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What’s “App-ening”: Phone and Web Applications for Electric Vehicle Owners Looking to Re-Charge

Posted on March 27, 2012 by Emmaline Pohnl
Tags,  Emerging Technologies

With nearly a million smart phone applications out there, there is an “app” (and probably several versions of it) for everything you can imagine. Need help managing your time? There’s an app for that. Want something fun to do on the bus ride to work? Try out a game app. Tired of forgetting what to get at the grocery store? Get a shopping list app. This app craze has been embraced by the electric vehicle community as well, with charging station manufacturers and software developers creating useful online or mobile tools to support the growing deployment of electric vehicles.

Because of limitations in current battery technology, electric cars can store enough power to travel approximately 60-100 miles and must then be “re-fueled” by plugging into a charging station. For most drivers, most of the time, this range is more than enough. Here in Oregon, the average driver travels just 14.1 miles per day. For longer trips, though, electric vehicle owners need to be able to re-charge as they need to. To meet this demand, new companies are building networks of charging stations that are available for the public to use for a fee. Some private businesses are also installing charging stations that are available for public use as way to demonstrate their dedication to a clean energy future. But how are owners of electric vehicle owners going to learn about the location of these stations and see if an individual charging station is free to be used?

This is where online and mobile applications provide a powerful solution. Offering users maps, directions, notifications, and other tools, these applications enable electric vehicle owners to plan their long-distance trips with ease. There are two main categories of electric vehicle charging maps: some are network-specific, managed by commercial charging network companies and only show charging stations built and operated by that specific company. Others are community-generated, designed by app developers and kept up-to-date by the developer and, in some cases, app users themselves. Below are descriptions of some of these applications and details on how to download them.

Community-Generated Applications

Recargo

Launched in 2010,

Recargo helps users find the nearest charging stations and see the availability of stations in their area. Recargo displays both charging stations in commercial charging networks and those operated by individual businesses or organizations. Through Google Maps, users are provided directions and the estimated distance and time to the charging station they select. It also has a nifty filter feature, which enables users to personalize their search by either charge network or plug type. As an added bonus, the app streams updates from PluginCars.com, a website that tracks electric vehicle developments. Recargo encourages users and installers of stations to submit the address and types of chargers at new sites and rate chargers they have used, in order keep the app up-to-date and relevant. It also mimics the popular social media site Facebook by having a live “News Feed” that announces updates to the app’s database and shows when users “check-in” to a charging station.

Compatible with: iPhone, iPads, and iPod Touch; Android; online
Available at: Online, Apple’s App Store
Cost: Free

PlugShare

PlugShare’s map displays charging stations in commercial charging networks, individually operated stations, and—as its name suggests—privately-owned charging stations that homeowners are offering to share for public use. To access information on these privately owned charging stations, users must create a log-in and can contact the homeowner via email. Similar to Recargo, an activity feed cues the user into what other app users have been doing and where they have “checked-in” to charge. Users are encouraged to rate a station after charging their vehicle, provide edits to the station’s description, and add new stations that are not listed on the map.

My favorite charging location: Brent in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada offers up his home charging unit if you are in need of a charge!

Compatible with: iPhones and Androids; online
Available at: Online; Apple’s App Store, Android Market
Cost: Free

Network-specific Applications

ChargePoint

This free app provides the location and availability of charging stations in Chargepoint, a nation-wide charging stations network that is managed by Couluomb Technologies, a manufacturer of charging stations. In addition to showing users where the closest Chargepoint station is to them and giving directions to get there, the app also enables users to make reservations at charging stations, start and stop charging sessions, monitor the progress of their charging, and be alerted when their vehicle is fully charged. To use one of these stations, an electric vehicle owner can become a member of the ChargePoint network (paying a subscription fee) or use a contactless credit card to pay for the charge. Over 5,000 sites are managed included in the network and 800 organizations use ChargePoint to manage their station.

Compatible with: iPhone, Android, and Blackberry; online
Available at: Chargepoint‘s website; Apple’s App Store, Android Market
Cost: Free

Blink Mobile

This app displays a map of vehicle chargers operated by Blink, a nationwide charging station network, and enables users to view the status of each charging site. Similar to the ChargePoint app, users can monitor the status of their vehicles’ charging and receive notifications on its progress; these updates can be delivered by text message or email. To use the stations, electric vehicle owners can either become members of the Blink network or be a “guest”, paying as they charge. Blink network offers charging at 542 locations across the US, with a total of 1,278 charging stations. Here in Oregon, Blinks hosts just over 200 charging stations, in Portland and Eugene.

Compatible with: iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch, or Android Smartphones/Tablets; online
Available at: Blink Mobile’s website; Apple’s App Store, Android Market
Cost: Free

These are just a few of the applications available and more are in development. One exciting app to watch for is Chargemap, a web and smart phone app that displays charging stations near the user’s location on a colorful, easy-to-navigate map interface. It currently is only available in France, Germany, Spain, and the Netherlands (listing over 4,000 charging stations among those four countries), but will soon be released in the United States.

Keep checking our blog for more news and information on electric vehicles here in Oregon. And click here for a description of CUB’s work on EVs!

To keep up with CUB, like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter!

03/29/17  |  1 Comment  |  What’s “App-ening”: Phone and Web Applications for Electric Vehicle Owners Looking to Re-Charge

Comments

  • 1.Using currently avllbaiae technology, I agree with Portland's overall conclusion but I'm too tired to check his numbers. But we're not tied to our current technology forever. The fact is that we will eventually run out of fossil fuels and we may eventually find a better use for them than burning them so I'd personally like to transition away before we use up that last drop. Doing so will require improvements in batteries in the short-term and a new technology for storing energy in the long-term, possibly super-capacitors. Using our current power plants to provide that electricity isn't the solution either but we're not ready to switch to any of the renewable alternatives. If P-E Obama really wants to solve this problem then he should begin by funding the basic research that private organizations and corporations just can't afford to do in this area. If you are judged by quarterly results you can't take the long view or you'll get fired or de-funded. I don't think the government could solve this with their own scientists but they could fund the research of others. We need a breakthrough and the NASA moon mission may help out with plans for a vehicle that can travel 1,000km on a single charge. Let them research and build that device and then it can be modified for terrestrial use, just as we got many of our high-tech devices (or their precursors) as a result of research arising from the NASA missions of the 60s and 70s.Unfortunately the government almost always adds to problems, like using prime farmland to grow corn-ethanol or adding tariffs to foreign sources but maybe he'll take a smart approach to this problem. If we don't solve this now while we have gasoline and heat, we'll be facing dwindling supplies and $10 a gallon gasoline within a decade. When it's all gone is a little late to begin finding replacement fuels and energy sources.Solar, wind, nuclear and geothermal could produce all the energy we need in the future, the heat from Yellowstone's super volcano alone could provide most of it if we find efficient and safe ways to tap it. Doing so might also reduce the chance that it would erupt and end all life on Earth. We could also use orbital collectors that would be far more efficient and then beam that energy down to the surface, if we could get the green lobby to accept such a 'scary' idea. Plentiful and cheap electricity from renewable sources would make worries about energy loss and efficiency a lot less meaningful. It doesn't matter at all if you believe in global warming, we will run out of oil at some point and our coal reserves aren't endless either so we should find alternatives while we still have cheap energy avllbaiae.

    Nestty | April 2012

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