How To Find A Compatible Electric Car Charging Station Using Google Maps

Electric cars might be the way of the future, but the variations in charging plugs across different brands and models make finding a compatible electric vehicle (EV) charging station a lot more difficult than simply pulling up to a gas station. Thankfully, Google Maps on Android now has an “Electric vehicle settings” menu that will make finding EV charging ports that work with your car less of a headache.

Google Maps has been able to point out open EV stations for a while, but Android Police reports users can now specify the type of charging station they need and filter out the ones they don’t.

Before this update, Google Maps users had to take a gamble and hope that the EV station they were pulling up to support their car. It was either that or use a third-party station finding app that includes such filters already. Speaking of which, the new EV plug filter is only available for Google Maps on Android at this time and Google hasn’t indicated if or when it’ll come to the iOS version, so iPhone users may want to stick with those third-party station finders for now.

How to filter EV station search results by plug type in Google Maps

There are a few ways to open Google Maps’ electric vehicle settings menu and set your preferred charging station type.

The first way is to search for EV charging stations in Google Maps on Android. Under the search bar is a new drop-down menu that will let you change which plugs you want to use. The menu is set to “Any plugs” by default, but if you tap it you can select your preferred plug type from the list and your search results will be adjusted accordingly.

However, you can also apply filters in the Google Maps settings so you don’t have to filter your searches each time.

You should see a small notification box at the bottom of the search results page asking if you’d like to only see compatible charging stations in your search results. Tap “Add Plugs,” and you’ll be taken to the filter page where you can add or remove plug types from your preferences.

You can also can get to the filter page is to open Google Maps on Android, tap the three-line “hamburger” icon, then go to Settings > Electric vehicles settings. Tap “edit” next to the Your Plugs box to select the plug types you want to show up in your search results.

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