# EV route planner apps: what to look for > An EV route planner works out charging stops, charging time and arrival percentage. These are the features that matter and the mistakes worth avoiding. Published: 2026-07-21 · Language: en · Source: https://laadpaalvinden.be/en/blog/best-ev-route-planner-apps/ On a long drive in an EV you ask yourself three things: where do I charge, how long will it take, and what percentage will I arrive with? A route planner answers all three. How well it does depends on what you enter and on what the app knows about your car. ## What a planner calculates A good planner takes your car's consumption, the elevation profile, your speed and the temperature into account. From that it estimates how much battery you will use. Then it looks for charging stops along your route and works out how long you need to stay at each one. A battery charges fast at the start and ever more slowly after that, as you can read in [the charging curve](/en/blog/charging-curve-fast-charging-slows/). A planner that accounts for this will prefer two short stops between 10 and 60% over one long stop up to 100%. ## An example with simple numbers Say your battery has 60 kWh of usable capacity, you use 20 kWh per 100 km and you are driving 300 km. You leave with 90% and don't want to drop below 10%. - You can use 80%, so 48 kWh. - That takes you 48 / 20 x 100 = 240 km. - You are 60 km short, so you need at least one charging stop. Those 60 km need 12 kWh. If you plan a stop from 10 to 60%, you add 30 kWh. If the charger averages 100 kW, that takes about 18 minutes. The average is an assumption: the real figure depends on your car and on the charger. A planner that knows your car does this sum for you, but it pays to check it now and then. ## Features that matter - Setting up your car with its model and battery size, so the charging curve is right. - Filtering by connector type and minimum power. You can read more about connectors in [Type 2 and CCS connectors](/en/blog/type-2-and-ccs-connectors/). - Real-time availability of chargers, as far as the network passes it on. - Prices per network, so you can compare costs before you leave. - An adjustable arrival percentage, both at a stop and at your destination. - An alternative if a charger is occupied or out of order. Not every app has all of this. That is fine, as long as you know what is missing and check it yourself. ## Planner in the car or separate app? Many cars have their own navigation that preconditions the battery when you head for a fast charger. A warm battery charges faster, so that is a real gain. A separate app often shows more networks and makes comparing easier. You can combine them: plan the route in the app and let the car guide you over the last few kilometres to the charger. Do check that both choose the same stop, though. Different planners can suggest a different charger or a different arrival percentage. ## Build in a margin An app works with an average. Wind, high speed, cold and a full roof box all push your real consumption up. Say your car uses 20 kWh per 100 km and has a 60 kWh battery. Every 5 percentage points is then 3 kWh, good for 15 km. If the planner says you arrive with 12% and you drive faster than planned, you can easily end up at 5% or lower. What you can do: 1. Set a higher minimum arrival percentage, for example 15 or 20%. 2. Choose a stop that is not the last charger before a long empty stretch. 3. Find a second charging point near each stop, in case the first is occupied or broken. See [what to do when a charger is occupied](/en/blog/charger-occupied-what-now/) and [what to do with a broken charger](/en/blog/broken-charger-what-to-do/). ## Use the map as a check Before you leave, open the [map](/en/map/) and look at the charging points along your route. You can see which operator runs them, which connectors are available and whether there is more than one charger. That last point matters: a site with six chargers is far safer than a site with one. ## When the planner doesn't help A planner can be wrong. Sometimes it doesn't know a new charger yet, sometimes a charger is still listed after it has gone. That is especially true when you drive outside your own region, where the data is often less complete. So never let one source decide. If a suggestion looks odd, such as a stop in a place you don't know or a ten-minute detour, check the map yourself. ## Prepare offline In some places you have little or no signal, especially in the mountains or remote areas. Save the route before you leave and write down the address of the next two or three charging points. If you need a card or an app to start a session, make sure it is already set up and that you can log in. You can read more about cards on the page about [charging cards](/en/charging-cards/). For more on planning long trips, read [fast charging on trips](/en/blog/fast-charging-on-trips/).