EV charging apps: The top 5 electric car apps for owners
Which apps are best for EV charging?
One of the major advantages of driving a petrol-powered car is that unless you’re deep in the outback or have taken a serious wrong turn in the middle of nowhere, you can always rest easy knowing that a petrol station where you can refuel is never too far away.
Drivers of electric vehicles (EVs) need to be a little more strategic when it comes to refuelling, due to the comparative lack of EV-charging stations, meaning they’ll have to rely on their smartphones having an EV-charging app to help locate the nearest place to power up.
Although around 80 per cent of EV owners worldwide charge their vehicles at home, there’s still a need for public-charging stations for when you’re out and about - there’s no point having a Tesla if you can’t find a Tesla-charging station.
Currently there are over 2300 public charging stations in Australia, with more in the works.
The best way to track them down is to use an electric-car-charging app, of which there are several on the market. Of course, these apps should be your second port of call after your car manufacturer's app, which for some models will provide in-depth data and unlock useful remote features.
Just be sure to avoid third party apps which only cater to overseas markets, like ChargeHub, which only covers North America and Canada.
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With so much EV charging station app choice, we’ve made things easier by narrowing it down to the five best free apps that are suitable for either your Apple or Android smart device, with each app guaranteed to make you an EV-trip-planner extraordinaire.
1. PlugShare
There are several charging-infrastructure providers in Australia, and certain apps will only show up certain providers. PlugShare is the number one choice because it doesn’t discriminate in terms of what results it delivers, meaning you’ll get a comprehensive overview of the country’s network of charging stations. The app also covers the US and Europe should you find yourself overseas, and even has a map filter that will break down charging stations by plug type. There are also charging-station reviews that list nearby amenities like wifi, which is a huge help if you’ve got some downtime while your EV charges.
2. ChargeFox
ChargeFox claims to be Australia's largest electric vehicle charging network, with its app helping you to locate one of 1400 plugs across the country that include standard DC (22kW), fast (50kW) and ultra-rapid fast charging (350kW). Handily, you’ll be able to use the app to get real-time information about charger functionality, availability and pricing, giving you the ability to see how much your charge will cost before you even bother plugging in. They’ve also partnered with EV manufacturers including Audi, Mercedes-Benz, Jaguar and Nissan to offer free or discounted charging to EV customers.
3. A Better Route Planner (ABRP)
This is a navigation app which combines universal crowd-sourced info like PlugShare (i.e. it's brand agnostic) with the MapTiler API to accurately calculate when, where, and for how long you'll need to charge up along any given route. Simply a must for electric car owners, this app is also available in the Android Automotive ecosystem, meaning cars which run this operating system on their central touchscreen (like the Polestar 2 for example) can have it fully integrated. Simply download the app, put your car model and variant in, and the app will sort out the rest. Easy.
4. Evie
One of Australia's largest emerging charge location operators, Evie was recently granted a solid amount of funding from the federal government's ARENA grant program, so expect to see a lot more of these stations pop up in all of Australia's capital cities, particularly around ones on the east coast.
Evie's app has recently recieved a major update, completely replacing the rudimentary original version. You need to re-download the app entirely, but it adds many useful new features, and a less glitchy user experience. We've included this app and the Chargefox app as these are the two largest charge operators, but also make sure to check out the smaller and emerging players like Jolt, Ampcharge, and BP Pulse.
5. Waze
This navigation app is useful for more than just EV owners, as it uses crowd-sourced data from other drivers out on the road to flag hazards, accidents, live updates to traffic flow, and might just keep you driving safe with alerts about police and roadworks along your route, too. After all, when you're in a bind with a low state of charge, the last thing you want to do is sit in traffic for an hour watching what little range you have whittle away.
It even has an increasing number of EV-specific features built-in, like charger locations and types, which you can filter based on the requirements of your specific car, and is approved to be used via Apple CarPlay and Android Auto so it happily integrates with your car's multimedia panel.
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