Energy
Wednesday, August 10th, 2022 10:20 am EDT
One of the top apps for EV drivers as long as I’ve been following and writing about the EV industry is PlugShare. It will find you charging stations of all types in your area, or wherever you’re visiting — all over the world. As a crowdsourced project, EV drivers help each other by adding information and pictures about charging stations they use, and are especially helpful by “checking in” and sharing whether chargers are working or not alongside timestamps. If a charger has been out of order, you can see that via the app without wasting your time driving to the station. If a new station is added but not online yet, you can see that — or you can see when it does go online. Users can also add what rate (kW) they were able to charge at, which is useful since the real-world charge rate of a station is sometimes quite different from its official rating.
A screenshot of PlugShare, focused on Florida, taken in August 2022.
PlugShare has now hit a major milestone in its contribution to EV life — users have “checked in” on the app 5 million times.
Also, the number of EV charging stations on the app grew by 50% from June 2021 to June 2022, going from ~400,000 to ~600,000.
Furthermore, the company recently reached 2.5 million registered users!
The app has been “part of the EVgo Inc. (NASDAQ: EVGO) family since mid-2021,” and EVgo shared the news of these recent milestones.
@evgonetwork smashing the growth concept! Awesome! Keep going …
@SquawkCNBC this is a story to track! pic.twitter.com/EYx2s42q8a— Wall Street Prof. (@fsusmatty) August 3, 2022
EVgo shared more on how the app works and how it helps EV drivers around the world: “As an interactive resource for EV drivers, PlugShare enables users to easily locate and navigate to chargers, filter results by their preferred network, charging speed or connector type (CHAdeMO, CCS, J-1772, Tesla), and share real-time charging station reviews around key factors like nearby amenities or performance of the charging equipment. This community feedback directly informs a station’s PlugScore rating, which reflects the charging experience of recent drivers. A greater number of user check-ins at stations enhances the accuracy of these PlugScores, providing an increasingly valuable service as millions of new EV drivers navigate their first EV charging experiences.”
PlugShare’s network has shown that exponential growth in the industry has continued into 2022. In the first half of this year, it added almost as many EV fast charging stations as in all of 2021. Globally, the number of DC fast chargers has surpassed 100,000. That’s a 50% increase in just one year, or a doubling every two years.
In the 2nd quarter, the total number of EV charging station locations on PlugShare increased by 21.9% and the total number of chargers increased by 25%. That’s “the largest quarterly increase in the history of the platform.”
“Providing valuable data and tools to help enhance the everyday EV driver’s charging experience is essential to our business, no matter where they’re charging,” said Dan Wheeler, Digital Marketing Director at PlugShare. “Our growth in overall users and engagement directly demonstrates how drivers increasingly utilize digital tools to make real-time charging decisions, and we are thrilled to see this influx in user contributions as we help to support the growth of EV adoption worldwide.”
You can now also pay for charging on PlugShare. “Pay with PlugShare” allows you to start a charging sessions straight from the app and also pay for charging.
For more on EVgo’s recent business development, see: EVgo Inc. Reports Second Quarter 2022 Results.
Or read more EVgo or PlugShare stories here on CleanTechnica.
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