More and more people seem to be looking towards the mobile phone app as a means of communicating the location of the nearest charging stations for those with electric vehicles. Would you use an app to find the nearest charging station? Do you have any experience of mobile phone electric vehicle apps?
Yes an app for that would be a big help. Especially in areas where EV use is new and or in developing countries.
Is this available in the United States yet?
We do use phone apps to find and deal with charging stations. Located in the USA, we have the Fiat App (which is specific to the 500e) and use both PlugShare and Blink apps.
The Blink app deals only with that company’s charging stations, but is quick and reliable to find chargers and to indicate their status, so that we know whether it’s working and/or occupied. The app notifies us when the charge is complete and/or when the car is unplugged.
The PlugShare system is an online community, and it lists chargers from all companies, along with private chargers that are made available to the public by their owners (at people’s homes for example). It’s excellent and supports an email system by which we can coordinate with other EV users at the same station points. It also indicates charger status, and it adds photos of the charging stations so that we can find them. The photos are user-uploaded, so I use my phone to take a shot and add it to the database anywhere I’ve had trouble finding the charger or interpreting another’s photo.