EV Charging Stations (CS)

[Brightonman]

22 minutes ago, motdaeng said:

 

ask your in-laws if someone in their area has an ev and a wall charger. maybe they'd be willing to let you charge your car if it's really necessary ...

It's extremely rural around there with almost no electric cars. We've already asked brother in law if he knew of any chargers. But no luck 

[Pib]

 

Here's that special adapter more formally called a "pass-thru bonded neutral-ground adapter."   Lot's of Youtube videos on this type of adapter by those folks who use certain types of portable generators.   Fancy name to where the neutral and ground are connected together within the adapter.   Also the screwdriver shown is one of those "voltage detector" screw drivers which lights up when touching 110V/220V.   

 

I keep them with in my portable charger carrying case for possible use in the land of two wire (hot and neutral) outlets.   Outlets that may have three holes (hot, neutral & ground) but actually there is no ground wire hooked to the outlet.

 

I've also wrote myself a note I keep with this "pass-three bonded neutral-ground adapter" that goes along the lines of saying: This is a pass-thru bonded neutral-ground adapter.  The hot/live prong side is marked with Red tape must only be plugged into the hot/live hole on a 2 wire socket.  Otherwise, 220V will be applied to the ground prong/hole.  Use voltage detector to determine hot/live and neutral on the 2 wire socket before plugging in the adapter.

 

This is info only....don't attempt this unless you understand the neutral-ground bonding concept and comfortable working with electrical circuits like 220V circuits.

 

 

[Pib]

Keep in mind these portable chargers will only add about 3% charger per hour.  That would be like 30% over 10 hours...like if you charged overnight. For a Dolphin with 410km range a 30% charge would be around 123km of driving...or let's say probably more like a little of 100km.  But that may be more than an adequate daily top-up charge for typical daily driving, to get down the road where there are plenty of DC Fast Chargers.  

 

My portable charger easily met my daily driving needs when I first go my BYD Atto but didn't get the wall charger installed for several weeks later...I just didn't need to use a DC charger.  Topping-up by 30% over 10 hours was more than enough to keep me fully charged up...and actually after about 6pm everyday I didn't need to use the Atto until around 10am to 11am the next day so I got enough time to do around 16-17 hours of charging everyday if needed which is -approx 50%/around 200-220km realworld worth of charge/mileage for my Atto.

 

 

[JBChiangRai]

I have an aftermarket charger with a long 10 m cable, switchable from 6 A all the way up to 16 A.

 

It doesn’t need an earth, and if we’re going traveling to somewhere uncertain, I take that with me.

[Brightonman]

10 hours ago, Pib said:

Keep in mind these portable chargers will only add about 3% charger per hour.  That would be like 30% over 10 hours...like if you charged overnight. For a Dolphin with 410km range a 30% charge would be around 123km of driving...or let's say probably more like a little of 100km.  But that may be more than an adequate daily top-up charge for typical daily driving, to get down the road where there are plenty of DC Fast Chargers.  

 

My portable charger easily met my daily driving needs when I first go my BYD Atto but didn't get the wall charger installed for several weeks later...I just didn't need to use a DC charger.  Topping-up by 30% over 10 hours was more than enough to keep me fully charged up...and actually after about 6pm everyday I didn't need to use the Atto until around 10am to 11am the next day so I got enough time to do around 16-17 hours of charging everyday if needed which is -approx 50%/around 200-220km realworld worth of charge/mileage for my Atto.

 

 

If it works and they have enough electric supply after the a/c in the bedroom use, this sounds possible to keep us topped up. It's the not knowing which makes it stressful. 

 

I suppose we'll just have to go and give it a go. 

 

But Thailand does need to install more chargers in the out of the way places. 

[Gweiloman]

21 minutes ago, Brightonman said:

If it works and they have enough electric supply after the a/c in the bedroom use, this sounds possible to keep us topped up. It's the not knowing which makes it stressful. 

 

I suppose we'll just have to go and give it a go. 

 

But Thailand does need to install more chargers in the out of the way places. 

I had the same issue when I visited a rather rural Mooban in the depths of Isaan and the GWM supplied granny charger showed a fault as there was no earth. I quickly got myself one of those aftermarket chargers where you can alter the amps from 6A to 16A. This is invaluable as even charging at 10A can trip the circuit board in certain areas of low electrical power.

[Andrew Dwyer]

5 minutes ago, Gweiloman said:

I had the same issue when I visited a rather rural Mooban in the depths of Isaan and the GWM supplied granny charger showed a fault as there was no earth. I quickly got myself one of those aftermarket chargers where you can alter the amps from 6A to 16A. This is invaluable as even charging at 10A can trip the circuit board in certain areas of low electrical power.

Yup, I bought one also when I discovered the mil’s house didn’t have an earth.

Cost me 3,600 from Lazada but have used it plenty, an advantage over the BYD charger is if possible it can charge up to 16A cutting down the charging time.

Carry it in the car and the BYD charger relegated to the spare bedroom with the multitude of other obsolete items i keep !

[Andrew Dwyer]

38 minutes ago, Brightonman said:

If it works and they have enough electric supply after the a/c in the bedroom use, this sounds possible to keep us topped up. It's the not knowing which makes it stressful. 

 

I suppose we'll just have to go and give it a go. 

 

But Thailand does need to install more chargers in the out of the way places. 

Plugshare app shows Chatturat has a charger at 25 kw.

 

 

which would be your nearest at around 40 km.

Might be worth taking a run by it when arriving in Bamnet Narong as a fallback.

( I did see it out of service yesterday but can’t find that now, might have been temporary ).

[Brightonman]

1 hour ago, Andrew Dwyer said:

Plugshare app shows Chatturat has a charger at 25 kw.

 

 

which would be your nearest at around 40 km.

Might be worth taking a run by it when arriving in Bamnet Narong as a fallback.

( I did see it out of service yesterday but can’t find that now, might have been temporary ).

Thank you for this. I did just find Chatturat 25kw PEA charger. I will be heading for that when we go.

My Plugshare doesn't look anything like yours and usually shows names in Thai. What am I doing wrong? 

[Brightonman]

21 minutes ago, Brightonman said:

Thank you for this. I did just find Chatturat 25kw PEA charger. I will be heading for that when we go.

My Plugshare doesn't look anything like yours and usually shows names in Thai. What am I doing wrong? 

[Andrew Dwyer]

1 hour ago, Brightonman said:

Thank you for this. I did just find Chatturat 25kw PEA charger. I will be heading for that when we go.

My Plugshare doesn't look anything like yours and usually shows names in Thai. What am I doing wrong? 

Not sure why or how mine is in English, my location has me in Singapore for some reason ??

On an iPhone so maybe why looks different.

[Brightonman]

10 minutes ago, Andrew Dwyer said:

Not sure why or how mine is in English, my location has me in Singapore for some reason ??

On an iPhone so maybe why looks different.

I wrote an email in English to PEA and they've already replied to say that Chatturat is closed. Great service but terrible news 

[Andrew Dwyer]

16 minutes ago, Brightonman said:

I wrote an email in English to PEA and they've already replied to say that Chatturat is closed. Great service but terrible news 

ChargeLoma is another app similar to Plugshare but that also doesn’t show Chatturat as closed so not much help.

[Andrew Dwyer]

23 minutes ago, Brightonman said:

I wrote an email in English to PEA and they've already replied to say that Chatturat is closed. Great service but terrible news 

PEA Volta app shows it as closed ( couldn’t remember where i saw it, mistakenly thought it was google maps ), shame the other apps which show all chargers ( Plugshare, ChargeLoma ) don’t !

 

[josephbloggs]

Yesterday I went to do my shop in Villa Thonglor. In the car park they had closed several bays to install EV chargers. They already had a couple of Porsche ones in there but these were called "Onion". Is this yet another brand of EV chargers? Never seen them before.

[JBChiangRai]

35 minutes ago, josephbloggs said:

Yesterday I went to do my shop in Villa Thonglor. In the car park they had closed several bays to install EV chargers. They already had a couple of Porsche ones in there but these were called "Onion". Is this yet another brand of EV chargers? Never seen them before.

We have Onion AC chargers in central mall in Chiang Rai, they’re just typical 7 to 22 kW AC chargers.

Edited November 10 by JBChiangRai
Soelling

[Pib]

15 hours ago, Pib said:

 

Here's that special adapter more formally called a "pass-thru bonded neutral-ground adapter."   Lot's of Youtube videos on this type of adapter by those folks who use certain types of portable generators.   Fancy name to where the neutral and ground are connected together within the adapter.   Also the screwdriver shown is one of those "voltage detector" screw drivers which lights up when touching 110V/220V.   

 

I keep them with in my portable charger carrying case for possible use in the land of two wire (hot and neutral) outlets.   Outlets that may have three holes (hot, neutral & ground) but actually there is no ground wire hooked to the outlet.

 

I've also wrote myself a note I keep with this "pass-three bonded neutral-ground adapter" that goes along the lines of saying: This is a pass-thru bonded neutral-ground adapter.  The hot/live prong side is marked with Red tape must only be plugged into the hot/live hole on a 2 wire socket.  Otherwise, 220V will be applied to the ground prong/hole.  Use voltage detector to determine hot/live and neutral on the 2 wire socket before plugging in the adapter.

 

This is info only....don't attempt this unless you understand the neutral-ground bonding concept and comfortable working with electrical circuits like 220V circuits.pass-thru bonded neutral-ground adapter

 

 

 

 

And below is my poorly made and very short video of above homemade "pass-thru bonded neutral-ground adapter" charging my Atto.  Please note I have already used my voltage detector screwdriver to determine which is the hot/live hole and neutral hole on my carport socket (A VERY IMPORTANT, MUST DO STEP)....the top hole on the socket is the hot/live hole and bottom hole the neutral....and then I plug-in the 2 prong pass-thru adapter in the correct hot/live and neutral orientation.   

 

The charger's power light comes on steady and the charging light begins blinking which means it's charging since I already have the CCS cable connected to the Atto charging port.  And the Fault light being off means no fault detected like it detecting it doesn't see  any ground since it is seeing a ground due to the pass-thru connector.   Since the neutral and ground connectors within the adapter are wired together the portable adapter sees a ground and the charger is happy....it begins charging.  If you just plugged the charger's cable into a socket with only 2 wires (hot and neutral) without the pass-thru adapter the charger does not see an earth connections and its the Fault light comes on and it does "not" begin charging.    

 

With this BYD portable 10A charger it charges the Atto at a 1.8KWH to 2.2KWH rate depending on the current charge level of your EV.    One hour of charging will give approx 3 to 4% charge....10 hours 30 to 40%, etc.

 

This is info only....don't attempt this unless you understand the neutral-ground bonding concept and comfortable working with electrical circuits like 220V circuits.  Lots or Youtube video and many webpages talking pass-thru bonded neutral-ground adapter construction (very simple construction) and how to use.   The adapter comes in very hand in the land of 2 wire socket when needing to plug-in a 3 wire device expecting to see a ground connection.   Or as others have done buy a 2 wire portable charger that doesn't use/need an ground connection.

 

 

 

[Pib]

Onion chargers have been around for a while....they are mostly Level 2, 7KW or 22KW "AC" chargers....Onion has few DC Chargers.  I see them periodically in malls here in Bangkok like at Central Malls.

 

https://evat.or.th/ev-information/current-status/index

 

[josephbloggs]

3 minutes ago, Pib said:

Onion chargers have been around for a while....they are mostly Level 2, 7KW or 22KW "AC" chargers....Onion has few DC Chargers.  I see them periodically in malls here in Bangkok like at Central Malls.

 

https://evat.or.th/ev-information/current-status/index

 

 

 

Thanks for the info, JB too. This was the first time I had ever noticed them. I don't have an EV which might explain why I've never noticed them but I do have real interest in them so I am normally quite observant of things EV related.

It was almost two years ago when I borrowed an EV for a three day road trip and even then I was surprised at how many different brands of charger there were (each one needing an app) but seems it has grown massively since.

I know if you charge at home you rarely need a public charger but it must be annoying at having so many different brands out there. Or do you tend to just stick with a couple of the main ones?

[Pib]

42 minutes ago, josephbloggs said:

Thanks for the info, JB too. This was the first time I had ever noticed them. I don't have an EV which might explain why I've never noticed them but I do have real interest in them so I am normally quite observant of things EV related.

It was almost two years ago when I borrowed an EV for a three day road trip and even then I was surprised at how many different brands of charger there were (each one needing an app) but seems it has grown massively since.

I know if you charge at home you rarely need a public charger but it must be annoying at having so many different brands out there. Or do you tend to just stick with a couple of the main ones?

 

I registered with below charging networks since they are the top 6 in terms of number of DC chargers.  And I have used all of them mostly for testing purposes...ensure they "really" work for me....get use to using each one.  They all operate pretty close the same way...just minor differences.   Now I have used the ReverSharger network around 50 times since early August as I can charge for free thru 2 Jan 2025...so, I stop and top-up often in my day-to-day....get as many free electrons as I can while they are free.

 

Charging Apps I'm Registered With

- PTT EV Station Pluz

- PEA Volta

- EA Anywhere

- Elexa

- Altervim

- ReverSharger

 

More and more PTT stations seem to be adding chargers and lord knows PTT stations are almost everywhere on main roads.   And it not uncommon for a some PTT stations to have charger but they will not have an EV emblem on their big road sign.  ALWAYS use the charging apps to see where their chargers are...do not expect there to be some big neon sign along the road saying there is a charger at this location----use the apps.....lots of chargers in many locations.  Sure, some Thailand locations have few  public chargers (especially rural areas)  but for long trips via main roads there is enough DC chargers to get to where you are going.

  

I rarely have a need to use a DC charger since I have a wall charger and my Atto has a real world range of 400-440Km (BYD advertised NEDC range of 480Km or WLTP 420Km).  It's not like I'm doing daily/weekly Bangkok-Pattaya road trips....the great, great, great bulk of my driving does not exceed a 150Km "radius." 

 

 With that 400-440Km real-world range I can drive around a 200km "radius" from my home without needing to recharge if I wanted to run down close to 0% charge before getting back home...but I'm not that stupid. ...when on a long trip I always plan a  recharge/top-up to ensure I have at least 25% remaining  when getting home/going to whatever location I'm going to.  And I will stop and charge for say 20 minutes while me and the wife take a bathroom break, grab a snack/bit to eat, etc....I may have zero need to charge while making that bathroom stop but since there is a DC charger there why not do a top-up...not necessarily to 100%...maybe just do 20 minutes of charging.   

 

After 13 months of driving my Atto the little bit of range anxiety I initially had has long disappeared because of so many places for me to charge,,,and because of the range of my Atto.  And heck, people driving around in BEVs which have around a 600Km range probably laugh when someone says "range anxiety." 

 

For the charging apps that require a debit/credit card for payment only the ReverSharger app would not accept my Bangkok Bank Mastercard debit card, but gladly accepted my foreign credit card.  Some apps don't even require a credit card as they offer the QR payment method.....some offer debit/credit card and QR payment....and some use the Wallet approach where you put money in the app's wallet via top-up from debit/credit card or QR payment.   Whatever app you register with be sure to determine what "payment option(s) they offer....don't do much good to be able to register but can't add a payment option....if you don't have a payment option that you can use then you will not be able to use the app to charge the EV.

 

P.S. When at a small Bangkok mall the other day where the Foodland is that I primarily go to once or twice a week they just finished installing some "iGreen" DC and AC chargers.  A new charging company not listed on above chart....new charging companies popping up all the time.  I'll probably install their app to see if they are worth signing up with....see their website below with links for app download/install.

https://igreenplus.co.th/

[Pib]

1 hour ago, Pib said:

 

P.S. When at a small Bangkok mall the other day where the Foodland is that I primarily go to once or twice a week they just finished installing some "iGreen" DC and AC chargers.  A new charging company not listed on above chart....new charging companies popping up all the time.  I'll probably install their app to see if they are worth signing up with....see their website below with links for app download/install.

https://igreenplus.co.th/

Just installed the iGreen charging network app.   No need to register to see their charging locations and number of chargers at each location.  iGreen chargers are predominately in the greater Bangkok area. 

 

When using the app to show/filter AC "and" DC charging "locations" it gives a total of 161 locations.  But when selecting to show locations with AC chargers it lists 157 locations.  So the great majority of the 161 locations have AC chargers but they may also have DC chargers.  When selecting show me DC chargers it lists 59 locations out of the 161 locations.   

 

So, I guess that means of the 161 locations iGreen has AC and/or DC chargers but of those 161 locations only 59 of them have DC chargers with the great majority those DC charging locations being in the greater Bangkok area.   4 DC charging locations in the Chonburi/Pattaya area....3 DC charging locations in the Chiang Mai area....and then just a few more DC charging location in a few other areas.   

 

Now I've been talking "locations".....each location has multiple AC and/or DC chargers totaling up to hundreds of chargers....maybe approaching approx 500 chargers across the 161 locations.  Some locations have 2 DC chargers and 3 AC chargers.    Where I mentioned in my other post I first notice iGreen chargers at the Foodland I go to in Bangkok, well, that location has 2 AC chargers and 2 DC chargers.  

 

It looks like the only payment option is debit/credit card....don't know if it only accepts "Thai" debit/credit cards or foreign cards also.   The card is used to top-up your iGreen wallet...then payment for each charging session is deducted from the iGreen wallet.  So  if you want to start a charging session you will need to use your card to top-up your iGreen wallet.

 

Still thinking if I want to register.  Since the great majority of their DC chargers are in the greater Bangkok area where I live that doesn't do "me" much good for long trips away from home.   But for someone who say lives a couple hundred kilometers outside of Bangkok and will be making frequent trips to Bangkok then that would be a good thing for them recharging-wise.  Each person is different as to where they need/want to see DC chargers.  

Edited November 10 by Pib

[KhunLA]

4 hours ago, josephbloggs said:

I know if you charge at home you rarely need a public charger but it must be annoying at having so many different brands out there. Or do you tend to just stick with a couple of the main ones?

When O&A, we usually use EV Station Pluz, as they're located where we stop usually, PTT Parks.  Since there for dog walk, stretch, P & a munch, we simply plug in.   So charging adds very little, if any time to our journey.

 

Other vendors we've used are, MG, PEA (@ Bangchak usually), Elexa.  All along our routes, and all having food & facilities we're stopping for to use.  Actually, very rare that we stop 'to charge'.  Simply charge while stopped.

 

Many times when settled in somewhere, we'll go out for a munch, and with so many PTTs & Banchaks, if convenient, we'll park there, plug in, and stroll to the restaurant.

Edited November 10 by KhunLA

[Gweiloman]

I have a question for some of you EV owners. You can now reserve PTT EV Station Pluz chargers in 30 minutes slots instead of 1 hour previously. Also previously, the charger stops automatically at 5 minutes to the hour I believe. However, it doesn’t do that anymore, it continues past the “transition” time into the next slot.

 

So my question i, if you turn up at say quarter past the hour and start charging and not realising the next 30 minute slot has been reserved and you walk away from the car to have a meal, what happens? Does the charging stop and how would the next guy start his charge if your car is in the bay?