Genuinely didn't know you needed five different apps for public charging until this week
Three months into the MG4, first ever new car, first EV obviously. Charging at home's been easy enough at the house here in regional NSW, but I did a trip down to Sydney for a family thing last week and needed to top up twice on the way — first time relying on public charging away from my own driveway.
Ended up with PlugShare for finding stations, Chargefox for one stop, Evie for the other because Chargefox didn't have anything close by, and then downloaded AmpCharge on the drive because I saw a sign for it and panicked a bit. Four apps, four accounts, four sets of card details, all before lunch.
Is there something that actually shows live availability across networks in one place, or is this just what public charging in Australia is until someone builds that? Feels like a lot of admin for something that used to just be pulling into a servo.
Filed under: Apartments & Public Charging
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22 answers
22 ANSWERS
@petey_fxJuly 24, 2026
There isn't a single aggregator that actually works reliably yet. PlugShare's the closest for finding stations but you still need the network's own app to actually start a session. I keep all four installed permanently now, treat it as part of owning the car, not a temporary hassle.
So there's genuinely no way around having all of them installed, it's not just me missing some trick everyone else knows?
No trick. JOLT's the one I'd add as a fifth if you're ever charging near shopping strips, they do free minutes on some units.
Does JOLT actually work reliably though, or is it just as hit and miss as the rest of the stack?
@bazza_wJuly 24, 2026
Worth noting some manufacturer apps also show compatible public networks now — BYD's app does basic PlugShare-style pins for Atto 3 and Dolphin owners, not as complete as PlugShare itself though.
Does MG have anything similar built in, or is that a BYD-specific thing?
Not that I've seen on the MG side, their app's mostly just service booking and vehicle status, nothing charging-network related.
@kelso_jJuly 24, 2026
Same pile of apps here, no home charger at all so I'm relying on this stack daily, not just for road trips. JOLT and Evie cover most of what's near me in Melbourne.
@hankmoodyJuly 24, 2026
Still just researching before buying — is coverage this fragmented in Hobart too, or more of a mainland-cities problem?
Fragmentation's more about how many networks operate in your area than city size specifically. Fewer networks generally means fewer apps, not necessarily better coverage though.
Probably closer to my situation than the Sydney/Melbourne end of this thread. Smaller markets tend to have fewer networks operating full stop, which cuts both ways — less app-juggling because there's genuinely less to juggle, but also less coverage and less redundancy if one site's down. I wouldn't assume Hobart's fragmented in the same way, I'd assume it's just thinner, which is a different problem to plan around before you buy.
@just_lurking22July 24, 2026
does PlugShare actually show live plug availability now, or is it still just crowd-sourced location data with no real-time status?
Some of it is live now, but not all of it. Where a network's actually plugged their status into PlugShare's API you'll see a coloured dot on the pin, not just a marker, and that one's genuinely close to real-time. Plenty of pins, especially smaller or older installs, don't have that feed at all and are still just a location with community check-ins underneath, same as it's always been. So it depends entirely which pin you're looking at rather than a blanket yes or no for the whole app.
@jdubzJuly 24, 2026
Disagree that four's mandatory for everyone — dropped Evie in Canberra since Chargefox covers basically everywhere I drive. Depends entirely on which networks actually operate where you live, not a fixed number.
@margs4lifeJuly 27, 2026
Do the apps at least remember your payment details between sessions, or is it re-entering card info every single stop too?
Chargefox remembers mine fine, re-entered card details on Evie twice for no reason I could find. Inconsistent across the networks, not just you.
Chargefox and Evie both keep a saved card once you've entered it the first time, same as picking any app really. AmpCharge asked me again after about two months, might've been a security timeout rather than a permanent thing. Only mucked around re-entering it on JOLT every single time.
@fi_macJuly 28, 2026
Regional charging here is thin enough that I've only ever needed two apps total, Chargefox and the servo network's own one. Almost prefer having fewer options honestly, less admin.
@barry_nomatesAugust 01, 2026
Touring the east coast we've landed on six apps between the caravan and the car. Half the caravan parks want their own booking app on top of whatever charges the car.
@shazbot99July 24, 2026
genuinely curious if PlugShare's live status is accurate anywhere, or is that a lost cause everywhere and not just up here where there's barely enough chargers to report on in the first place?
@jonno1985August 18, 2026
Regional touring changes this calculus completely — out past the ranges you're not choosing between four apps, you're checking whichever one covers the two chargers actually between you and the next town. Carried all four through a Perth-to-Darwin run and used maybe two of them the entire way, the other two just weren't relevant out there.
@gregolasAugust 19, 2026
Never needed the app juggling — granny charger off a GPO covers what little driving I do. Would the app fragmentation actually stop someone who drives a lot though, or is it just an annoyance once you know which app covers which network?
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