While electric cars are still very much in the minority as compared to all the fuel-powered vehicles on the road, the number is growing steadily in countries like the US, UK, Australia, and New Zealand. Some of these governments are even incentivizing those that will buy electric vehicles. This has prompted Google Maps to now add information on their app as to where owners of said vehicles can charge up so you can be “confident that your car will be charged and ready for your ride.”
If you’re the owner of an electric car and you need to charge up, just search for “ev charging or “ev charging stations” on your Google Maps app and you will be able to see which ones are nearest to where you currently are. You’ll also see information about the businesses where these charging stations are located, what kind of ports are available to make sure that yours is compatible, charging speeds, and how many ports do they actually have.
You will also be able to see photos, ratings, reviews from other drivers who have already tried it out. Google Maps relies a lot on theses crowd-sourced information from their official Google Guides as well as some unofficial ones who just like posting reviews. It will also display questions that have been previously asked and the answers from helpful guides if there are any already.
Businesses that have charging stations will also display a link under their information. It will feature the same information that we stated above so that it can also be an added incentive for people to go to their place of business. It will also state if the stations are free or if there are limits to how long you can charge there for free.
Google Maps currently supports charging stations information globally, including Tesla and Chargepoint (worldwide), SemaConnect, EVgo, and Blink in the US, Chargemaster and Pod Point in the UK, and Chargefox in Australia and New Zealand.
SOURCE: Google
