & cups, and still yet to bust it out at a viewpoint.

 

Can only see me using it if I run across someone on an E-MB that misjudged their range.  

[Andrew Dwyer]

1 hour ago, Pib said:

As mentioned earlier picked-up my Atto yesterday midday...rest of the day was just a few short drives in my immediate area...and just tinkering with the car.  But today the wife and I did our first drive leaving the safety of our immediate area as we did our weekly visit to the Thai mother-in-law to show family the car, gets some car blessings by three lovely old ladies that also blessed our Fortuner 15 years ago.  Since the Fortuner still looks and runs great after 15 years I figure those lovely ol' ladies blessings may have helped and we wanted the Atto to start off with the same blessings.  I will continue to maintain the car well over it's lifetime to assist the blessings. 😄

 

Now for a quick review of the drive which went from western Bangkok and almost all the way thru the neighboring province of Nakhon Pathom where the MIL lives. Mostly on road #4/Phet Kasen Road with some on a rural two lane road.  We started with a 100% battery charge level.  It was mostly highway speed driving at around 80-90KmH but some very slow, stop-and-go, congested driving when still in Bangkok. 

 

The ride was very smooth and quiet.  No wind noise even at 95KmH....all you heard was the normal tire noise.  The air con worked great...nice and cool when set at 23C.   I had the car in ECO mode which still provided plenty of power/get-up and go.  Will be leaving it in ECO mode for the first 2000Km break-in period as recommended by the manual.   Got to tinker with the infotainment system while driving which helped a lot to better understand/experience it...the camera system on the car is very good...so is the GPS map system.  The voice command system (a.k.a., Hi BYD) really works great and greatly reduces the need to actually tap the screen to change some setting, switch to different functions/apps, etc.  

 

The roundtrip was 137.6Km...charge level went down to 74%...it's been plugged into the granny charger since getting back home to bring it back to 100%.  Will be nice to get the wall charger so recharge/top-up can happen a lot faster....but the granny charger will easily suffice until we get the wall charger in a few weeks.

 

Now, 137.6Km divided by the 26% charge used equals 5.2923 Km for each 1% charge used.  If multiplying 5.2923 by 100 (for 100% charge) that gives a range of 529Km vs the Atto's advertised 480Km NEDC range. HOWEVER, BUT such a calculation assumes the Km per each 1% power used would be linear from 0 to 100% which is unlikely.  But it does gives me a warm-fuzzy indication that after more driving the car's real world range should be at around 400Km....if more--great....will have to wait and see over the coming months.

 

Yeap, PIb's long test drive went just fine.   Another couple of hours on the granny charger and the car will be back to 100% charge...fully mission capable for tomorrow's mission (driving).  Cheers. 

 

 

Yup, when I get my Seal one of the first trips will be up to the little lady’s hometown and a visit to the Wat there for the monk’s blessing, as we have done with the last 3 cars.

A 420 km round trip so should be a good test and I will be looking forward to that even if it means an obligatory visit to the mother in law !!

I had a little play with the voice commands in the showroom and was impressed, will be particularly helpful to increase/decrease temp or fan speed without fiddling with the screen although with the Seal it can be done via a steering wheel shortcut but far easier to say “ I am too hot “ or “set temp to 20°” etc

To avoid the voice command assistant butting in every time you say anything remotely close to “ BYD “ you can disable the “ Hi BYD “ start command on the screen and use the microphone symbol button on your steering wheel.

There are a lot of commands but i suspect only a handful will get used.

 

Also, the button on the steering wheel for rotating the screen has a couple of other uses ( 1 is to take a snapshot with the dashcam, don’t remember the other one ) , a long press on the button will bring up the menu, for Atto 3.

 

Edited October 26, 2023 by Andrew Dwyer

[Andrew Dwyer]

2 hours ago, Pib said:

 

Now, 137.6Km divided by the 26% charge used equals 5.2923 Km for each 1% charge used.  If multiplying 5.2923 by 100 (for 100% charge) that gives a range of 529Km vs the Atto's advertised 480Km NEDC range. HOWEVER, BUT such a calculation assumes the Km per each 1% power used would be linear from 0 to 100% which is unlikely.  But it does gives me a warm-fuzzy indication that after more driving the car's real world range should be at around 400Km....if more--great....will have to wait and see over the coming months.

 

If you are using the standard range guesstimate ( based on NEDC ) it is indeed not linear and will recalculate itself as it gets down to the lower percentages to achieve the 480 km per 100% charge which has caught some drivers out in the past as their remaining range disappeared quickly from 10% or so. ( obviously not a good idea to let it get so low unless you are doing it for cell balancing purposes as recommended ).

The dynamic option will give you a more accurate idea of what your range is based on your driving habits and after a few recharges you can determine your average range available.

Or maybe somewhere in the data screens there is a running total of your km/kWh ??

[sirineou]

9 hours ago, Pib said:

Yea...the Atto comes with a vehicle-to-load adapter which takes battery voltage and converts it to 220V to power your TV, fan, laser cannon, etc., during picnics.  I doubt I will ever use it unless there is an extended power outage for hours and hours (extremely rare for me here in Bangkok) and I need to power my refrigerators, fans, recharge the smartphones, recharge some battery lanterns, etc.  But it feels good I have a BIG battery setting in my carport to power some stuff in my home if needed during an emergency....hope I never have to use it.

 

Good to know. It is always good to have that option, 

[KhunLA]

7 hours ago, Andrew Dwyer said:

If you are using the standard range guesstimate ( based on NEDC ) it is indeed not linear and will recalculate itself as it gets down to the lower percentages to achieve the 480 km per 100% charge which has caught some drivers out in the past as their remaining range disappeared quickly from 10% or so. ( obviously not a good idea to let it get so low unless you are doing it for cell balancing purposes as recommended ).

The dynamic option will give you a more accurate idea of what your range is based on your driving habits and after a few recharges you can determine your average range available.

Or maybe somewhere in the data screens there is a running total of your km/kWh ??

I find the MG ZS to be extremely accurate in it's countdown of kms remaining.  Average about 3+ per !%.   New, NEDC is 403, and not going to get that.  ECO mode is 360, and that's more like it for local driving.  50.3kWh/46.3 usable battery.

 

That's 400 (NEDC) & 357 (ECO  mode) now, strangely, 3 kms less off both.  So less than 1% battery segregation after 1 yr.  Probably the high side of 357, as was 358 last week, and noticed 357 yesterday.

 

Same with the gauge stating kWh per 100 kms, and usually quite accurate once on the road.  Dropping to below 15kWh/100 kms, so 300+ kms per charge on the highway.

 

WLTP rating (@47 kph) is 320 kms, and that's high side for highway driving 80-100 kph, when cruise control set @ 90 kph and usually average about 80 kph over 3 hr period, then look for CS.  

 

Don't go below 20% usually, so not sure how accurate it stays below 20%.  

[Bandersnatch]

14 hours ago, Pib said:

The voice command system (a.k.a., Hi BYD) really works great and greatly reduces the need to actually tap the screen to change some setting, switch to different functions/apps, etc.  

 

Thanks for the update  - please keep them coming 

 

Any chance we could compile a list of Hi (Hey) BYD phrases that BYDs recognise (Increase the regeneration level - doesn't seem to work)

 

 

[Pib]

4 hours ago, KhunLA said:

I find the MG ZS to be extremely accurate in it's countdown of kms remaining.  Average about 3+ per !%.   New, NEDC is 403, and not going to get that.  ECO mode is 360, and that's more like it for local driving.  50.3kWh/46.3 usable battery.

 

That's 400 (NEDC) & 357 (ECO  mode) now, strangely, 3 kms less off both.  So less than 1% battery segregation after 1 yr.  Probably the high side of 357, as was 358 last week, and noticed 357 yesterday.

 

Same with the gauge stating kWh per 100 kms, and usually quite accurate once on the road.  Dropping to below 15kWh/100 kms, so 300+ kms per charge on the highway.

 

WLTP rating (@47 kph) is 320 kms, and that's high side for highway driving 80-100 kph, when cruise control set @ 90 kph and usually average about 80 kph over 3 hr period, then look for CS.  

 

Don't go below 20% usually, so not sure how accurate it stays below 20%.  

This morning after the granny charger got the Atto Extended Range back to 100% charge when setting the range setting to Dynamic the range displayed 503Km...and when switching to Standard it displayed the 480Km NEDC rating.  Will be interesting over time as the battery ages and I drive more to see how these two range display settings change.    The standard setting will probably continue to display 480Km when at 100% charge but I expect the Dynamic may change significantly from battery aging, driving habits, etc....but I'm just guessing right now.

[Pib]

13 hours ago, KhunLA said:

I used ours once, but just as a tester, to make sure it works.   I travel with water kettle, coffee & cups, and still yet to bust it out at a viewpoint.

 

Can only see me using it if I run across someone on an E-MB that misjudged their range.  

I took my V2L thingie out of it's plastic bag today to see if it works....plugged it into the car and then plugged a hand grinder into it...the grinder powered-up full strength.  Back into it's little plastic bag it goes.  Then with me-being-me about a half hour later I think I wish I had also checked the voltage level.  So, out of the bag the V2L thingie comes again, plugged into the car, and I do an unloaded voltage check with my pretty accurate digital voltmeter (+/-0.5% DC/AC) and it gives a voltage reading of 219.3VAC....pretty much a double bullseye in terms of voltage level output.  Back into the bag the V2L adapter goes to hibernate awaiting for some emergency.  

Edited October 27, 2023 by Pib

[KhunLA]

4 minutes ago, Pib said:

This morning after the granny charger got the Atto Extended Range back to 100% charge when setting the range setting to Dynamic the range displayed 503Km...and when switching to Standard it displayed the 480Km NEDC rating.  Will be interesting over time as the battery ages and I drive more to see how these two range display settings change.    The standard setting will probably continue to display 480Km when at 100% charge but I expect the Dynamic may change significantly from battery aging, driving habits, etc....but I'm just guessing right now.

I was actually surprised the NEDC 403 range rating changed, as I was thinking that was 'hard coded' in, but apparently not.  As rare anyone would actually get that, and the only time it shows up, is end of charging & start up, as default setting screenshot.   Once I change the mode from default normal, to eco, it never shows again.  Only while charging, again, if nothing else is touched.

 

As time goes on, and with age/segregation, it will be easy for folks to judge battery capacity, for the 2nd hand market when shopping.  No real need for a certified battery capacity test when selling, as that would take forever with a 50kWh battery bank.

[Andrew Dwyer]

On 10/24/2023 at 7:56 AM, macahoom said:

I don't think we're getting it in Thailand.

 

I'm disappointed we're also not getting the two microphone karaoke which is standard in China.

 

Not that I would ever use it, but it's so ridiculous I'd like to have it.

1,990 baht 

 

2,990 baht 

 

[Pib]

1 hour ago, Bandersnatch said:

 

Thanks for the update  - please keep them coming 

 

Any chance we could compile a list of Hi (Hey) BYD phrases that BYDs recognise (Increase the regeneration level - doesn't seem to work)

 

 

 

I can tell you one Voice Command that don't work as I tried it numerous times yesterday when the wife and I went on our long drive...and that ignored command is:  "make my wife stop her back seat driving."  😁

[JBChiangRai]

8 minutes ago, Pib said:

 

I can tell you one Voice Command that don't work as I tried it numerous times yesterday when the wife and I went on our long drive...and that ignored command is:  "make my wife stop her back seat driving."  😁

You need to deinstall the Nagivation option.