The Two Essential Maps Every Charging Site Owner Should Understand

When most property owners hear the term “EV map,” they picture the visuals displayed in apps drivers use—i.e., Google Maps, Apple Maps, PlugShare, Waze, and the in-car navigation systems that fundamentally shape the driver's experience. Visibility on these platforms can ensure a driver finds and uses your charging stations.

In addition to the map displays in driver apps, there’s another kind of map that matters just as much, and it’s the one too many landlords, developers, and asset managers overlook. This is the tool investors, utilities, and charging companies use to determine that your site is a viable location for EV charging investment.

Achieving success in the EV landscape requires a dual-focus strategy informed by both sets of mapping data: one for driver acquisition, and the other for capital deployment justification.

Map One: Discovery — Your Public Face

If you want your chargers to see steady use, you have to show up correctly on consumer platforms. That means your site’s pin drops in the right driveway, your stall count and connector types are accurate, and the photos give drivers confidence they won’t get stranded.

It’s not just about being listed. It’s about being chosen. Drivers compare you against the coffee-shop charger down the street, the one with better lighting or clearer wayfinding. They glance at reviews. They want to know: Is this spot easy, safe, and useful while I wait?

For property owners, these listings are no longer passive. They’re marketing surfaces. A polished discovery map entry is the EV era’s version of curb appeal.

Map Two: Evaluation — Your Investment Logic

The second map isn’t about marketing—it’s about underwriting. Before a single conduit is laid, developers and operators pull from a different set of mapping tools: traffic volumes, utility capacity, nearby competition, incentive zones, and local EV adoption curves.

These layers answer the fundamental questions: Should this lot host fast chargers or Level 2? Would this site be competitive against the alternative one exit down? Will the grid connection cost more than the chargers themselves?

This is where the financials are won or lost. A site that looks promising on consumer apps might fall apart once you map the feeder line upgrade costs or see how many rival stations are already within a five-minute detour. Incentives sweeten the picture, but smart owners model both scenarios—rebates with and without—to avoid chasing subsidies into bad locations.

Why Both Map Types Matter

View these two maps not as isolated tools, but as integrated stages of the development lifecycle. Evaluation maps help you determine which locations are worth pursuing. Once stations are live, discovery maps direct drivers to them.

Neither map can deliver success without the other. A perfect listing on Google won’t save you if the site sits on the wrong side of a freeway median. Similarly, the best-placed site in town won’t deliver returns if it shows up online as a half-finished pin with no photos or reviews.

The biggest winners in EV charging will be the owners who can operate with an investor's mindset during development and adopt a marketer's strategy for utilization.

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