One of the challenges facing electric car owners wanting to venture further than the range their electric cars can provide on a single charge is where to find either an outlet or a purpose-built electric vehicle charging station to replenish their car’s battery pack. 

Until recently there was no centralized place where electric car owners could search for  a place to recharge their car - but Google recently changed that with the announcement in March that it was working with the U.S. Department of Energy to map all of the nation’s electric vehicle charging stations in one easy place

Google Maps Offer Charging Stations Information

Google Maps Offer Charging Stations Information

A few months in and the project is flourishing with over 600 stations listed in the database. Available through the Alternative Fueling Station Locator at the Department of Energy’s Alternative Fuels and Advanced Vehicles Data Center, the database is also available for third parties wishing to develop applications or GPS systems that use it to help electric car owners locate a place to plug in. 

Google isn’t the only company on board either: charging station manufacturers like Coulomb are on board, helping to ensure that its own interconnected network of charging stations are fully represented in the database. 

With more accessible data available to locate electric car charging stations the hops is that the project will encourage more people to switch to electric cars, confident that they will know exactly when and where they can refuel. 

[CNET]