As the popularity of electric vehicles grows, so does the availability of EV-specific apps for CarPlay. There are a number of great CarPlay apps that can help take your EV experience to the next level, including planning trips, finding chargers and more. Read on for a growing list of CarPlay apps every EV owner should check out.
Electronic cars with CarPlay support
Most all electric vehicles on the market support the Apple CarPlay platform, including the Ford Mustang Mach-E, Volkswagen ID.4, Kia EV6, Chevy Bolt and many more. The two main exceptions here are Tesla and Rivian, neither of which support CarPlay, and neither of which have shown any signs that they plan to add CarPlay support. GM, of course, is also ditching CarPlay starting with its electric vehicles in 2024.
CarPlay, for those unfamiliar, is Apple's platform that essentially mirrors your iPhone into your infotainment system car. . You can access certain apps designed for CarPlay, including Apple's own apps, third-party apps in several different categories, and interact with Siri.
For the best CarPlay apps across all App Store categories, be sure to check out our in-depth review right here.
Apple is also planning a major overhaul of CarPlay, which will begin shipping to the first supported vehicles sometime in late 2023. This is the “next generation of CarPlay”; provides content for all driver screens in the vehicle, including the instrument cluster. Support for vehicle-specific features such as climate control and driving modes will also be added.
The best EV apps for CarPlay
Apple Maps
Edit: Electric vehicle routing in Apple Maps is currently only supported on Ford Mustang Mach-E, F -150 Lightning and Porsche Taycan.
If you're an Apple Maps user and want to use Apple's platform for navigation, the company has done a great job of introducing some EV-specific features over the past few years. As you'd expect, these EV-specific features are also supported via CarPlay. This also includes support for multi-stop navigation routes, which is a feature added in iOS 16.
The main feature here is support for electric vehicle routing, which means the Maps app can help you plan trips that include support for stopping to charge your electric vehicle. Apple Maps, when your iPhone is connected to CarPlay, can track your car's charge level. In some cases, you may also need to download your vehicle manufacturer's app from the App Store.
Apple Maps takes a number of different factors into account to determine when and how often you need to charge your battery. This includes the availability of chargers, the speed of those chargers, altitude levels, how fast you are traveling, and more. It will then automatically insert charging stops along your route. Plus, if you drive until the charge gets too low, Apple Maps will suggest an alternative route to the nearest charging station.
This year, with iOS 17, Apple further expanded support for electric vehicles in Apple Maps by adding real-time charging availability information. This means Apple Maps will now show the total number of available spaces at a specific charging station and how many of them are currently occupied.
To make sure you're using all available EV features. in Apple Maps, update your iPhone to iOS 16, which is free to download.
Google Maps
Google Maps offers several features for EV drivers, but not on the level of Apple Maps or some other apps on the market. For example, Google Maps in CarPlay does not support EV routing. The app doesn't have access to your car's battery data and won't direct you to EV chargers during a long trip.
Google Maps offers a feature that selects the most efficient routes for electric vehicles. The app will ask you to select your car's engine type. and you can choose the “electric” option. from the list of options. Google Maps will then select routes that are the most energy efficient while still taking into account traffic and other data points.
Google Maps also includes support for manually searching for electric vehicle charging stations. It will also show some useful information about these chargers, including connector types and charging speeds. At some stations, Google Maps will also show if a charger is available or if all spaces are full.
If your car has Google Maps built-in (that is, outside of CarPlay), the EV features become more advanced. Unfortunately, this does not apply to using the Google Maps app via CarPlay. Hopefully this will change something in the future.
- App store: Google Maps
Waze
Like Google Maps, Waze has a rather meager selection features for electric vehicles, and the same is true for the Waze app via CarPlay. The only thing Waze offers EV owners is the ability to find nearby charging locations and chargers along your current route.
I think Waze is best used in conjunction with another navigation app. But as Apple Maps continues to add Waze-style features, I find myself relying on them less and less. Poor support for EV features doesn't help the situation either.
- App Store: Waze
A Better Route Planner
If you're an EV driver and haven't tried A Better Route Planner, commonly called ABRP, you're missing out. It's a powerful routing app and service for electric vehicle owners that offers more detail and control over your route than any other option on the market. I have yet to find any application that creates plans as accurately as ABRP, or with the same level of control as ABRP.
ABRP allows you to 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 primary navigation interface via CarPlay, allowing you to see your roadmap in real time. This may take into account changes, traffic jams and other factors that may affect your route and fare plan.
If you don't want to use ABRP for navigation, you can create your plan in ABRP and then use another app to navigate to each of your ABRP stops, such as Google Maps, Apple Maps, or Waze. Having access to all this information through CarPlay helps a lot while driving. You can also view a post-trip report that shows travel times, charging times, and how they compare to planned estimates.
ABRP is a free download with a $4.99/month ($49.99/year) subscription to unlock full functionality. If you're an EV driver, this is the easiest $5 a month you can spend in my opinion.
Interestingly, Rivian just recently announced the acquisition of A Better Route Planner. It remains to be seen what this means for the future of the app.
- App Store: the best route planner
Electrify America
Electrify America is the largest alternative to the Tesla Supercharger network, offering approximately 800 charging stations throughout the United States. The company offers a CarPlay app that makes it easy to find nearby Electrify America charging stations; the app can also direct you directly to these charging stations.
The Electrify America app not only helps you find charging stations, but also provides some information about those stations. This includes things like the number of chargers available, charging speeds, available connector types, prices, downtime fees, and more. Filtering options are also available for most of these things. For example, you can filter nearby charging stations to only show chargers that meet a certain charging speed threshold.
You can also use the Electrify America app through CarPlay to select a specific rack at your charging location and start charging. This opens up more plug-and-play options; charging style and means you don't have to use your iPhone to do it.
Unfortunately, the Electrify America CarPlay app does not currently display any information while your vehicle is charging. To do this, you'll have to go to your car's native charging interface or use the Electrify America app on your iPhone. However, the CarPlay app will tell you when your car has finished charging.
- App Store: Electrify America
ChargePoint
ChargePoint is similar to Electrify America in that its app is focused on its own network of chargers. So many of the same features that are available in the Electrify America app for its chargers are also available in ChargePoint for its network: finding nearby chargers, filtering those locations, adding chargers to your favorites, and more.
ChargePoint also offers a similar “Start Charging” feature; button for network chargers via CarPlay. The app will contact the charger, begin a session, and then prompt you to connect the car. Charging will then begin without your further interaction.
- App Store: ChargePoint
PlugShare
PlugShare is a popular third-party service that combines charging stations for electric vehicles of all networks and types. It's by far the most powerful platform for finding charging stations of all types, from 120V outlets in random locations to Electrify America and Tesla Supercharger information.
The CarPlay app for PlugShare offers many of the same features as the PlugShare app for iPhone. You can view nearby chargers with details on things like number of stalls, plug types and more. PlugShare will also show the average rating of a charging location from other PlugShare users, which can help you weed out locations that aren't currently working.
- App Store: PlugShare
SpotHero
If If you're an electric vehicle driver, you're probably familiar with the process of finding a parking spot at your final destination that has EV charging capabilities. This is especially useful if you know you have a long drive ahead of you after you've finished whatever you're doing in that location, as you can return to a fully charged vehicle.
SpotHero is a CarPlay app that lets you filter parking spots based on the availability of electric vehicle chargers. By using this, you can be sure that there will be EV chargers available in your garage or parking lot.
- App Store: SpotHero
And much more
These are just a few of the EV apps available through the Apple CarPlay platform. Here are some others:
- Chargeway
- Zap-Map: charging electric vehicles in the UK
- Chargemap
- ChargeFinder
We will continually update this list as new applications are released. Do you have any CarPlay apps for electric vehicles that you like? Let us know in the comments.
