Finding Public Chargers - Recargo

[RakesProgress]

Hello,

For those that don't know about us yet, Recargo is a website for electric car drivers that provides an easy way to find public charging stations for the Leaf and other EVs. You can enter an address or browse the map, save locations for easy access to status updates and trip planning.

While we're working with infrastructure providers to be the most comprehensive independent listing of charging stations, we rely on users like you to add new locations and update information in real time.

Our first smartphone app is now available for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch in the App Store and we plan to release an Android app later this year. The app makes it even easier to find chargers near you and plan your route on the go.

Nissan is providing a great in-dash solution with their own smartphone app, however it's yet to be determined how well it will cover non-Nissan and non-ECOtality brand charging stations. Recargo is here to fill the gaps between all the different manufacturers and infrastructure providers.

We're on the Web:
http://www.recargo.com/

and in the App Store:
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/recargo/id405168584

Please check out our work and give us your feedback on Facebook http://www.facebook.com/recargo, twitter http://twitter.com/recargonews or on our site- we're always looking for ways to improve and better serve the community.

Thanks,
Brian

 

[garygid]

Are these basically the same locations that ChargeAmerica has?

 

[RakesProgress]

Are these basically the same locations that ChargeAmerica has?

We aren't working with ChargeAmerica, so I'm not sure what station locations they have. However we are working with other information partners and are interested to speak with infrastructure providers about making their location information available through our website and apps. We also accept new sites and updates from our users right now, so if you know something that isn't on the site we encourage you to join and contribute to our efforts.

 

[jcesare]

These look like the same obsolete sites that ChargeAmerica has. The closest to my house is listed as a Saturn dealer, which went out of business last year. The Nissan dealer isn't even listed and the Costco EVSEs are not even used anymore. We need accurate information about J1772 EVSEs, not some obsolete database feed. Can this data be filtered to only show the J1772 standard? Otherwise it's worthless. The data looks like it was scrapped from unverified public sites and is a mess. As a DBA I'm offended that somone would try and publish this wealth of misinformation

 

[Jimmydreams]

These look like the same obsolete sites that ChargeAmerica has. The closest to my house is listed as a Saturn dealer, which went out of business last year. The Nissan dealer isn't even listed and the Costco EVSEs are not even used anymore. We need accurate information about J1772 EVSEs, not some obsolete database feed. Can this data be filtered to only show the J1772 standard? Otherwise it's worthless. The data looks like it was scrapped from unverified public sites and is a mess. As a DBA I'm offended that somone would try and publish this wealth of misinformation

Are you referring to the Saturn dealer on Jefferson Ave/Vista Way in Oceanside? If so, I've been reporting that charging station as "closed/out of service" on every site I can find for well over a YEAR. If it's still being listed, I'd consider the listing-service as suspect. :evil:

 

[jcesare]

These look like the same obsolete sites that ChargeAmerica has. The closest to my house is listed as a Saturn dealer, which went out of business last year. The Nissan dealer isn't even listed and the Costco EVSEs are not even used anymore. We need accurate information about J1772 EVSEs, not some obsolete database feed. Can this data be filtered to only show the J1772 standard? Otherwise it's worthless. The data looks like it was scrapped from unverified public sites and is a mess. As a DBA I'm offended that somone would try and publish this wealth of misinformation

Are you referring to the Saturn dealer on Jefferson Ave/Vista Way in Oceanside? If so, I've been reporting that charging station as "closed/out of service" on every site I can find for well over a YEAR. If it's still being listed, I'd consider the listing-service as suspect. :evil:

Saturn Oceanside is shown as closed but Saturn Escondido is shown as active. Why they show closed locations is a mystery. It serves no practical purpose.

 

[EVNation]

Saturn Oceanside is shown as closed but Saturn Escondido is shown as active. Why they show closed locations is a mystery. It serves no practical purpose.

I can speak to this as to defending showing "Down" or closed locations. Many times with the existing chargers they would be down for a bit due to being broken or other issues. Hopefully those get repaired. But you don't want them culled from the database because then they need to be readded. But is a site doesn't exist or has been permanently removed, it should be pulled.

Most of the sites that have filters (I believe Recargo does though I am not sure) allow you to filter out "Down" chargers. So you don't get the noise.

It is always best to look at user reports for any charger if that exists. That will be up to the minute. It is very hard, and only going to get harder to keep these databases up to date without user input from visiting locations.

 

[palmermd]

I've been "collecting" apps and perusing several charge station websites over the past two to three months. After using several on a regular basis I'd have to say that this app and website is the most useful. It is very easy to find charging stations, it is easy to check in and give an update as to the status of a charge station. It is easy to add charging stations, and also to have obsolete charge stations noted and then removed from the database. Thanks to those at Recargo for working hard to get an easy to use website and app that will serve us all.

 

[KeiJidosha]

iPhone only format using old data. Poorly organized and hard to search. Another me-too site diluting what should be efforts to build a single universal accurate source for charging site information.

I'll Pass.

 

[palmermd]

iPhone only format using old data. Poorly organized and hard to search. Another me-too site diluting what should be efforts to build a single universal accurate source for charging site information.

I'll Pass.

All of the sites I've found seem to rely on the old faithful evchargernews. The key for me was not what data they have in it now, but how easily is it updated to get the correct information. I've tried about 4 different websites with their apps, and found this one to be the easiest to modify locations, check-in to locations, add new locations, removing old locations. That is the key to getting any database up to date.

I agree there should be one database, and it will evolve out of one of these sites. There is no way of knowing which one it will be. Everyone seems to do the iPhone app first and then migrate to android. Right now there is no clear forerunner.

 

[brucedp]

{as posted on the evdl.org}

Nissan suggesting Leaf EV drivers use recargo finder website & app

Spanish for recharge, its a way to enhance your EV-grin

http://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/will-recargos-iphone-app-relieve-ev-range-anxiety/
[image] Will Recargo’s iPhone App Relieve EV Range Anxiety?
by Herman K. Trabish Jul 5 2011

Battery-powered cars’ marketplace success may depend on a solution ...

[image
http://www.greentechmedia.com/content/images/articles/1recarg.jpg
from Recargo]

The electric vehicle (EV) charging station finder provided through
internet entrepreneur Brian Kariger's Recargo iPhone app is so
state-of-the-art that Nissan recently suggested on its Facebook page
that LEAF owners use it: "(C)onsider adding Recargo to your
smartphone,” read their Facebook entry. “The latest upgrade to the
app features Google Street Views to help you locate charging stations
easier.”

Until charging stations become as common as gas stations, knowing
where chargers are available is vital to even veteran EV drivers. For
potential new drivers, who polls show are in the minority of the
car-buying public by about 55 percent to 45 percent, it could be key
to alleviating the much-ballyhooed problem of range anxiety.

Recargo’s endorsement from Nissan jumps it ahead in the competition
to be the go-to charger finder service. Charger makers such as
ECOtatlity and Coulomb Technologies have services for their own
products. CarStations and Xatori have open source services that are
reportedly not as developed.

Though there is a Recargo (Spanish for recharge) website, its
greatest value is as an iPhone app because its most important
service is providing up-to-the-minute information about where
charging stations are and how they are performing, information that
many EV drivers are already finding they don't want to leave home
without.

Beyond Recargo’s Google Earth maps and Street Views, there is another
screen with site details, including directions to the charging
station, pictures of the charging station submitted by other users,
and reports on charging station functionality based on recent user
visits.

That screen also offers EV drivers the opportunity to take and submit
pictures and text updates. “Everything in the app,” Kariger said,
“is live information.”

Another screen lists the kinds of chargers available at each station
and allows a search filtered by charger preference. Another, in
partnership with Plug-In News, delivers EV news items.

Kariger conceived Recargo while driving a Tesla he bought in 2006.
“It was a case of thinking, ‘There are ways we could enhance the
experience,’” he remembered.

EV pioneer Tom Dowling created the first charger finder maps for
EVChargerNews, which the U.S. Department of Energy uses on its
charger finder website. Recargo, with Dowling’s consent, also uses
those maps, but extends their value through feedback that Kariger
sought out from EV users.

User feedback, Kariger had discovered as creator of the popular
Dictionary.com and Thesaurus.com websites, is what makes a site
successful and useful. “Integrating customer insights into the
application is key for us,” Kariger said.

The Recargo iPhone app takes user input to a new level by allowing
users everywhere to provide ongoing updates about charging stations
by text and picture directly from their phones while they are using
the service.

“A lot of places will give you a White Pages address,” Kariger
explained. “Once you’re there, you still need to find out how to get
to the charger. LAX has twelve or more chargers, but you need to
know which lot they’re in, and once you’re in the lot, do you turn
right or left and on which level?” Recargo makes answering those
questions easier.

Kariger created the website and the app between the end of 2009 and
the middle of 2010. This put him ahead of the first big wave of EV
purchasers that came when the Leaf [EV] and General Motors’ Chevrolet
Volt [pish] went into showrooms in late 2010.

“It took some patience,” Kariger said of the time he waited for the
cars to meet the buying public, “but it was important to get out and
get some feedback from early adopters so when the time came to scale
up to thousands and tens of thousands more, we would be ready.”

From the several thousand new EV drivers that have emerged since the
showroom rollout, Kariger got more feedback for the newest version of
the app. “Membership is up 18 percent and member contributions are up
23 percent,” he said of the response to Recargo 1.5. It has also
become the only charger finder app to generate advertising revenue
and Kariger has received buy-in offers.

Non-iPhone users can access the website from their smartphones’
browsers, but there is no app tailored specifically for other systems
-- yet. “Android and Blackberry are certainly taking off,” Kariger
said, “and we’re paying attention.”

Recargo also offers some insight into how many places still have few
chargers. A query in California might produce a long list of chargers
within 100 miles, but a similar query for a Midwestern state might
turn up only two.

“We provide an antidote to the anxiety you might have with driving
around and not knowing where a charging station is,” Kariger said.
“But the intent is to accelerate the building of a charging
infrastructure so there is no need for this information.”

That will not put Recargo out of business. Like so many others in the
EV community that Recargo now serves, Kariger is looking beyond today.
For the foreseeable future, there will be the opportunity to link
economic activity with charging stops and destinations, and Recargo
is positioning itself to be part of that.

“We have a broader mission,” Kariger said, “of working on applications
for people with connected cars. That’s the next level.
Newer-generation cars have telematics, with a built-in computer
connected to the [Internet] in real time.” It is a considerably bigger
opportunity than a charger finder service. “We’re just getting
started,” said Kariger.
[© 2011 Greentech Media, Inc. All rights reserved]
...
http://google.com/#hl=en&xhr=t&q=EV-grin
...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Series_hybrid#Series_hybrid
[pish = plug-in series hybrid: GM's Volt is a hybrid]





{brucedp.150m.com}

 

[tps]

What we need is to start anew. There is a perceived "chicken and egg" problem. That is, why would anyone go to a site with no database? THe way I look at it, they've merely substituted an inaccurate database for no database

I think at this early stage, many would go to a site with no database just to populate that database, if they knew that the database was being populated with high quality information. This high quality information should ideally come from users who have personally visited the site.

This effort would need an easy-to-use wb interface. It should have a map interface which allows the user to zoom in and position the marker (on the hybrid map/satellite) precisely at the location of the EV parking spots. (The ChargePoint maps are notorious for not placing the marker where the parking spot is located.) We need facilities, for example J1772 30A or 5-20R or SPI (still in use by a few RAV4 EVs) or other (I found a 6-20R outlet at one location). It should state the network if an access card is required to start the charger, for example ChargePoint or Blink, or N/A for Nissan dealers and other "off-network" charge points. It should allow access hours, and other access restrictions to be listed. It should give the name of the operator and a contact phone number for calling ahead. Finally, sometimes it is useful to know about nearby attractions, eating places, etc, that are not always obvious on the map.

But the most important requirement is that we start with a fresh database, which does not have all the same old stale information.

Edit: Maybe we could place a timeout, say 6 months or 1 year, on information, marking it "inactive" if no one verifies it periodically. This could help the database from having too much stale information.

 

[garygid]

I just signed up at www.ReCargo.com, looked around the map nearby, and added two sites, one a Nissan Dealer.

Fairly fast and easy to use the web app, especially if you know an address that is nearby.

 

[brucedp]

regarding the reply from tps:

The recargo powers that be have started a new, short of the decision to port over the
energy.gov and evchargernews databases. Because of the large amount of recargo users'
efforts, those old inaccurate listings have been corrected, added-to, and or enhanced.
See recargo member activity at
http://www.recargo.com/activity

I feel much better about using recargo that any other EV Charging finder site. Why?
Because its members see the huge potential and take personal action to make it a
better EV resource. I use the web page interface as I do not have access to an iPhone.
Either way, web-enabled device or iPhone app, recargo is clean and easy to use.

Rather than being uselessly cynical and poo-poo' ing recargo, get off your butt and join.
Anything man-made only gets better with other people improving it. I have already cleaned
up the old listings ported over from evchargernews that relate to EV charging sites near me
(near Silicon Valley, south of SF, CA). Many others have done the same. So, stop finding
excuses, being part of the problem, and be the solution.

If you have truly constructive suggestions that recargo should know, let them know. Use
http://www.recargo.com/help/contactus/index.html
to communicate them. You may not get an immediate response, but they are interested.

 

[tps]

regarding the reply from tps:

The recargo powers that be have started a new

Well, I see a lot of Avcon, LPI, etc, for a new database. Isn't there some way to move this stale information out of the way?

 

[leafarmer]

It doesn't look like much of anything has been cleaned up, at least not yet. The iphone app looks to
be more refined. It would be nice if some of its features were part of the website.

Suggestions (for the website):

1) Sort by date added, to allow us to eliminate all the stations which were imported from older sources.
2) Prominently feature recently added stations, so we can see how much attention the site is attracting.
3) Don't restrict the map view to a small letterbox, unless you only intend this website for netbooks!

 

[brucedp]

tps & leafarmer
You post your complaints/issues here rather than constructively sending them to recargo.
If you do not like recargo, I suggest you do not use it. That will leave extra bandwidth for everyone else.

...

garygid

When I use the web interface and click on search tab near the top of the page, see below the search box where one would enter a destination city, state or zip code, or specific address, etc. there is
Chargers: all
(all by default)

Click on the all and you will be able to hone your search to only the EVSE or AC sources that you want. I use this to exclude the old inductive EVSE.

Also, I looked at the page source and asked using the help feature. They confirmed that the URL could be used to pass some java-script commands. For the above search of only looking for J-1772 EVSE, use
http://www.recargo.com/search/?filters=1772

If because you carry with you all the conductive adapters & or an inexpensive home EVSE to utilize any and all other conductive sources, use
http://www.recargo.com/search/?filters=1772%20avcon%20tsl%20oc1430%20oc1450%20ocl630%20oc
then click the search button to use the passed through values

If you want to help with the clean up of the listings in your area, I found it useful to pass through a zip code that I was working on. In the example, you would put your zip code in place of the Silicon Valley zip code 94306 I am using
http://www.recargo.com/search/?search=94306

This can also be used in combination with EVSE search terms, as in searching in a zip code and only for J-1772 and level 1 (oc) sources
http://www.recargo.com/search/?filters=1772%20oc&search=94306
then click the search button to use the passed through values


Whether you use the web page's manual selections, or the above URL short-cuts, you can better tailor recargo's use for your needs.


Some other items that might of be interest ...
I like to visit the Activity part of recargo
http://www.recargo.com/activity

It lets me see how much and what is going on. I find it great that not only U.S.A but EVSE around the world are being added to the recargo database. Sure, one is not likely to drive their Leaf to Australia or Spain. But if you were to take a business trip there and were able to rent an EV, recargo on your web-enabled device could be of assistance.

If you bring up recargo's web page and use the map features to back-out to see all the EVSE worldwide, the count increases each week I check this. I find this exciting that soo' many EV drivers are do their part to help make the world a better place.

Also, on that Activity page, recargo put links to fb and twitter if you are into that.

...

Lastly, I have a newswire that is about a Reno, NV Leaf EV driver who lives a few feet inside CA but the rest of his life is in Reno, NV. Nissan did not offer the Leaf to NV previously because of the lack of NV EVSE (I will be posting this piece later on the evdl.org for all EV drivers/interested to read).

I brought up recargo searching on Nevada as the search term. Sure enough there are a few in Lost wages (Las Vegas), and a few up North in Reno. I then opened both the energy.gov and coulomb finder sites. energy.gov only had a few of the sites and listed the level 2 EVSE wrongly as level 1. Coulomb only had only their brand of EVSE listed (of course), but showed new EVSE installed that neither energy.gov nor recargo had (... yet).

While you have to give credit to the under staffed, under funded, over worked energy.gov team, the above is no surprise. After having a dialog with them, they are just not set up to have the public submit updates or new sites. They do not use the EVSE company updates sent to them as frequently are we would like (every six months at best). And Google Maps' Big Broadcast Announcement of how great an EV finder they are is totally bogus as they will not add Electric Vehicle Charging Station category to their place sites unless energy.gov lists it (good grief ... could it get any worse, ... Yes, yes it could, ... but that is a different topic).

But recargo is set up to have the public submit updates or new sites. Within a minute I added the two new EVSE in Reno, NV coulomb listed
http://www.recargo.com/sites/1927

BLAM! ... Its just that easy.

 

[EricH]

regarding the reply from tps:

The recargo powers that be have started a new

Well, I see a lot of Avcon, LPI, etc, for a new database. Isn't there some way to move this stale information out of the way?

First, a lot of the 'stale' information is still valid - there are tons of old induction paddle chargers out there. While they don't do Leaf owners much good, there are still RAV's and other EV's that use them. Until there are enough of us to create a "RecarLeaf" site, we have to accept the continued listing of other charge formats - I certainly want to see each CHAdeMO site listed if/when they arrive - and Leaf owners who didn't order the Quick Charge port will have to deal with that, no? So there isn't complete uniformity of charger types even within the 2011 Leaf models.

I downloaded the app yesterday and Checked In at my worksite. I updated the charger types (noted the 4 new ChargePoint units), and I got an email from the site manager in less than an hour with a clarifying question; the info is now updated on their site. The email also stated they are working on 'full data integration with ChargePoint', which is the vast majority of the Leaf-compatible public infrastructure to-date. So they seem to be quite serious about updating their database promptly.

Does my 'wish list' for the app include a way to exclude Avcon and paddle chargers from my search? Sure, but they'll probably get to that, especially since Volts and non-QC Leaf'ers won't want to see CHAdeMO sites either.

 

[leafarmer]

I like recargo, and hadn't noticed the "Add Site" feature. I will begin contributing immediately.

 

[tps]

tps & leafarmer
If you do not like recargo, I suggest you do not use it.

OK. I'll look elsewhere for right now.