Owners of electric vehicles know it well, before leaving on a getaway, it is better to plan your trip in advance to plan the charging stops. With a lower autonomy and a different consumption of a thermal vehicle, the transition to the electric car is not without some fears: the autonomy can vary according to the heat, the load of the car and the speed, while there are several socket standards for connecting your vehicle to a charging station.
If it is very easy to find a gas pump, finding a charging station in the middle of nowhere can quickly turn into a nightmare. To save you from having to call a tow truck because of a flat battery, the editorial staff has selected three applications for you to find a charging station for your electric vehicle.
1. Loadmap
Loadmap is the benchmark for finding charging stations. True master standard in the matter, Loadmap already boasts more than a million users and some 450,000 charging stations in Europe and around the world.
After having geolocated you, the application displays all the charging stations found nearby and classified using a color code according to their charging speed. Each station listed by the application has detailed information such as access times, types of plugs supported, as well as ratings and comments published by the community. Working thanks to its users, Loadmap also offers you to contribute by posting photos and comments about the charging stations you use or even by adding new stations.
The application displays the availability of charging points in real time and allows you to filter your search. You can thus search for a charging station by type of connector, charging speed, compatibility with the Chargemap Pass, free stations, stations open 24/7, only on motorway service areas, etc. In addition, the application knows how to generate a route and offers you to open your usual GPS application to start navigation to the charging point.
Finally, Loadmap offers a payment badge compatible with the majority of charging stations in Europe, without subscription, and which allows you to pay only for what you use. A detailed invoice summarizing all your top-ups is then sent to you at the end of each month. It will cost you about twenty euros to acquire it, assistance included.
The +:
+ Number of charging points listed
+ Exhaustiveness of the information provided
+ Ease of use
+ Possibility of acquiring the multi-network badge to pay for your refills
The – :
– Impossibility of booking
– Obligation to log in to access the rates
Download Chargemap for Android (Free)
Download Chargemap for iPhone (Free)
2. Plugshare
Listing nearly 440,000 public stations around the world, Plugshare also operates through a community system. In our latitudes, the application lists the charging stations of the main networks and presents itself as the official locator of charging stations for electric vehicles taking advantage of the Nissan No Charge to Charge program. It is also the one that operates to find nearby charging stations within the MyFord Mobile application.
After having geolocated you, Plugshare indicates on a map all the nearby charging stations. Pressing one of them provides essential information such as the charging network or the type of socket supported. By entering the details, you will obtain the exact address, the detailed list of sockets offered, the access times, as well as the conditions required to use it (network-specific badge, private terminal, reserved for members/customers, etc.). If all the stations are not housed in the same boat, some have photos published by other users, and sometimes even comments, the application allowing “Pointer” to indicate its presence and publish a notice.
Natively, Plugshare only offers you charging stations compatible with the vehicle entered on first use. However, it is possible to relaunch a search by modifying the various filters offered in the app. Finally, a trip planner is integrated into the application to help you more easily find a charging station compatible with your vehicle on a defined route.
The +:
+ Number of stations listed
+ Filtering of terminals by compatibility with their vehicle
+ Ability to plan a trip
The – :
– Impossibility of booking
– Forced to log in to create a trip
Download Plugshare for Android (Free)
Download Plugshare for iPhone (Free)
3.Nextcharge
Claiming over 200,000 electric vehicle charging points worldwide, Nextcharge lists both public recharging terminals and the terminals of its own network. For the time being still very limited in France, the recharging network Nextcharge is on the other hand better deployed in neighboring countries and allows payment directly from the smartphone.
With regard to the location of public charging stations, Nextcharge displays them directly on a map, or on a dual display system combining map and list. The referenced terminals are sorted using a color code indicating their status: green when they are free, orange when they are occupied, brown in maintenance, purple when a charging station is being installed and blue when
status is unknown.
For each of the referenced terminals, the application indicates the charging speed, the types of connectors used, the access times, the exact address as well as any comments from other users. In addition, the application allows you to launch a route to the charging station of your choice from your usual GPS application. It also offers to filter the results according to various criteria, including the charging speed and the type of plug offered.
The application, which allows you to simulate routes, takes into account the autonomy of your vehicle according to several criteria (average speed, weight transported, etc.) and indicates the estimated remaining autonomy at different stages of the journey. You can thus easily know the geographical area where you will have to make a charging stop. To do this, you must select the charging station near each stopping point suggested by the application to obtain the complete itinerary accompanied by the details of your consumption.
Only downside, if the routes can be saved and exported, Nextcharge does not allow you to open them in their entirety in a GPS app with guidance such as Google Maps or Waze.
The +:
+ Number of public terminals listed
+ Possibility of simulating routes with estimation of autonomy according to several criteria
+ Possibility to plan a complete itinerary including charging stops
The – :
– Little information on the terminals due to lack of users
– Inability to launch the route generated by the app in a real GPS app
Download Nextcharge for Android (Free)
Download Nextcharge for iPhone (Free)
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