I was interested to see Bill Hudson taking a picture of my electric car charging at the EV charging station at Centennial Park.
I’ve had my Chevy Bolt since March 2018, and would love to share some of the ups and downs of owning an electric car.
The reason I bought it then, was there was still a federal tax credit of $7500 and a state tax credit of $5000 which made it much more affordable. Currently, the federal tax credit is a lot less.
The things I love about driving an electric car:
Firstly it is so quiet, the acceleration is quite exciting, and whenever you go down the hill or come to a stop sign the regenerative braking recharges the battery.
The downside is that in the winter, the battery is less efficient so that my miles per kilowatt goes from 4.4 miles down to 3.5 miles, as some of the electricity also gets used for ‘conditioning’ the battery, and for heat.
I live off the grid, so I installed a 4 kW solar array to charge my car during the day. On a sunny day I can put 60 miles worth of electricity into the car. The average homeowner would simply plug his car in to a regular electrical outlet overnight and it will be charged the next morning, ready to go.
I read the article about the Town Council meeting and a presentation from ChargePoint about a high-speed charging facility. When the owner of an electric car is planning a cross country trip, it’s very important to figure out where the charging stations are and how fast they provide electricity. Currently the nearest charging stations on Hwy 160 are in Durango, 60 miles away to the west, and in Monte Vista which is 80 miles away to the east, so Pagosa is a great stopping point to top up your EV. However the current charging station only charges at a rate of 7 kW per hour which puts on approximately 30 miles driving ability into the battery — which is not very great. The proposed high-speed charging station will charge at up to 50 kW, seven times as fast. In my opinion the installation of a high-speed charging station would make Pagosa Springs much more attractive to people with electric cars.
Generally an electric car owner plans his or her cross country journey around the available charging stations, and typically would have lunch or go shopping or soak in the hot springs, bringing revenue to our town.
When I first told people we had moved to Pagosa Springs, the consistent comment was “Oh yes, I’ve driven through there…” so the Level 3 high-speed charging station would definitely encourage more people to stop and enjoy our beautiful little town.
Electric cars are definitely the wave of the future and I think it would be very smart of the Pagosa Springs Town Council to approve a high-speed charging station here.
Udgar Parsons
Pagosa Springs, CO