MIDDLESEX — Gov. Peter Shumlin, Sen. Patrick Leahy and Green Mountain Power CEO Mary Powell unveiled a new electric vehicle charging station on Monday that is part of an “EV corridor” that will eventually make it easier for energy efficient electric cars to travel between Boston and Montreal.
The Middlesex “station” consists of two electric car chargers located in an inconspicuous corner of the parking lot of Red Hen Bakery.
To inaugurate the station, Leahy chopped a gas hose with a pair of pruning shears, as attendees cheered.
“It’s almost a chicken-egg kind of thing,” Leahy said. “People are buying them [electric cars] only if — especially in a rural state like ours — there’s a place where they can charge them up. So this is a huge step.”
Green Mountain Power, the state’s largest utility, partnered with property owner Don Wexler to install and run the chargers. For $2 an hour, a level two ChargePoint station will provide 20 miles per hour of charge. For $5 an hour, a level three Fuji DC charger, the “fastest charger on the market” fully charges a vehicle in about half an hour, Powell said.
GMP paid $26,800 for the installation of the chargers. Wexler will operate the stations and pay for the electricity.
As the news conference got underway, David Roberts pulled up to charge his Nissan Leaf at the level three charging station. His arrival in time for the ribbon cutting wasn’t a coincidence, he admitted; Roberts is a coordinator for Drive Electric Vermont, though, he added, his car did need a charge before he headed back to Burlington.
He paid with a card he compared to an E-Z pass and leaning against the car in the morning sun, Roberts said, yes, the charge would take no more than a half an hour.
Roberts says he’s gotten used to Nissan’s 75-mile limit. He estimated that the cost savings, depending on the type of car and miles driven, could be a few thousand dollars in the first two or three years.
“The charging stations also provide an important boost to the state’s economy by saving money on gas and keeping dollars that would have been spent on imported oil right here in Vermont,” Shumlin said in a news release.
Electric cars can travel about 75 miles after a full charge, depending on weather, temperature and road conditions. Ideally, Powell said, charging stations would be located every 50 miles. There are 33 charging stations across the state.
In early 2013, Shumlin and Quebec Premier Pauline Marois committed to building a “Green Corridor” for electric cars. The state and Quebec are right on track, Shumlin said Thursday, though the extended route to Boston does not have a specified target date for completion.
“When we signed an agreement with Quebec to have an EV corridor from there to Boston, this is an example of what we had in mind,” Shumlin said. “Folks not only from Vermont but from the other side of the border are able to get there without destroying the planet, and affordably and they can stop at Red Hen while they recharge for the best baked goods in the world!”
Driving an electric car costs the equivalent of $1 a gallon, Shumlin added.
Powell said 700 Vermonters — about 1 percent of the state’s vehicle sales — drive electric cars, up from 300 last year.
“What we expect is to see that continued rate of adoption,” Powell said, though she estimated that electric cars wouldn’t be a majority of the market for at least another decade.
When she started pushing EV stations a few years ago, Powell said she was approaching businesses and marketing the chargers. Now, more and more businesses are approaching her.
“We expect this to take off and we are paving the way,” she said, laughing at her own pun.