The Town of Qualicum Beach plans to implement a fee to use its electric vehicles charging units.
The town installed several charging stations as a way to motivate drivers to go electric. It was expanded in 2018 with the old ones replaced with new Chargepoint CT 4000 chargers. They were provided free of charge.
Since then, more are people driving electric vehicles resulting in the heavy use of the town's chargers, most often for extended periods of time. This is costing the town approximately $14,000 per year, which does not include any maintenance, vandalism, or future replacement costs of the chargers.
Staff recommended implementing fees for EV charger use. As a way to recoup current operating costs, future replacement costs and to encourage users to vacate their space once their vehicles have received a charge, staff proposed fee of 2.5 cents per minute for the first two hours of time spent plugged into the charger and seven cents per minute thereafter. That rates are in line with other jurisdictions like the City of Nanaimo.
The rates were based on the data collected from the six-month sample period. It was calculated that the town would have generated $48,044 in revenue during the course of the year, less the 10 per cent Chargepoint processing fee. When the fees area applied to the average two-hour and 16-minute session, drivers would have paid $4.12 for the recharge.
Council, at a special meeting on June 4, gave three readings to amend a bylaw for the new EV charging fees. It will be adopted at the next council meeting.
