How to make your charging station appear on apps and maps

A charging station can be in a good spot, with a fast charger and a fair price, and still sit empty because the driver doesn't find it. Those who drive electric decide where to charge before leaving, looking at their phone. If your point isn't where they look, or has the wrong address, old hours or the "offline" status from a week ago, they go to the neighbor. This text shows where the driver searches, how to put your point in each place and what to keep updated.

If you drive and are looking for an app to find where to charge, the right text is apps to find a charging station.

Where the driver searches for charging

• On Google, through Search and Maps, like they search for any other service.
• On charging maps, apps made for those who drive electric, with connector, power and ratings from other drivers.
• On the platform's app that unlocks charging at your charger, and on the apps that platform exchanges data with.

Each one has its own data source, which is why a point can appear right in one and wrong in another.

1. Google: the Business Profile

The Business Profile is what makes the place appear with name, address, hours, photos and reviews on Search and Maps. According to Google's help, adding or claiming the profile has no financial cost, and once it is added and verified you control how the information appears. Verification is described in verify your business on Google. If the place doesn't even appear on the map, Maps has the option to add a missing place.

Two cautions that the Business Profile guidelines make clear:

• One profile per location. The guidelines ask that you not create more than one page for each location, even on different accounts. Before creating one, search whether the point already exists on the map and claim whatever is already there.
• A business inside another business. When a service operates inside another establishment, like an ATM inside a gas station, each one uses the categories that represent it, without mixing them. For a charging station inside a gas station, a store or a parking lot, the question is who operates the point, and the profile follows the answer.

In the profile, fill in the charger's hours, which may differ from the store's hours, put photos of the space and the charger and use the website link for a page that talks about the point.

2. The charging maps

They are apps made for those who drive electric. PlugShare, for example, presents itself as the largest community of electric drivers, with maps in more than 200 countries and territories and nearly 10 million active installations on phones, according to the company itself. There are others, and each region has its favorites.

On these maps, what the driver sees comes from two sources: the data the operating platform sends and what the drivers themselves record, such as reviews, photos and reports of a stopped charger. Open the most-used maps in your region and check:

• whether your point appears, and with the pin on the space, not in the middle of the block;
• whether connector, power and hours are correct;
• what the most recent reviews and reports say.

The path to add or fix a point is in each app's help.

3. The platform's app and who receives your data

The driver who already uses your charger's platform app sees the point there, with status and price. Some platforms also exchange data with other apps, so that a driver on one app can find and use a point on another network. One of the protocols for this is OCPI, maintained by the EVRoaming Foundation, which links those who operate chargers to those who have the driver as a customer and provides for the exchange of location, tariff and status in real time. OCPI coexists with another protocol, OCPP, which sits between the charger and the platform, and the Velquia blog shows where one ends and the other begins: OCPP and OCPI, each in its role.

Whether this happens with your point depends on your platform. Ask it:

• on which apps and maps your points appear;
• whether the charger's status is updated in real time in those places;
• whether the price appears to the driver before they arrive;
• who fixes a wrong piece of data, and how quickly.

The data that has to match

The driver checks more than one place. If Google says one thing and the charging map says another, they distrust both. Keep them the same everywhere:

Data	What to check
Address and pin	The pin on the charger's space, with the right parking lot entrance
Hours	The charger's, not the store's, if they differ
Connector and power	Type of connector, quantity and power of each one
Price	The price per kWh and the other charges, such as occupancy time
How to pay	The step by step to start the charge
Status	Offline when it is offline, and back when it returns
Photos	The space as seen by those arriving, and the charger
Contact	Who serves the driver who can't charge

Status is the data that changes most often. When the charger stops, update the maps. When it returns, update again. The routine that makes it stop less often is in charging station maintenance.

On site: from the map to the space

The map takes the driver to the address. From there to the charger it's up to the signage. A sign at the entrance, directions to the space, a painted space lit at night. In a large parking lot or inside a gas station, a photo of the route in the profile helps those arriving for the first time.

Reviews: answer them all

The driver reads the reviews before choosing, and a report of a stopped charger or one that doesn't start the session weighs on their decision. Answer each one, say what was done and update the status. An answered review shows that someone takes care of the point, and that is what the next driver wants to know.

The driver who doesn't find the point is one of the six causes of a charging station with little use. The other five are in a charging station with little use.

Where Elektro Charge comes in

In Elektro Charge's charging station management, your point enters the same platform on which we operate our network, where there have already been more than 4,300 charges and more than 100,000 kWh delivered. We use AI in monitoring, and the driver support is ours, 24 hours: it's us they call. Where your point appears today, and how it looks under management, is one of the questions for the first conversation.