EV Charging Stations (CS)

[Pib]

Used an Altervim 150KW charger today at my nearby Lotus's store.   The last time I used an Altervim charger--which was my first and last use of any Altervim charger until today's test--was Jan 2024 shortly after I registered on the Altervim app.   This 1st test of a few minutes/kilowatts was successful....total price  was Bt7.5/KW...I paid via my Bangkok Bank Mastercard debit card.

 

Today's test (my 2nd test) was a ditto of the 1st test.  No drama.  My Bangkok Bank card was charged immediately.   And the charger (shown below) and app were the "most responsive" of any charging session I've done with any charging network (i.e, PTT, ReverSharger, PEA,  etc).     Yes, the charging session today was very easy.    And Altervim is still perfectly happy with my Bangkok Bank debt card.

 

Altervim 150KW Charger

[Rotweiler]

I am a non-EV user.  I had always assumed I would be (amoung) the first to adopt EV technology, but always found reasons why I shouldn't.

 

We live in the country - East of CM and West of CR.   3 months ago our area got it's first charging station.  There are now 4.  

 

While I have picked the EV car I want to buy, I am still very stressed about the decision - after reading all the issues people are having with getting charging stations to work correctly, and actually paying for that.  My 14-year old Innova works great.  When it needs fuel, I stop at any of a kazillion gas stations; and pay with cash (remember that paper stuff???).

 

Switch to EV?  Not yet.

[KhunLA]

26 minutes ago, Rotweiler said:

I am a non-EV user.  I had always assumed I would be (amoung) the first to adopt EV technology, but always found reasons why I shouldn't.

 

We live in the country - East of CM and West of CR.   3 months ago our area got it's first charging station.  There are now 4.  

 

While I have picked the EV car I want to buy, I am still very stressed about the decision - after reading all the issues people are having with getting charging stations to work correctly, and actually paying for that.  My 14-year old Innova works great.  When it needs fuel, I stop at any of a kazillion gas stations; and pay with cash (remember that paper stuff???).

 

Switch to EV?  Not yet.

We haven't encountered any issues at all at CS, with payment.  It is a learning curve, but no different than getting your first credit/debit/ATM card, or simply paying online, which I still haven't mastered 🙄  Or signing up and logging in to various apps, for whatever reason

 

Register with a few vendors, we use 2 almost exclusively, with a 3rd, and all 3 are easy to use.  CS vendors offer a couple pay options, so nobody should really have problems.

 

If at a CS and not playing nice, DO call the cust. serv ph #.  I'm impatient, and just tell the wife, "come on, get in, next station"  which happened 2X.  She smartly ignored me, and cust serv rep reset the unit, and all good.

 

Only 2X in say 50+, at least, stops at CS, as we get O&A quite a bit.

[Pib]

7 minutes ago, Rotweiler said:

I am a non-EV user.  I had always assumed I would be (among) the first to adopt EV technology, but always found reasons why I shouldn't.

 

We live in the country - East of CM and West of CR.   3 months ago our area got it's first charging station.  There are now 4.  

 

While I have picked the EV car I want to buy, I am still very stressed about the decision - after reading all the issues people are having with getting charging stations to work correctly, and actually paying for that.  My 14-year old Innova works great.  When it needs fuel, I stop at any of a kazillion gas stations; and pay with cash (remember that paper stuff???).

 

Switch to EV?  Not yet.

 

It's normal to have some concern (anxiety) about switching from dino fuel to electrons when being concerned about easy access to electrons. 

 

But keep in mind the great, great majority of kilometers you put on your EV will just be your day-to-day local driving like doing the grocery store runs, hauling family around, etc.  And assuming you will install a 7KW (32A) wallcharger OR use a sloer 10-16A charger you can plug into a regular 16A household outlet then you will have easy access to all the electrons you need "for your local driving."

 

Well, what about those  l.....o......n......g  trips where you will need to recharge at least once.  Yes, that is when you will need to sign-up with some charging apps.....and of course you need to have a payment option that works with app.   A charging app turns out to be pretty useless if it don't have a payment method (i.e., card, QR, etc) you can use.

 

Now those charging apps that only accept a payment method "by card" like the PTT and Altervim charging apps can cause frustration if you do not have a credit or debt card the app will accept.   You might want to register with these apps and then see if they will accept whatever Thai bank debt/credit card you have....along with maybe seeing if they will accept whatever "foreign/home country" card you have.   If those two apps accept your Thai bank card then shouldn't have an frustration in using them.  For me, both of these apps accept my Bangkok Bank Mastercard debit card and my foreign cards.

 

But other apps like PEA, EA Anywhere, Elexa, and ReverSharger that offer payment by card "and/or " by app Wallet or app QR/PromptPay shouldn't cause any frustration as long you use Thai bank "mobile banking app" were you simply scan a QR code to pay for a charging session (like many people do now days....just scan a QR code to pay for something) or top-up the charging app's Wallet via QR/PromptPay in order to pay for a charging session directly from the charging app's Wallet.      

 

But if you are person which still does not use mbanking (instead only use ibanking on the computer), don't want to pay via QR/PromptPay, pretty much use cash  to pay for most things,  then, Yes, you are going to be a very stressed person using an EV because you'll be afraid of going on long trips.  

 

You do not need to have an EV to register with any of above apps.  Yes, they may ask for the type of EV you have and even license plate number but you can just enter the EV you plan to have and made-up license plate number....the app will accept it...you can update the license number after you really have an EV.  Why don't you install the PTT app, register, and then see if it accepts whatever Thai bank card you have and maybe even any foreign cards you have....if it accepts them you are good to go.

 

And just ignore these social media stories where a person couldn't find a operational charger before he ran out of elections as that usually means he was a dumb-a$$ in letting his EV battery drop to low before getting serious about dropping by a fast charger to get some electrons....that person just didn't do adequate planning for his long trip.  And believe me there are now MANY DC fast chargers along the main highways of Thailand for those trips where you travel on main highways.

[Andrew Dwyer]

Here’s one that popped up on FB, another charging app.

 

 

looked like the usual array of 7kw and 22kw ( if your car can handle it ) at coffee shops and small hotels etc, but I did spot, on the app map, a couple of 60kw and 120kw chargers 

 

but wait a minute … what is this at Swampy !!

 

 

 

720 kW charging !!

 

Well there has been some talk of Huawei testing 600 kW chargers in China but this is very surprising.

 

Has to be 720 kW for the 4 chargers surely, i mean at what max charging speed do we have here ….. interesting to see what speed that guy on charger number 4 is getting ??

A Porsche at 270 kWh or a Neta V at 80 kWh ??

[richard_smith237]

31 minutes ago, Andrew Dwyer said:

but wait a minute … what is this at Swampy !!

 

720 kW charging !!

 

 

Someone charging their electric turboprop ????  

[richard_smith237]

1 hour ago, Rotweiler said:

I am a non-EV user.  I had always assumed I would be (amoung) the first to adopt EV technology, but always found reasons why I shouldn't.

 

We live in the country - East of CM and West of CR.   3 months ago our area got it's first charging station.  There are now 4.  

 

While I have picked the EV car I want to buy, I am still very stressed about the decision - after reading all the issues people are having with getting charging stations to work correctly, and actually paying for that.  My 14-year old Innova works great.  When it needs fuel, I stop at any of a kazillion gas stations; and pay with cash (remember that paper stuff???).

 

Switch to EV?  Not yet.

 

I was a lot like you and Imagined more issues than actually exist. 

 

I think we're 3 months in to EV ownership and haven't looked back....   

 

We'd made a road trip and used public chargers, no real issues there - had a KFC by which time the car had charged to from about 30-80% (in about 20 mins / a 88kWh battery)....  (or something similar to that amount I can't remember exactly.

 

Charging at home is extremely simple - we only really need to charged it every 3rd day....  

NEDC Range is 620kms (which IMO is total rubbish).

WLTP Range is 500 kms (which is more realistic).

In truth - I haven't see 500kms pop up on the range-ometer or whatever its called, but we regularly see 450kms - which is more than enough to hardly ever worry, or even think about it.

 

In fact the additional convenience of not going to a petrol station is noticeable...  all those 5-10mins saved here and there add up, not that were exceptionally busy, but its a noticable 'saving' not having to go to a petrol station. 

 

For long trips - they are very easily planned for - who drives fro 450 kms without wanting to take a break. 

We drove to Hua Hun (200kms)...  as we approached the outskirts of hua hun we popped into a Petrol station - plugged in to charge and had an ice cream...  we were up to 80% by the time we'd finished. 

 

There was a faff - getting the Apps sorted that takes and extra 10mins when initially setting up, but after that, its set up again and simple - though I'll add one point to this. We've not used any 'external charging' for about 10 weeks... So its likely that when we do need to, the App will have to 'update first' as thats seems to be the case with any app if we haven't used it for a while).

 

 

IMO - if doing less than 200km a day - an EV is extremely easy to live with, especially when charging at home.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Pib]

Yea, the OneCharger network seems to predominately be comprised of slow chargers (i.e., 7 or 22KW Type II chargers).   Below is with the app's charger search results set to only show chargers that are greater than 47KW which results in around  dozen or so locations clustered mainly in the greater Bangkok area.   Now when set to show DC and AC chargers it shows a good number across Thailand. Expect the great bulk of the AC Type II chargers at close to condos, coffee shops, etc., and meant for the local residents. 

 

But there must be some errors in their chargers database as that gray colored charger on the far left in Kanchanaburi details as a 500KW "Type II" charger.  Wow, that must be the biggest Type II charger in the world....around 71 times more powerful than my 7KW home wallcharger.    Must be a typo as they show a CCS2 connector image which means it's a DC Fast Charge versus an AC/Type II connector image and as mentioned they say it's a Type II charger.  Now when I click go to that location and then click and look at the image of the charger's location it's in a small town at an intersection where there is a CJ Store and Mr DIY Store, but I never could spot the charger so I expect it probably a Type II wallcharger next to some small shop.....I can't see them installing a 500KW supercharger is a in-the-sticks town along the border.

 

Search Set to Only show Chargers greater than 47KW

[Pib]

14 minutes ago, richard_smith237 said:

Charging at home is extremely simple - we only really need to charged it every 3rd day....  

NEDC Range is 620kms (which IMO is total rubbish).

WLTP Range is 500 kms (which is more realistic).

In truth - I haven't see 500kms pop up on the range-ometer or whatever its called, but we regularly see 450kms - which is more than enough to hardly ever worry, or even think about it.

Yea....a NEDC range rating which most EV's sold in Thailand come rated at are pie-in-the-sky rating.  The NEDC range rating is far from being real world.  Now finding out what the WLTP rating for a person's EV gets much closer to real world.

 

Like my BYD Atto with 60.5KWH battery has a 480Km NEDC range rating and 420 WLTP range rating.  I've now had the Atto for 15 months and over 31,000km.  I checked/calculated my "real world" range MANY times over the last 15 months of driving those 31K kilometers and I can definitely exceed the WLTP rating during most of they year....like getting around 425-442Km real world range when driving conservatively in ECO mode in the greater Bangkok/bordering provinces area which is mostly driving around 50 to 90kmH with one or two trips per months into the center of highrise Bangkok where traffic is typically horrendous, stop & go traffic jams, etc.

 

But in the hottest part of the year....say Apr - Aug due to the EV's "electric Air Con compressor" having to work a lot harder (i.e., spin faster which eats more battery electrons) to keep the EV cabin cool...I set the the A/C to 22C....I typically get around 400-410Km.   When I did a real world range test/calculation last week (late Jan) I got around a 428Km real world range but this is a cooler part of the year.

 

Now when I look at the average electron consumption per 100Km in my Atto's infotainment system it says over the last 15 months my average consumption has been 12.7Kw/100Km which is saying my average range for my 60.5Kw battery tank full of electrons has been 476Km.  Yea, right!!!!....maybe in BYD's dream.   But when doing real world driving range calculations as I mentioned it's more in the 425 to 442Km ballpark.   

 

[UWEB]

1 hour ago, Andrew Dwyer said:

Here’s one that popped up on FB, another charging app.

 

 

looked like the usual array of 7kw and 22kw ( if your car can handle it ) at coffee shops and small hotels etc, but I did spot, on the app map, a couple of 60kw and 120kw chargers 

 

but wait a minute … what is this at Swampy !!

 

 

 

720 kW charging !!

 

Well there has been some talk of Huawei testing 600 kW chargers in China but this is very surprising.

 

Has to be 720 kW for the 4 chargers surely, i mean at what max charging speed do we have here ….. interesting to see what speed that guy on charger number 4 is getting ??

A Porsche at 270 kWh or a Neta V at 80 kWh ??

May be for the Electric Busses in Bangkok going to Sampi?

[Andrew Dwyer]

18 minutes ago, UWEB said:

May be for the Electric Busses in Bangkok going to Sampi?

That’s a good point but another view on the app shows them in use .

 

 

is that a Lotus ?

[Pib]

It's at a PTT station based on info on the OneCharger FB page and looking at Google Maps pictures.

 

And I think PTT and OneCharger are developing a close relationship since in the OneCharge app it of course shows OneCharger chargers but it also allows you to show PTT EV Station app chargers.   No other charging network chargers (e.g. PEA, EA Anywhere, Elexa, etc.,) can be shown.

[Bandersnatch]

I have said many time that EVs are not for everyone and the test case I usually use is "can you do a self-checkout at Tops without asking for help"

 

Charging an EV is definitely more difficult that handing over a 500 Baht note at PTT. Case in point a 900km return trip to BKK we were returning yesterday and shared the driving with the wife. While she was driving I purchased a magic keyboard from the Apple store. The transaction went through and I thought nothing more about it. 

 

We arrived at Korat and I used a BYD dealership to "Plug and Charge" my BYD Seal. Everything went fine until I tried to pay. Each time I got a message from SCB:

 

"You are over limit for the day please change the limit at any SCB ATM"

 

Changing the limits on my SCB app had no effect. Luckily I was using a BYD EV charger which said please clear the balance within 24 hours.

 

Back home today I tried to buy a new mouse to go with my new keyboard and was informed again 

 

"You are over limit for the day please change the limit at any SCB ATM"

 

Calling SCB I was informed that they thought my keyboard purchase from the apple store was a potential fraud so they had reduced my available balance limit to zero! SCB informed my that as I hadn't used the apple store in over a month they thought my transaction was suspicious.

 

I told them that the AI engine they were using  for fraud detection lacked any "I" and the next time they put a hold on my account please tell me that they had put hold on my account not that I was over limit for the day.

 

The point I am trying to make that is that it might be worth topping up your wallets on a few EV charging apps before a long trip as you might not have access to your Bank account when you need it. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Andrew Dwyer]

12 minutes ago, Bandersnatch said:

I have said many time that EVs are not for everyone and the test case I usually use is "can you do a self-checkout at Tops without asking for help"

 

Charging an EV is definitely more difficult that handing over a 500 Baht note at PTT. Case in point a 900km return trip to BKK we were returning yesterday and shared the driving with the wife. While she was driving I purchased a magic keyboard from the Apple store. The transaction went through and I thought nothing more about it. 

 

We arrived at Korat and I used a BYD dealership to "Plug and Charge" my BYD Seal. Everything went fine until I tried to pay. Each time I got a message from SCB:

 

"You are over limit for the day please change the limit at any SCB ATM"

 

Changing the limits on my SCB app had no effect. Luckily I was using a BYD EV charger which said please clear the balance within 24 hours.

 

Back home today I tried to buy a new mouse to go with my new keyboard and was informed again 

 

"You are over limit for the day please change the limit at any SCB ATM"

 

Calling SCB I was informed that they thought my keyboard purchase from the apple store was a potential fraud so they had reduced my available balance limit to zero! SCB informed my that as I hadn't used the apple store in over a month they thought my transaction was suspicious.

 

I told them that the AI engine they were using  for fraud detection lacked any "I" and the next time they put a hold on my account please tell me that they had put hold on my account not that I was over limit for the day.

 

The point I am trying to make that is that it might be worth topping up your wallets on a few EV charging apps before a long trip as you might not have access to your Bank account when you need it. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Many of the easy charging experiences are spoiled by the app payment methods.

My U.K. credit card was locked, more of an overly zealous U.K. bank than Thai charging app but its refusal to accept other methods of payment lead me in that direction, on an Altervim charger.

I find EV Station Pluz ( Thai debit card), PEA Volta and EleXA (which allows me to pay via wallet without any form of card registration) to be the best.

Reversharger recently introduced a Wallet topped up via Prompt Pay and i would use them only the eligible chargers for the 5.8 baht/kw offer are few and far between ( mainly Bangchak pumps ).

 

Those charging apps requiring credit card registration are going to be only in dire need of a charge and last on my list, imho.

[Pib]

Yeap, the charging apps that have a wallet and/or QR payment payment options can reduce payment frustrations....frustrations such as your card being rejected by the app or by your card-issuing bank.

 

I'm registered with the 6 charging apps below and I have listed what the payment options as best I can remember, from reviewing the app just now, and from looking at my payment history in the apps. 

 

1.  PTT  EV Station PluZ  (by card only, "no" wallet, "no" QR payment)

2.  PEA Volta  (card and wallet with wallet top-up via QR payment)

3.  EA Anywhere  (card and wallet with wallet top-up via QR payment)

4.  ReverSharger (card, wallet, and QR payment)

5.  Altervim (card only, "no" wallet)

6.  EleXA (card and QR payment, "no" wallet)

 

Now where I say "QR payment or wallet QR top-up" I mean you can either pay directly for a charging session via QR payment "or" you pay directly from your wallet that can be topped-up via QR payment."  Slight difference between the two methods where where one method is a direct QR payment and the second method is you pay from your wallet that you topped-up via QR payment before charging.

 

So, when using PTT and Altervim you just hope your card works to pay for the charging session "after" you have put the electrons in your battery tank.  While these two apps only accept payment via card they let you complete the charging session before you have to pay.  And if the card payment is rejected you are not stuck at the charger unable to disconnect the charging cable from your EV....it's not like you have stepped in bear trap and unable to disconnect the charging cable.  Instead, you can then try another card and/or get with customer service later on to get the bill settled.   Typically you see a message to pay within 24 hours or something along those lines AND until you get that payment cleared you will not be able to start another charging session.   Don't know why PTT and Altervim don't also allow QR payment....the old PTT app use to say QR Payment and Mbanking "Coming Soon" but the new app does say that.

 

Yeap, the charging apps that also have a wallet and QR payment options shouldn't cause any a person any payment frustrations unlike those apps that only allow card payment where although the card may have worked fine the last time it was used to pay for some payment/purchase this time it gets rejected for some reason such as the card-issuing bank thinking it could be a fraudulent transaction where some scammer got ahold of your card info.

 

[KhunLA]

 

[Yodarapper]

Went to Rayong as a newbie EV owner and was a bit anxious. Left with about 97% battery and got there with 52. Did a little drive and was ready for trip back to bangkok - 49%

 

I used the many apps to find a station and decided on a PTT station using the EV Plugz app. Didn't book so my heart skipped a beat when I arrived and 2 cars charging......pulled in next to one to 'think' what to do next but then a gentleman decided his Tesla had enough and moved out so I moved into the slot.

 

The EVPlugz app couldnt be easier, scan, connect the plug and good to go. WEnt to the 7-11, bought sandwiches and food, sat outside an amazon coffee and had food with the family. Checking my phone etc to see how things were going. Max charge was at 53Kw - after 25 min app said something and 'kicked me out' charging stopped.....We were ready to go anyway and car was at 77% so went, clicked pay on the app, put the connector back and off we went!

 

Was relatively easy, time flew having food etc and I could have spent less than the 25 minutes.....Im happy as I now feel more confident, I will probably book next time to guarantee a plug....

 

Worst case scenario - What would you have done if you need to move to another station....just check on plugshare etc, find a different one and drive on. Obviously if you have little charge then just wait.

[KhunLA]

2 hours ago, Yodarapper said:

Went to Rayong as a newbie EV owner and was a bit anxious. Left with about 97% battery and got there with 52. Did a little drive and was ready for trip back to bangkok - 49%

 

I used the many apps to find a station and decided on a PTT station using the EV Plugz app. Didn't book so my heart skipped a beat when I arrived and 2 cars charging......pulled in next to one to 'think' what to do next but then a gentleman decided his Tesla had enough and moved out so I moved into the slot.

 

The EVPlugz app couldnt be easier, scan, connect the plug and good to go. WEnt to the 7-11, bought sandwiches and food, sat outside an amazon coffee and had food with the family. Checking my phone etc to see how things were going. Max charge was at 53Kw - after 25 min app said something and 'kicked me out' charging stopped.....We were ready to go anyway and car was at 77% so went, clicked pay on the app, put the connector back and off we went!

 

Was relatively easy, time flew having food etc and I could have spent less than the 25 minutes.....Im happy as I now feel more confident, I will probably book next time to guarantee a plug....

 

Worst case scenario - What would you have done if you need to move to another station....just check on plugshare etc, find a different one and drive on. Obviously if you have little charge then just wait.

If checking apps, EV Pluz included, before stopping, they'll tell you if available.

 

PlugShare, Charge Loma & Gmaps good to let you know locations of next CS, but check vendor app before stopping.