BC Hydro has announced that their very first electric vehicle (EV) fast-charging hub has opened on Vancouver Island.
This new fast-charging hub is equipped with eight charging ports and is located in a Colwood parking lot at 3588 Quarry Street.
The charging hub includes four 180-kilowatt chargers. These can add up to 180 kilometres of driving to an EV in approximately 10 minutes.
Additionally, to be faster, the units offer dual charging or power sharing. This allows two customers to use the same charger at the same time.
Using power sharing, a 180-kilowatt charger can adjust to provide two 90-kilowatt charging units.
This allows up to eight EVs to use these four chargers at once.
“There is a growing community of EV drivers in the western communities and this new charge hub in Colwood will support them with access to reliable charging,” said Darlene Rotchford, MLA for Esquimalt-Colwood.
“This location is also wheelchair accessible with a curbless design, cable management systems and a lower display on the new chargers for better accessibility.”
According to BC Hydro, more and more people across BC have been embracing EVs, with more than 180,000 now on the road in the province.
They predict there will be between 700,000 and 900,000 EVs in BC within the next 10 years.
“Expanding electric vehicle charging infrastructure in Colwood is important for the growing number of EV owners in our community and helps to reduce our climate impacts and improve our air quality,” said Doug Kobayashi, Mayor of Colwood.
“It also stimulates our local economy by attracting eco-conscious businesses and creating new learning and employment opportunities in technology, construction, and maintenance of renewable energy infrastructure.”
BC Hydro plans to continue building its fast-charging network and plans to focus on building more hub sites with multiple chargers along highway corridors and highly populated areas.
Future charge hubs are planned for Vancouver, Maple Ridge and Port Moody.
BC Hydro’s current provincewide fast-charging network currently includes 432 charging ports at 135 sites.
