MONTREAL – The city of Montreal along with the government of Quebec are adding a total of 106 electric car charging stations in the city.
The city is adding 53 stations and the government is in for another 53.
“The more you will see those recharge devices the more you will have people who will come with their electric cars,” Montreal Mayor Denis Coderre said at a press conference Sunday. “The more people will think of buying an electric car when they will change their vehicle.”
The city is installing additional stations after they ran a pilot project with two devices in the downtown core. Data shows the stations were used between 60 and 75 times per day.
“Through the data we’ve been looking at, we know this is the way of future,” said Coderre. “Clearly two won’t be enough.”
Forty-six charging ports have been already installed and another 34 will be popping up in the spring next year. Eighty of those ports will be installed in surrounding areas of the downtown core, including four in the Plateau-Mont-Royal, four in the Biodome and 10 in Saint-Laurent.
The goal is to have 1,000 stations by 2020.
This is all part of the city’s push to go green and although cities in California already have charging stations, Coderre says this will make Montreal the first city to have a system like this.
“We will be able to say that oh by the way, in Montreal, in Quebec, we have one the greatest places for electrification,” Coderre said. “And we walk the talk.”
The city is working along with the government of Quebec, they will add 53 more stations bringing the total to 106.
The question is, is there enough demand?
Quebec Transport Minister Robert Poeti says Quebecers are enthusiastic about electric transportation. He says about half of electric cars bought in Canada are in Quebec.
“When we dream, we dream with the eyes open,” Poeti said . “What we announced today is what we believe and what we believe in, we do things to realize.”
The electricity provider is Hydro Quebec. The government has also partnered up with a local company in charge of building the stations. Each station can charge two cars and takes the place of a parking spot. There’s also a rapid-charging station.
It takes around 30 minutes to charge most of the battery at a cost of about $5. That gives you enough juice to take you from the city to Ahuntsic and back three times.
The first stations will pop up around Saint-Antoine Street in the next few weeks. The plan is to have stations in every borough by the end of the year.
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