Electric car network expands in Westman

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This article was published 02/02/2021 (1706 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The City of Dauphin announced on Monday that its first Level 3 DC fast charging station is now available for public use at 100 Main St. South, allowing motorists to achieve an 80 per cent charge on their electric vehicle in approximately 30 to 45 minutes.

According to a news release from the city, this new station is far more powerful than the pre-existing Level 2 charging station located at the nearby Super 8 motel, which is only capable of providing a full charge in around eight hours.

As such, city ICT manager Justin Tokarchuk told the Sun on Monday that this new charger will give Westman motorists with electric cars way more freedom to move around the region, since the nearest Level 3 charging station outside of Dauphin is located more than 150 kilometres away in Brandon.

“For people in town who want to, say, go to Winnipeg and Brandon on a whim, if they need to charge up at home, that could take four to eight hours,” he said. “But now they can just come here and charge up (in 30-45 minutes) and go.”

Tokarchuk went on to reveal that the City of Dauphin has been looking to acquire this Level 3 charger for the last couple years, especially after witnessing the success of their Net Zero housing project; a residence designed to generate at least as much energy as it consumes.

Once they secured funding from the province, the federal government and local entities like John’s Electric Ltd. and Dauphin Consumers Co-op, the city purchased a model from Quebec City-based company FLO and eventually installed the unit midway through last week.

While Tokarchuk admits that electric car traffic in Dauphin is still limited right now, he and the municipal government are confident that an expanded network in Westman will provide the city with increased business and tourism opportunities in the future.

“It’s kind of one of those chicken-and-egg scenarios,” he said. “People don’t want to build chargers because there’s not a lot of cars, and people are hesitant to buy cars because there’s not a ton of chargers. So we figured it was good to move forward with that (initiative).”

Even though electric vehicles have struggled to gain a foothold in Manitoba, with only 138 new province-wide registrations in 2019, some additional infrastructure has still been popping up in the region as of late.

In November 2019, two new Level 3 fast charging stations went online in Brandon at the Petro-Canada facility located on Highland Avenue and within the Corral Centre near Ashley HomeStore.

According to the website plugshare.com, there are at least 19 public charging locations for electric vehicles spread throughout the Westman region, situated in communities like Brandon, Neepawa, Virden, Carberry, Sandy Lake, Dauphin and Wasagaming.

Even though Tokarchuk isn’t sure how far this network will expand in the Parkland region, he just hopes that this new Level 3 charging station in Dauphin will highlight how electric vehicles can be a viable option for regional motorists moving forward.

“We want to establish a larger network so we can boost our own economic and tourism opportunities, and if it affects other people that’s great as well,” he said.

Anyone interested in using Dauphin’s Level 3 charging station can do so by downloading the “FLO — EV Charging Network” app from Apple’s App Store or the Google Play store, which will allow users to add funds to their account.

» kdarbyson@brandonsun.com

» Twitter: @KyleDarbyson