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Kelowna  

Kelowna city council endorses strategy to make electric vehicle charging infrastructure more readily available

EV strategy endorsed

Kelowna's desire to get people out of vehicles and into other modes of transportation may be unrealistic in the short, or medium-term.

After all, collectively Kelowna residents own more vehicles per capita than any other city in Canada, and together, drive to the moon and back twice each weekday.

But, getting them to switch from gas or diesel to electric may be achievable.

However, Kelowna's community energy specialist Chris Ray says there are some hurdles to overcome.

Some of those, such as cost and available models are outside the city's control, but Ray told city council Monday making charging stations more accessible is within the city's purview.

Ray provided 39 recommendations the city can adopt to make EV ownership more attractive.

Many of those surrounded availability of charging outlets on both public, and private property.

"The ability to charge at home is the primary driver, however many new buildings are constructed without any, or adequate charging infrastructure," says Ray.

It's recommended by 2023, all new multi-unit construction would require charging outlets at each stall, while new gas stations would also be required to provide alternate forms of fueling.

By that same time 10 per cent of new commercial parking stalls would also be required to be EV ready, while by 2030, current multi-use residential buildings would be required to provide adequate charging infrastructure.

The change, if approved through upcoming zoning amendments, would be costly according to Ray.

He told council the cost for installing one of various types of charging options could cost between $300 and $3,000 per stall in new construction, and as much as $6,800 to retro-fit current buildings.

"We want to help Kelowna meet, or exceed federal and provincial new zero emission vehicle sales targets, 10 per cent by 2025, 30 per cent by 2030 and 100 per cent (federally) by 2035.

"While EV's are not the transportation silver bullet that can solve all our city's traffic problems, under the climate action lens, accelerating EV and e-bike adoption in the community is absolutely vital to meet our GHG emission targets."

Ray says B.C,. is leading the way when it comes to EV expansion, providing lower fuel costs, fewer emissions, more efficiency and less maintenance, and less noise pollution.

Globally, he says the sale of EV's will outpace the internal combustion engine within the next 15 years.

In terms of E-bikes, he says they can cover a greater distance in less time, "which opens up active transportation to a wider demographic such as seniors."



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