Spokane7
50°
March 2, 2011 in City
Plugged into future
Avista plans to upgrade electric car charging stations
Duane Crockett stops to check out an electric charging station outside the Steam Plant in downtown Spokane on Tuesday. Other stations include one at City Hall and another at Avista headquarters.
(Full-size photo)
Three charging stations for electric cars in Spokane will be upgraded in the coming weeks for faster service – in time for the first modern electric cars from major manufacturers to be delivered to Spokane customers.
Last year, Avista installed 120-volt charging stations, the same power as the typical wall outlet, at Spokane City Hall, Avista headquarters on Mission Avenue and the downtown Steam Plant, which is owned by the power company. The stations will be upgraded to 240 volts by April 22, Earth Day, at $1,000 per station.
Officials said they didn’t have data to say how much two of the stations have been used, though, anecdotally, charging has been insignificant. Cars connected to the City Hall charger have so far used $50 worth of electricity, said Spokane’s Environmental Programs Manager Lloyd Brewer.
But the use of electric cars is expected to increase dramatically in the next few years.
An all-electric Nissan Leaf was showcased at last month’s Spokane Auto Show, and about six of them will arrive in Spokane later this month or in early April, said David Biggs, general sales manager for Jaremko Nissan Saab in Spokane Valley. Another dozen on order will arrive in May.
He said he doesn’t expect to have a typical inventory in the showroom until next year.
“You can go online and have it here in six months,” said Biggs, who drove about 300 miles in a Leaf.
General Motors expects the Chevrolet Volt, an electric car that can switch to gas on longer journeys, to be available nationwide by the end of the year. Attempts made to reach managers at local Chevy dealers were unsuccessful, but Tom Wilkinson, GM’s news relations manager, said all certified Volt dealers likely will have at least one or two delivered this year. Appleway in Spokane Valley is listed as a certified Volt dealer.
David Holmes, Avista’s manager of applied research and development, said with so few electric cars in the area, he’s not surprised by the stations’ minimal use.
“It was more of a chicken-or-egg issue,” Holmes said.
He said a ramping up of electric car production should boost use of the stations.
“It’s going to start the floodgates opening,” he said. “It’s the real deal.”
Avista estimates that as many as 16,000 electric cars will be in the region by 2016.
Rick Woodbury, president of Commuter Cars Corp. in Spokane, said he used the City Hall charging station to check it out. His company makes the Tango, an electric commuter car.
Currently, the stations aren’t powerful enough to be useful for folks who want to charge up while shopping downtown.
“It was a nice gesture, but it’s pretty useless, frankly,” Woodbury said.
With the upgrade, however, the stations make more sense, said Woodbury, who has ordered a Nissan Leaf to replace the Subaru he uses when he needs a car bigger than the Tango.
Holmes said the stations have the ability to accept payment, but there’s not been enough use to make it worthwhile. The company is exploring whether it should be in the electric car charging business and is talking with developers who have approached Avista about installing stations.
“If there’s a need, we’ll probably want to step up and help with it,” he said.
Perhaps the biggest user of the stations so far is Graham Smith, who manages Avista’s project management office. He converted a 1993 Geo Metro into an electric car and often charges it when he’s at work.
Smith lives on the West Plains and has a 17-mile commute to Avista headquarters (though he doesn’t drive it if it’s too cold because it doesn’t have heat). He gets about 40 miles in a single charge.
The charging stations are meant to alleviate “range anxiety” – the fear running out of power and becoming stranded.
Ron Wells, a Spokane developer, drives Chrysler’s Global Electric Motorcar and said he pays about 2.5 cents a mile in electricity to operate it. He’s used the Steam Plant station to “top off” his charge.
Once drivers get used to the cars, that fear will fade, Wells said.
“I’ve been driving one for five years and I don’t have any range anxiety,” he said.
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polistra on March 02 at 4:12 a.m.
Biggest user is an Avista employee. Tells the whole story, doesn’t it? These aren’t really for the public, they’re for Graham Smith.
Rock60 on March 02 at 6:23 a.m.
Electric cars are Edsel’s waiting to happen.
Charlie on March 02 at 7:24 a.m.
Doesn’t more than 50% of our nations electricity come from “coal fired” plants, so aren’t these electric cars are really polluters?
west on March 02 at 7:42 a.m.
Very costly to buy and super costly to change batter’ies in 5 years. Looks like the affluent peolple’s car.
Elkay on March 02 at 8:25 a.m.
I wouldn’t consider buying one for all the reasons that posters above me pointed out. I’ll add another reason: they’re wimpy looking.
Dan_at_Avista on March 02 at 8:35 a.m.
Charlie, your coal estimate is right on, nationally. At Avista its around 9 percent, so significantly lower in this region.
We answered this exact question “How much of the nations energy is from coal” during our Energy on the Street project: check out the answer http://vidego.multicastmedia.com/player.php?v=d53l41m2
Dan_at_Avista on March 02 at 8:50 a.m.
If you want another look at these charging stations, watch this 2 minute video we did back in April when the stations were first installed: http://www.avistautilities.com/community/blog/archive/2010/04/27/042710.aspx
Marksman on March 02 at 9:06 a.m.
Who’s paying for the juice?
Dan_at_Avista on March 02 at 9:27 a.m.
Marksman,
The cost of the electricity is picked up by the owners of the station. So the city pays for the electricity used by residents at City Hall. Avista pays for our two stations. As noted in the story, when these stations are a more commonplace, its likely that users of the stations will pay per charge, but we’re just not there yet in adoption right now.
Elkay on March 02 at 10:03 a.m.
“So the city pays for the electricity used by residents at City Hall. Avista pays for our two stations.”
Sweet.
hawken on March 02 at 12:10 p.m.
Edsel’s indeed. For the foreseeable future.
Teseract on March 02 at 1:23 p.m.
Avista must be rubbing their hands together in glee bordering on rapture at the idea of everyone plugging their cars in at night, driving up their power bills.
I wonder how many rate increase requests we’ll see for electrical rates in the next 15-20 years as plug in cars become more popular? Probably by then electricity will be more expensive than a gallon of normal gasoline.
Don’t forget Avista generates a significant portion of it’s power needs from natural gas turbines. This means natural gas will go up too as they need to use more natural gas to make the power to charge the electric vehicles.
With electric cars we’re really just giving up one defacto monopoly for another monopoly — either way the consumer gets screwed.
greenlibertarian on March 02 at 1:41 p.m.
Cars connected to the City Hall charger have so far used $50 worth of electricity,
Gee, no wonder City government is “broke”. Not.
Electric vehicles will have their place, and as usual in technology, the early adopters will pay a heavier price compared to others who come later and the technology is improved.
PeterCC on March 04 at 1:24 p.m.
I can’t believe most of these postings. The US ships $300 Billion per year to countries that don’t like us for the oil we need for our cars. Electric vehicles, which cost the equivalent of paying 50 cents/gallon, keep all this money at home. Further, even if all our electricity came from coal, EVs would result in 1/3 less emissions than all those engines (due to centralized emission control at those plants). If we charge EVs at night, using excess wind energy, we are displacing oil from Iran with locally generated, carbon-free electricity, and all the money stays in the US. Just how many problems are we solving here?
Want to help the US economy rather than Saudi Arabia’s? Buy an EV!