The tech company pushed ‘gas stations’ below ‘EV charging stations’ in the points of interest categories list for those driving electric vehicles and using Android Auto.

“To help people get the most relevant information when navigating, last year we added the ability for EV drivers to see a shortcut for charging stations instead of gas stations on Google Maps for Android Auto,” Google spokesperson Pearl Xu told The Verge. Xu added that the feature has also been live for vehicles equipped with Google built-in vehicle software since 2020, as noted on theverge.com.

Google’s EV-focused features include:

• Real-time charging port availability
• Charging speed filters
• Plug-type filters
• Adding charging stops to trips
• Charging stations in search results

Despite Google not being a standard operating system in most EVs on the road, drivers who use Google Maps on their phones can now access chargers with more ease.

While Google is making efforts to offer simplicity to EV drivers, most users are still dissatisfied with the state of charging in the country as drivers claim there are not enough chargers, it takes too long to charge and access to chargers is generally inconvenient. Read about the ongoing debate in NACS Daily.