For over ten years, the Chargemap community has helped enrich the charging map by submitting new charging points via an integrated form. This long-standing feature accompanied the rise of electric mobility… but the charging landscape has evolved significantly, and Chargemap must adapt accordingly.
With the next app update, it will no longer be possible to manually add a charging area. Here’s why this change was necessary and how Chargemap continues to provide a reliable, up-to-date map.
Key Takeaways
Chargemap is removing the manual addition of charging points in order to:
✔️ Reduce duplicates
Fewer errors, less confusion on the map.
✔️ Ensure more reliable data
Information coming directly from operators is accurate, regularly updated, and automatically synchronised.
✔️ Focus the community’s efforts where they have the greatest impact
Adding photos, reporting issues, sharing experiences about charging stations: all these actions genuinely improve the quality of the map.
✔️ Simplify the app for users
Fewer outdated features = a clearer experience.
An essential feature… 10 years ago
When Chargemap was launched, charging infrastructure was scarce, scattered, and often poorly documented. Drivers would share their discoveries via Chargemap: the small charging point installed behind a hotel, the socket available in a company car park, the first public installation in their town…
👉 In this context, manually adding charging points played a crucial role in rapidly expanding the map.
But in 2026, the situation is very different.
Today, most charging points are provided directly by operators
Chargemap now works with numerous European operators who automatically send data on new charging points and updates.
A problem gradually emerged:
- When a user manually added a charging point from a partner operator, it either already existed or would soon be added automatically
- This created many duplicates that the team had to check and reject, unnecessarily.
👉 The result: extra work for our moderation team… with no benefit for users.
Professional installations now go through operators
In the past, a hotel, restaurant, or shop could install a socket or a slow charging point (3.7kW) on their own and register it on Chargemap. But today, for anything from 7kW upwards, regulations require the use of a certified installer.
Increasingly, charging operators like ChargeGuru are carrying out these installations themselves.
👉 As a result, most new professional charging stations are now automatically added to Chargemap via these operators.
Private charging stations no longer make sense on a public map
Individuals could still add their slow charging points to the Chargemap map. But the benefit of these additions for the community had become extremely limited:
- They are often of little use to drivers on the move.
- Charging takes a very long time.
- As soon as individuals install a more powerful charging point, they too must go through an operator.
A feature rarely used in 2025
Although it was heavily used in the early days of the Chargemap app, the manual charging point submission form was by 2025 used by only a tiny fraction of users, far less than other collaborative actions that are more useful to the community.
How to contribute to Chargemap today
Even without manual additions, your contribution remains essential.
You can still:
- add photos to make charging points easier to locate,
- report any issues encountered before or during charging,
- leave a rating and/or comment to share useful information, especially after charging with your Chargemap Pass.
It is thanks to this feedback that the community continues to improve the reliability of charging point information on a daily basis.
Find available charging stations all across Europe.
Download the Chargemap app for free.
