PlugShare, with over 100,000 members, has collected a lot of data about electric car usage patterns and recharging infrastructure penetration across the U.S.
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The PlugShare smart phone application is one of the essential tools for electric car owners. It is, in effect, a peer-peer electric car charging network in which electric car owners share their charging stations with other PlugShare members. Xatori, the creator of the PlugShare service, announced today their service has reached a major milestone with 100,000 users and 11,000 charging stations. To go along with this announcement the company released some interesting electric car ownership statistics.
PlugShare is one of the smart phone applications that help electric car owners find charging stations. It shows a map of with markers listing the available charging stations. While some of these stations are part of the Blink or ChargePoint networks, most of the listed charging stations are owned by individuals who are offering their own charging stations for use by others.
It is not a charging station network in the same way that ChargePoint or Blink is. Both of those are commercial charging station networks operated by businesses, while the charging stations listed by PlugShare are a mix of commercial and privately owned. On the other hand, PlugShare lists over 11,000 charging stations, making it bigger than ChargePoint and its 9,000+ stations.
Both PlugShare and its sister application, GreenCharge, are free to install and use and there are no membership fees. What PlugShare gains through these applications is a lot of data about electric car usage and the spreading electric car charging infrastructure.
PlugShare members drive about 1050 miles/month and spend $30/month on recharging their car. They are saving approximately $75/month on fuel costs, and 360 lbs of CO(2) emissions per month.
The "top 10 EV ready cities", meaning they have the most charging stations per 100,000 residents, are: 1) Portland OR 11.1, 2) Dallas TX 10.6, 3) Nashville, TN 8.2, 4) SF Bay Area 6.6, 5) Seattle 6.5, 6) Orlando 6.3, 7) Austin 5.3, 8) Tucson 5.3, 9) Honolulu 5.1, 10) Washington D.C. Area 4.7.
"PlugShare's success is largely thanks to the EV community at large, and we're committed to helping provide new products and services that help engage with them," said Xatori Founder and CEO Forrest North. "With the information we gather on charging stations and driving behaviors, we hope to inform the EV industry to continue to develop solutions that support and further the shift to electric vehicles."
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Southern California should be
Southern California should be at the top of that list of EV ready cities. I'm naming names; ECOtality.
PlugShare is great.
PlugShare is so frustrating
PlugShare is so frustrating ... they've got all the mindshare, but for me the site is rotten. The quality of the data stinks, at least in my neighborhood (metro Atlanta). They have false positives (listing for stations that aren't there) and false negatives (missing stations that ARE there). I'd contribute to the site and correct the entries, but they have one huge usability problem:
You can't link to a specific station.
That's an absolute requirement for a database like this, full stop. I want a URL to go to that describes a specific station, so I can email people about it, Facebook it, whatever. PlugShare implements everything as one big "#" javascript popup hack, and that means no linking to sites.
Instead, I have been swearing by CarStations.com for over a year now. They have much higher quality data, and you can link directly to specific stations, like the great one at Atlantic Station here in Atlanta. They don't bother with home/share stations, just public stations.
The one serious weakness of CarStations.com is that while they do have an Android app, it's very basic. Their iPhone app is the bees knees and loaded with features, I hear, but I have an Android phone, as do most smartphone users.
So, good for PlugShare releasing this report, and they're great for EV owners who want to share their home station, but if you want a better charging station database for real public stations, check out CarStations.com .
(Note: I don't work for them, just trying to promote a better system)