The New Canaan Parking Commission is recommending that the town install a second electric vehicle charging station at Morse Court and at least one more in the Town Hall lot.
Officials also should consider updating the New Canaan Zoning Regulations to require developers in creating multi-unit housing to set aside a percentage of attendant spaces for electric vehicles, or ‘EVs,’ with charging units provided, according to Commission Chair Keith Richey.
“We look kind of pathetic now because these other towns have got them, have got more charging stations,” Richey said during the appointed body’s regular meeting, held May 6 via videoconference.
“We are lagging behind,” he said.
Richey and Commissioners Laura Budd, Jennifer Donovan, Drew Magratten and Peter Ogilvie voted 5-0 to make the recommendation to the Board of Selectmen. The selectmen are expected to take it up at their regular meeting Tuesday.
The Department of Public Works currently has $10,000 that’s been approved by the town for electric vehicle charging stations, and has earmarked another $10,000 in each of fiscal years 2023 and 2025.
New Canaan—which only has one charging station at Morse Court and three at Karl Chevrolet (that are for evening and weekend use)—has talked about creating more of the stations for years.
In a presentation to the Conservation Commission last week, Leo Karl III of Karl Chevrolet—a longtime advocate for electric charging stations who has led other “green” efforts in New Canaan, such as solar panel conversion—said that Darien has nearly 20 stations and that there are more than 30 in Westport in the public domain.
“We have a ways to go to catch up and I never like to catch up, I like to lead,” Karl told the Conservation Commission during its May 13 meeting, held via videoconference. Karl is a member of a “task force” that is looking at long-term planning for increased EV charging stations in New Canaan, along with Budd in her role as executive director of the New Canaan Chamber of Commerce, and former Parking Commissioner Chris Hering (now on the Planning & Zoning Commission).
New Canaan has 175 plug-in EVs registered to residents in town (fourth-highest in the state on a per capita basis among 169 Connecticut municipalities) and a steep increase in the number of EVs on the road is expected—from 2% of all new registered vehicles in 2018, to 3% this year and 15% in just four years, Karl said.
“New Canaan can better prepare for electric vehicles that are hitting the road in greater numbers, increasingly bigger numbers,” he said.
As it is, the downtown—despite its many and celebrated restaurants—is not as welcoming to the rising number of potential visitors with EVs due to the limited number of charging stations here and those drivers’ “range anxiety,” or worries about running out of a charge before getting back home. Though most people will continue to charge their EVs at home, “the availability and the visibility of public electric vehicle charging is a mental stimulant to let people know it’s safe to drive an electric vehicle because they see charging stations available in places that they travel on a regular basis,” Karl said.
“I personally think that electric vehicles can be a magnet for potential EV drivers,” Karl said. “I mentioned before that if you have an EV and you are out driving on the weekend, especially if you are from a little bit away, you look for places that are friendly to EVs and you are going to be more likely to drive to a destination that has multiple chargers available. it’s a potential way to attract new residents to town that are electric vehicle-inclined. it’s a great way to attract diners to shops and restaurants in town and also any of the destinations we have in town.”
Speaking on his own behalf and not the wider task force, Karl said he believes the best places for electric charges are “parking lots that have turnover every one to two hours, as opposed to installing them in say, commuter parking lots, where a car parks for the full day.”
“In that case you are benefitting one driver,” he said. “The purpose of public charging is to be available to as many people as possible, and so you want shorter stays. Someone gets some benefit from it while they’re there, but then let someone else come in and use it. And in the course of a day maybe three, four, five drivers have used that one charging station.”
In addition to Morse Court and the Town Hall lot, potential sites for EV charging stations include the Railroad Lot across from the former Post Office building on Pine Street and the Center School Lot, Karl said, as well as public school parking lots, which serve many teachers with EVs who travel for at least one hour to get to work.
The type of installations that New Canaan would look at for public EV charging stations are “Level 2, Karl said, with a 240-volt plug that would give a vehicle about 25 miles of additional charge in one hour. They cost about $1,200 to $2,000 to install, he said.
“I don’t believe it’s entirely a municipality’s responsibility to put out electric vehicle charging stations,” Karl said. “But I believe as a municipality that we can do a lot of things to incentivize investment in the space and, potentially, as a municipality, give some of our public parking spaces up for EV charging.”
The three major hurdles to creating EV charging stations are physical space (a parking space), the cost of a charger and the cost of installation, Karl said. The town should consider appealing to New Canaan’s EV owners to establish a public-private partnership fund to help offset some of the costs, he said. The town may also consider a one-time tax credit of about $500 for commercial property owners who install the chargers, he said.
At the Parking Commission meeting, Ogilvie asked why the town, conceptually, should be paying for the “gas” used by a subset of (EV-owning) residents.
When Richey replied it’s because it will benefit everyone if even more people are attracted to New Canaan, Ogilvie said, “So what we want to do is put these charging stations in locations that are not attractive to residents like you who are simply cheap, but rather we want to put them in high visibility locations that would be noticeable to folks coming from Darien and Westport.”
Richey answered, “That would be true. But I mean everyone loves a cheapskate like myself.”
At the Conservation Commission meeting, Chair Chris Schipper said he liked Karl’s proposal to increase the number of EV charging stations for reasons of tourism as well as the environment.
Commissioner Marty McLaughlin said, “First of all I’d like to say that I thank Leo for the leadership that they are showing, and that the Karl family has been leaders in town and giving back more than any other family I know of. I do believe that, yes, the car companies will benefit, but certainly the town will benefit a lot more. No question about that. The information supplied to us is helpful and something has to be done for the future. I think that there will be more and more electric cars on the road and it’s not just going to ramp up gradually.”
I like the suggestions proposed and I’d like to add this idea. How about adding EV stations in our parks? While residents and visitors are at the beach (in Kiwanis Park), walking their dogs (in Irwin and Waveny) or enjoying sports (in Mead), simply park your car and charge it.
Whether it makes sense for the town to supply free electricity today at EV charging stations or not, it may become apparent that a better model will be to charge for the charge. Does the current state of EV charging station technology support the inclusion of credit card payment processing? How could it not? New Canaan should plan to include credit card processing from inception—or at a minimum be able to easily add this feature to the new stations we install.
We should also make any necessary provisions in our code (if any are needed) to foster commercial pay-per-charge installations in town that private companies might wish to develop.
Among many other options, one could easily imagine 2-4 EV charging stations at both of the “gas stations” in town or elsewhere on private property. Certainly, the New Canaan Library (in my opinion) would be foolish indeed not to plan to install 3-6 such stations at its new facility. In fact, it seems to me that any commercial spaces with their own (particularly substantial) parking lots—think grocery stores, for example—would be well-served by making the private investment to install EV charging stations, whether they charge for the charge or provide it as a further inducement to shop at their store(s). Even our churches, most of which have substantial parking lots that congregants and visitors tend to use for just 1-2 hours at a time, have significant opportunities in this area. And in any of these prospective installations there may be the added potential in also install some solar generation capacity to further enhance the economics.
Between town government, commercial development and the active participation of our churches, New Canaan should be able to muster the vision, the commitment and the economic resources (including town, private and philanthropic) to achieve a goal of 12 operational EV charging stations by the end of 2021, 25 by the end of 2022 and 50 by the end of 2023.
Let’s get charged up New Canaan!
I like your thinking, George. Church, grocery store and commercial lots make sense.
George,
Our EV Readiness Task Force is not suggesting that the town (or anyone else) should supply electricity for no charge. Rather, we are advocating that the town take steps to promote the expansion of public EV Charging. Today’s technology allows for charging stations to be installed that become part of a larger regional or national ‘charging station network’, where an EV driver joins, downloads an app on their phone, and activates the charger via the app. These include ChargePoint, EVgo, EV Connect, Blink, Electrify America, and others.
They are billed accordingly for their use.
Current EV drivers know about these networks (today they are fragmented, but many are combining forces to create larger, better managed networks).
A core part of this effort is to help signal to the public that EV’s are here today, accessible, and that living with one is easy. Public EV Charging will become increasingly more accessible in the coming years. This is an opportunity for the New Canaan community to step out and lead.
How about working with EVgo, a pay per kwH company (for non-Tesla EVs) that has charging stations at highway rest stops? Then it’s up to the EV owner to pay for the electricity not the town. As is probably known, Tesla is putting pay as you go charging stations by the hundreds in rest areas. Maybe they’d like to put one or ten in New Canaan
The advantage of these charging stations, both EVgo and Tesla, is the fast charger (way faster than the Level 2 240 volt chargers.
Constance,
Our EV Readiness Task Force has in fact reached out to most of the major EV charging networks about potential expansion into New Canaan. Last month we met with representatives from EVgo and they have expressed interest toward investing in the New Canaan market. Proposals are being sought, although nothing is certain.
There are multiple ways to join some of these networks – some own and operate all of their charging stations; while others allow for municipal or privately owned chargers to be added to the network. Ultimately it will come down to costs – who bears what – as to how we best implement some of these ideas locally.
When it comes to Tesla, they have a proprietary charging network. Tesla super chargers are primarily located along major highways and are for the sole use of Tesla owners. Elon Musk chose to create his own path for EV charging and has not allowed other auto manufacturers to use Tesla chargers. Conversely, Tesla has created adaptors to allow Tesla vehicles to charge on any other EV charger. Aside from Tesla, every other auto manufacturer is using the agreed upon charging plug established for North America. So from a Chevrolet, to an Audi, Porsche, Mercedes, BMW, Ford, Honda, VW, or any other brand, will all use the same EV charging plug.
Today, there are three levels of EV Charging available: Level 1 = standard 120V wall outlet (gains about 3-4 miles of EV range per hour of charge – emergency use only); Level 2 = 240V (gains about 25-40 miles of EV range per hour of charge – most EV owners have installed one at their home – where the vast majority of EV charging will take place) (Level 2 is best suited for New Canaan public charging and is more friendly to long-term EV battery health); Level 3 = Super Charger or DCFC (direct current fast charge) – typically 480V+ (EV manufacturers, including Tesla, recommend use of fast charging only when needed as it can lead to increased battery degradation over time).
The bottom line: we want to help New Canaan get ready and lead in terms of public EV Charging.
Leo,
Thank you for your expansive replies. My original comments clearly show my ignorance when it comes to EVs and charging stations. I certainly did not mean to imply that the EV Readiness Task Force was proposing that the town unilaterally supply electricity free of charge. Thank you for clarifying that point.
Whether we do or don’t “charge for the charge” in some (or all) locations is secondary to achieving the charging station goals I proposed. Certain town-financed stations might be configured as a “loss leader” for some number of months following their installation, and then converted to not-for-free later. Charging stations at major grocery stores and other locations might very well be available for free on an on-going basis based on an individual business’s economic model.
My take-away from the original article and the work of the EV Readiness Task Force you have amplified above remains the same: EVs are fast becoming a significant segment of our transportation infrastructure. And New Canaan — and Fairfield County — surely has a higher percentage of EVs than the average U.S. community. I think Keith Richey and you hit the nail on the head when you said (respectively): “We are lagging behind”… and “we have a ways to go to catch up”. With the proper leadership — which I think is clearly evident in you and Keith — and with additional backing from town government and other civic leaders, I have no doubt that New Canaan can muster the vision, the commitment and the economic resources (including town, private and philanthropic) to achieve a goal of 12 operational EV charging stations by the end of 2021, 25 by the end of 2022 and 50 by the end of 2023.
Let’s get charged up New Canaan!