Why Do EV Owners Need Dozens of Apps To Power Up In Public?

Charging an EV in public is a hassle for many reasons. Broken chargers. Fully-occupied locations. Chargers that stop for no reason. Incompatible chargers with the car you happen to be in. One of the most consternating hassles is having to keep a long list of different charger apps in your phone just to make the things work. 

Related Story: EV Charging Experts Are Still Stymied & Frustrated By Public Fast Charging 

Tesla Does It Best
Tesla owners who charge exclusively on Tesla’s quasi-public network have it easiest. There is no app needed. You pull up and charge. The car and the charger communicate, and you don't really need to use an app proactively. Simple.

Every Other Brand of EV Requires A Mishmash of Random Apps
Since there are numerous charger brands, there is not one app to initiate and pay for your charging. There are definitely some leaders. Electrify America, ChargePoint, and a few others are nationwide. But locally, there may be numerous different chargers in your area, all of which require a specific app. 

A Quick List of Charger Apps
Here’s a quick list of some of the apps we routinely use in New England. See if they ring a bell for you:
1) Tesla App 
2) Chargelab
3) ChargePoint
4) Electrify America
5) EVgo
6) Ford Blue Oval
7) Shell
8) Volta

In addition to these apps that help you initiate and pay for charging, there are a few more apps that help you locate chargers and read charger info and reviews. These include:
-Google Maps
-PlugShare
-Chargemap

Let’s not forget the charger apps that may be linked to your specific home charger. On our phone, we have:
-Emporia
-ShockFlow
-EViQO

We are past one dozen apps to cover what is effectively Metro Boston and areas an hour or so away.

Car Swipe For All
One recent charger we tried would not accept any of our charger apps, despite being rumored to be cooperative with two we already had. However, it had a credit card swipe/tap device that allowed us to quickly and easily use the charger. What a concept! Use a ubiquitous form of payment that folks have been using to pay for energy for the better part of a century. Genius. We wish it was a law that every charge had to have a credit card swiper. We’d immediately delete 14 apps off our phones.

What charging challenges have you encountered when traveling outside of your local area? Tell us in the comments below. 

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John Goreham is an experienced New England Motor Press Association member and expert vehicle tester. John completed an engineering program with a focus on electric vehicles, followed by two decades of work in high-tech, biopharma, and the automotive supply chain before becoming a news contributor. In addition to his eleven years of work at Torque News, John has published thousands of articles and reviews at American news outlets. He is known for offering unfiltered opinions on vehicle topics. You can connect with John on Linkedin and follow his work at our X channel. Please note that stories carrying John's by-line are never AI-generated, but he does employ Grammarly grammar and punctuation software when proofreading. 

Image of vehicles charging by John Goreham. Swipe to charge image by John Goreham.