E-travelling: here comes the Chargemap route planner!
This is what you’ve been waiting for. The Chargemap route planner is coming on board for your holidays. We are proud to present you the fruit of months and months of hard work: an easy-to-use, intuitive tool enhanced with Chargemap data to travel by electric car with peace of mind.
Planning a journey by electric car
Traveling by electric car can be a source of stress for many drivers. The density of the charging station network is still paltry compared to the sharp rise in the sales of EVs observed over the past few years. It’s hard to take to the road with true peace of mind if you don’t know beforehand where and when you can stop to charge.
For years now, the Chargemap community has been providing us with feedback on various problems encountered when embarking on long journeys by EV.
- How can I be sure of reaching my holiday destination with enough range to go sightseeing?
- When should I charge my EV?
- How much time will I spend charging my EV?
- How can I be sure the charging stations along my route are reliable?
Everyone has their own little tricks to ensure a hassle-free e-journey. But planning a journey by electric car is still time-consuming today and often requires a combination of several tools to obtain a route that goes the distance (no pun intended).
That’s why the Chargemap team has spent months developing an easy, intuitive and efficient solution to guide you when planning your journeys by EV.
Chargemap, your e-travelling companion
You may already be familiar with the Chargemap route tool. It enables you to view all the charging stations available along your route.
In the wake of a number of requests from the Chargemap community, our team is proud to present you with a much more powerful tool today: the Chargemap route planner!
Without further ado, let’s look at the various stages to plan your next journey by EV in the Chargemap app.
Setting up your route
First of all, let’s look at the set-up screen. The aim of this tool is to be user-friendly whether you are an old hand or a complete newbie. In fact, little information is required to launch the calculation.
- Give your departure and arrival point and the initial battery level and the battery level you would like to have at your destination.
- Enter the electric vehicle you are taking.
- Personalise the route by opting to avoid motorways and tolls and select a maximum speed to save on energy.
- You’re ready to start the calculation!
View the charging stops
Once it has been calculated, you can view the entire route with the necessary charging stop(s). At the bottom of the screen, you can see the distance, total duration and the number of charges required.
To see the journey in detail, simply tap on the screen or on a stop-off point along the route. When the tool zooms in on a charging stop, the algorithm displays by default some ‘alternative’ stations in the vicinity of the route selected. These have been judged to be relevant but not optimal stops. Of course, it will only post up those near enough to be reached by your car.
The ability to replace a charging stop with one of these alternative stations will actually be available very soon. Stay tuned 😉
From here, you can consult the details screen for each charging station proposed. You can therefore see useful information such as nearby services, comments and check-ins by the community and the score awarded to the charging network.
Consulting the charging stations in the area
As we have just seen, by default, the algorithm displays a few interesting charging stations nearby. By clicking on the small “eye” icon, you will find all the charging stations available within a radius of 10 kilometres from your route. In fact, this is exactly what our basic route tool already did before.
Thanks to their different opacity, you can easily distinguish the stations retained by the algorithm from all the others available on the route.
Take to the road with true peace of mind
If the route proposed suits your needs, you can go directly to the charging stop thanks to the ‘To GPS’ option, which directs you to your favourite navigation app.
The Chargemap app is also available on Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. If your EV is compatible with one of these technologies, you are guaranteed optimum navigational comfort. 😉
The Chargemap route planner feature is not accessible from the CarPlay/Android Auto version. However, all you have to do is add the charging stations along your route to your favourites in the mobile app to find them directly on your dashboard. 😎
What’s behind the Chargemap route planner
The route planner presented a real technological challenge. Indeed, Chargemap decided to develop its own algorithm in-house by bringing on board a team of engineers entirely devoted to the project.
Beyond searching for the fastest route, our researchers designed an algorithm that was totally in tune with the mechanics of Chargemap. To select charging stations along the route, our tool is fuelled by Chargemap data. The information stemming from contributions made by the Chargemap community, the availability of charging stations, and the estimated charging time are all combined to come up with the best route at a given time T.
In short, the algorithm behind the Chargemap route planner assesses the relevance of each charging stop according to the technical parameters of your car and the data for each charging pool. For example, the tool will prioritise a charging pool that scores well, has successful check-ins and no out-of-service charging stations.
Chargemap route planner ambitions and development prospects
You’ve surely got the hang of how we do things at Chargemap – we’re not going to just stop with this first version of the route planner. On the contrary, our team is already working on the next product developments!
Without giving precise roll-out dates, the Chargemap team still has lots of surprises up its sleeve.
Personalising the post-calculation route
Chargemap’s goal for this new product is simple – to adapt to all EV driver profiles.
Even with a finely honed algorithm, it is still difficult to offer the perfect route that matches every EV driver profile and all situations. That’s why we hope to enable each user to personalise the route according to their needs and desires.
Let’s take a concrete example. User X is planning to go on holiday by electric car with the whole family. She wants to profit from a charging stop to go for a picnic in a park she knows and sees there is a charging station nearby.
Even if the Chargemap route does not suggest stopping in this place, she can nonetheless indicate the charging stop she would like. A new route will be calculated. It may no longer be the fastest one, but it takes into account her specific situation.
Saving / sharing a route
An imminent update will also enable the user to save and share the routes calculated. A highly practical feature for comparing several route options and coming back to a particular one at any time.
Ongoing enhancements to the algorithm
Our researchers are not only bringing in new features, they are also continuing to fine-tune the current algorithm so that it can calculate increasingly more precise and relevant routes.
The Chargemap route planner is available as of now by downloading the latest update on your mobile app. And because we really wanted the whole community to profit from it, the new tool is totally free of charge! 🎉
Discover the Chargemap route planner and our latest innovations in video!
The entire Chargemap team hopes you will all flock to adopt it when preparing your holidays by electric car. We are looking forward to discovering the trips you’ll be making this summer. 🚙
We would like to thank you heartily for your support down the years. Everything we do is for you! And heartfelt thanks to all our Chargemap beta testers for their time and investment. 💛