Hello and welcome to your daily Charge Smart blog! Today, we will be talking about a new feature on Google Maps that is going to make driving a little less stressful for EV drivers.
Above: Had enough of breaking out the map to find a compatible EV station?
Have you ever had the problem where you’re running low on juice and so you use maps to find the closest EV charging station. All’s well so far and you follow the robotic voice telling you to take the next right and your destination will be on the left after that. Still sounds good but then you turn up there only to find that it doesn’t have a compatible charger for your car. Bugger, you say as you continue to hunt for a charging station that will work with your car.
Well, we have some good news for you. Google have now updated their Maps app with a feature that is sure to be put to good use by EV owners. Maps will now provide you with filters to search for specific plug types for your EVs. This is how it works. When you’re low on charge, you search for the nearest EV charging station and Maps will first ask you what plugs your EV is compatible with. These include the CHAdeMO, CCS, Type 2 and Tesla’s plug type. The new feature should make it much easier to find a compatible plug type for your EV. Nissan and Mitsubishi use the CHAdeMO type while Jaguar and BMW make use of the CCS plug type. If you find it annoying that the app keeps asking you what chargers you require every time then you can also specify which plug types you’d like to be shown through the new ‘Electric vehicle settings’ tab in the settings of Google Maps. This new feature comes in addition to an EV specific feature on Google Maps where it shows the user if a charging station was already in use. Something that made finding an unoccupied EV charger much easier.
That’s some really cool tech but here’s the catch. These new updates for Google Maps are only available in the U.S and UK so far. That’s a shame but we can only hope that this update reaches our shores soon as EV sales keep climbing in New Zealand.
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