BYD Seal tips, tricks and help

[Pib]

49 minutes ago, BKKBike09 said:

 

I just called BYD Ramintra. They said:

• Original free SIM Subscription expires after 2 years
• Replacement SIM will extend free subscription for 3 months 
• They are waiting to hear from Rever what happens after that - don't know if will need to pay or if still free etc
• SIM change is free of charge

My car is due for it's 2-year service in Jan so I'll get them to change the SIM then. No SIM = no OTA updates. I don't care about YT, Netflix etc but do use the Navigation.

 

So, if I understand above correctly if a person does the SIM swap/upgrade say with 11 months remaining of the current original SIM 24 subscription then the person's subscription then they will have 14 months remaining?   

 

And besides OTA updates stopping after the subscription ends being able to communicate with the EV using the BYD app like to turn on A/C, checking charge level, look doors, etc., from a distance would also probably end assuming the end of the subscription shuts down the SIM completely. 

 

I know for a fact from my testing that even if you turn off the Wifi "and" mobile data connections in the car's infotainment system the BYD app is still able to communicate with the car as it's using the SIM's basic mobile text/calling system of the cell network vs the data portion used for connecting to the internet.  

 

Edited November 14 by Pib

[Andrew Dwyer]

There’s a lot of activity going on at the moment.

Got this message just now:

 

 

Clicking on the blue V number gives me this:

 

 

So, a very small upgrade, no new features only a little optimization, and no accepting the upgrade, this one was thrust upon me.

 

Apparently, the latest upgrade ( V1.3.1 ? ) is only done at the dealer and changes the system version to 2407.

Many having the SIM change find themselves getting a system version update also.

 

Many complaining that the GBox ( YT, NF, etc ) is not working and a few stating cannot start air con via BYD app since the visit to the dealer ( not sure if SIM or system update to blame ).

Think i will wait a while for the changes !

[mistral53]

19 hours ago, mistral53 said:

It was one of the first, maybe 3 days after they opened the deliver - so a little over 13 months ago.

 

We will go in tomorrow morning, I can tell more what changes after that.

 

 

The process is quick - took them around 45 minutes.

Gbox is installed at the same time - I have to get another throw-away Google account before I start playing with this.

 

It looks like the navigation interface has been updated again, also with new maps. Language was also asking for an up-date, but might not be related.

 

As for the VIV, I am on V1.3.0, system is 2407 - this could be different from other BYD model?

[Andrew Dwyer]

1 hour ago, mistral53 said:

 

The process is quick - took them around 45 minutes.

Gbox is installed at the same time - I have to get another throw-away Google account before I start playing with this.

 

It looks like the navigation interface has been updated again, also with new maps. Language was also asking for an up-date, but might not be related.

 

As for the VIV, I am on V1.3.0, system is 2407 - this could be different from other BYD model?

Yes, 2407 seems to be the latest system version.

Did they mention about the SIM expiry date ?, I see 2026-10-06  ( Oct or June ) is this in line with the 3rd year anniversary ? therefore another year ?

[ThaSalaPaul]

On 10/31/2023 at 4:35 PM, macahoom said:

 

Thanks. I'm now understanding this a lot better, sort of.

"Be sure to engage the EPB every time before parking and leaving the vehicle."

This instruction is redundant as, when you park and leave the car, you simply press P below the gear selector which automatically turns on the EPB. No need to go to the trouble of turning on the EPB option in the infotainment touchscreen, wherever the option is located, and then selecting P.

 

Over complicated for no good reason.

Setting this on in the menu means that, when you brake and come to a complete standstill the brake (equivalent to a handbrake) will automatically be applied even after you have taken your foot of the pedal. Very useful, especially at traffic lights

[BKKBike09]

4 hours ago, Pib said:

So, if I understand above correctly if a person does the SIM swap/upgrade say with 11 months remaining of the current original SIM 24 subscription then the person's subscription then they will have 14 months remaining?   

 

And besides OTA updates stopping after the subscription ends being able to communicate with the EV using the BYD app like to turn on A/C, checking charge level, look doors, etc., from a distance would also probably end assuming the end of the subscription shuts down the SIM completely. 

 

I know for a fact from my testing that even if you turn off the Wifi "and" mobile data connections in the car's infotainment system the BYD app is still able to communicate with the car as it's using the SIM's basic mobile text/calling system of the cell network vs the data portion used for connecting to the internet.  

 

I don't know if the upgrade automatically adds three months to the remaining subscription but would assume that to be the case.

 

BYD App - I didn't realise that worked/was available in Thailand now?

[Pib]

Just now, BKKBike09 said:

 

 

BYD App - I didn't realise that worked/was available in Thailand now?

Been available ever since I've had my Atto which I got Oct 2023....and it was available even before then.

[ThaSalaPaul]

On 10/25/2024 at 8:53 AM, Bandersnatch said:

BYD Battery optimization

 

https://bydautomotive.com.au/brochures/BYD-SEAL-Owners-Handbook-2023.pdf

 

Charging to 100% at least once a week is no problem for me having solar, but getting to less than 10% takes a bit more planning. I had a long trip yesterday and then used the car to power the house over night. For good measure we took the seal out in the morning for an Amazon Coffee.

 

I plan to fast charge it to 80% this morning then do the final 20% on AC at home 

 

What do other people do?

 

 

If I charged it all at home I couldn’t do it all from solar in one day

 

We have solar too and I am i interested in knowing how you hooked up your system to run your house from your car if you have the time to explain it. Thanks 🙂

[Bandersnatch]

7 hours ago, ThaSalaPaul said:

We have solar too and I am i interested in knowing how you hooked up your system to run your house from your car if you have the time to explain it. Thanks 🙂

 

 

 

 

[Bandersnatch]

BYD Seal teardown video. When you compare this to an ICE car you understand why EVs are in a completely different league.

 

 

[mistral53]

Has anybody heard that this will be rolled out in Thailand as well? This was announced to European customers, m/c translated

 

The new interval is 2 years or 30,000 km

 

'BYD makes possession of a car more affordable with longer service intervals.

From 1 November 2024, BYD extends the service gap for all electrical models. The new interval is 2 years or 30,000 km, compared to 1 year or 20,000 km previously. This translates into reduced operating costs for car owners.

This change introduces longer service intervals for all BYD electric models sold. This applies retroactively to all vehicles sold, including the first BYD cars delivered.

Execution of the service

    Newly registered vehicles: Follow the new service plan.

    Service interval: The service can now be completed 2 years or 30,000 km after the last maintenance.

    Vehicles under one year of age: Vehicles that have not yet undergone maintenance will follow the new service plan.

    Three-year-old vehicles: Three-year-old cars that have been maintained for the 20,000/40 000 km can now switch to the new service plan.

The service indicator in vehicles will be updated via OTA (remote updates). Currently, it is not possible to define anything other than 365 days or 20,000 kilometres.

Control of rust

Rust inspections are increased from annual to every two years, depending on the new service plan. A margin of 1 month always applies in accordance with the service plan.

If you have any questions about the changes, please contact your BYD dealer.'

 

https://bydauto.be/fr/blog/byd-prolonge-lintervalle-de-service-pour-tous-les-modeles-electriques/

 

[UWEB]

42 minutes ago, mistral53 said:

Has anybody heard that this will be rolled out in Thailand as well? This was announced to European customers, m/c translated

 

The new interval is 2 years or 30,000 km

 

'BYD makes possession of a car more affordable with longer service intervals.

From 1 November 2024, BYD extends the service gap for all electrical models. The new interval is 2 years or 30,000 km, compared to 1 year or 20,000 km previously. This translates into reduced operating costs for car owners.

This change introduces longer service intervals for all BYD electric models sold. This applies retroactively to all vehicles sold, including the first BYD cars delivered.

Execution of the service

    Newly registered vehicles: Follow the new service plan.

    Service interval: The service can now be completed 2 years or 30,000 km after the last maintenance.

    Vehicles under one year of age: Vehicles that have not yet undergone maintenance will follow the new service plan.

    Three-year-old vehicles: Three-year-old cars that have been maintained for the 20,000/40 000 km can now switch to the new service plan.

The service indicator in vehicles will be updated via OTA (remote updates). Currently, it is not possible to define anything other than 365 days or 20,000 kilometres.

Control of rust

Rust inspections are increased from annual to every two years, depending on the new service plan. A margin of 1 month always applies in accordance with the service plan.

If you have any questions about the changes, please contact your BYD dealer.'

 

https://bydauto.be/fr/blog/byd-prolonge-lintervalle-de-service-pour-tous-les-modeles-electriques/

 

Hopefully not, I like to see my Car checked at least once per year. For me it looks like more saving costs rather improved quality.

[Pib]

 

From some googling/social media it appears this has been announced in several European countries....Belgium, Spain, UK, etc.  Seems to be getting a good reception from most customers since they have to pay for the service checkups; whereas, in Thailand BYD service check-ups are free.

[ThaSalaPaul]

13 hours ago, Bandersnatch said:

 

 

 

 

Thanks for the video links. Very interesting, I will be checking out options to achieve something similar. I noticed in your video that your batteries cost 68k Baht! Wow, that's a good deal. My single 8kWh LFP battery cost 140k! 1kWh less than yours.
Anyway thanks again for the links 🙂

[Bandersnatch]

3 hours ago, ThaSalaPaul said:

Thanks for the video links. Very interesting, I will be checking out options to achieve something similar. I noticed in your video that your batteries cost 68k Baht! Wow, that's a good deal. My single 8kWh LFP battery cost 140k! 1kWh less than yours.
Anyway thanks again for the links 🙂

 

I imported my inverters and batteries from China and paid a local guy to fit them. If you go the supply and fit route you end up paying a premium on both.

[ThaSalaPaul]

1 hour ago, Bandersnatch said:

 

I imported my inverters and batteries from China and paid a local guy to fit them. If you go the supply and fit route you end up paying a premium on both.

And a big premium at that by the look of it. Our inverter and battery are Alpha ESS also from China but not imported by us

[Pib]

On 11/13/2024 at 6:54 PM, Pib said:

 

Last night after the Rever Customer Support Chat line closed at 8pm I sent them a message showing above BYD Songkhla SIM upgrade poster.  This morming around 11am Rever responded saying: "If you car is approaching 2 years of service, you can get the SIM card replacement service at our service center."  

 

A few hours later I went to my Bangkok BYD dealership and showed them a snapshot of the BYD Songkhla SIM poster...and fortunately I was able to speak to a rep who knew some English.   He said the SIM swap includes multimedia software upgrade where GBox, Youtube, Netflix, etc., are added. 

 

Their service dept made me an appt for two weeks down the road to get it installed...install and software upgrade takes a couple of hours.   Most anything my dealership does service-wise takes at least 2 hours (even if it seems to be a 10 minute job)....it's like a 2 hour service window is their minimum for any task of significance.   

 

Now I intentionally didn't ask if this SIM swap/upgrade "extends" the 2 year subscription of my current SIM or will the original SIM 2 year period still be ticking for this new SIM....or does a new subscription period of X-years begin.    Also didn't ask if it provides more than a 2GB allotment per month.   I intentionally  didn't ask for more detailed info as the English speaking rep got pulled away to help another customer interested in buying a car.... plus, at this point I just want to get the SIM upgrade soonest even if it don't extended my current 2 year subscription which doesn't expire for another 11 months....I will ask the detailed questions after the SIM upgrade as to remaining subscription period, GB allotment, etc.

 

 

 

Got the SIM upgrade/swap for my Atto today....it took the dealership about two hours to complete considering the associated firmware update, paperwork, and washing the car.  Totally free. 

 

When the dust settled the original SINGTEL (Singapore Telecon) SIM was replaced with a True-H SIM....and a firmware update which included the G-Box app.  The G-Box provides a virtual machine environment which allows a person to download/install Google apps within the G-Box virtual machine environment from the Google Play store.   Same 2GB monthly data allotment for the new SIM and the original 2 year SIM subscription is extended by 3 months...end result is a 2 yr 3 month subscription from the date you originally took possession of your BYD vehicle.     So, if you want to consume LOTS of data....like watching Youtube a lot....you'll need to use a Wifi connection/mobile HotSpot setup like you do now or you will quickly eatup all of your monthly 2GB allotment. 

 

I did use G-Box to logon to Google Play and install Youtube and Google Maps just as a test....install and startup of the two apps went fine.   In Google Play the device appeared as a Google Pixel 5.   It appears there are many, many apps a person can install.    I then deleted the two apps and logged out of Google Play as I wanted to start from scratch again when I have adequate time to properly tinker.    See snapshots and associated notes below for more info.  

 

And the BYD app continued to work fine with the new True SIM "although I did need to completely logon of the BYD app" and then log back in with password to establish a new connection due to the SIM swap in the car...then the BYD app and car were communicating again.

Before swap-out of SingTel SIM for True-H SIM.

 

After swap of SIM from SingTel to True-H

 

 

G-Box App on Page 3

 

 

Below is what appears after tapping on above Gbox app icon.  It show two pages of "recommended" apps but I expect you can do a search on Google Play and install many more apps if desired.  As mentioned earlier after logging onto the installed Google Play app with one of my Google accts I then tapped on Youtube to install it...and then tapped on Google Maps to install it....those two apps then appeared under the "Installed Apps" area.  When I deleted them they disappeared from the Installed Apps area and reappeared in the Recommended Apps area.    Before deleting Youtube I checked to see if it would continue playing once putting the car in Drive for about 5 seconds and it did continue playing vs stopping....before when running Youtube without GBox, Youtube would stop playing and give a pop-up message saying it can only viewed while the vehicle is in Park.   

 

 

 

 

 

[Pib]

 

I also just noticed with the firmware upgrade that was part of the SIM swap/upgrade the Atto Navigation System (i.e., built-in map) is completely different....settings menu, appearance once opening, icons on the map, etc.   Will need to play with it more over the coming days to see if this new version is better than the old version as the old version could definitely stand some improvements.  But at least my Saved Locations were still in the map. 

 

I also noticed the firmware upgrade triggered a notification there was updated Voice Command software for English (American) and Thai ready for download/install which I did successfully via Wifi connection.

 

Yeap...the SIM upgrade comes with a firmware update that goes beyond just "SIM stuff."   I expect I'll find more changes over the coming days BUT I'm pretty sure I have already discovered (stumbled across) all the major firmware changes/updates.

[Andrew Dwyer]

1 hour ago, Pib said:

 

Got the SIM upgrade/swap for my Atto today....it took the dealership about two hours to complete considering the associated firmware update, paperwork, and washing the car.  Totally free. 

 

When the dust settled the original SINGTEL (Singapore Telecon) SIM was replaced with a True-H SIM....and a firmware update which included the G-Box app.  The G-Box provides a virtual machine environment which allows a person to download/install Google apps within the G-Box virtual machine environment from the Google Play store.   Same 2GB monthly data allotment for the new SIM and the original 2 year SIM subscription is extended by 3 months...end result is a 2 yr 3 month subscription from the date you originally took possession of your BYD vehicle.     So, if you want to consume LOTS of data....like watching Youtube a lot....you'll need to use a Wifi connection/mobile HotSpot setup like you do now or you will quickly eatup all of your monthly 2GB allotment. 

 

I did use G-Box to logon to Google Play and install Youtube and Google Maps just as a test....install and startup of the two apps went fine.   In Google Play the device appeared as a Google Pixel 5.   It appears there are many, many apps a person can install.    I then deleted the two apps and logged out of Google Play as I wanted to start from scratch again when I have adequate time to properly tinker.    See snapshots and associated notes below for more info.  

 

And the BYD app continued to work fine with the new True SIM "although I did need to completely logon of the BYD app" and then log back in with password to establish a new connection due to the SIM swap in the car...then the BYD app and car were communicating again.

 

Before swap-out of SingTel SIM for True-H SIM.

 

After swap of SIM from SingTel to True-H

 

 

G-Box App on Page 3

 

 

Below is what appears after tapping on above Gbox app icon.  It show two pages of "recommended" apps but I expect you can do a search on Google Play and install many more apps if desired.  As mentioned earlier after logging onto the installed Google Play app with one of my Google accts I then tapped on Youtube to install it...and then tapped on Google Maps to install it....those two apps then appeared under the "Installed Apps" area.  When I deleted them they disappeared from the Installed Apps area and reappeared in the Recommended Apps area.    Before deleting Youtube I checked to see if it would continue playing once putting the car in Drive for about 5 seconds and it did continue playing vs stopping....before when running Youtube without GBox, Youtube would stop playing and give a pop-up message saying it can only viewed while the vehicle is in Park.   

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks for clarifying this.

As you might remember I had my Seal downgraded to side load some apps including GBox, YouTube, YouTube Music, Google Maps, Google and Brave browser.

This all worked well and I had the benefit of using Google Maps in portrait mode as is not using Apple CarPlay, YouTube Music is also a pleasant change from Spotify.

I used YouTube occasionally while charging but some time ago it stopped working ( although I could still use it if opened via a browser) as if it needed updating.

 

The GBox app also changed, my list of recommended apps disappeared along with the search function ( magnifying glass icon ), I assumed i had caused this while searching for an app but now see from your photo my version is old, I see no way to update the GBox app.

 

 

The installed apps all work so presumably my version of GBox needs updating. The charging apps ( Charge Loma, PlugShare and PEA Volta ) would all open and recognise me as logged in but the map wouldn’t open would be interested to see if they work now with a more local SIM ?

 

Am due my one year service next week so hopefully will get the SIM and version upgrade.

[Pib]

12 minutes ago, Andrew Dwyer said:

Am due my one year service next week so hopefully will get the SIM and version upgrade.

 

My guess is you will "not" receive the SIM upgrade unless you ask (press) for it...and it might not be a bad idea to visit the dealership over the next day or two that's doing the one year checkup to say you want the SIM upgrade done also just in case they need to order the SIM and/or adjust the appointment window length of time.   And supposedly some folks have run into resistance from their dealership in doing the SIM swap/upgrade too many months before the 2 year subscription of the original SIM ends.

Edited 1 hour ago by Pib