While you were busy fretting about how you'd be paying for winter tires this year, Metrolinx was worried about how its Lakeshore east passengers who drive electric cars would manage to charge them.
Fear not, Tesla, Leaf and i-MiEV owners! (How many of you are there, anyway?)
These are being installed at Whitby GO station.
You'll need a credit card to use them.
For a full list of electric cars, including what's available in Canda in case you said, "Screw winter tires! I'm buying an electric car!" Click here
Lookit! A parking spot just for you!
For the record, I am not against electric cars. I think they're awesome.
I just figured my bar car requests would take precedent over electric charging stations.
Electric cars are NOT cheap. The Nissan Leaf starts at $31,000 CAD before all the fees and taxes. But this is where the world is headed.
Thanks to Bicky for the photos.
13 comments:
YOu have to pay (which is fine) but can't use your Presto card 9which is not) :-(
I have an issue with this. Who is paying for the electricity to charge these cars?
I pay for my own gas, and I pay for my own hydro for anything I use in my house and drive around.
Will these drivers be paying for the electricity they will be using for the charging?
Ah, probably hard to tell from the photos but a credit card will be needed to charge your Nissan Leaf.
To save others from thinking this was a metrolinx freebie (it's not). I've added in that you'll need a credit card to buy your electricity.
Oh good. I shudder to think what the fare increase next year will be had this been a freebie.
Durham college/UOIT has charging stations for electric cars just like this one. You will need a credit card to activate the charging station.
$31000 is kind of steep for an initial purchase price but the electricity cost per km is a fraction of using gasoline.
I've done some more investigating on this and it's going to be a pilot project. This below is from the MTO website:
"GO Transit will pilot designated EV parking and charging facilities at 10 GO Transit stations. The first phase begins fall 2013 and includes two parking spaces with EV charging facilities available at Oakville, Centennial, Whitby, Aurora and Lincolnville GO stations. The second phase begins winter of 2014 and includes charging facilities at five more stations."
It then has a link to direct you to GO Transit's website for more information but it goes to the home page where's there's zilch more info.
I put in a query to GO Transit's Facebook page on when it will be up and running and how much it will cost but they haven't yet responded. (Raspberries to them! Pffffbbbbttt!)
I watched this whole documentary versus a $9430.00 Hyundai Accent (taxes, fees all in) against a Nissan Leaf $38,927 (taxes, fees, all in) and the cost of owning both over 4 years including gas.
The Hyundai was cheaper by a long shot.
So if you're a student looking to buy a new car and you're from an average middle class family, which one would you buy?
Fast forward 15 years and hopefully we see a shift in pricing and selection.
Electric cars aren't affordable for the masses.
@Anon: You're comparing a budget car with a mid-range one. I'd like to see a comparison with a mid-range sedan, not a budget sub-compact.
@Anon: meant to add: Wouold be better to compare a Chevrolet Spark ($15k) with a 2013 Chevrolet Spark EV ($27k). If you're spending ~$1.5-2k/year on fuel, you'll easily make the cost back over the lifetime of the vehicle.
Will these be reserved spots? Would cars be ticketed for parking in them if they aren't using or not equiped to use the charging station? I can't see that any spot would be left available unless its policed and there would be a fine for misuse...
@Amanda - as I understand it, it's first come, first served for electric vehicles. Non-electric vehicles cannot use those spots and would be subject to a ticket.
Glad they're focusing their efforts on 10 people (one spot at 10 stations)
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