March 28, 2024
Global Renewable News

COWICHAN VALLEY REGIONAL DISTRICT
Cowichan Valley Offers Upgraded Electric Vehicle Charging Infrastructure

January 9, 2017

Using electric vehicles in the Cowichan Valley became even easier through an upgrade to the public fast charge electric vehicle station at Island Savings Centre. The Cowichan Valley Regional District (CVRD), in partnership with the Province of BC, BC Hydro and BMW, completed a project to upgrade the existing fast charging station to a Combined Charging Station (CSS) unit.

The CCS unit installed in November 2016 offers newer technology capable of supporting a broader variety of electric vehicle models coming to North America including BMW, Ford, GM, Volkswagen, and Mercedes Benz. Fast charge stations can fully recharge electric vehicles in approximately 20-30 minutes versus the four-six hour time required for the slower stations or the 12-18 hours with a regular plug in outlet.

"We are excited to be leaders in offering green technology with a station that will allow more electric vehicle types to use the charging infrastructure within our communities," explains CVRD Board Chair Jon Lefebure. "The Board made a decision to add user fees for this station so the CVRD could recover a portion of the costs required to support this infrastructure and to accurately gauge station demands."

Effective January 1, 2017, users of the Island Savings Centre CCS unit started paying a fee of $0.35 per kilowatt hour (kWh) with a $2 minimum charge per session. These fees are consistent with similar public fast charge stations in Nanaimo, Colwood and Saanich. Electric vehicle users will see these fees applied to their existing accounts with Greenlots, the network provider. Greenlots has notified electric vehicle users about these changes via email through their subscription network.

For more details about charging infrastructure in the Cowichan Valley and elsewhere on Vancouver Island please see www.plugshare.com.

For more information

Cowichan Valley Regional District
137 Evans Street
Duncan, British Columbia
Canada V9L 1P5
www.cvrd.bc.ca