Google has added electric vehicle charging station location information to its U.S. mapping service, providing a source of EV chargers for users of the first electric vehicles.
Cynthia Yeung, a member of Google’s Strategic Partner Development Team, explained on the LatLong Blog, “As consumers embrace electric vehicles, we’ve also been adding information to Google Maps over the past few months to help users find charging stations. Just search on Google Maps for ‘ev charging station’ plus the appropriate area, for example, ‘ev charging station near mountain view ca.’”
Google said that it had teamed up with the U.S. government’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) to display chargers listed on its GeoEVSE (Geo Electric Vehicle Supply Equipment) Forum.
GeoEVSE aims to bring together manufacturers and other service providers to provide a central database of publicly accessible charging points, irrespective of equipment manufacturer or charging network. It currently contains nearly 7,000 alternative fuelling stations, including over 600 EVSE locations.
As information is added to the NREL – and other – databases, Google will add the charging station locations to Google Maps.
The inclusion of charging station information on Google Maps is a welcome if predictable move from Google, whose corporate love for electric cars is well known.
