Charge@Large

As the national body represeting the electric vehicle industry, the Electric Vehicle Council is committed to supporting and growing the uptake of electric vehicles in Australia.

The Electric Vehicle Council identified a need for a reliable, intuitive app with the location of charging stations across the country. The app provides information about the location, number of ports, plug types and current status of charging stations throughout Australia.

The Charge@Large app was designed and developed entirely by We Make Apps and was launched in early 2024.

By drawing on the relationships with their network of partners across the entire EV ecosystem, the Electric Vehicle Council was able to source data directly from the charge point operators, including real-time data about current availability.

This real-time data is vital for drivers when deciding when, and where, to go for any on-the-road charging needs. A charging station with all plugs currently in use may not be available for another 15 minutes, so another station with available plugs just 5 minutes away becomes the better option.

Displaying current availability in the app presented an interesting design challenge. The Charge@Large app uses custom map pins so users can see the number of status of plugs at a glance.

The rapidly evolving and fragmented EV sector is presenting a number of unique challenges, especially in the development and adoption of standards.

To ensure the long-term scalability and relevance of the Charge@Large app, a decision was made early in development to wholeheartedly adopt the Open Charging Protocol Interface (OCPI), an open-source standard around the exchange of data between charging point operators and other stakeholders.

As each new charge point operator joins the Charge@Large network, We Make Apps work closely with their engineers to encourage them to expose their data using the OCPI protocol and provide assistance with education, test environments and debugging.