First-time EV homeowners face an instantaneous concern: how, when and the place to cost their autos. The eventual reply—for a lot of—will likely be putting in a Degree 2 charger at residence. However even these lucky single-family-home-owning suburbanites will enterprise out and depend on public charging every now and then.
EV charging infrastructure is enhancing. The variety of public EV charging stalls within the U.S. is round 200,000. However discovering an EV charger — significantly an operational, obtainable and quick one — nonetheless requires way more prep and analysis than filling up a combustion automobile. You’ll be able to’t simply hit the interstate and anticipate 350 kW DC quick charger choices at each exit.
What’s the easiest way to search out an EV charger? It varies relying on the proprietor, the EV and the circumstances. Most homeowners should depend on a mix of the automobile itself and an assortment of smartphone apps.
Discovering an EV charger with the automobile
Automotive producers anticipated that EV homeowners would wish to search out charging. Nearly each new EV ought to have primary performance to seek for close by chargers and navigate to them. Many have capabilities that transcend that. My 2024 Hyundai Ioniq 5 acknowledges it’s heading to a charger within the navigation system and routinely preconditions the battery for optimum charging velocity.
Maybe the principle argument for GM EVs with Google built-in abandoning smartphone projection is the automobile’s skill to combine its charging standing with its native Google Maps navigation. This skill permits the proprietor to routinely incorporate a charging cease (or a number of stops) into the route navigation.
Tesla made discovering an EV charger significantly straightforward for its homeowners. The motive force can seek for close by Tesla stations on the infotainment display screen. Tesla’s on-board navigation system routinely components in fees on Tesla’s Supercharger community unfold alongside main highways.
The Greatest Apps for Discovering an EV Charger
The perfect start line app for many EV homeowners to discover a charger is PlugShare. It incorporates practically each proprietary community into one database. PlugShare enables you to simply seek for chargers with varied helpful filters (charging velocity, lodging, close by facilities, plug sort your automobile has). It additionally allows you to plan journeys with charging stops. PlugShare offers real-time knowledge about stall availability. Customers can add useful context about how you can discover the charger (and whether or not it has been working not too long ago. PlugShare may submit funds at some chargers. ChargeHub offers an analogous service, however its interface is just not fairly feature-rich or user-friendly.
If you happen to’re planning an easy journey, nevertheless, PlugShare could also be overkill. Proprietary apps for charging networks — you’ll doubtless want just a few of them in your cellphone anyway to submit funds — will be an effective way to shortly discover the charger you need when planning. You can begin easy and work towards a extra exhaustive search if wanted.
For instance, my Hyundai and Kia EVs got here with complimentary charging plans from Electrify America. Electrify America’s community is nearly fully DC quick chargers — optimum for getting again on the highway shortly. Normally, I take a look at Electrify America’s app first. It offers real-time availability knowledge and might ship instructions with a click on to Google Maps or Apple Maps. I increase the search with different apps if there isn’t any viable EA choice.
