How to find EV charging stations? As electric vehicles (EVs) become increasingly popular, the demand for accessible and convenient charging stations is on the rise. Whether you're planning a road trip or simply need a quick charge in your local area, finding EV charging stations has never been easier. In this guide, we'll explore various methods and tools to help you locate charging stations efficiently.
Current status of charging stations in the United States
Even if you do all your regular EV charging at home, every EV driver needs to know how to find EV charging stations easily. The number of publicly available EV chargers in the US is steadily climbing, with federal funding pouring in to increase the rate of new installations. 
What makes EV charging stations harder to find
The placement of charging stations isn’t bound by the same demands as gas pumps. We’re used to stand-alone fueling stations with big signs, at intersections and near highway off-ramps. However, because charging stations—even ultra-fast ones—have a much smaller carbon footprint, don’t contain toxic chemicals, and take longer to refuel than gas pumps, many of them are located at convenient destinations like shopping centers, parking garages, hotels, and schools. That doesn’t mean there are no EV chargers along highways; on the contrary, fast-charging station corridors exist across America, and many gas stations have already added EV chargers.
With so many public EV chargers available, it isn’t so much a question of how to find EV charging stations as knowing which are available when you need them, how fast they charge, and whether they’re compatible with your EV. To get answers to those questions, you need a great EV charging app!
How find EV charging stations faster, Choosing the right EV charging app
EV charging apps have come a long way in the past decade. What started out as maps with pins has advanced to include long route planning, in-app payment, and all sorts of nuanced information about charging stations.
Getting the right EV charging app can eliminate any lingering range anxiety you might have while ensuring you’re not charging more than you need to.
Here are the best electric car charging apps from Telgeoot "Smart life"
The EV charging stations "Smart life" app has just been redesigned to help electric vehicle drivers of any make and model eliminate range anxiety, plan trips and charge seamlessly. You can easily filter charging stations by type, charging speed, operator, availability and incidental services such as restaurants or hotels.
Smart life most differentiating features are that you can follow busy stations to get notified when they become available, choose the rate plan that best suits your needs and book your recharge directly in the app. With that functionality, you can do everything charging-related on one app. Plus, by adding your EV details to your profile, the Smart life App filters out incompatible chargers so you never waste time driving to charging stations you can’t use.
The app also includes a Trip Planner feature that suggests charging stations along your route based on your starting charge and range. Charging stations can be saved in your Favorites for easy recall when you need a future top up, along with notes about each station.
Find car chargers on Google Maps
Lots of EV drivers default to using Google Maps to find EV charging stations because they’re already in it for navigation. Just like all other locations on Google Maps, you can read and write reviews for charging stations, which can deliver a lot of nuanced information you may not be able to get from standard details.
The other big advantage of using Google Maps is that it offers in-app navigation. If you try navigating to charging stations in other apps, they’ll send you to Google Maps or Apple Maps.
Google Maps’ big drawbacks are the lack of detail, filtering, vehicle-based route planning and payment options.
How to find EV charging stations? When choosing among charger-agnostic maps, try to balance ease of use and functionality. Finding EV charging stations takes a lot more information than navigating to the pin closest to you. You need to know which plugs fit your vehicle, which are available and working, which will charge you up at the speed you need, and how much it’ll cost. The Smart life App offers an excellent blend of information and functionality, designed by a team who have spent more than a decade connecting EV drivers with easy-to-use chargers of all speeds.
