There are lots of elements to owning an EV which differentiate it from a regular car, but one of the less obvious ones is how EVs can interact with dedicated apps. On this page you will find a short list of apps that I have used with my car. By way of a quick caveat: the information and experience described below relates to a Nissan LEAF and iOS apps......other cars and operating systems may have different options available.
NissanConnect EV
This is the official EV app from Nissan. I use it for two main functions: firstly, to monitor battery levels and statistics (all of the screenshots for the "Live Lab" posts on this blog come from the app) and secondly to remotely control the car. In terms of controlling the car, there are two elements that can be activated remotely. These are (a) to start/end a charge (for this, obviously the car must be plugged in!) and (b) to start/end the climate control system. Being able to remotely turn on/off the air conditioning is an excellent feature. Unfortunately you cannot remotely change the actual temperature itself, this has to be done in the car: it's very simple, though....I tend to set the target air temperature to 25 degrees in winter and 17 degrees in summer. That way, the car is either nice and toasty, or pre-cooled before you get in.
The app itself relies in telematics from the car, sent to Nissan servers via a SIM card which is built into the car. This works off a relatively slow connection (2G), and so some users report the app glitches and/or slows down too much. There was a well-noted issue with the Nissan servers over the most recent Christmas period, and the app had very limited functionality for about 2 weeks as a result. Apart from that issue, it has worked very well for me.
This app is available for free. Click here to view the app on iTunes.
PlugShare
Unlike the Nissan app, this one relies on user interaction to work. The main premise of this app is that when used properly it can help plan a journey and alleviate any concerns over charge point availability. The primary interface is a map view, showing where charge points around you can be located. The screenshot below shows the charge points around Galway city:
The green icons are fast chargers (up to 22kW on AC) and the orange icons are "rapid" chargers (up to about 50kW on DC). Some users choose to share the location of their private charge points too, so the icons shown may not be just the "public" ones run by the ESB. The idea of this app is that when you connect at a charge point, you click on it on the map and "check in". Part of this requires you to give an indication of how long you intend to be at the charger, so that other drivers can plan ahead and see how long they're likely to have to wait....this can greatly aid the journey planning process. There are two downsides to this app: firstly, it requires users to check-in manually on the app, and secondly not all EV drivers use the app. For those that do, it's a very valuable resource.
A second useful function of this app is the route planner. This works quite like Google Maps, where start point and destination are entered for your journey. Where it differs, though, is that when you enter the range of your car in the app, the route planner indicates where along the route you are likely to run out of energy.....you then plan your route so that you get to a charger before running out.
This app is free and you can click here to view it on iTunes.
eCar Connect
This is the official app from the ESB, which shows on a map interface the location of all the public chargers in Ireland which are under the control of the ESB. The main differences between the mapping here and in the PlugShare app are:
1. The status of the charge points (whether they are in use, idle or out of service) is provided automatically. This is determined by the ESB network, which is connected to the app. In other words, unlike PlugShare, the EV driver does not have to manually "check in" at a charge point.
2. There is no journey planning element to the app.
The status if the charge points is more or less "live", although it has been widely reported by users that sometimes a charger may show up as available on the app but in fact already has a car charging at it.
The app is free and you can click here to view it on iTunes.
LeafSpy Pro
This one is for Nissan LEAF drivers that want more technical detail about their car than the in-car display offers. There are two major things to note about this app: firstly, it is expensive (€22!!!) and secondly it requires extra hardware for it to work, in the form of an OBD dongle. The dongle costs about €25. With those two caveats out of the way, let's have a look at what the app does.
There is some overlap between this app and the dashbaord display. For example, both can show battery charge level, and both can show if/when things need attention (tyre pressure, for example). The difference is that the LeafSpy app can go into far greater, and more precise detail. In terms of battery statistics, most LEAF drivers work off the battery gauge on the dash, but the battery details displayed in the app are said to be more accurate, and are shown to one decimal point. For me, though, the big advantage is that the health of the battery can be seen using the app....this cannot be viewed anywhere else on the displays built into the car. This is an essential thing to know if you're trying to buy an EV, as the battery health is arguably the best indicator of the value for money, and range, that you're going to get.
Another great feature of this app is that it allows you to change some settings in the car that are not normally accessible to the driver. Two come to mind:
1. You can control whether the doors automatically lock when the car goes above a certain speed.
2. If you get your tyres rotated, you can tell the car how they've been moved. That way, if you get a notification on the dash that the rear-left tyre has lost pressure, you can know for sure that is is the rear-left tyre. Being able to re-map the location of pressure sensors like this is very useful.
Slack
Bit of a left-field choice this, but bear with me.
The "live" info provided by the eCars app is great when it works, especially as it does not require user input. There are two big drawbacks to the eCars app though. Firstly, there is no route-planning aspect to it, and secondly there is no community-input facility. So, you could say that some combination of the eCars and PlugShare apps would be a good idea. That's where Slack comes in.
In November 2018 myself and a software developer put our heads together and started the "EV Drivers Ireland" slack channel. This channel functions pretty much automatically, by getting eCars data about when charger status changes (i.e. when a charge starts, when a charge ends, and any other signal that the charger sends out to the eCars network). So far, then, it might seem just like the eCars app, but here are some notable differences:
1. The recent history for each charge point can be easily viewed (so that you can see a timestamp for when the most recent charge began...giving an indication of when it is likely to become free, if users stay for an hour or so at most).
2. Charge point information is grouped into streams based on main routes. For example, you can follow the "Dublin to Cork" route and see live information for the rapid chargers along that road. Some towns also have their own feeds, not based on a route as such.
3. There is a community aspect to it, where members can chat and share information and experience.
4. When new chargers get installed, these send a ping to the app.
The main limitations for this app are that it only shows information for the ESB network (for now: other networks are being worked on) and that it currently only shows information for the 70 or so "rapid" chargers along the main routes (not the slow/fast destination chargers).
The EV Drivers Ireland channel is still in development mode, but you can request an invitation by commenting below.
The Slack app itself is free, and you can click here to view it on iTunes.
As you can see from above, there are many apps that you can use with your EV to make the driving experience more interesting. The four that I have listed above are the four that I use the most, and it is worth noting two things:
1. There is no single app out there that covers all the bases, and
2. because of this, different owners will have their own preferences on which apps to use
There are a couple of alternatives to the official NissanConnect EV app, but they rely on the Nissan servers in order to work: essentially they provide the same data with a different skin. Likewise, there are alternatives to the mapping and route planning apps (ZapMap comes to mind), so feel free to check out what is available in the AppStore for your device and find the app that works best for you.
Photo credits:
All app icons are from the iTunes website
All screenshots are from authors phone
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