As electric vehicles become more popular, EV-specific apps for CarPlay are also becoming available. There are many great CarPlay apps to help you plan your trip, find a charger, and more to take your EV experience to the next level. Keep reading for a list of CarPlay apps every EV owner should check out.
EV compatible with CarPlay
Almost every EV on the market supports Apple’s CarPlay platform, including the Ford Mustang Mach-E, Volkswagen ID.4, Kia EV6, and Chevrolet Bolt. Two of the main exceptions here are Tesla and Rivian, but neither supports his CarPlay nor has he shown any signs of planning to add CarPlay support. Of course, GM also plans to remove CarPlay from EVs in 2024.
CarPlay is Apple’s platform that basically mirrors your iPhone to your car’s infotainment system. You can access certain apps designed for CarPlay and interact with Siri, including Apple’s first-party apps and several different categories of third-party apps.
For a breakdown of the best CarPlay apps, see all Be sure to check out this detailed summary of App Store categories.
Apple is also planning major improvements to CarPlay, which will start appearing in the first supported cars in late 2023. This “next generation CarPlay” provides content to every driver screen in the car, including the instrument cluster. It also adds support for vehicle-specific features such as climate control and drive modes.
Best EV apps for CarPlay
apple map
edit: EV Routes in Apple Maps is currently only supported on Ford Mustang Mach-E and Porsche Taycan. The Ford F-150 Lightning is also reportedly coming soon.
If you’re an Apple Maps user and want to stick with Apple’s platform for navigation, the company has successfully adopted some EV-specific features over the past few years. As you might expect, these EV-specific features are also supported via CarPlay. This also includes support for multi-stop navigation routes, a feature added in iOS 16.
The highlight feature here is support for electric vehicle routes. In other words, the Maps app can help you plan your trip, including support for EV charging stops. If your iPhone is connected to his CarPlay, Apple Maps can track your car’s charge level. In some cases, you may need to download your car manufacturer’s app from the App Store.
Apple Maps considers a variety of factors to determine when and how often you need to charge. This includes the availability of chargers, the speed of those chargers, elevation levels, driving speeds, etc. Charging spots will be automatically inserted along your route. Additionally, if you drive until your charge gets too low, Apple Maps will show you an alternate route to the nearest charging station.
With iOS 17 this year, Apple further expanded EV support in Apple Maps by adding real-time charging availability information. This means that Apple Maps will show you the total number of stands available at a particular charging station, and how many of those are currently occupied.
To ensure you use all the EV features available in Apple Maps, update your iPhone to iOS 16. iOS 16 is free to download.
google map
Google Maps offers some features for EV drivers, but it doesn’t reach the level of Apple Maps or other commercially available apps. For example, Google Maps in CarPlay doesn’t support directions for electric cars. The app doesn’t have access to your car’s battery data, so it won’t direct you to an EV charger during long drives.
Google Maps has the ability to choose the most efficient route for your EV. The app will ask you to select your car’s “engine type” and you can select “electric” from a list of options. Google Maps chooses the most energy-efficient routes, taking into account traffic and other data points.
Google Maps also includes support for manually locating EV charging stations. You’ll also see some helpful details about these chargers, such as connector type and charging speed. Some stations on Google Maps will also show you if chargers are available or if all spots are full.
If your car has Google Maps natively built into it (meaning outside of CarPlay), the EV functionality is more advanced. Unfortunately, this is not the case when using the Google Maps app via CarPlay. I hope this changes in the future.
Waze
Like Google Maps, Waze has pretty poor features for electric cars, but this also applies to the Waze app via CarPlay. The only feature Waze offers to his EV owners is the ability to find nearby charging locations and chargers along their current route.
In my opinion, Waze is best used in conjunction with another navigation app. But as Apple Maps continues to add his Waze-style features, I find myself relying on it less and less. The lackluster support for EV features doesn’t help matters either.
A better route planner
If you’re an EV driver and haven’t tried A Better Route Planner, commonly referred to as ABRP, you’re missing out. This is a powerful route app and service for EV owners, offering more detailed route control than other options on the market. I have yet to find an app that creates plans as accurately as ABRP, or that provides the level of control that ABRP does.
With ABRP, you can select your vehicle model, enter your destination, and get a complete trip itinerary including charging stops, total charging time, total travel time, and more. You can use the app as your main navigation interface via CarPlay, so you can see your plans in real time. This may take into account changes, traffic, and other factors that may affect your route or charging plan.
If you don’t want to use ABRP for navigation, you can create a plan in ABRP and use another app to navigate to each ABRP stop, such as Google Maps, Apple Maps, or Waze. Having access to all this information via CarPlay can be very helpful while driving. After your trip, you can also view a report detailing your driving time, charging time, and how it compares to your planned estimate.
ABRP is available as a free download with a $4.99/month ($49.99/year) subscription to access all features. If you’re an EV driver, I think this is the easiest amount of money you can spend $5 a month.
Interestingly, Rivian just recently announced that it had acquired A Better Route Planner. What this means for the future of the app remains to be seen.
electrify america
Electrify America is the largest alternative to Tesla’s Supercharger network, offering approximately 800 charging stations across the United States. The company offers his CarPlay app that makes it easy to find nearby Electrify America charging stations. The app can also direct you to those charging stations.
The Electrify America app not only helps you find charging stations, but also displays information about those stations. This includes the number of chargers available, charging speeds, types of connectors available, prices, idle charges, etc. There are also filtering options available for most of these. For example, you can filter nearby charging stations to only show chargers with a certain threshold charging speed.
Additionally, you can use the Electrify America app via CarPlay to select a specific stall at a charging location to start charging. This allows for a more “plug-and-play” style charging experience, eliminating the need to use your iPhone to charge.
Unfortunately, at this time, the Electrify America app for CarPlay does not display any information while your car is charging. To do this, you’ll need to jump into your car’s native charging interface or use his Electrify America app on your iPhone. However, the CarPlay app will notify you when your car is fully charged.
charge point
ChargePoint is similar to Electrify America in that the app focuses on its own network of chargers. So many of the same features that are available on chargers in the Electrify America app are also available on ChargePoint’s network, such as finding nearby chargers, filtering their locations, and favorited chargers.
ChargePoint also provides a similar “Start Charging” button for charger networks via CarPlay. The app will connect to the charger to start the session and ask you to turn on your car. After that, charging will start without any operation.
plug share
PlugShare is a popular third-party service that aggregates all networks and types of electric vehicle charging stations. This is the most powerful platform for finding charging stations of all types, from his 120V outlets in random places to information on Electrify America and Tesla Superchargers.
PlugShare’s CarPlay app offers many of the same features as the PlugShare app on your iPhone. You can view nearby chargers with detailed information about number of stalls, plug type, and more. PlugShare also displays the average review score for the charging location from other PlugShare users. This will help you exclude locations that are currently not working.
spot hero
If you’re an EV driver, you’re probably familiar with the process of finding a parking spot with EV charging at your final destination. This is especially useful if you know you’ll have to go for a long drive, as you can return to your fully charged car after you’re done at the location.
SpotHero is a CarPlay app with the ability to filter parking locations based on EV charger availability. With this, you can be sure to install his EV charger in a parking lot or parking lot.
more
These are just a few of the EV apps available via Apple’s CarPlay platform. Other examples include:
This list will be continuously updated as more apps are released. Do you have a favorite CarPlay app for EVs? Let us know in the comments.
FTC: We use automated affiliate links that generate income. more.