To push the spread of electric cars & egrave; important to work on simplification of recharging . Although the situation is a bit improved in recent times, electric users still have to use different apps and cards to be able to recharge around Europe. A situation that is certainly uncomfortable and not easy to manage for everyone. For a while of time it & egrave; overlooking the Carge market which aims to make more easy to all full of energy.
It is a e-Mobility Service Provider (a Greek startup) that allows you to manage the energy supply in over 100,000 charging points in Europe through a single app. This is serious; possible thanks to a series of interoperability agreements; with dozens of infrastructure operators including Enel X.
Therefore, all top-up operations are carried out through the application, payments included.
- Carge | iOS | App Store, Free
- Carge | Android | Google Play Store, Free
THE APPLICATION
The Carge application is; available for free download through the Apple App Store and the Google Play Store. The app is already localized in Italian . Registration is; very simple, and & egrave; You can also use your Google profile. The interface is nice and well done. We will find ourselves in front of a map on which all compatible charging points are present. By selecting one, it will be; It is possible to access a series of information such as the place, the infrastructure operator that manages it, the type of socket, the maximum power supplied and more.
The possibility is very useful; to be guided to the column. Obviously, there are different filters availablethat allow you to choose what to see on the map. Filters, for example, on sockets and operators. There is not even a search engine to quickly check if in the city & agrave; where we need to go there are recharging points available.
The columns are displayed through different colors that allow you to understand if they are active and free, occupied or not working. Moreover, recently & egrave; the Carge EV Connect function (beta) has arrived. In practice, it will be; You can view the autonomy and battery level of your electric car from the app. Function compatible only with specific models listed in the app.
Through the application & egrave; It is also possible to receive assistance using a special chat.
HOW TO RECHARGE
As mentioned at the beginning, the power supply is managed within the app, payments included . Before recharging you must remember to insert your credit card. The charging process & egrave; really very simple. The first thing to do will be; to identify the column to which you want to connect on the map. Once selected, you will need & agrave; choose the connector, if present more & ugrave; by one, and then click on & quot; Upload Now & quot ;.
At that point you will be & agrave; simply follow the on-screen instructions on the app and then proceed to connect the car to the column. To finish the supply of energy it will be enough; always use the app. The possibility is very nice; to be able to book the recharge so that you can find the free socket when you arrive with your own car (only if the refueling point supports this possibility). Carge points out that the first session is; free. On the price front, the cost varies depending on the infrastructure operator that manages the charging point.
It must be said, however, that in some cases they seem to be competitive , at least for now. For example, the tariffs for refueling from Enel X are lower than those proposed by the operator himself within his app.
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STILL DIFFERENT PROBLEMS
The service is promising, however the app needs improvement , at least on Android. Trying it, in fact, I noticed that & egrave; very slow both in the start-up and in the selection of the columns. In some cases it almost tends to freeze for a few seconds. Also, the filters give a little of problems and are not very precise.
There is also a clear visual indication of the charging points to distinguish the slow ones from those with high power. Things that can certainly be improved over time through future updates.
After comparing myself with Luigi to test other smartphone models, the problems highlighted have been confirmed, a sign that the performance of the app they do not depend on the power of the hardware used but on the absence of code optimization.
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