Auburn adds first high-speed EV charging station
The city of Auburn brought its first DC fast electric vehicle charging station online this month, providing a speedy fill-up which officials hope will attract more people into town.
“This is going to be a great way of getting people to stop in Auburn as they are traveling east and west of us,” said Mengil Deane, the city’s transit and public works manager.
The charger, located on Magnolia Avenue behind shopping and restaurants downtown, is one of three electric vehicle charging stations run by the city. The new charger can charge a vehicle from 0 percent battery life to 100 percent in 30 minutes, Deane said.
The charger is also the city’s first pay-for-power station, Deane said.
The rate is competitive, 25 cents for every kilowatt hour. To encourage motorists to move their vehicle once they are charged and not hog the charger, the station will start charging 6 cents a minute ($6 an hour) after a car is filled.
The cost is to neutralize the cost for the city, and any extra funds will be saved for additional EV parking for the future.
The charging station cost the city $98,000, with $56,000 coming from the Placer County Air Pollution Control District’s Carl Moyer Grant. The city spent $42,000 on the charger from its 2019-20 budget.
The new charger ties in with the city’s sustainability goals to reduce its carbon footprint by encouraging electric vehicle use in town.
Deane said while the charger is not a money-making device for the city, it’s an economic development strategy to attract out-of-towners to spend a little time in Auburn.
The city runs two additional level-2 EV charging stations that are free for the public to use at City Hall and adjacent to the Nevada Street Station, Deane said. Those chargers are much slower to provide power to a battery and are more than 5 years old.
Deane said the public works department is ready to aggressively seek additional Carl Moyer Grant funds to add to the city’s arsenal of EV charging stations.
He said the Magnolia Avenue station was built to handle four DC fast-charging stations. Deane also expressed an interest in upgrading the city’s level-2 stations to better technology for faster charging speeds.
Source: goldcountrymedia
