10 minutes ago, CLW said:

No wonder your battery is degrading so quickly. Why you need to DC charge every day for 150km daily usage?

can't charge at home.

Everyday in the week I just charge it to 75-80% (from 20-40%) because it charges too slowly after that and the true range is less than 300km.

Next problem, it's hard to book so every day I only get 30 minutes slot and 60min if I'm lucky. Somedays just can't charge at PTT.

Since the last 3 months the PTT station here is so busy every day. Usually whole mornings are fully booked. And it's only 120kw.

3 minutes ago, brfsa2 said:

Next problem, it's hard to book so every day I only get 30 minutes slot and 60min if I'm lucky. Somedays just can't charge at PTT.

Since the last 3 months the PTT station here is so busy every day. Usually whole mornings are fully booked. And it's only 120kw.

Just for information, are you in the country side ? Or some busy place in city ?

2 minutes ago, brfsa2 said:

can't charge at home.

Everyday in the week I just charge it to 75-80% (from 20-40%) because it charges too slowly after that and the true range is less than 300km.

Next problem, it's hard to book so every day I only get 30 minutes slot and 60min if I'm lucky. Somedays just can't charge at PTT.

Since the last 3 months the PTT station here is so busy every day. Usually whole mornings are fully booked. And it's only 120kw

Where do you shop or dine at, and lots of malls, even Lotus's have CS. I charged at BKK Hosp yesterday, and had a munch, brekkie at AU Bon Pain. Life can't be that complicated.

300kms, even we can squeeze that out of our small battery, though don't want to be in the car that long, or take the battery down that far.

Need to slow down, you get much further. Even when the limit is 90 or 120 (short stretches) we're lucky if we average 80 kph, over any long leg of journey. And that's driving shy of 100 & 110 kph, respectfully.

7 minutes ago, khunphil said:

Just for information, are you in the country side ? Or some busy place in city ?

Country side bro... Living in the mountain sides, my house will be ready in 1 year and I'll install my 7kw chargers. I just can't use them when voltage here sags to 190v.

5 minutes ago, KhunLA said:

Where do you shop or dine at, and lots of malls, even Lotus's have CS. I charged at BKK Hosp yesterday, and had a munch, brekkie at AU Bon Pain. Life can't be that complicated.

300kms, even we can squeeze that out of our small battery, though don't want to be in the car that long, or take the battery down that far.

Need to slow down, you get much further. Even when the limit is 90 or 120 (short stretches) we're lucky if we average 80 kph, over any long leg of journey. And that's driving shy of 100 & 110 kph, respectfully.

Yes. We drive 90-100 mostly now when it's too hot. It's the only way for the battery to last longer.

But my foot is still heavy. The wife foot is like an elephant

2 hours ago, brfsa2 said:

Country side bro... Living in the mountain sides, my house will be ready in 1 year and I'll install my 7kw chargers. I just can't use them when voltage here sags to 190v.

Yes. We drive 90-100 mostly now when it's too hot. It's the only way for the battery to last longer.

But my foot is still heavy. The wife foot is like an elephant

That's the heart of your problem there: you can't charge at home (other than with the snail slow granny charger).

I think it's crazy to buy an EV if you live in the countryside and have to rely on public DC charging. No way I would do that.

I think you'd be unhappy no matter what EV you have, given how you use it and how you are obliged to charge it.

16 minutes ago, BKKBike09 said:

That's the heart of your problem there: you can't charge at home (other than with the snail slow granny charger).

I think it's crazy to buy an EV if you live in the countryside and have to rely on public DC charging. No way I would do that.

I think you'd be unhappy no matter what EV you have, given how you use it and how you are obliged to charge it.

Definitely location dependent. Even using the granny charger overnight 10-12 hrs, you be putting about 20kWh back in, which is 150 kms worth. Even half that, and do you really drive that much every day, 75-100 kms a day.

We're sort of rural, and have a few CS within 6 kms, since near hwy #4. Our Lotus's has a CS, and we're there once a week for Swensen's or Pizza Co. And if you shopped there, then a plus, we don't.

1 hour ago, BKKBike09 said:

I think it's crazy to buy an EV if you live in the countryside and have to rely on public DC charging. No way I would do that.

I think you'd be unhappy no matter what EV you have, given how you use it and how you are obliged to charge it.

She bought the car 3 years ago. General warranty just run out few months ago. Only battery and motor are under warranty now.

We moved here 2 years. It was before everyone installed air conditioner, so where I live I used to charge every night, DC Fast charge was only once a week if at all.

I save 100,000 Baht/ year vs gasoline or diesel.

I had chance to sell this car for 300,000 baht. since it has an ongoing issue with the battery I don't feel right yet to sell it. If they fix it for real by finding the leak of the cooling in the battery, I might sell it.

A car with 700km range is what I'm looking for, so I only charge once a week rather than everyday. I'm looking at the IM5 or the CLA250+ for next year. No BYD for me ever again.

Edited April 29Apr 29 by brfsa2

5 hours ago, brfsa2 said:

Even they change to a new battery , this car is still a POS!!! It's the whole car as a whole.

Only a fool would think they will do that anyways.

Are you calling me a fool?

You have lots of data on your battery pack, it looks to me like it was damaged from overheating when coolant was leaking, you should be able to demonstrate there is a problem with it.

58 minutes ago, brfsa2 said:

She bought the car 3 years ago. General warranty just run out few months ago. Only battery and motor are under warranty now.

We moved here 2 years. It was before everyone installed air conditioner, so where I live I used to charge every night, DC Fast charge was only once a week if at all.

I save 100,000 Baht/ year vs gasoline or diesel.

I had chance to sell this car for 300,000 baht. since it has an ongoing issue with the battery I don't feel right yet to sell it. If they fix it for real by finding the leak of the cooling in the battery, I might sell it.

A car with 700km range is what I'm looking for, so I only charge once a week rather than everyday. I'm looking at the IM5 or the CLA250+ for next year. No BYD for me ever again.

My voltage drops to under 180v if I charge 7kw at night. I have an automatic, Voltage Regulator so my car only ever sees 230v

1 hour ago, brfsa2 said:

She bought the car 3 years ago. General warranty just run out few months ago. Only battery and motor are under warranty now.

We moved here 2 years. It was before everyone installed air conditioner, so where I live I used to charge every night, DC Fast charge was only once a week if at all.

I save 100,000 Baht/ year vs gasoline or diesel.

I had chance to sell this car for 300,000 baht. since it has an ongoing issue with the battery I don't feel right yet to sell it. If they fix it for real by finding the leak of the cooling in the battery, I might sell it.

A car with 700km range is what I'm looking for, so I only charge once a week rather than everyday. I'm looking at the IM5 or the CLA250+ for next year. No BYD for me ever again.

Doesn't BYD offer lifetime warranty for the battery?

20 minutes ago, JBChiangRai said:

Are you calling me a fool?

You have lots of data on your battery pack, it looks to me like it was damaged from overheating when coolant was leaking, you should be able to demonstrate there is a problem with it.

hey bro, no way, no reason to call anyone a fool, im sorry if it came that way. I just love the people in this forum!

I just say I would not be fool to believe BYD will do anything nice about my issue.

like I said, I showed them data already, I have to argue with them to even look at the car, for a car the wife paid 1.2 Million baht it really piss me off they treat the customers like this.

I spend half day today at the new center, and I even demonstrate live on the car at the DC fast charger in MG, the BYD engineers are just too arrogant even thou I have been super nice and never showed angry face, you know how it is in Thailand if you want anything done, smile big.

1 minute ago, JBChiangRai said:

My voltage drops to under 180v if I charge 7kw at night. I have an automatic, Voltage Regulator so my car only ever sees 230v

i could do the same but it will make things worse and even dangerous. What you have and what people call is very different.

you have a STEP-UP device. it just steps up the voltage using several coil ratios, like 1:1.2 to boost by 20% the voltage. but, you will be drawing a lot more current from the grid and could cause further issues. need to be careful with that

my voltage here drops to 190 when using the 1.8kW charger if I used 7kW I will bring down the whole village, LOL....

but thanks for the tips, I might consider that one if it's safe...

Edited April 29Apr 29 by brfsa2

3 minutes ago, brfsa2 said:

hey bro, no way, no reason to call anyone a fool, im sorry if it came that way. I just love the people in this forum!

I just say I would not be fool to believe BYD will do anything nice about my issue.

like I said, I showed them data already, I have to argue with them to even look at the car, for a car the wife paid 1.2 Million baht it really piss me off they treat the customers like this.

I spend half day today at the new center, and I even demonstrate live on the car at the DC fast charger in MG, the BYD engineers are just too arrogant even thou I have been super nice and never showed angry face, you know how it is in Thailand if you want anything done, smile big.

i could do the same but it will make things worse and even dangerous. What you have and what people call is very different.

you have a STEP-UP device. it just steps up the voltage using several coil ratios, like 1:1.2 to boost by 20% the voltage. but, you will be drawing a lot more current from the grid and could cause further issues.

my voltage here drops to 190 when using the 1.8kW charger if I used 7kW I will bring down the whole village, LOL....

I was pulling your leg about calling me a fool.

We ran everything one evening and blew the fuse on PEA’s transformer, they spent an hour putting in new fuses only for it to blow again.

They came to the house and after another meeting we came to an understanding, they divided the development up to different phases and agreed to upgrade the transformer.

We still get the voltage drops but we can live with it.

6 minutes ago, brfsa2 said:

hey bro, no way, no reason to call anyone a fool, im sorry if it came that way. I just love the people in this forum!

I just say I would not be fool to believe BYD will do anything nice about my issue.

like I said, I showed them data already, I have to argue with them to even look at the car, for a car the wife paid 1.2 Million baht it really piss me off they treat the customers like this.

I spend half day today at the new center, and I even demonstrate live on the car at the DC fast charger in MG, the BYD engineers are just too arrogant even thou I have been super nice and never showed angry face, you know how it is in Thailand if you want anything done, smile big.

i could do the same but it will make things worse and even dangerous. What you have and what people call is very different.

you have a STEP-UP device. it just steps up the voltage using several coil ratios, like 1:1.2 to boost by 20% the voltage. but, you will be drawing a lot more current from the grid and could cause further issues.

my voltage here drops to 190 when using the 1.8kW charger if I used 7kW I will bring down the whole village, LOL....

I'm sure the BYD service center has tested your battery. What was the result?

5 minutes ago, CLW said:

Doesn't BYD offer lifetime warranty for the battery?

they do! but they only replace it when it hits 70% SOH or have other issues that prevents the normal functioning. they can always says slow charging doesnt stop the car to function, just wait longer....

they dont mention anything about DC charging speed, they can easily say it's because of hot weather and try to fix the leak somehow.

for me the only way they will replace is if it can be reproduced 100% of the time.

Who knows, let's see what happens next week. I booked with them on the big center and they will have the car for a whole week since I will be going to Bangkok, this time by air plane, cheaper than even driving the Fortuner to Bangkok.

2 minutes ago, JBChiangRai said:

I was pulling your leg about calling me a fool.

We ran everything one evening and blew the fuse on PEA’s transformer, they spent an hour putting in new fuses only for it to blow again.

They came to the house and after another meeting we came to an understanding, they divided the development up to different phases and agreed to upgrade the transformer.

We still get the voltage drops but we can live with it.

ahh, I might try that and they will upgrade the transformer near by :D ahahaa, that would be very irresposible to do. but.... we all already begged them, they say no way they will do it. no chance

3 minutes ago, CLW said:

I'm sure the BYD service center has tested your battery. What was the result?

here is the full story: https://aseannow.com/topic/1391242-atto-3-thermal-throttling-sudden-soh-drop-hardware-failure-or-bms/

in short, they dont tell me much:

1) first day they updated BMS... nothing else they said. problem didnt solve it, they didnt even test it because their charger is limited to 40kW, duhhh.

2) second day, after wife started going hard, they agreed to look again. this time they found cooler filler was 500gr only instead of 1100gr, they only refill, but didnt use preassure system to look for leaks, I asked why, they said, "sorry cannot do here". WTF?

3) 3 weeks later, problem is the same again, they will have the car for 1 week to test....

8 hours ago, brfsa2 said:

The ATTO 3 is broken again, the problem is back and no longer able to charge above 49kw. Starting at 20% battery with 82.8kw then dropped to 49kw as soon as 5 minutes or 30%.

And it's not even hot outdoors (31C), and the station has shade so the car is not even on the sun. If it was in the sun battery would be reaching 50C already. It's now 46C on the battery which is dangerous high.

What a pity and nightmare this car became to be. Total disappointment

Never again BYD for me.

... To make things worse the BYD service center near me closed so now I have to drive 80Km round trip to the one on the big city.

Jezzzz. I would be expecting them to open more and not close down.

Well, your Atto has infected my Atto with the same problem. Today the wife and I did an unplanned site seeing trip of around 200Km roundtrip. I started off with only around 55% SOC and by the time we were back home the SOC was down to 10%. A hot day...ambient 37 to 39C during the hours of driving at around 60-90Kmh on fast highways and slower rural roads.

I read your post while I was on this trip....decided I would do a DC Fast Charge after getting back home around 4pm to see what charge rate I got. It's been several months since I did a DC charge while on a road trip but the charge rate I did get was within the Atto 60.5KW battery normal charge curve.

OBD shows battery temperature reaching up 43C before the active cooling kicked-in...that is, I could see the battery temperature was now beginning to drop with Pack 1 of 10 (front of battery where refrigerant enters the battery cooling plate) and Pack 10 of 10 (rear of battery closes to read wheels was the hottest area of the battery....or said another way the battery got hotter the further you got from the front of the battery). Active cooling "use" to kick-in" around 38C and I "think" that was when the car was running Verion 1.8 software....around a 10 months ago it upgraded to Version 1.10.1 which is still the latest version...."maybe" that OTA version is the problem...or maybe something else.

OK, we get back home...I drop the wife off and head of to a OneCharge network 720KW/500A charger (A BIG, POWERFUL Charger)...get the charge going and it starts off a little over 80KW...the max for the Atto is 88KW....then within a few minutes it drops to around 40KW (it should be above 80KW and actually close to 88KW). I stop the charging and move to another 720KW charger (they have 12 chargers at this station)...started the charging again and this time I only got around 25KW. Getting worst. Battery has also heated up to 46C at the rear of the battery.

I stop the charging and drive to a BYD dealership and hookup to a ReverSharger 120KW charger....one car is already using it...so I know the max I'll get is probably around 60KW. But no, on this charger also I'm only getting around 25KW. I take some pictures and walk into the BYD dealership service area to talk/show the problem...make an appointment....earliest appt at this dealership was 31 July...yeap, over 3 months down the road. I then drive to the BYD dealership where I bought the car years ago and was able to make an appt for 8 May...about two weeks from now. Although Bangkok has many BYD dealership there are also many, many, many BYD vehicles which makes it hard to get a quick appt....even getting a appt within approx two weeks is considered lucky. Maybe a person can get an appt at a BYD dealership faster in the provinces.

Now I took pictures of my charging rate and showed these to the customer service folks and of course they try to say maybe it's a "charger" problem....charger is not putting out enough juice....but I think I put that to rest when I told them what chargers I was using....plus, even they agreed only getting around 20-25KW wasn't right.

Anyway, in about an hour...a little after dark and the car/battery cools down some more I going to go to a charger to see if the charging rate returns to normal. As of 6:45pm as I slow charger with my 7KW wall charger the battery continues to cool off from today's multi-hour/200Km drive and the battery temp is now showing 27C for Pack 1 of 10 and 35C for Pack 10 of 10....with pack 2-9 showing in the 27 to 33C ballpark. I have DC charged numerous times with the battery temp below 38C (highest temp anywhere in the battery) and the charge rate was OK. I the charge rate comes back to normal assuming I can try another charge tonight then the issue is some kind of cooling problem.....OR, some sensor not turning on the active cooling when it should; instead letting the battery get too hot.

If I can find a charger nearby in about an hour I'll give it another try...see if the charge rate returns to normal which would indicate a a battery cooling issue causing a "rapidgate" type issue which the Nissan Leap became famous for. The cabin cooling is fine....since the battery and cabin are cooled by the A/C refrigerant-heat pump system if the A/C refrigerant was low causing a battery cooling problem you would think the cabin would also have a cooling problem, but no cabin cooling problem exists. More to come with some more testing.

Just came back from doing a DC charging test after the battery had cooled down somewhat....did the test at a 180KW MEA charger at around 7pm to 7:30pm. In the area of the charging curve, specifically "up to 65% SOC" where I should/could possible see around 88KW I was pulling 74KW....a BIG improvement As mentioned in my above post around two hours earlier I could only pull 25 to 40KW at three different chargers) which was about one-third to one half of what the charging rate should be pulling in that SOC area of its charging curve.

Now once hitting 65% and up to 85% it should pull around 57KW....it did pull 56KW for a minute or so but then dropped to 45-50KW. Not quite up to what it should be pulling but at least within the ballpark.

I only charged up to 79% before running out of money in the MEA wallet and really didn't see any point in charging anymore. I'll do some more testing over the coming two weeks before my service appt at the dealership.

BYD Atto 3 Extended Range 60.5KWH Charging Curve. What the curve is suppose to be "and what I've been use to seeing in real world DC fast charging up until today's testing.

https://evkx.net/models/byd/atto_3/atto_3/chargingcurve/

7 hours ago, brfsa2 said:

here is the full story: https://aseannow.com/topic/1391242-atto-3-thermal-throttling-sudden-soh-drop-hardware-failure-or-bms/

in short, they dont tell me much:

1) first day they updated BMS... nothing else they said. problem didnt solve it, they didnt even test it because their charger is limited to 40kW, duhhh.

2) second day, after wife started going hard, they agreed to look again. this time they found cooler filler was 500gr only instead of 1100gr, they only refill, but didnt use preassure system to look for leaks, I asked why, they said, "sorry cannot do here". WTF?

3) 3 weeks later, problem is the same again, they will have the car for 1 week to test....

Have you tried contacting Rever and complaining to them? Having now read your full story it seems clear that your battery / cooling system has a problem.

If Rever/the BYD dealer where you bought the car don't want to play ball, consider complaining to the Consumer Protection Board. They can be quite helpful.

My main irritation with BYD has been the big price cuts (like your wife I also paid 1.2 mil, on 3-year finance). Although of course price-cutting nowadays is not limited to BYD. It's one of the reasons why I would not buy another new EV from any of the Chinese manufacturers.

Hey, sorry to hear your atto 3 might have an issue, on the other hand you know about it and BYD might fix for you.

3 Months waiting time to even look at the car? Gosh, things are really going bad for BYD customers... maybe good for BYD selling a lot for profit, but sux for the end user. Now, I am even more sure now: No BYD ever again on my garage.

15 hours ago, Pib said:

it starts off a little over 80KW...the max for the Atto is 88KW....

When that happens, it's because the cooling system is fully on at 100%, which "steals" 4kW-5kW from the charging power, according to my observations, so that's why you will see 82.95kW instead of the full 88kW. that extra is going to the cooling system.

15 hours ago, Pib said:

started the charging again and this time I only got around 25KW. Getting worst. Battery has also heated up to 46C at the rear of the battery.

46C is really high, that is territory to damage the cells. and will be hitting the ceiling for LFP battery protection reducing charging speed. My observations from DC every day is that the battery needs to be below 42C to get the 82kW+, above 42C it will slow down by a lot.

mine reached 50C and once at 52C which I could not even drive the car full power, my max-discharge was limited to 122kW (down from 284kw max-discharge)

When you sustain 2 hours of drive during the hot days, the battery and motor system all accumulate so much heat, that the cooling system can't get rid off, it's just way too weak, and when you need it most, you cant fast charge, the cooling system is just not capable to cool it enough to fast charge.

2 minutes ago, brfsa2 said:

mine reached 50C and once at 52C which I could not even drive the car full power, my max-discharge was limited to 122kW (down from 284kw max-discharge)

My delta was 40-52 => 12C delta is massive.

Maximum Discharge: 122.7kW down from 284kW ( the BMS reduce output to protect the cells from more overheating)

Water temperature: 45C That is not considered hot at all. A decent cooling system can bring that down quickly.

113.97kW is when the driver floor it, that's the most it could go, I took the screenshot while wife floored the car.

Then we decided to stop the car in the shade and wait 1 hour before continue driving home.

We drove the car home 1 hour later and it was 42C already, and safe to drive...

Edited April 30Apr 30 by brfsa2

A summary of 2025 net profitability & export volumes of Chinese EV makers. This info you can find on X from @GlennLuk en @Thinkercar.

Operating margins

Company	Operating Margin (2025)	Market Context & Strategy
Toyota	10.0%	Remains the most profitable "traditional" automaker. Despite a slight dip from 11.9% in 2024, its hybrid-heavy strategy provides a massive financial buffer.
Chery	6.2%	A standout performer among Chinese brands. Its "export-first" strategy allows it to capture higher margins in international markets (like Thailand) compared to the cutthroat Chinese domestic market.
Tesla	4.6%	Dropped significantly from its 2023-2024 peaks. The margin compression is driven by aggressive price cuts to maintain volume and massive R&D spending on AI and FSD.
BYD	3.1% - 5.2%	Explicitly prioritizing market share over immediate profit. BYD is using its vertical integration to weaponize its margins against competitors in the ongoing "price war."
Geely	4.2%	Maintained stability by balancing its portfolio with premium sub-brands like Zeekr and Lynk & Co, which command higher price points.
SAIC (MG)	2.7% - 3.5%	Facing the toughest pressure due to high structural costs and the heavy impact of EU tariffs on its MG brand exports.

Stock price

SAIC MG is not listed, because it is a state owned enterprise. Chery is both SOE [ Wuhu municipality ] as well as privately listed.

Company	Exchange	Price (End 2025)	Price (April 30, 2026)	2026 YTD (USD)
Tesla (TSLA)	NASDAQ	~$253.10	$211.61	-16.39%
Toyota (7203)	TYO	~$18.12	$16.40	-9.49%
Geely (0175)	HKEX	~$1.32	$2.78	+110.61%
BYD (1211)	HKEX	~$36.14	$13.34	-63.09%
Chery (9973)	HKEX	~$4.03	$3.99	-1.00%

Export kings

The top 3 export kings are Chery, BYD and Geely.

On 4/30/2026 at 11:50 AM, brfsa2 said:

My delta was 40-52 => 12C delta is massive.

Maximum Discharge: 122.7kW down from 284kW ( the BMS reduce output to protect the cells from more overheating)

Water temperature: 45C That is not considered hot at all. A decent cooling system can bring that down quickly.

113.97kW is when the driver floor it, that's the most it could go, I took the screenshot while wife floored the car.

Then we decided to stop the car in the shade and wait 1 hour before continue driving home.

We drove the car home 1 hour later and it was 42C already, and safe to drive...

I take it you guys have already cleaned your radiator coils? A very common problem on all EVs.

Edited May 2May 2 by mistral53

Just now, mistral53 said:

I take it you guys have already cleaned your radiator coils? A very common problem on all EVs.

Oh, if it was only that easy with an EV. In a BYD EV (and probably most all EVs) the radiator and A/C condenser coils are "not" open in the front like on a ICE/Hybrid.....just the the front EV bumper is solid except for some air inlet area at the very bottom versus an open grille allowing air to directly hit the entire front side of the radiator/condensor coils like on an EV/Hybrid.

Instead, the front of the radiator/AC condenser is covered by a plastic cover effectively encasing the front side "except for an air scope opening at the bottom. That small air scope at the bottom kinda works like ICE carburetor scoop on the hood/bonnet or a jet engine scoop. This allows plenty of air flow while making the EV more aerodynamic....creates much less drag than the "completely open on the front side design" of an ICE radiator/condenser setup like in your picture.

However, at least on the Atto you can see about a quarter of the radiator/condenser (the bottom quarter) by looking thru the scoop and it's clean...no leaves....no junk....I periodically spray that area with a water hose just like a person would spray the entire radiator front side on an ICE vehicle.

With EVs to clean the front side of the radiator/AC condenser coils all too often the front bumper assembly must be removed and also the plastic cover encasing the front side of the radiator/condenser---this is a job for the dealership. It's a couple hours job.

Just now, Pib said:

Oh, if it was only that easy with an EV. In a BYD EV (and probably most all EVs) the radiator and A/C condenser coils are "not" open in the front like on a ICE/Hybrid.....just the the front EV bumper is solid except for some air inlet area at the very bottom versus an open grille allowing air to directly hit the entire front side of the radiator/condensor coils like on an EV/Hybrid.

Instead, the front of the radiator/AC condenser is covered by a plastic cover effectively encasing the front side "except for an air scope opening at the bottom. That small air scope at the bottom kinda works like ICE carburetor scoop on the hood/bonnet or a jet engine scoop. This allows plenty of air flow while making the EV more aerodynamic....creates much less drag than the "completely open on the front side design" of an ICE radiator/condenser setup like in your picture.

However, at least on the Atto you can see about a quarter of the radiator/condenser (the bottom quarter) by looking thru the scoop and it's clean...no leaves....no junk....I periodically spray that area with a water hose just like a person would spray the entire radiator front side on an ICE vehicle.

With EVs to clean the front side of the radiator/AC condenser coils all too often the front bumper assembly must be removed and also the plastic cover encasing the front side of the radiator/condenser---this is a job for the dealership. It's a couple hours job.

I cleaned mine as I was about to fit a grille to catch leaves etc.

I had a look in there, starting the car opens the air vents at the bottom, and could see some debris which I pulled out with something ( don’t remember what ) and bit the bullet and removed the front bumper to give the radiator/condenser coils a good blast with some high pressure water.

Here’s some photos of my experience:

There wasn’t as much exposed as i imagined and had cleared a lot of leaves etc before i thought to take a photo.

The front bumper came off quite easily but getting it back on was a bit of a struggle, i think i said at the time “ well, i won’t be doing that again ! “.

I imagine a mechanic offering this type of work would go deeper and uncover more of the radiator but i was glad i did it despite there being some thoughts that fitting a grille would cut down the air flow and could create temperature issues affecting the battery longevity.

I don’t see any issues of this nature, i rarely go above 120 kph and try to clean the grille regularly.

Here’s another photo i took shortly after:

As you can see it catches a lot but also blocks a lot of the air flow.

Initially i had bought a grille off Lazada/Shopee before i bought the car but cancelled the order due to the air flow question. It was only when the photos as posted by Mistral started to appear in fb groups that i reordered the grille.

I did this around a year ago and documented it in the Seal Tips and Tricks topic.

I did manage to find a couple of photos that i took before removing the front bumper, these would have been around 1 to 1 1/2 years of owning the Seal ( around 20/30k km driven )

This photo shows a rather poor view through the open vents:

This shows what i managed to rake out with some bamboo before using a vacuum cleaner and finally blasting with water.

I would say that a grille is a good alternative to regular cleaning but needs to be cleaned itself regularly.

If opting for a blast of water through the vents then ( obviously ) check that they are open initially. On the Seal starting the car will open them.

Andrew,

Great description with pictures showing how it's not easy to fully access/clean an EV radiator/AC condenser.

And it seems BYD Seal (like you have) in being so low to the ground it acts like a vacuum cleaner in sucking-up stuff as the car drives along. I've always been surprised in how some car models vacuum-up a lot of leaves where other models don't. Here in the Bangkok and surrounding area where I do 90% of my driving leaves on the road are few and far in-between. I've been driving my 2009 Toyota Fortuner (which I bought brand new) for around 17 years now and never had leaves get caught on/in the radiator or AC condenser....and as mentioned, based on what I can see of my 2023 BYD Atto radiator it has no leaves/paper/plastic stuck in the radiator area either....simply looks clean.

I did some more testing of my DC charging issue yesterday when having the A/C mode set to "ECO" mode vs "Comfort" mode. I'm not ready to report much on that just yet....more testing to do....but I will say I was seeing/achieving 86KW of the Atto max 88KW for a good length of time while monitoring OBD data/battery temperature, HOWEVER, that 85KW wasn't able to maintain up all the way up to 65% SOC like the car is spec'ed to handle and which I routinely achieved before. More to come on this but it appears the AC ECO mode diverts more cooling towards the battery....away from the cabin area, whereas, in Comfort mode the cabin area gets priority cooling which means the battery gets less. However, I have always maintained the AC in Comfort mode and DC charging was always fine/full power "before." Yea, more to come once I can complete some more testing which requires me to drain down the battery far enough where I can DC charge and also have hot, bright sunshine weather.

Cheers.

Our MG ZS undercarriage is almost completely sealed, along with only 2 small venting areas on the grill, and not much getting through there.

Edited May 2May 2 by KhunLA

Just now, Pib said:

Andrew,

Great description with pictures showing how it's not easy to fully access/clean an EV radiator/AC condenser.

And it seems BYD Seal (like you have) in being so low to the ground it acts like a vacuum cleaner in sucking-up stuff as the car drives along. I've always been surprised in how some car models vacuum-up a lot of leaves where other models don't. Here in the Bangkok and surrounding area where I do 90% of my driving leaves on the road are few and far in-between. I've been driving my 2009 Toyota Fortuner (which I bought brand new) for around 17 years now and never had leaves get caught on/in the radiator or AC condenser....and as mentioned, based on what I can see of my 2023 BYD Atto radiator it has no leaves/paper/plastic stuck in the radiator area either....simply looks clean.

I did some more testing of my DC charging issue yesterday when having the A/C mode set to "ECO" mode vs "Comfort" mode. I'm not ready to report much on that just yet....more testing to do....but I will say I was seeing/achieving 86KW of the Atto max 88KW for a good length of time while monitoring OBD data/battery temperature, HOWEVER, that 85KW wasn't able to maintain up all the way up to 65% SOC like the car is spec'ed to handle and which I routinely achieved before. More to come on this but it appears the AC ECO mode diverts more cooling towards the battery....away from the cabin area, whereas, in Comfort mode the cabin area gets priority cooling which means the battery gets less. However, I have always maintained the AC in Comfort mode and DC charging was always fine/full power "before." Yea, more to come once I can complete some more testing which requires me to drain down the battery far enough where I can DC charge and also have hot, bright sunshine weather.

Cheers.

Interesting about the Eco/Comfort mode air con.

A lot of first time BYD owners who complain about the poor air conditioning performance are always recommended to switch to Comfort mode most likely unaware, as I was, that it would reduce cooling to the battery.

Would be interesting to see what percentage of air is sent in which direction ( battery or cabin ) with the two modes.

Just now, Pib said:

Oh, if it was only that easy with an EV. In a BYD EV (and probably most all EVs) the radiator and A/C condenser coils are "not" open in the front like on a ICE/Hybrid.....just the the front EV bumper is solid except for some air inlet area at the very bottom versus an open grille allowing air to directly hit the entire front side of the radiator/condensor coils like on an EV/Hybrid.

Instead, the front of the radiator/AC condenser is covered by a plastic cover effectively encasing the front side "except for an air scope opening at the bottom. That small air scope at the bottom kinda works like ICE carburetor scoop on the hood/bonnet or a jet engine scoop. This allows plenty of air flow while making the EV more aerodynamic....creates much less drag than the "completely open on the front side design" of an ICE radiator/condenser setup like in your picture.

However, at least on the Atto you can see about a quarter of the radiator/condenser (the bottom quarter) by looking thru the scoop and it's clean...no leaves....no junk....I periodically spray that area with a water hose just like a person would spray the entire radiator front side on an ICE vehicle.

With EVs to clean the front side of the radiator/AC condenser coils all too often the front bumper assembly must be removed and also the plastic cover encasing the front side of the radiator/condenser---this is a job for the dealership. It's a couple hours job.

Maybe you misunderstood my comment - I did not imply 'you' need to clean the radiator yourself, but rather, with a radiator that is covered 50% with leaves, by definition you will have reduced cooling capacity.

If that were the case, you are barking up the wrong tree, maybe your 'eco' AC setting improvement is hinting at a strained cooling unit. The word in the streets is the radiator should be cleaned between 30 to 50k km, depending where you live and drive, i.e. city vs. rural 'leafy' roads. Of course the recommendation is made by companies that specialize in cleaning - they have first hand impressions of the dirt that accumulates, and a conflict of interest to boost their business.

So the unanswered questions: how many km on your car? did you have it cleaned? where do you live?

BTW - the difference in charging speed with the BYD Seal locked and shut down, cooling my a$$ in a coffee shop, or sitting in the car pulling my wire with the AC at full blast was quite significant...... just my random observation.