Amphawa temple offers free EV charge to devotees until August 12
A Buddhist temple in Samut Songkhram’s Amphawa district has installed three EV chargers for devotees to use for free until next month.
The three AC charging outlets in Wat Intharam in Muang Mai sub-district were also blessed on Tuesday, so worshippers who get their EVs recharged at the temple also get blessed, abbot Phra Khru Pisit Prachanart said.
The blessing rite was presided over by the abbot, who is also the deputy monastic district chief. The abbot anointed the chargers while five monks chanted over them.
The abbot said his temple has acknowledged the importance of reducing emissions and using clean energy. He said the temple also knew that there were not enough charging stations, so it decided to help by installing three units of AC-type charging stations with Type-2 universal charger heads.
Visitors can charge their cars at any time of the day or night for free until August 12. After that, they will be charged about 50 to 60 baht per hour.
The abbot said the chargers are meant for Buddhists who pray at the chapel. Three rounds of prayers are held daily, from 4.30-5.30am, 8-9am and 6.30-7.30pm.
Siripong Phantharaksakul, an engineer in charge of the installation, said the chargers were installed by Friendly Charge Co Ltd and they are the Delta AC Mini Plus model with 7.4 kWatt hour charging capacity.
He added that the Type-2 head supports about 95% of EVs in the market.
The temple is popular among Thai devotees, who have been donating money to the temple for years. The abbot said that apart from installing the EV chargers, the temple has also donated 1.5 million to Amphawa Hospital to install a solar panel system and save up to 30,000 baht a month in electricity costs.
