Hi there, A family member in Canada is looking to get a PHEV and I'm trying to find out what the best way to charge on the road would be. I live in Germany and here I've got access to basically every charger in Europe with any one of the EnBW, Plugsurfing or Shell Recharge cards/apps. I know there are various different charge point operators in Canada/North America, like Flo or PetroCanada, but do either of their cards/apps or any others get you access to all or most chargers in the country? I'd really like to help my family member out, but I don't want to have to tell them that they need 15 different apps or cards for every single operator out there. Also I'd be grateful for any recommendations for apps useful for finding chargers. Here I use NextPlug, since the charging networks I listed above rather unsurprisingly aren't that motivated to show me all of the free chargers in the area, so if there's anything (open source?) along those lines that someone could recommend that'd be great. Thanks!
For apps in north America try "PlugShare" https://www.plugshare.com/ or "A Better Route planer" https://abetterrouteplanner.com/
We are definitely behind when it comes to shared charge networks here in Canada (compared to Europe). For myself living in B.C. I have 4 RFID cards that I use for public charging including Chargepoint, Flo, Greenlots and B.C. Hydro EV. (Also available as an app). Just check the local area(or any longer planned routes) of your family member here in Canada using one of the methods mentioned above. Plugshare will tell you which network is required, attached is a link showing all the different networks in Canada and their individual requirements for payment (credit cards are available to use on some as well): https://electricautonomy.ca/2020/03/02/canadas-ev-charging-networks-2020/#/analyze?country=CA&fuel=ELEC&ev_levels=all&show_map=true
