EUCLID, Ohio — The City of Euclid recently opened an electric vehicle charging station to provide EV drivers with another location to charge their electric vehicles.
The new level 2 charging station is in a parking lot between the Euclid Public Library and City Hall. The stations were made possible by a grant from the Greater Cleveland Partnership and are accessible through the Chargepoint mobile app.
“In addition to the sustainability goals of trying to fight climate change and air pollution, I think that the market for Electronic Vehicles is really starting to grow,” said Joe Duffy, planning manager for the department of planning and development for the city of Euclid.
We’ve heard from several our residents in the city who do currently own EVs, that if they want to get a charge, they’ve got to drive 20 or 30 miles east or west to a different location. That’s really kind of proving the case for the need here,” Duffy continued.
The grant provides $15,000 over five years which will supplement funding from the city to pay for the charging station. In total, there are four level 2 chargers which will take about eight hours to fully charge a vehicle.
“As more automobile manufacturers are coming out with products that have superior capabilities that can hold a charge for longer, (it) really makes the EVs more accessible to the consumer,” Duffy said. I think that aligning with the federal funding coming through makes a good case for EVs really gaining more prevalence.”
The cost to use the charging station varies by provider and municipality, but drivers can expect the Euclid charging station to cost roughly 22 centers per KWH. The stations do provide a small profit for the city that they plan on recycling to provide more charging stations in the future.
“We’re hoping to create more of a self-sustaining model of ramping up instillation,” Duffy said. “I know one of the biggest challenges we’ve seen, we’d really like to get to the Level 3 chargers , the so-called fast chargers, that can fully charge a vehicle in about 30 minutes.”
Duffy said the city’s current infrastructure wouldn’t be able to support the fast-charting stations. Nevertheless, city officials wanted to get ahead of the curve in avoiding drivers going to another place to charge their vehicles.
“The actual existing wires and poles we have can’t support the fast-charging technology,” Duffy said. “We sort of view it as a compromise to start with level 2, knowing that we need to start somewhere. But I think as the infrastructure improves across the board and becomes more capable for those stronger charging stations, we’d love to start implementing those as well.”
Back in March of 2021, the Ohio EPA announced that it had awarded $3.3 million in grants to support the installation of more than 500 electric vehicle charging stations across the state. Twenty-two of those stations will be in Cuyahoga County.
Meanwhile, Ford announced an $11 billion investment in EV production with plans to make their fleet 40-percent electric by 2030. Meanwhile, General Motors has said it will invest roughly $6.6 billion through 2024 to ramp up electric pick-up truck production.
“It’s very important for the city of Euclid to provide a number of options for our residents, particularly those who share the values of sustainability,” Duffy said. “We’ve done a lot of work here in terms of storm water management and green space development, and I think getting into supporting the EV marketplace really ties into that full package of sustainability and the city’s commitment to those goals.”
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