Monthly electric car rental prices on Koh Samui, model by model

What a month in an electric car costs here

The question that lands in our booking inbox most often is not the one about range. It is whether a month in an electric car costs more than a month in a petrol one, and if so how much more. Here is the rate half of the answer: across the 20 electric models we rent, a month runs ฿14,500 to ฿51,000 (≈$440 to $1,550) depending on the car and the season. The running half, which is usually what decides it, comes further down this page.

Our monthly rate is built the same way on an electric car as on a petrol one: about 17 days of hire for thirty days of use, roughly 43 per cent below thirty daily rates. Past about 18 days of driving, the month is simply the cheaper way to buy the same car, even if you hand it back early. So if you are writing to us about three weeks, ask for the monthly price in the same message.

What the same money buys in petrol and diesel is Tom’s side of the fleet, and he sets the whole rate card out in monthly petrol and diesel car rental prices on Koh Samui. Everything below is electric only: what each category costs by the month, what thirty days of charging adds to it, and the one thing about your accommodation that changes the answer more than the model you pick.

What each electric category costs by the month

Driving back along the coast road from Nathon last October, in the kind of rain that arrives here in ten minutes, is what convinced me the category matters more than the badge on an electric car. The table below covers the 4 electric categories we rent, low season and high season, from the cheapest to the dearest model in each, with seat counts beside them. Dollar figures throughout are approximate and the baht price is the one you pay.

Most first-time EV renters land in a hatchback, and the whole group sits within ฿2,500 (≈$80) of itself in low season. That band is too narrow to choose inside on price, so choose on battery and boot instead. The floor is the BYD Dolphin at ฿14,500 (≈$440), and it is the car I suggest to anyone renting electric here for the first time: common on the island, cheap to charge, nothing to learn.

Ground clearance is what the next step buys. Electric crossovers run ฿18,500-฿25,500 (≈$560-$770) in low season and electric SUVs ฿27,000-฿46,000 (≈$820-$1,390), and the difference shows on exactly one kind of road: the unsurfaced climb up to a hillside villa. If yours is on the flat, in Maenam or Lamai or along the Chaweng strip, the extra height is money spent on something the island will never ask you for.

Sedans are the odd category here, running ฿20,500-฿34,000 (≈$620-$1,030) in low season and holding both the badge names and the quietest cabins we rent. People book them for a month when the car is also an office, or when there are airport runs most weeks. The top of the electric range is the BYD Sealion 7 at ฿51,000 (≈$1,550) in high season, which is a specialist booking rather than an everyday one.

Every electric model, both seasons

Read this table with the charging section below open in your head, because the two decide each other. Every model links to its own page, where the battery size, the realistic island range, the connector, the charge times and the deposit are all stated, and where these same two monthly rates appear - they come from one rate card, so the table here and the page there cannot disagree.

Where the car sleeps decides how the month feels

Before I recommend any model, I ask where the car will spend the night. A villa carport with a socket in it turns an electric month into something you stop thinking about entirely: you plug in after dinner, and the car is full every morning without a single trip made for the purpose. That is the whole difference between an EV that suits a month here and one that quietly costs you an hour a week.

Without a plug where you sleep, the month is built around the island’s public network. I have sat waiting behind another car at a charger near Chaweng on a Sunday afternoon in March, which is fine once and tedious as a routine. The chargers cluster around Chaweng, the airport and the big shopping centres, and our electric car rental page maps out which networks you will meet and what each one wants from you.

So the question to put to your hotel or villa before you book the car is narrow and worth asking in writing: is there a socket or a wallbox the car may use overnight, and is it included or metered? Ask us too, because we know a good number of the long-stay buildings on this island by now and can tell you what previous renters found there rather than what the listing says.

What thirty days of charging costs against a tank

This is the part the rate card cannot show you, and the reason the two numbers rarely rank the same way by the end of a contract. Thirty days of island driving is a real fuel bill on a petrol car. The electricity to cover the same distance is a fraction of it, and where the socket sits in a villa carport with the power bundled into your rent, close to invisible. I do not publish a per-unit price, because ours is not the meter.

The mileage pattern here is what does the work. The ring road is 51 km all the way round, and a monthly renter covers that distance many times over in short trips - the beach, the market, the school, back up the hill. Nothing about that pattern suits a petrol engine, and all of it suits a battery, which is why the gap over thirty days is wider than the gap over three.

Where the arithmetic stops working is a stay with no overnight charging and a lot of driving. Public DC charging costs more per unit than a domestic socket, the trips to reach it are trips you would not otherwise make, and at that point you are paying an electric rate for a petrol-shaped experience. When someone describes that stay to me in the inbox, I tell them to take the petrol car and enjoy the holiday.

How much range a month on this island actually needs

Range is the question everyone opens with and almost nobody needs answered. Our cheapest electric car, the BYD Dolphin, is rated at around 300 km of real island drivingon its model page, against an island you can drive around in an hour. A heavy day of sightseeing - the Big Buddha, Fisherman’s Village, the Na Muang waterfalls and home again - does not come close to emptying it, so a full battery covers several ordinary days.

Hills are the exception, and they are the reason we ask where you are staying rather than how far you drive. A villa above Chaweng Noi or up behind Bophut means a climb at the end of every trip, and a climb costs range in a way flat coastal kilometres do not. Over a month, that turns a car you charge twice a week into one you charge every second day. Each model page states the realistic island range rather than the manufacturer’s.

What the monthly rate includes

The same terms as the rest of the fleet, with one addition: the car arrives charged. Comprehensive first-class insurance with a Collision Damage Waiver, free delivery and collection anywhere on Koh Samui, 24/7 roadside assistance, unlimited mileage, the standard clean between rentals, and the charging cable the car takes. Scheduled servicing and tyres are ours too, and on an electric car that is a shorter list of visits than an owner expects.

A month also gets the part no daily renter sees: if something goes wrong, you get a replacement of the same category or better rather than a repair you sit and wait out. On electric cars specifically that matters, because the nearest specialist attention is not always on the island, and a month is long enough for the difference between a swap and a wait to be the whole of your experience with us.

What the monthly rate does not include

Charging, wherever you do it, and the state of charge is photographed at both ends of the rental so the settlement is a comparison rather than a conversation. The refundable security deposit, ฿5,000 to ฿10,000 (≈$150 to $300) by vehicle class and stated on every model page before you book. Traffic fines, which follow the driver. The vehicle ferry if you are taking the car to the mainland, which is paperwork and insurance rather than a surcharge we invent.

Not on that list, and worth naming because other desks charge for them: airport delivery, a second named driver, an excess-reduction product, an early return, or a cleaning fee for a month of sand and dust. We photograph every car at collection, and ordinary beach grit has never produced an invoice from us. Real damage does, with the photographs from both ends and an itemised garage bill attached to it.

What high season does to an electric month

High season runs December to March and July to August, and it does not move the two halves of our fleet by the same amount. Across our electric range the monthly rate rises about 39 per cent, from as little as 11 per cent to as much as 52 per cent on the models in heaviest demand; across the petrol and diesel range the same months add about 22 per cent. Both figures are published on every model page.

The reason is supply rather than appetite. We hold fewer electric cars than petrol ones and the popular ones book out early, so a December start is a different conversation from a September one. If your month runs into the New Year weeks, write to us well before you arrive - a monthly contract takes a specific car out of the daily fleet, and the ones people ask for by name go first.

Deposits, on-request models and booking an electric month

The minimum rental is 3 days on every electric car and there is no maximum. The deposit is a card payment of ฿5,000 to ฿10,000 (≈$150 to $300) by class, back on the same card within three bank days of collection. We never hold a passport, and you should refuse to leave one anywhere on this island: it is not security, it is leverage, and no legitimate rental here needs it.

One thing to plan around: 10 of our 20 electric models are sourced on request rather than kept in the fleet, which is a larger share than on the petrol side and covers most of the premium badges. It changes the notice we need, not the price - the rate on the page is the rate on the contract. Tell us your dates early and we confirm the specific car, usually the same day.

Start from our electric car rental range, open the models in your band, and read the range and charging figures before the rate. Then send us the month, the model and the address the car will sleep at, because that last one is what I will actually answer on. Delivery to your hotel, villa or the airport is free, and the car turns up charged.