Apple Maps adds EV charging station data from ChargePoint

Just in time for that cross-country holiday trip, Apple’s bringing some key electric vehicle charging info to its ecosystem, courtesy of ChargePoint. The partnership brings location info for 30,000 charging stations, which will pop up in Maps as badges, along with available pricing and hours of operation.

Apple’s AI assistant will, naturally, be getting in on the action, with the “Hey Siri, where’s the closest charging station?” and iPhone owners can use Apple Pay to charge the charge.

Google’s similarly named competitor has featured charging stations for a number of years now, adding information from the U.S. Department of Energy National Renewable Energy Laboratory in 2011, back when its list of spots numbered in the mere hundreds. And then there are third-party offerings like PlugShare, which is supported by a number of EV manufacturers like Tesla and Ford.

Along with the aforementioned EV functionality, Apple’s added a number of other features to Maps recently, including reservations through OpenTable and Uber and Lyft hailing directly from the iOS 10 app. Makes you wonder what else the company might be planning.

https://techcrunch.com/2016/12/08/apple-maps/