The next charging stations, where drivers have none
Elise chooses where a large electric vehicle charging company builds next in Montreal.
Listen to the story:
The challenge
Each site costs about two hundred thousand dollars, and she picks them from spreadsheets and gut feel. Last year, two stations opened a block from a rival’s fast chargers, and sat idle. Meanwhile, busy malls in Laval had nowhere to charge.
How the flow works
With xMap Flows, Elise built Compass. Compass is an AI employee: a flow of 8 blocks.
On the first of each month,
First of each month (Schedule)
across greater Montreal,
Greater Montreal (Area of interest)
Compass finds the supermarkets, gyms and shopping centres,
Supermarkets and malls (Map business scan)
counts the chargers within a kilometre of each one,
Chargers within 1 km (EV charging)
keeps the ones with no fast charger nearby,
No fast charger near (Filter)
asks how good each would be for a charging stop,
A good place to charge? (Jev decision)
keeps the best ten,
The best ten (Sort and limit)
and puts them on her map.
Next sites (Show on a map)
What it solves
- Sites picked by feel: solved by Map business scan and Jev decision
- Stations left idle: solved by EV charging and Filter
- Busy spots missed: solved by Map business scan and Sort and limit
The result
This month, Compass looked at six hundred and forty places and found twenty-three with no fast charger within a kilometre. Elise takes the top ten to the board on one map. Her last three stations were busy in their first week.
Elise stopped guessing where drivers will stop. Now she knows where they can’t.
An illustrative scenario: the figures are modelled to show what the flow produces, not a customer's results.
The flow, block by block
- 1
- 2
Greater Montreal
Sets where the flow looks: countries, cities or specific places, or areas you draw on a map.
- 3
Supermarkets and malls
Finds businesses on online maps live: name, category, rating, address, phone, website and whether it is open.
- 4
Chargers within 1 km
Public charging stations for electric vehicles from Open Charge Map, the open, worldwide register: around each incoming place with counts (stations, charge points, fast stations, the highest power, the nearest and the main operators), or the stations themselves around places, in the Area of interest or around a point, each with its operator, connectors, power, status and address.
- 5
- 6
A good place to charge?
Asks TypeSafe’s Jev model one typed question about each place: yes or no, pick one of your options, or a score on your levels.
- 7
The best ten
Puts the items in order, and can keep only the first ones: the 10 best rated, the 20 nearest, the highest fit scores.
- 8
Templates to build it
Ready-made flows with the same blocks. Open one, change the city and the kind of place, and run it.
- Check new merchants from my sheetNew merchants checked on the map, with a risk level.
- Restaurants worth reviewing this monthYoung, well-loved restaurants worth reviewing, every month.
- Lost customers worth winning backLost customers checked and scored for a win-back call.
- How customers rate competitorsHow customers rate your competitors, every week, the weakest first.
- Who lives around new placesThe new cafes in your city with the people living around each.
- Rating scorecard for my clinicsA weekly rating scorecard of each of your clinics, the weakest first.
Industries
Learn how it works
- POI data (points of interest)Records of places such as shops, clinics and offices, with their category, position and details.
- Outlet universeThe complete list of points of sale a brand could sell through.
- Data enrichmentAdding details to records you already have.
- Enrich a list onceA CSV of addresses or companies back with phone, website, rating and an AI score.
- Find EV charging stations near your placesPublic chargers from Open Charge Map around each place or in an area, with power, operator and status.
- Map business scanA live scan of online maps by type or your own search words.
More stories from Energy & utilities
- Every rooftop in Osaka, seen from aboveTakumi runs a small solar installation company in Osaka. He puts panels on factory and warehouse roofs.
- A day ahead of the southerly stormEmma leads the line crews at a large power network company in Wellington, one of the windiest cities on earth.
- A new rival station, known the next morningAli manages forty fuel stations across Bahrain for a big energy company.
- Hotels where electric car guests have nowhere to chargeJordan is an electrician in Denver who installs charging points for electric cars.
Build this flow on your own city
Run a live search on the home page without an account, or let Ask xMap build the flow from one sentence.