iOS 18.4 finally solves the major carplay problem for electric vehicle owners

Apple should publish a major iOS update which addresses a point of critical pain for owners of electric vehicles. More specifically, the next iOS 18.4 update widens EV routing knowledge to include more EV load locations for cars compatible with adapters.

Currently, Apple Maps EV Routing is a useful but limited feature that allows cards to create links with the car to follow EV battery rangeSuggest stops to recharge along the route and show the availability of charging stations. He can express the stress of long journeys and eliminate anxiety of the distribution area. However, it is only available on a few cars; The Porsche Taycan, Ford Mustang Mach-E and Ford F-15 Lightning.

This is where the problem lies. Last year, Ford began giving its free charge adapters EV to connect to the North American charge standard, generally abbreviated to NACs, the sockets found on Tesla Superchargers. Although the first batch was defective, the replacement adapters were sent in October 2024 and it is common to see these Ford EVs in super-loaders.

This means that the engines of the electric Fords no longer had to rely on the CCS load only … But Apple Maps was not updated with this information, and continued to guide customers to the CCS chargers, which could be more distant, slower and more expensive than the often Ubicized Tesla super-loaders.

What’s new in iOS 18.4?

After the publication of a public beta version, the code which shows a banner notification concerning the charging adapters was highlighted by Aaron Perris. The wording proves that Apple finally solves the problem. Instead of ignoring them entirely, the cards will now include charging stations that can be used with adapters, giving drivers more choice on where and when they charge.

IOS 18.4 Advantages for owners of electric vehicles

• More charging stations available for routing

• Less distance between stations during longer trips

• Claire messaging on compatibility

This feature is not yet available. Some iOS users may have the possibility of downloading the beta version, but pre-sorts are often full of bugs. It can crush your infotainment system or drain your battery even faster. We recommend that you wait for the official release, expected in April. As soon as this stable version is available, you can download while waiting for a fresh carplay function for your EV.

The only drawback is that EV routing is always limited to these three models. We hope that this continuous support of large companies like Apple will encourage more car manufacturers to activate it. In the meantime, Google Maps via Carplay already has similar technology. In addition, most electric vehicles with integrated navigation have compatible load points and live updates should keep the current of the native system.

Source: 9TO5MAC.com