Juicing up electric vehicles for free at the City of Nanaimo’s public charging stations may soon come at a cost for EV drivers.
At a governance and priorities meeting Monday, Feb. 12, city staff presented a report on the rising demand from local EV drivers who are plugging into the city’s dual-head EV charging stations.
The city’s Level 2 chargers were installed as part of a federal and provincial grant program in late 2021. The chargers have a planned 12-year life span, after which they will be scheduled for replacement at a cost of about $15,000 per unit.
“Currently all public-facing EV charging infrastructure at the city is available for use by anyone, free of charge … Over the last year staff have seen an increasing uptake in the use of these chargers,” said Jennifer McAskill, city facility asset planning manager, at the meeting.
She reported that in the 30 days leading up to Monday’s meeting, EV drivers used the stations 1,176 times. Sixty-seven per cent of those drivers plugged into the chargers for two hours or less.
Charging has been free to EV owners because the city has covered the costs through general revenue.
“As more electric vehicles are on the road, demand for electric vehicle charging will increase,” McAskill said.
City staff are proposing a bylaw be enacted to recover the costs through a fee-for-service model at 2.5 cents per minute or about $3 for the first two hours of charging to recover the equipment’s capital costs and ongoing operating costs. McAskill said the rate is commensurate with what EV drivers would pay to charge their vehicles at home and that the city is basically looking to break even on recovering costs.
She said drivers will be able to stay at the charging stations for longer than two hours, but at a “premium” rate of six cents per minute to encourage turnover at the stations.
Coun. Janice Perrino asked which other communities charge to power up EVs.
“It’s a bit of a mixed bag right now as to who’s charging,” McAskill said. “The Island is predominantly free through municipal charges. A lot of the private businesses are charging for use … A lot of the Lower Mainland and Victoria are a fee for use.”
Nanaimo Mayor Leonard Krog said he the proposal “is entirely the right thing to do.”
Staff plan to bring the electric vehicle recharging bylaw and related bylaws before council later this month. If adopted, the rates will come into force June 1.
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