General Motors has announced a number of improvements for the Energy Assist feature in its myChevrolet mobile app that will help make charging easier for owners of the Chevrolet Bolt EV.
The Energy Assist feature in the myChevrolet app allows Bolt EV owners to easily locate available charging stations along their planned driving route or in their immediate area. This makes it easier for them to pre-plan their driving route before they leave home and helps to reduce range anxiety. The app is able to send real-time alerts to the user as they drive along, as well, warning them of their battery level or if their range estimate suddenly changes dramatically. GM says Energy Assist is “integrated with data from the vehicle,” which ensures the estimated range and charge time predictions shown in the app will be accurate.
With this week’s update, Energy Assist will be able to do much more., though. One of the biggest changes is the addition of Dynamic Data Integration from third-party charging networks like EVgo and ChargePoint. This allows the app to provide real-time data on the status of EVgo and ChargePoint chargers and also indicates how many charging stalls may be available at a certain station. Data from more third-party charging providers will be added throughout 2020, including EV Connect.
Building on this idea, Bolt EV owners can also now link their EVgo account with the myChevrolet app, allowing them to activate the charger and pay for the charging sessions from their smartphone. This eliminates the need for the user flip flop between a number of apps just to pay to have their car charged.
“EV owners can now view more than 40,000 charging stations in North America, with access to 30 percent more DC fast chargers compared to 2019,” GM said in a statement announcing the new Energy Assist features.
Lastly, GM is implementing a new charge station feedback feature for Bolt EV owners that will allow them to review and rate charging stations within the myChevrolet app. They will be able to provide a star rating and leave comments about the station from within the app, similar to a Yelp or Google Review. This will let owners know which stations may be located in a hard-to-reach area, or if they have broken chargers, long lines or other drawbacks.
“We’re providing EV owners with the tools to easily find available public charging stations,” said GM’s vice president of AV and EV commercialization, Rick Spina. “The enhancements to Energy Assist offer Chevrolet Bolt EV owners a holistic charging experience while they’re on the go – whether traveling near home or on a cross-country road trip.”
Energy Assist is only of use to Chevrolet Bolt EV owners right now, as the hatchback is the only EV currently offered by GM. We imagine a similar platform will be available for GM’s upcoming new EVs as well, though, such as the GMC Hummer EV and electric Cadillac SUV.
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Comments
Good stuff.
Yeah great. But until the 40,000 charging stations are like a gas station, with each station having 6-10 pumps to fill from, this is not viable. You need chains of manned charging stations with lots of ultra fast chargers (full charge in 10 minutes or less) before the electrification of the automobile will be a success. Until then, its all a pipe dream.
Or, you could have bought a Volt and had 95% electric driving with zero range anxiety. Too bad Mary killed it!
Reading through this article makes me think owning an electric car would be a huge pain in the ass.
No thanks.
Hey GM you know what would be even better?
Charging Stations like Tesla has. Just an idea
https://www.hagerty.com/articles-videos/articles/2019/05/30/gm-partners-bechtel-fast-charging-ev-stations
GM partners with Bechtel to build fast-charging stations for EVs across U.S.
@ma7mgte
Did you actually do any research or just found something online that has absolutely nothing to do with what I said? How is this anywhere similar to what Tesla has and is still building?
I have read that article before. GM will not build any Stations at all. They are just providing Data for best locations.
Directly from the article you sent us:
While General Motors and Bechtel are supplying expertise, they are looking for others to supply the funding for the project.
I did read it, but to say GM is not doing anything about the lack of charging stations is not true.
They’re providing Data. What exactly are they doing to assist their upcoming EV Customers?
I am not trying to be difficult I really do not understand how them providing Data has any benefit to lets say me directly if I chose to get a GM EV rather than a Tesla or any other Automaker.
Am I missing something?
propaganda