Did you forget to charge your electric car? Not sure if you have enough battery to finish your journey? With this new feature from Google, you can hit the road with peace of mind. 

Google chooses a charging station

The technology giant announced that  the new Maps update will make it easier to find a charging station. You can specify in the app what type of charger your electric vehicle needs and the app will choose charging stations that have the specific charger available. If you would rather stop at a different charging station (one with a restaurant for example), you can change this with a few taps. Pluginvest customers can also use this feature with the public Charge@Public charge card! EVs that currently have the Google platform built-in will have a new feature that automatically calculates when you need to stop to charge your car and finds the best charging station.

 This is calculated using different parameters:

• The current traffic situation

• The battery level of your car

• The expected energy consumption

Don't want to waste too much time charging?

The new update will include an option to filter charging stations by 'fast-charging'. With that, it will show chargers that provide 150 kilowatts or above. This allows most EV's to be fully charged in less than 40 minutes. As of now, it’s only possible to filter charging stations of 50 kW and above, in the Mobile App. You can also filter charging stations based on the opening hours.  

Charge points 

A quick charge during your weekly supermarket visit will now also be easier. You'll see which charging points are available at places like supermarkets, restaurants, hotels and more...

Is this also available for me?

At this moment the new update is only available for electric cars with the Google platform built-in.  Brands that have the feature built-in to some of their EV cars include: Polestar,  Volvo, Ford and RenaultBut you can still use Google Maps on your phone or webbrowser to find charging stations, only you will have to plan the stop yourself.

Another way to minimise "range anxiety"!