Show HN: I hacked together an app that lets you charge anywhere in the US

#1

Post by flyingcoder » Fri, Dec 06, 2024, 10:53 PM UTC

Hi HN,

Long time reader, first time poster. The EV charging infrastructure in the US is quite a mess (unlike the EU), where we have very few roaming options and the apps suck to use. Have been spending the past year building a native Swift app which lets you charge with over 7 networks, and it's really easy to use. I've seen a lot of threads on HN on this topic so thought I'd share it here :)

iOS: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/porta-charge/id6449201933

Sorry that it's not on Android yet... I made a web app for the time being, which lets you start a charge from our web app on mobile, but the MapKit JS library from Apple is very meh / slow and in the process of switching it out... https://portacharging.com Any feedback is super appreciated! Thank you

Re: Show HN: I hacked together an app that lets you charge anywhere in the US

#2

Post by toomuchtodo » Fri, Dec 06, 2024, 11:04 PM UTC

I do not want to dissuade you, but keep in mind:

https://www.theverge.com/2024/12/4/24312002/ev-plug-and-char...

https://insideevs.com/news/714654/evs-plug-charge-capable/

https://www.iso.org/standard/77845.html

Re: Show HN: I hacked together an app that lets you charge anywhere in the US

#3

Post by flyingcoder » Fri, Dec 06, 2024, 11:15 PM UTC

toomuchtodo wrote: post #2

I do not want to dissuade you, but keep in mind: https://www.theverge.com/2024/12/4/24312002/ev-plug-and-char... https://insideevs.com/news/714654/evs-plug-charge-capable/ https://www.iso.org/standard/77845.html

Thank you for sharing, I'm familiar with ISO 15118 but did not hear about that initiative with the OEMs / JOET, that's a step in the right direction... I'm skeptical however, a vast majority of the existing L2 and DCFC chargers in the US are not compatible with ISO 15118 so you'd need to replace all of those (150k+) chargers since you need both the firmware of the charger and the vehicle to implement that standard, it's super complex

Re: Show HN: I hacked together an app that lets you charge anywhere in the US

#4

Post by [deleted] » Fri, Dec 06, 2024, 11:16 PM UTC

flyingcoder wrote: post #3

toomuchtodo wrote: post #2

I do not want to dissuade you, but keep in mind: https://www.theverge.com/2024/12/4/24312002/ev-plug-and-char... https://insideevs.com/news/714654/evs-plug-charge-capable/ https://www.iso.org/standard/77845.html

Thank you for sharing, I'm familiar with ISO 15118 but did not hear about that initiative with the OEMs / JOET, that's a step in the right direction... I'm skeptical however, a vast majority of the existing L2 and DCFC chargers in the US are not compatible with ISO 15118 so you'd need to replace all of those (150k+) chargers since you need both the firmware of the charger and the vehicle to implement that standard, i…

[deleted]