Exploren: Charging Network Guide for EV Drivers

Exploren is one of the largest EV charging networks in Australia and New Zealand by plug count, with more than 5,000 charge points, but most of them are AC destination chargers at apartments, hotels, shopping centres, dealerships and workplaces rather than highway fast chargers. It’s both a charging network and the software platform behind chargers owned by businesses, councils and property owners, which means prices are set by each site’s owner and vary widely. You find chargers and pay through the free Exploren app.

What is Exploren, exactly?

Two things at once. To drivers, Exploren is a charging network: an app and a map of more than 5,000 plugs you can charge at. To the businesses behind those plugs, it’s charging management software, the system a hotel, council, apartment block or fleet uses to run its chargers, set tariffs and get paid.

That dual role explains the network’s shape. Where Evie builds 350 kW highway sites, most Exploren charge points exist because a property owner wanted charging for their guests, residents, staff or customers, and opened it to the public through the platform. The result is a long tail of 7 to 22 kW AC chargers in car parks, with a growing layer of DC fast charging on top.

Exploren operates alongside its sister company EVSE, one of Australia’s bigger charging hardware suppliers, and both sit under the Intellihub Group. In 2025, EVSE acquired ENGIE’s Australian and New Zealand fast-charging network, folding more than 230 DC ports across 80-plus sites into the Exploren footprint, including high-traffic shopping centres such as Chadstone in Melbourne and DFO Homebush in Sydney.

For where destination networks like this fit next to the fast-charging players, see our guide to public EV charging in Australia.

Is Exploren the same as Everty?

No, and the confusion is understandable, so let’s clear it up. Everty is a separate, Sydney-based EV charging software company that built its name on destination, workplace and fleet charging management. AGL acquired Everty in January 2025, and it continues to operate under its own brand.

Exploren is a different business with a similar model: destination-heavy network, owner-operated chargers, charging management software underneath. Same category, different companies, different apps, different owners. If a charger says Everty, the Exploren app won’t start it, and vice versa.

Where will you find Exploren chargers?

Think “places you park” rather than “places you stop to charge”:

• Apartment buildings and residential developments
• Hotels, motels and tourist attractions
• Shopping centres, including major sites added via the ENGIE acquisition
• Council car parks and community facilities, especially in regional towns
• Car dealerships and workplaces
• Fleet depots

The DC fast chargers, which can reach 200 kW or more at some sites, cluster in busier urban locations and along key routes. The AC majority suits the hours-long stop: you plug in at the hotel or the shops and let time do the work.

How much does Exploren charging cost?

Here’s the honest answer: it depends entirely on the charger, because Exploren doesn’t set prices. Each charge point’s owner sets their own tariff, balancing revenue against keeping their tenants, guests or customers happy. In practice that means anything from free (some councils, hotels and dealerships) through cheap overnight AC rates up to commercial DC fast-charging prices.

The Exploren app shows the tariff for every charge point before you start, so there are no surprises, but there’s also no rule of thumb we can responsibly give you. Check the app, every time.

How do you use an Exploren charger?

1. Download the free Exploren app (iOS or Android) and add a payment method.
2. Find a charger on the network map and check its tariff, plug type and live availability.
3. Start the session by scanning the QR code on the charger, or tap an RFID card if you’ve set one up.
4. Monitor the session live in the app, even from a restaurant table, and end it remotely when you’re done.

The RFID option is handy for apartment residents and fleet drivers who use the same charger daily; the QR flow suits one-off public charging. Support runs seven days a week if a charger misbehaves.

How does Exploren compare with Chargefox and Evie?

Different tool, different job. Evie is a fast-charging network you visit to charge. Chargefox is a broad platform spanning everything from free AC to ultra-rapid. Exploren skews hardest toward destination charging, the slow, cheap, parked-anyway kind, plus apartment and fleet infrastructure that most drivers never see, with a meaningful and growing DC layer on top.

For a typical owner, that makes Exploren a strong second-tier app: not the network you plan a road trip around, but frequently the network running the charger at your hotel, your shopping centre or your building’s car park. Exploren sites also show up in aggregator maps, so you’ll spot them while browsing; our guide to PlugShare and the best EV charging apps covers how to keep all these networks straight without filling your phone with apps you never open.

Should you bother installing the Exploren app?

Before a holiday or a hotel stay, yes; the odds are decent that your accommodation’s charger runs on it, and finding that out at 9pm with 8 per cent battery is the wrong time to create an account. If you’re an apartment resident whose building has Exploren chargers, it’s not optional, it’s how you charge at home. For everyone else it can wait until the first time a charger you’ve found turns out to wear the Exploren badge, which, at 5,000-plus plugs and growing, tends to happen sooner than you’d expect.