Ashley Horvat, VP of Strategic Initiatives at PlugShare, gave a 30-minute presentation at the EV Transportation & Technology Summit to explain PlugShare and also discuss the West Coast Electric Highway.
PlugShare is the most popular charging station locator app/website in the world, and I’ve used it many times. Still, I learned a few things from Ashley’s presentation, so I figured I’d highlight them below the video in case they were new to you.
(You can view Ashley’s slides here.)
Very usefully (I think), PlugShare has launched a “Pay with PlugShare” program whereby you can pay at a variety of different charging stations just using the PlugShare app. If this got adopted widely enough, it could simplify EV charging payments since you wouldn’t need to carry around multiple charging network cards.
Interestingly, PlugShare “powers” the browser system in Tesla’s cars.
The Kia Soul EV and some other automakers also have their navigation systems “powered” by PlugShare.
Getting one charging station installed in an area often stimulates the installation of several more charging stations by others.
For much, much more, check out the full presentation.
Plugshare is very handy. I love the fact that you can post notes when you use each location and check ahead for others that have used a location. No other ap has that real life option.
Yes, I rely on that to make sure a station is really there and functional. Great feature.
And yet, most (or at least, Many) EV Charging Station Installers are seemingly Oblivious to the PlugShare Environment, and install sites with no web listings, or with just a Product Brand Listing (ChargePoint, for Example, and others as well)!
We have another recent example of a whole mall collection of 24 Chargers – listed on ChargePoint, but not on PlugShare – and so might not even be found by Ford Focus Owners Nav. System (as they also use PlugShare Data).
The one big benefit of PlugShare is anyone can add a Station to the listings, but – that is also the one big problem with PlugShare – Anyone can add a listing – Anonymously – since they have no display of the contact of any person who added a station, so – if you have duplicated listing added because someone did not know a listing for that site was already live – it now looks like more sites are available, and ‘they’ can’t be contacted – to verify if it is in fact – an additional site or station!
I have proposed to them that the addition of stations requires the person adding the listing be be a registered user, at least – even if it requires them to register to complete the adding of the listing, for the very purposes of crediting the new listing with a user, so they can be contacted.
PlugShare also has no listing format or type, to show a ‘Pending’ Station Listing – so to differentiate one that is ‘Coming Soon’, with one that is ‘Live’, but I have seen a number of listings that when investigated – are not yet live, or no one on site knows anything about them!
Outside of that I think PlugShare is the Best Tool for EV Drivers, Infrastructure Planners, Charging Station Researchers, City Planners, and Provinces/States for navigating the Waters of where to go next with additional sites or stations, in some kind of orderly fashion!