Waze just got a huge upgrade for EV drivers — what you need to know

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Whatsoever electric car owner can tell y'all that recharging isn't the same as filling up with gas. The main matter to worry about is actually finding a uniform charger, especially if you lot're in a strange place or in the middle of a long-distance bulldoze. But Waze is now able to help.

Waze has partnered with Volkwagen to map EV charging stations across the U.s.a.. Surprisingly, this wasn't available before, despite the fact sister app Google Maps has been offer this option since 2019.

Waze users will besides be able to modify their icon to VW's ID.4 EV, if they really want to.

Previously Waze just let drivers locate or add stops at gas stations, which is still the example exterior of the U.South. Now EV owners get that aforementioned fleck of convenience, letting them navigate and recharge from a single app — negating the demand for third-party services similar PlugShare or Chargemap.

The characteristic isn't live for everyone just nonetheless, then expect it to roll out over the grade of the week. It's also not entirely articulate how Waze will let y'all search for EV chargers. Later on all, there are different speeds and connectors to worry about. You don't want to roll up to a charger to discover it's either also slow or doesn't fit your motorcar.

Presumably the new Waze feature volition be like to Google Maps' method, which lets you set the plug types your car is compatible with and filter its results accordingly. However, yous don't see the specifics, like how many plugs or what their maximum charging speed is, unless you click on the associated map icon.

Hopefully the partnership with VW, which owns Electrify America, means that Waze won't simply exist relying on crowdsourced information. Crowdsourcing is fine, but when it comes to refueling it's important that locations and operational status are kept upwardly to date. Especially because how few EV chargers there are compared to gas stations.

However, this is a big move as electrical cars become more than popular. EV owners likely already have a bunch of surplus apps that are needed to use the various charging networks they may come up beyond. So the ability to find them without using a completely different app is a large help.

Tom is the Tom's Guide's Automotive Editor, which means he tin can usually exist found knee deep in stats the latest and best electric cars, or checking out some sort of driving gadget. It'south long way from his days every bit editor of Gizmodo UK, when pretty much everything was on the tabular array. He's usually found trying to squeeze another behemothic Lego set up onto the shelf, draining very large cups of java, or lament that Ikea won't permit him buy the stuff he actually needs online.