Free electric car chargers energize county
Staff writer
With the price of gasoline at close to $3 a gallon nationally, days, drivers might consider an electric car as their next vehicle.
Yes, they’re not great on rough terrain, and yes, your neighbors may make fun of you. But the cars are far better for the environment, and could save you a lot of money.
Three public EV chargers are available in Hillsboro and two in Marion.
Plug your car in, and the 10 kilowatt chargers will give you around 40 miles for each hour of charging.
As with gas, the exact amount of miles you get will depend on the efficiency of your vehicle.
Unlike gas, charging doesn’t cost a penny when done at a free public site.
In July 2020, the Record reported that Marion’s car chargers might be set up with a credit card reader.
After they were installed in the fall of 2020, however, no card reader was added.
According to James Ging, a Kansas Power Pool employee who worked on the project, the company, which sells electricity to both towns, began offering car chargers to member cities six years ago.
“The idea behind the chargers was to promote EV and the availability of EV infrastructure in our communities,” he said. “We kind of offered it to all of our members, and some took advantage, and some did not. Marion was one that said, ‘Yeah, we’d like to have them.’”
Any city that expressed interest received chargers for no cost, though the city had to maintain the devices themselves and for the electricity used.
Adding a card reader would make a charger four times more expensive to install, Ging said, which may explain the cities’ decisions to make them free to drivers.
Most smaller towns involved with KPP turned down the company’s offer, he said, as they did not not want to pay for installation, maintenance, or energy costs.
“Are you giving away free energy?” Ging said. “Yes, you are. But you also got to remember, a city doesn’t charge for baseball field lights, those kinds of things. It’s done in community spirit.”
Marion’s chargers have functioned for four years without issue. They are hardy machines, Ging said.
“They’re on some pretty substantial pedestals,” he said. “I was worried that the cords might get stolen, but we haven’t heard of any of that activity going on.”
Visitors have been complimentary of Marion’s and Hillsboro’s charging stations on PlugShare, an app that maps and reviews chargers.
“Fastest L2 charger I’ve been to in a while,” James Hake, owner of a Tesla Model 3, said of Marion’s setup.
“Charger worked perfectly,” Brandon Friesen, owner of a Model Y, said of Hillsboro’s.
“Saved the day when I misunderestimated my range in the headwind. Very friendly town that I’m always happy to visit,” a user by the name of “Old Sparkly” said of Marion.
Christina Cooper of Marion owns an electric vehicle and frequently uses city chargers.
“I like the free option. Not that it costs that much extra to charge at home, it’s just a lot faster,” she said.
Cooper estimated that six vehicles commonly use the charger.
“The only thing I don’t like about it is there’s no regulation to it,” she said. “I’ve come here before, and the same car will be on the charger for, like, four days.”
She bought her EV three years ago. She enjoys it, though she warns that it can be hard to own an electric car in a rural area.
“I have an older model, so I wouldn’t recommend that,” she said. “I only have about a 70-mile range. But it’s like anything else. It has its advantages and its disadvantages.”
Many current models tout ranges of more than 300 miles.