Google has announced that it will now be possible to use Google Maps to find the nearest EV charging stations. Google will add both Tesla’s and Chargepoint’s global network of EV chargers to the iOS and Android versions of Google Maps and will be providing support for the desktop version of Maps within a few weeks.
This will be rolled out not just in the United States, but also in other countries which have different charging networks, like chargers in the EVgo, Blink, and SemaConnect networks in the US; Chargemaster and Pod Point chargers in the UK; and Chargefox ones in Australia and New Zealand.
When a user of Google Maps searches for terms related to electric cars and charging, the chargers will show up. Google Maps will also include information like the types of ports available at a given location, how powerful they are, the pricing, and even driver reviews and ratings. The ratings are particularly important as charging an EV is not like topping up your vehicle with petrol or diesel. Ports can go offline for a wide range of reasons, Many people ignore EV-only parking rules, and sometimes parking lot managers can be quite rude to people who only want to stop for a while to charge. It also takes relatively quite long to charge a vehicle even from empty to half.
One thing that the initial Google Maps rollout will lack is information regarding the availability of individual charging stalls are occupied. This means that drivers cannot be certain if chargers will be available when they arrive at the location.
