Electric vehicle advocates urge investment in charging station

                                             

Kim Hauner's electric vehicles.     

Islander Kim Hauner is the owner of three electric vehicles: two bicycles, a GEM (which drives a top speed of 40km per hour and a total of 40km on a full charge) and a Nissan Leaf. He told members of the Bowen Island Municipal Transportation Committee (BIMTAC) that on one occasion he wasn’t sure there was enough of a charge left in the GEM to get back home, and he had to plug into a socket outside the Caring Circle cottage – only to find the plug pulled an hour later. However, he told committee members that needing a charge in the Cove was an unusual situation for him to be in, and that Bowen should invest in a public charging station for the sake of visitors driving electric vehicles.

Hauner presented to BIMTAC alongside Bruce Stout and Sukhdeep Gill from the Vancouver Electric Vehicle Association (VEVA) on January 24. Stout told the committee that he’d heard from EV owners who came to Bowen and headed straight back to the mainland after realizing there are no charging stations here. The closest is at Glen Eagles golf course, right outside Horseshoe Bay.

Stout says there are now more than 100 charging stations in Metro Vancouver, and the cost of powering-up the cars that use them is so minimal that most are currently free. However, the province has recently installed 30 faster charging stations where users pay a nominal fee. 

Back in 2010, the City of Vancouver tested an electric vehicle for its municipal fleet, and has since purchased 35.

“The cost of operating an electric vehicle compared to a similar fossil fuel powered vehicle is 20 percent, and that’s just in fuel costs,” says Stout. “Maintenance costs of electric cars are negligible, they don’t require oil filters or air filter changes. Those costs really add up over time.”

As an electric vehicle owner himself, Stout prefers to talk about the enjoyment that comes with driving one.

“They are so much more pleasurable to drive, I don’t know why anyone would drive anything else,” he says. “And it is a little known secret, that when you drive in an electric vehicle you are allowed to use the HOV lane – because those lanes were designed to take cars off the road, and electric vehicles are not considered to be cars in that context.”

Stout says there are now countless companies manufacturing charging stations with a wide variety of benefits to both users and operators, but a good system could be purchased and installed for roughly $2,000.

“Bowen would have to look at what other municipalities are installing and whether their needs and budgets are comparable,” says Stout. “But whatever system was chosen, it would be peanuts to operate.”

Following the extensive conversation on what Bruce Stout calls, “the electric vehicle revolution,” members of BIMTAC expressed their enthusiasm for the idea of acquiring a charging station on Bowen. They noted the Integrated Transportation Masterplan does recommend this step, but made a recommendation that council fast-track the initiative and have one placed in the lot beside the future Cove Commons building (the library) as it will be fixed up within the next few months.