Thousands of Albertans get behind the wheel of an EV, Calgary opens new charging stations
Posted Jan 24, 2022 3:11 pm.
Last Updated Jan 28, 2022 8:30 am.
Over the past four years, significantly more Albertans have registered their electric vehicles.
As of March 2021, Alberta Transportation says 3,527 electric vehicles were registered. Compare that to 2017, when just 377 EV’s were registered.
For Calgary specifically, there were 1,695 electric vehicles registered. This is up from 190 at the same time in 2017.
As these numbers increase, the City of Calgary found it as good of a time as ever to announce more charging stations.
Calgarians struggling to find a place to charge their electric cars will now have more options, with the addition of 20 Level 2 electric vehicle charging stations opening for public use.
“We have some public-facing locations, for example, recreation centres where people will be spending a few hours when they do go there and also transit locations where people will park for some extended amount of time normally,” says Yichao Chen, a sustainable infrastructure engineer with the city.
⚡ Electrifying Content ⚡
More Calgarians are choosing electric vehicles and we’re making it easier to charge up at City facilities with an additional 20 Electric Vehicle (EV) charging stations installed at our Park and Ride Lots & recreation centres. 1/4 pic.twitter.com/T1GuCGH5Sf
— City of Calgary (@cityofcalgary) January 24, 2022
Chen says these stations will be scattered throughout all four quadrants, joining around 200 other Level 2 and 3 stations.
“Sometimes people are reluctant to get electric vehicles because there’s insufficient charging infrastructure currently available,” she explained.
“But then in order to have that infrastructure being cost-effective, as well as serving the general public good, there has to be some uptake in the electric vehicle adoption.”
Speaking of cost, Chen says it’ll vary depending on where you’re charging up your vehicle, but at most locations, currently, it will set you back about $2/hr.
“We are still gathering some feedback regarding a) our electricity cost, b) what incidental cost there may be, and what kind of demand we are facing in those locations.”
The City of Calgary, Enmax, and Natural Resources Canada teamed up for the project and split the total cost of $264,000.
Anyone with questions or concerns about the charging stations can call FLO directly at 1-855-543-8356.
