Chargeway App Now Available For Apple CarPlay

Back in 2018, Matt Teske, a branding strategist and EV advocate, created Chargeway. His mission was simple. Answer the questions people had about EVs — how far they can go, how to charge them, and where to find chargers. Experienced sales professionals know customers will put off buying decisions if they have unanswered questions. Teske figured if he could help people find the answers they were looking for, more of them would buy electric cars.

He was right. He convinced 7 Portland area car dealers to feature his Beacon information kiosk in their showrooms. Over the next 15 months, EV sales at those dealers were 2 to 5 times greater than at other dealers selling the same cars, but without the Beacon kiosk on display.

Chargeway Now Available For CarPlay

Image credit: Chargeway

Chargeway  has just announced its EV charging app — which has helped  thousands of EV drivers in North America to find EV chargers using  their iPhones — is now available on Apple CarPlay. The app uses a simple, intuitive color-coded visual language for matching EV drivers with EV chargers, eliminating the guesswork and confusion that often are part of the EV charging process.

“You simply open the app and choose your EV,” explains Teske. “The app determines what kind of plug your EV has, but instead of engineering terms like ‘CHAdeMO’ or ‘J1772’, you get ‘Blue’  or ‘Green’, for example. The map then displays only the color coded chargers that your vehicle can use, so you’ll never pull up to the wrong kind of charger. Each charger displays a number from 1-7 to indicate the power it has available. The higher the number, the faster your car charges. It makes navigating the complex world of EV charging easier for everyone,” Teske says.

The new CarPlay interface gives the app a few enhancements. One feature includes new visuals for the station map. Users will still see the unique color/number station pins they are used to seeing on their iPhones, but in CarPlay, tightly clustered pins will be combined into red bubbles showing the station count in these “high station volume” areas.

Tapping on any individual station pin then provides quick access to directions, as well as more information about the station itself, such as the network, quantity of chargers, pricing, and a quick call feature to contact network support.  There’s even a star ratings feature that allows customers to leave feedback for other users to help them make the right charging choice. 

Advanced Trip Planning

The trip planning feature presents EV drivers with the best charging strategy for their trip. It now goes straight from user’s phone to the car. “Our pre-routing capability within Trip Planner on the mobile app seamlessly passes a planned trip into the Apple CarPlay interface,” says Teske. “It shows the suggested stops for your trip right on the dash to simplify planning, along with total charge time estimates and target battery percentage figures. Simply tap on a suggested location and click ‘directions’ to launch navigation to that station.” 

Here’s the best part. Chargeway’s trip planning feature lets you select temperature and cruising speed. “Experienced EV drivers know EVs have a different range at 90 degrees than they do at 30 degrees or at different speeds. Our app doesn’t rely on guesses. Enter in the temperature you’ll be driving in and what cruising speed you’re planning and Chargeway does the math to figure out what kind of range you’ll really have on your trip.” You can download the latest version of the Chargeway mobile app with CarPlay now at the App Store on your iOS mobile devices. 

Tesla drivers are familiar with this level of granularity. Now other EV drivers can experience a similar level of convenience.