Recargo Releases Updated Mobile App for Electric Car Charging

LOS ANGELES--June 1, 2011: Recargo, the electric vehicle (EV) mobile app developer led by the founder of Dictionary.com, today announced the release of Recargo 1.5. Upgrades to the EV charger-finder app include the industry’s only real-time comments section, crowd-sourced from drivers for chargers coast to coast, a news feed and photo sharing.

“Our goal is to accelerate the adoption of electric vehicles by giving drivers instant access to the information they need to make range anxiety a figment of the imagination”

The upgraded app allows drivers to instantly warn others of faulty chargers, share eyewitness reports and photos to help locate chargers in maze-like garages and elsewhere, and leave tips about nearby amenities such as restaurants and malls. Recargo’s charger maps are accompanied by Google Street Views, which provide broad street-level photographs of charger sites.

“Our goal is to accelerate the adoption of electric vehicles by giving drivers instant access to the information they need to make range anxiety a figment of the imagination,” said Recargo CEO and founder Brian Kariger. “Up-to-the-minute reports from the roadside are part of the answer. In addition, our news section keeps drivers and prospective electric car owners informed about every facet of the industry.”

Recargo 1.5 maps more than 1,000 EV charging sites worldwide that are compatible with current and upcoming cars such as the Nissan Leaf, Chevrolet Volt and Tesla Roadster. It is available as a free download for iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch users in Apple’s App Store.

Kariger led the company that grew Dictionary.com to more than 20 million monthly visitors by focusing on the customer experience and innovation. After extensive consultation with EV drivers, both very early adopters and new owners, he and his new team launched the Recargo.com website in July 2010, then the iPhone app in December 2010. For the app’s news feed, he partnered with PluginCars.com, which provides news and reviews by industry experts as well as EV journalists and how-to’s about owning and operating plug-in vehicles.

“The health of the electric car market heavily depends upon well-informed early adopters sharing their candid, real-world experiences,” said Brad Berman, editor of Plugincars.com. “The upgraded Recargo app allows electric car drivers and shoppers to easily read about and share the latest EV news and knowledge.”

Much of Recargo’s initial charger location information was licensed from EVChargerNews.com, which was also the source for the U.S. Dept. of Energy’s Alternative Fueling Station Locator. Recargo builds on this data and continuously improves it through a mixture of crowdsourcing, partnerships and targeted internal efforts. Since its launch, it has doubled the amount of data amassed.

“We recognized early on the need for a system that could scale to meet the needs of the electric car community as it grows from thousands to millions of drivers,” Kariger said. “We want to provide the ultimate experience for people who drive electric cars.”

About Recargo:

Recargo is a free mobile application, available on iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch, for locating plug-in vehicle chargers worldwide, regardless of manufacturer or network. It was created by Recargo, Inc., a Los Angeles-based software development company founded by Brian Kariger, founder and former CEO of Lexico Publishing Group, LLC., publishers of Dictionary.com, Thesaurus.com and Reference.com. Lexico was acquired by IAC/Ask.com in 2008, at which time Dictionary.com was the world’s most popular online English-language dictionary.

About PluginCars.com:

PluginCars provides news and information about electric vehicles and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles to create a community of consumers eager to purchase cars and trucks that use little or no petroleum. Its content is syndicated by Yahoo! Autos, Reuters and other media outlets.