Andrew Dwyer

Just tried Elexa, took about a minute to load then another minute to login and as i hadn’t used it since registering ages ago it asked for my phone number to send an OTP. All that is not promising at all

Since my recent road trip and my adoption of the EV Station Pluz chargers in future i will be concentrating on using them only. As stated they are plentiful and saw a couple of PTT stations yesterday without the large EV signs but clearly had chargers in operation. The booking system is the only downside imo ! As i have taken advantage of the free electrons since Aug i thought it time to do a <10% to 100% charge on AC when arriving home ( 8% to 100% overnight took 12 hours on my ABB wall charger ). So i did some mental calculations to charge at Kamphaeng Phet to 58% arriving home with less than 10%. It was 4.15 pm when i perused the app and both 120 kw chargers were available but booked for 4.00 to 4.30 and 4.30 to 5.00pm ( okay 4.27 and 4.57 but you get the idea ) so i decided to book the 5.00 to 5.30 slot . Arriving around 4.50 pm neither charger was in use so i guess someone had booked 4 slots ( 80 baht ) and not shown up ! Why they adopted the booking system, and subsequent reduction to 1/2 hour slots, I don’t know. !

Haven’t tried to route plan with the ReverSharger app but i don’t see this option there is “ Plan trip “ but doesn’t appear to allow a stop inbetween so in effect is like the “ Navigate “ button. I would use either Google Maps, Waze or ABRP ( A Better Route Planner ) to plan your route from your phone via Android Auto ( I believe you have gone Samsung now ). The Seal Navigation is pretty poor imho: Initially i liked it as the interface was great and the shortcut button to bring up chargers was very handy. But it did struggle to find places and I reverted to Google Maps. Recently the car has had a dealer update ( 2407 now ) and the SIM has been changed, along with this the Seal Navigation had an update. Gone is the charger shortcut button, it is now buried in settings, the interface has changed but is neither better nor worse imho. Worse though is the actual Navigation functionality: On a recent road trip i typed in The White Temple in Chiang Rai whilst in Chiang Mai , drove some 180 km and the little lady exclaimed “ turn in here “ ! while the Navigation claimed i had 13 km to go !! putting it down to an error in my typing ( maybe i was headed to the White Temple café or Hotel ? ) i let it slide. The next tourist stop was Wat Huay Pla Kang, stopped at a traffic light the Navigation was sending me 5 km to the right when the actual Wat was there to the left ( hard to miss ) !, curious i followed the Navigation and it took me away from my intended destination, announcing “ you have arrived at your destination “ in the middle of a random street some 5 km away. Needless to say i used Google Maps from then on with zero problems as the BYD Seal Navigation seems to be somewhat “ off “ !

Thanks for the info 🙄

I had envisioned using the cheaper rate on the gold rimmed red dot chargers on my road trip but it looks unlikely now, unless I grab a few reduced price electrons in a Kamphaeng Phet Bangchak pump. Is it me or are very few dealers offering the 5.8 baht promotion ? Ironically two Bangchak pumps nearest to my home are giving the discount while dealerships are nowhere to be seen ! But trusty old PEA Volta ( at the many Caltex pumps up here, scarce where I live ) has pulled me through so far and I had my first success ( after 13 months ) on a EV Station Pluz charger ! Tbh with around 550km range available I have charged few times away from home ( not counting the recent free charging ) and it has usually meant a quick charge at a PEA Volta or even PEA Authority if just wanting to ensure had enough to get home from the mil’s. I had registered for EV Pluz and it accepted my Bangkok Bank Union Pay debit card but the only time i tried it, around a year ago, it was unsuccessful, think I fell foul of the booking rule. Anyway, yesterday i passed one of the many PTT pumps with EV sign and called in on a whim ( planned to stop at a Bangchak today ), a quick check to see it was available ( blue symbol on the app ) and away we went charging at 115 kWh ! Had been slightly reluctant about EV Pluz due to the booking rule but kicking myself for not trying earlier in the week !! The direct debit from BB account definitely a plus ! So, with PEA ( wallet), Revercharger ( wallet ) and EV Pluz ( debit card ) am covered ☺️

Using goats as mahouts now !! ….. where will it end ?

Not that I know of. For my Seal i use BYD Seal Thailand group and BYD Seal group, not ideal as the Thai group(s) are confusing due to translation. The BYD Seal group is mainly European and Australian owners and has some good info on occasion. The best you can hope for is similar for your car manufacturer or the various threads on here which is as close to an EV expat group in Thailand you will get i think.

For anyone not wishing to read Bob Scott’s over emphasised version here it is in brief: “ Foreigner hits man wearing a dress “

Yes to all that, new EV owners need to be prepared to occasionally come across Altervim ( not entirely my fault as charger app listed the as 2 x 120 kw PEA chargers ) which showed to be problematic for payment for me . Also, chancers, Tony and Patrick , who i since discovered are more involved in laundromat’s !!, in advertising at 22 kw AC when in reality the majority of EV will charge at 7 kw. ( maybe Audi, Porsche or BMW can achieve this here in Thailand ? ). Anyway, it’s all good experience, just planned to top up a little while eating but at 7kw ( 6.4 kw actual ) wasn’t worth the effort. Note: i hadn’t seen the AC writing before and ‘er indoors was navigating us to what i thought was a EV PluZ Station ( that’s my excuse and i am sticking to it !! )

Say Nothing : covering the “ troubles “ in Northern Ireland during the 70’s and 3 following decades. Excellent !! https://www.imdb.com/title/tt31122777/?ref_=ext_shr_lnk

I did get sidetracked by a charger called something like EV Smile Station which was nearby so took a look see. Turned out to be a couple of 7kw chargers ( although advertised at 22 kw ), probably giving out around 6.4 kw like at home but for 8.5 baht a kw . Set up by Tony and Patrick (?) and probably good for the local residents but not good for anyone on the move, so sorry Tony sorry Patrick !

Another visiting tool who thinks he’s above the law, much like that nutter eating his traffic ticket recently .

Thanks @Pib for your usual quick and thorough response. Indeed the golden ring dots had appeared before the promotion had finished but i don’t remember if that was on the 1st of Jan or before. As i am on a road trip with the family in Chiang Mai and it is the weekend i haven’t tried any rever chargers since grabbing the last free electrons somewhere in between Tak and Lampang. But i did check out an app ( probably PlugShare or Charge Loma ) to find a charger near Doi Inthanon yesterday. The app says it had 2 high speed ( 120 kw ) PEA chargers at a nearby Lotus’s, turns out they were Altervim !! Had to download the app quickly but it wouldn’t accept my credit card ( probably frozen it now 🙄) and they wanted tax id, i gave it up ! But did find a 120 kw PEA Volta elsewhere, so easy, my charger of choice !

Just a quick confirmation @Pib will likely know the answer about the Revershargers promotion. Only red dots with gold rings are 5.8 baht ?? Full red dots are 8 baht ??

Anyone else surprised they cannot click on a link to open it now and have to copy and paste ? In 2025 ??

On the revershargers i have had 115 kWh a few times.

Agree, that cleaner rubbish was really bad, and i liked Greg Davies in the Inbetweeners and early Taskmaster stuff, in Man Down he was okay but in his later stuff he is the comedic male version of Miranda !!

Yes, I squeezed out a couple yesterday as we are embarking on a little road trip up North !. See my accumulator is rising again after resetting at the end of 2024. The discounted charging, good for 6 months, looks like it might be setting up for a further term. Reminds me of my airmile collecting days !!

15 Storeys High : a very underrated Brit comedy with Sean Lock and Benedict Wong

This message from 3 days ago states that the free charging ( and reduced for some customers ) will end at 23.59 on Jan 3rd ( payment to be confirmed by 00.15 on the 4th ). So unless anything has changed i will be squeezing another round of free electrons in tomorrow.

There was an update on Dec 28th, maybe that resolved your problem ? I haven’t used my wall box since the end of August so have no idea about your problem or if this update will fix it but worth checking ?

Exactly , sometimes we do things we don’t want to but do them because we love our partners and respect the things they do for us. If the op detests so much these road trips then he should have just paid a local to drive his ladies around so he could stay at home and relax. Although, the op sounds a little helpless and probably didn’t want to stay alone ….. and suffer the shame of his ladies coming back to find him wallowing in his own faeces !!

I logged out then back in again this morning, its in my previous post. Just tried it again now, still no sign of life only the air con fan noise. Remembered a post on the Thai fb group with the same story , after changing sim/upgrade the car doesn’t start only air con, several people replied with the same answer “ open seat vents “ ! I took this to be some mistranslation in the fb thread but just tried it now and indeed it works !! Start air con, start seat ventilation and the car started, lights flash/mirrors open and both screens illuminate, close seat ventilation and everything closes as locked. Whaaat !! Would be interesting to know what other Seal owners situation is .

Seems like we are in the minority when it comes to streaming. I have used many in the past ( tinyzone, fmovies, hdtoday, etc ) which all ended up dying after a while, fmovies lasted a few years. Currently using sflix2.to which also appeared to be dying ( excess buffering ) a few days ago but now has been resuscitated !!

Tried mine 4 or 5 times this morning and it continues to work the same: i.e. the air con starts but car shows no outward signs ( except for the noise of said air con ) lights don’t flash and the external mirrors don’t open like they did before. Upon entering the car all is dead except for air con, a single press on start and we are ready to go ! Using the remote has not changed, the lights flash, remain on and the car is already started ready to drive away. So, only the BYD app has changed, for me at least, no pending app update and i logged out and back in as a test also. I must admit i prefer the old version and don’t understand the reason behind it, unless it is felt more secure i.e. with the car started at a distance via the app someone could force the door and drive away whereas with the remote you have to be close ?