The Town of Hanover installed two ChargePoint electric car charging stations in the Hanover parking garage on 7 Lebanon St. this past month in an effort to make the town more environmentally conscious, Hanover parking division supervisor Patrick O’Neill said.
People who commute to work in Hanover and individuals travelling through Hanover are two groups who have been asking for a place to charge their cars in town, O’Neill said.
“We really had no option for them,” he added, saying that the charging stations were implemented to satisfy these requests.
The two ChargePoint stations cost $18,000 total and were funded by the Hanover parking fund, O’Neill said. This money was allocated towards the charging stations about 18 months ago. Each station can charge two cars at once.
Charging costs $1 per hour, which is a rate fixed by the Hanover parking division. This price is in addition to the cost of the Hanover parking garage fees. The parking division could change this rate in the future with approval from the Hanover Board of Selectmen, O’Neill added.
ChargePoint is a company that sells and provides a network for electric vehicle charging stations in the U.S. and Canada. The price and accessibility of the charging stations are determined by each individual buyer, communications director of ChargePoint Erin Mellon said. Over 60 percent of ChargePoint stations are free of charge, she added, but if money is collected, it goes back to the community that provides the service.
Mellon said that one hour of charge at a level two station — the type of station Hanover has installed — will provide about 25 miles of distance. ChargePoint has installed 130 DC fast chargers around the U.S., which provide 80 miles per 20 to 30 minutes of charging, Mellon added. These types of chargers are found along major highways or high frequency routes of travel.
While other electric charging station providers were considered, the parking division ultimately chose ChargePoint because of its national accessibility and service. ChargePoint has installed over 20,000 electric stations to date and provides information on whether or not a station is occupied on its website. These features make the company stand out from others, O’Neill said.
The King Arthur Flour flagship store in Norwich has a ChargePoint station, which is provided free of charge to their customers.
Carey Underwood, the chief of staff at King Arthur Flour, said that the charging stations at their store have been popular. In 2014 — the first full year KAF had the charging stations — the store saw 250 plug-ins, Underwood said. She added that usually there would be a car plugged in for three-quarters of every day.
Along with providing a customer service, KAF decided to invest in electric energy because of its environmental benefits.
“Our goal was really more from a sustainability standpoint,” Underwood said.
O’Neill said the effort to make Hanover more environmentally friendly was a factor in the town’s installation of electric energy stations as well. He added that while the Hanover parking division was aware of KAF’s stations, they did not look at the amount they are used.
The stations serve different communities, O’Neill said. Those charging in Hanover would not necessarily overlap with those charging at KAF.
The Hanover Inn also has electric charging stations, but they are only available to their customers, O’Neill said. ChargePoint does not manufacture these charging stations.
In his 2011 State of the Union address, President Barack Obama said he wanted the United States to put one million electric cars on the road by 2015. About 300,000 electric cars are on U.S. roads today, Mellon said, which is a dramatic increase from the 200,000 electric cars on the road at the end of 2013.
“We are seeing record sales quarter after quarter on electric cars,” Mellon said.
The benefits of using electric cars are numerous, Plug-In America — an advocacy group aiming to increase the amount of clean and sustainable vehicles on the road — co-founder Paul Scott said. Electric cars are quieter compared to cars using gasoline and release significantly less amounts of greenhouse gas, he said.
There are health benefits from using electric energy instead of gasoline as well. Chemicals emitted by gasoline combustion can cause heart disease, cancer and other illnesses, Scott said.
Using electric energy is cheaper than buying gasoline, Scott added. Instead of spending money on gas, people will spend on local goods and services, he said.
According to a press release by ChargePoint, college campuses have seen a 35 percent increase in charging stations from this past year. While Hanover’s stations are not on Dartmouth’s campus, the stations are available for Dartmouth students to use.
The three universities with the most ChargePoint stations are the University of California at Davis with 38, Towson University with 36 and Santa Clara University with 26.
