Popular navigation app Waze is adding more electric vehicle charging station data to its maps, beginning a global rollout today that will reach US users by mid-April, a spokesperson for Waze confirmed with PCMag.
"Charging station information is often inconsistent, outdated or unreliable, creating a major pain point for EV drivers who may navigate to a charging station only to discover they can’t find it or use it," Waze says. "By adding up-to-date EV charging information to the Waze map, it’s even easier to charge your car and get help finding where or when you’ll come across the next station."
The new experience will add key details such as number of chargers available at the location, charging speed, plug type, hours of operation, and on-site directions to find the station. Drivers can also enter their personal data—electric vehicle and plug type—to filter for charging stations that work for them.
This is a major upgrade for the app, which currently only includes the address and contact information for EV stations based on PCMag's testing of numerous stations nationwide. It has already rolled out in the following countries and will continue to expand "over the coming weeks": Albania, Bosnia, Brazil, Chile, Estonia, Hungry, Iceland, Israel, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxemburg, Mexico, Moldova, Monaco, New Zealand, Poland, San Marino, Serbia, Singapore, Slovakia, and Sweden.
To keep the data fresh, Waze will tap into its driver community. "Thanks to local Map Editors from our Waze Community, EV data is reviewed and updated in real-time to provide the most accurate, comprehensive information to the map," Waze says. The app is already known for surfacing user feedback on things like traffic, collisions, and whether police are nearby.
These changes put Waze more on-par with the EV charging information other apps have offered for years. Back in 2018, Google added the types of ports available, charging speeds, and how many ports there are. Google has owned Waze since 2013.
PlugShare, arguably the most popular app for finding charging stations, offers somewhat of a combination of the data found on Google Maps and Waze. It includes all the same information on availability and plug type, but also offers recent "check-ins" from other drivers with their notes, as it's considered a more community-based dataset like Waze.
These types of apps not only compete with each other, but also with in-vehicle navigation systems and automakers' apps. For example, Teslas automatically route drivers to nearby stations when they are low on charge without the need to pull up an app at all. In-vehicle navigation also has another advantage: connection to the battery, to show how much range will be left upon arriving at a destination.
However, for EV drivers who already use Waze to navigate, the addition of charger details will round out their experience.