By Patrick Conner

If you drive an EV, you may occasionally want to plug it in somewhere other than your garage. All you need to do is find a charging station. Many modern EVs come with telematics systems that include charging station data. This is the simplest way to find a charging station. However, new charging stations are appearing every day and built-in systems are not always up to date. So how can you find the newest, latest, greatest scoop on charging station locations? Maps and apps!
There are many online maps and smart phone apps that have charging station locations. In some cases they let you know if the site is available or in-use. Some are crowd sourced and might even include an outdoor outlet on someone’s garage—if that person is willing to share it with fellow EV drivers.
There is no single map or app that contains all of the places that you can plug in. The sources that do aggregate other maps together often drop important data like the type of plug/connector or station availability info.
Recently, there has been a rash of maps and apps appearing. There is a demand, no clear leader, and new contenders appearing every day, created by several types of sources. Some are by local EV groups that are trying to share local data, others are by charging station vendors that want you to use their product so maybe the site will buy more of them. Others are simply trying to sell apps or bring traffic to their site.
Keep in mind that many of these charging stations require a membership card to activate them. Even when charging is free, the membership card may be required. These are generally $10 or less, in some cases they are free. The cards help reduce vandalism and lay the groundwork for fees to be charged at a future date.
Below is a list of the current maps and apps that I could find. If you know of others, please leave a comment:

Maps

1. Google Maps

   In March 2011 Google added EV charging station search support to Google Maps, just use the term "ev charging station". Currently this search results in 999,855 hits. Although there are nearly 1 million hits, only 96 of the results have details about the station. You can add photos and details to these locations. You can search in your area or planed destination with the near keyword, e.g., “ev charging station near 97207” will show you stations in downtown Portland, OR.

2. US Department of Energy

   The Alternative Fuels & Advanced Vehicles Data Center of the US DoE has an interactive map that allows you to look for many types of alternative fueling stations including electric. The site allows you to search by charging speed (Level 1, Level 2, or DC Fast Charge) and you can search for public or private stations.

3. Open Charge Map.org

   This online map and database is attempting to be the Linux of charging station information. Their database has an open API allowing any other map or app service to take this data and share it as if it were their own. This map has charging station data from around the world. Station data is collected by user input. Listing a public charging station here will allow it to be found by many people since this data is utilized by others. You can consider them an “upstream source that flows to many distributary streams.”

4. Blink Network

   Blink charging stations are being installed by ECOtality as part of the government funded effort called “The EV Project”. To access a Blink station you will need a Blink Network card, these are available for free on their website.

5. ChargePoint Network

   Coulomb Technologies has installed nearly one thousand ChargePoint stations across the US. This map allows you to search by power Level (1, 2, or 3) and by station availability and price. Coulomb has made this map very usable, but for even more features, you need to use their smart phone app. Coulomb has also published the APIs to their charging station network data. This will allow other map and app developers to easily integrate the ChargePoint stations.

6. Recargo.com

   This crowd-sourced online map site and smartphone app currently has 1575 stations listed. Registered users can submit new stations, photos, and register check-ins.

7. EV Charging Locations.com

   This site is a combination charging station map and blog about the same. It currently lists 721 stations, nearly all in the US.

Apps

1. ChargePoint App By Coulomb

   This feature rich app is available for iPhone and Android.  It allows you to:
   
   —Find & Reserve charging stations.
   
   —Get turn-by-turn directions to charging stations.
   
   —See the real-time availability of charging stations.
   
   —Start and Stop charging sessions.
   
   —Get directions back to your vehicle.
   
   —See energy and other data on your charging sessions.
   
   —Receive real-time notifications of your current charging session.

   ChargePoint membership is required.

2. Recargo.com

   With both an online map and a smartphone app Recargo is on this list twice. Currently their app is only on the iPhone with Android support “coming soon”.

3. Plug Share

   This free smartphone app boasts over 2,500 charging sites in its database. It is a crowd-sourced app and anyone can share their own outlets. Contact info or allowed access times are listed. Just like Recargo, this app is currently only available for the iPhone with Android support “coming soon”.

Regional Maps & Apps

1. EV Charger News.com and EV Charger Maps.com

   These California-centric companion sites are two of the older charging station lists on the web. They were built in the late '90s for that generation of EVs. They have made steps to add support for Tesla charging stations but are lacking J1772 charging infrastructure data used by modern EVs.

2. EV Charge Finder

   This iPhone app is by EV Charger Maps.com and is similar to the website; it is very California-centric. Android support: None.

3. Washington State

   Regional map by EV enthusiast Desmo Dave lists dozens of locations in the Seattle area where you may be able to plug in.

 

4. Shorepower Technologies

   This page has two maps. One for long-haul truck electrification used to reduce idling and the second for plug-in passenger vehicles. Both maps are dominated with northwest US locations.

5. Portland General Electric

   Portland General has actively been installing renewable energy powered charging stations within northwest Oregon. This maps lists PGE’s stations and several others in the area.