CargaLive
About us
CargaLive is an app by GitThreeLab for people who drive an electric car in Spain. It answers a single question: where can I charge right now, and will it work when I get there?
Why it exists
There are chargers, but the information about them is broken.
It's scattered across a dozen operator apps that don't talk to each other, with statuses that don't update and connectors listed as available when they've been out of order for weeks. EV drivers find out when they arrive, often with little battery left.
CargaLive solves the information problem, not the charging one. It doesn't belong to any operator: it shows every charger, whoever runs it. And once you pick one, it steps aside: it takes you to the operator's app to charge and to your usual navigation app to get there.
Where the data comes from
More than 21,000 charge points across Spain, from open sources credited on every charger page and from the people who use the app.
Open Charge Map
The open register of charge points maintained by its own community worldwide. CargaLive syncs it every night.
The DGT's official register
The charge points published by Spain's traffic authority (DGT) on its National Access Point, under an open licence. Also synced every night.
Endolla, in Barcelona
Barcelona City Council's charging network publishes the status of each connector as open data (CC BY 4.0). CargaLive reads it every three minutes: at those points, the status comes from the connectors themselves.
The Generalitat's charging map
In the rest of Catalonia, the operators of hundreds of chargers send their status to the Generalitat, which publishes it on its map. CargaLive reads it every five minutes. Source: Generalitat de Catalunya. Institut Català d'Energia.
The community
What no official source tells you, whether the charger works today, comes from the people who use it. Anyone can report in two taps that it works, that it's busy or broken, or that it can't be reached.
How we know whether a charger works
A charger that doesn't work sends someone with little battery to the wrong place. That's why CargaLive only states what it knows:
- Green is reserved for what has been checked: by the community or, where the operator publishes it, by the connectors themselves. The catalogue listing a charger as operational isn't enough: if nobody has confirmed it, it shows as “unconfirmed”.
- Reports expire. Each report counts for less the older it gets, and after six hours it stops counting: working in the morning says nothing about the evening.
- Broken chargers aren't hidden. They carry a warning up front and a red pin: someone was there and said so, which is exactly what you want to know before a detour.
- Reliability needs a sample. A charger page only talks about reliability when there are at least five reports of whether it works in the last 30 days. Being busy doesn't count against it: it means it works and someone is using it.
- One report doesn't change the page. To correct something, like how many connectors there are or that a charger no longer exists, it takes two matching reports from different devices.
What we don't do
- We don't handle charging. CargaLive doesn't start the charge, doesn't bill for it and doesn't sell electricity. The operator does that, in its app.
- We don't keep a history of where you've been and we don't sell data to anyone. Your location is used on your device to centre the map and work out distances.
- We don't ask you to sign up. The map, search and status reports work without an account.
Who's behind it
CargaLive is developed by GitThreeLab, which is also responsible for processing your data. The privacy policy explains how; the terms of use are in the terms and conditions.
If you spot wrong data, a charger that no longer exists or something that isn't clear, write to us at cargalive@gitthreelab.com. For anything about your personal data: privacidad.cargalive@gitthreelab.com.
Start with the map
No sign-up and nothing to download. If you like it, install it from your browser.