Electric Vehicle Society plugs into Kingston: ‘This is a long time coming’

Spencer Bardell is the proud owner of his Tesla, which is his second electric vehicle (EV).

A longtime advocate of EVs, Bardell has always wanted to start a group dedicated to promoting the mode of transportation in the Limestone City.

“This is a long time coming,” Bardell said. “It’s hard to find a space at the beginning, and you don’t know how many people are going to show up.”

“But it’s been quite a positive reaction in the last little while,” he added.

On Wednesday, the first ‘Kingston Electric Vehicle Society’ meeting will be held. A place where EV users, or those looking to make the switch can get more information on electric vehicles.

The City of Kingston was more than willing to ‘plug in’ to that idea, by offering up a space at the Invista Centre for the first meeting.

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“That’s important because we need partners like that can inform people about what electric vehicles are all about, how to use them what the real costs are,” City of Kingston Director of Environment, Paul McLatchey said.

Gavin Hutchison is a fellow EV owner and also plants to attend the first meeting.  He gets a jolt whenever the topic comes up, and he wants everyone else to feel the same way.

“I want to ask the group when we get there, is let’s make a presence in the Santa Claus parade,” Hutchison said.

“Let’s have a whole pile of EVs going down Princess Street with how great it is plastered on the side of them.”

There are 44 EV charging stations at 20 different locations across the City of Kingston with more on the way, but with the formation of an official Electric Vehicle society, they hope those spaces will be filled more often moving forward.