Google Maps gets electric vehicle charging station info

Electric vehicle owners rejoice! A new Google Maps feature may help quell your range anxiety.

Google is adding information on electric-vehicle charging stations to Maps. Just search for “EV charging” or “EV charging stations” to see the closest spots to juice up, complete with user photos, ratings, reviews, and other helpful information.

“To help you make a quick decision about which station to use, we’ll show you information about the business where the station is located, the types of ports available, charging speeds, and how many ports there are,” Google Maps Group Product Manager Andrew Foster wrote in a blog post.

The feature supports Tesla and ChargePoint stations globally; SemaConnect, EVgo, and Blink stations in the U.S.; Chargemaster and Pod Point stations in the UK; and Chargefox stations in Australia and New Zealand. ChargePoint is the world’s largest charging network with more than 55,700 stations. Tesla currently operates 1,359 stations.

Google began rolling out the new feature on Wednesday on the Google Maps iOS and Android apps; you just need to download the update to try it out. The company also plans to launch the feature on desktops “in the coming weeks.”

Meanwhile, Walmart is shaping up to be a good place to plug in. Volkswagen subsidiary Electrify America plans to install EV chargers at more than 100 Walmart locations across 34 states by June 2019. The effort will more than double the number of EV charging stations at Walmart stores, the company says.

This article originally published at PCMag
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