From new capabilities in Europe to the official rollout of our new API, we’re excited to share how this month’s product updates will help your developers save time integrating with more compatible brands and endpoints!
New updates for apps in Europe 🚗
Smartcar is now compatible with two more European brands, Opel and Vauxhall!
Opel/Vauxhall has been a top seller in the region for decades, with classics like the Corsa being one of the best-selling vehicles of all time. Last year, the automaker revealed that it will release electrified versions of its entire lineup in 2024.
You can now use Smartcar to onboard popular models like the Astra and Corsa and their electric models. Visit our compatibility page for a complete list of compatible models and their supported endpoints!
Smartcar’s battery capacity endpoint is now available 🔋
We’re excited to finally release this highly requested EV endpoint to our customers in Europe!
You can use this endpoint to determine the capacity of an electric vehicle’s battery. This makes it simple for apps and services to determine the best time for automatically charging EVs and provide more accurate EV charging functionalities.
Today, energy providers and EV charging businesses use our battery capacity endpoint to implement demand response and smart charging programs. Take a look at our docs to get started!
We’re retiring v1.0 of the Smartcar API ✨
Last November, we released version 2.0 of our API to help developers spend less time addressing errors returned by vehicles using their app.
Since then, we’ve seen many customers successfully migrate to our latest API for smoother onboarding and debugging. We’ve also introduced new features exclusive to v2.0, including:
- Brand-specific endpoints for Cadillac, Chevrolet, and Tesla
- Webhook verification
- Webhook event payloads
To provide all customers with our best developer experience, we’re officially retiring v1.0 of the Smartcar API at the end of 2022. You can find a rundown of all API v2.0 features and helpful documentation on our blog.
For customers who haven’t migrated to v2.0, we broke down the migration process in our v2.0 change log. Follow our recommended steps for a smooth transition with minimal work on your end.
Have you seen our new developer dashboard?
We wanted to share the good news — we’re so excited to see customers using and loving our new dashboard features!
We introduced some big improvements to the dashboard to make it a more intuitive experience for teams managing their Smartcar integration.
For those who haven't seen our new dashboard, hopefully, I’ve piqued your interest 👀 I wanted to take the chance to highlight two of these major releases: Dashboard Insights and Vehicle Test Simulator.
Dashboard Insights
Dashboard Insights centralizes your most important integration information in one place, but without the clutter. Instead, we’ve created three tabs that you can toggle to view details on your API usage, API requests, and connected vehicles.
We also made our reporting capabilities easier on the eye and simpler to share. You can access reports directly from the charts on your Usage tab and use filters to drill down on information like status codes and vehicle makes 📊
You can read more details about this feature in this short blog.
Vehicle Test Simulator
With Vehicle Test Simulator, you can simulate live trips and receive real-time API data right within the Smartcar dashboard.
We introduced this feature to make testing environments more realistic for developers without needing any physical test vehicles. You guessed it — that means you get the convenience of testing your app with any compatible Smartcar vehicle at any time and from anywhere.
Check out this quick walkthrough of how this feature works!
Keep your eyes peeled for more exciting updates next month! ✨
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If you’re new to Smartcar, schedule a demo to learn how Smartcar can benefit your application, or sign up for a free developer account to take our car API for a spin!
