It will cost electric vehicles $5/hour to use one of Huron County’s newly installed charging stations, council decided at this morning’s meeting.
Through funding from Natural Resources Canada and private companies, 22 charging ports were installed across the county over the last two months, including in Goderich, Brussels and Seaforth.
A report by Derry Wallis, climate change and energy specialist for the county, recommended starting the fees at $2.10/hour to fall in line with other options in Goderich, where a majority of the ports are located.
However, council expressed hesitancy at the chargers potentially costing them money, with councillor Bernie MacLellan arguing the higher fee option was still a good value for drivers.
“I understand that we would like to promote electric vehicles for the environment, but I don’t think we should be doing it on the backs of the rest of the taxpayers,” he said. “I think $5/hour is appropriate, because if it takes eight hours to fully charge a vehicle, there’s not many vehicles out there that you could fill for $40.”
Because there’s no usage data available for the county, the report estimated 1860 hours of use a year, based on figures from other municipalities.
Wallis said based on their assumptions, a rate of $3.15/hour would be required to break even.
