摘要:
目前,有多种应用于iPhone和Android的程序可使司机在户外也很容易定位附近的电动汽车充电站。在众多应多程序中,PlugShare占据领先地位。它通过众包来识别和报告汽车充电站的使用情况,目前可以为电动汽车司机提供最全面的信息。司机无论任何时候停在充电站,他们可以留下该充电站的评论。这些评论有助于其他车主在充电前了解更多的信息。最近,PlugShare又添加了一个新的附加功能,同时在地图中分别用不同的颜色标出了公共充电站、住宅充电站和大功率直流充电站。但是,旅行计划是一个全新的功能。只要你输入起始地址和结束地址,它就会显示5英里范围内的充电站路线标识。它还有一个预期功能是:司机自定义使用范围。这一功能需要在未来进行更新。Plugshare还具有实时更新附近的充电站、保存最喜爱的充电站、发送消息给其他的司机、充电排行榜、用户配置、选项等功能。
Finding electric car charging stations in the wild is easy thanks to a variety of iPhone and Android apps.
PlugShare is currently the leader in charging station locator apps with thousands of stations listed.
Now the company has updated its app with some new features, so we took it for a test drive (test tap, perhaps).
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Since PlugShare is a third-party app that uses crowdsourcing to identify and report on car charging station use, it currently has the most comprehensive information available for EV drivers.
Plugshare electric-car charging station locator app, May 2015 [screenshot by Ben Rich]Plugshare electric-car charging station locator app, May 2015 [screenshot by Ben Rich]Enlarge Photo.Whenever drivers stop at charging stations, they have the option to leave a review of the location. These reviews are helpful to inform drivers of any special considerations they will need to know before charging.
Recently the PlugShare app update was released with added features and a new interface.
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The map view has remained largely unchanged, with public charging stations shown as green markers, residential charging stations shown as blue markers, and high-power DC quick-charging stations shown as orange markers.
But the Trip Planner feature is new to the app. You can now type your starting and ending addresses, and it will show you only the charging stations within 5 miles of the route it identifies.
The online version of PlugShare’s trip planner has a useful feature that allows the driver to adjust the range it uses to identify chargers, but at the moment, this feature is missing from the app.
Adjusting the range is an expected feature to be added in a future update.
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Some of the notable features include:
Activity - Plugshare broadcasts local charging activity, so you can keep up to date on who may be recharging nearby.
Bookmarks - Save your favorite charging stations for easy reference.
Messages - You can send messages to other drivers without using your email address
Leaderboards - The leaderboards show the drivers who have listed or charged at the most charging stations in the last 30 days.
User Profile - You can identify yourself as much or as little as you like in your profile. Other Plugshare users can see it, and will be able to tell which vehicle you drive and how active you are.
Options - You can search by specific type of plug, whether a charger is public or private and even specify the network(s) you prefer to use. This can be particularly helpful if you have an access card for one specific network but not for any others.
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Still, it would seem that the trip planner will become significantly more useful when Plugshare updates it to allow users to adjust the range in which they seek charging sites along a specific route.
来源:Green Car Reports