Tesla Model Y in Thailand: Touring Thailand in an Electric Vehicle

As a conscientious and ecologically aware, ‘temporary’ visitor to Thailand, of just 17 years… I recently embarked on my first long-distance tour of Thailand in my relatively new Tesla Model Y Performance.

Having had the car now for a few months I felt that, although still a novice, I was up to a long-distance journey – little did I know…

I set off from my home in Hua Hin with 75% of battery left in the Tesla and headed South towards Chumphon. All went well until I had 20% of battery left. I pulled into the charging area of a service station, but sadly, as is often the case in Thailand, nothing was written in English, the language that only 24% of the world’s 8bn population speak.

The Thais are either fiercely xenophobic or actually believe that every ‘falang’ in Thailand should either speak Thai or be married to a Thai wife. They certainly don’t cater to the likes of me, a single man that does not speak Thai (a language that only 0.83% of the world’s entire population speaks).I could not work out the instructions on the stand and the service station was not busy so I could not ask anyone so I thought that I would press on and stop at the next charging station.

No Luck With The PTT pluZ

Sadly that was a PTT Service Station and after nearly 55 minutes of trying to register with their App PTT pluZ I finally gave up. After ringing their call centre, then their head office, as I could not find anyone that spoke English at the call centre!

I was informed, “PTT does not cater to foreign customers yet”?

But PTT, formerly the Petroleum Authority of Thailand, is the largest petrochemical, oil and gas company in Thailand and is a Public Limited Company. A state-owned enterprise under the supervision of the Thailand Ministry of Energy.

But apparently, “they are not ready for foreign customers yet”!

Thailand makes a considerable percentage of its GDP from tourism (around 25%) and international visitors, as was recently proven by Covid-19. Without “foreigners” coming to Thailand, it is, quite simply on its knees.

However, the largest petrochemical, oil, and gas company in Thailand “does not cater for foreign customers yet”!