By Dalton Roth
Central Oregon Daily
Thanks to a grant from Pacific Power, Madras now has a second charging station for electric vehicles.
“It’s always a great day when we can partner with COCC, they’re leaders in the community, and it’s vital that we have this infrastructure in place as more of our community make the transition to electric vehicles,” said Matt Hewchancellor, Regional Business Manager Pacific Power
Located at the COCC campus, the charging station is open for community use and more charging options is important as electric vehicles become more popular
“When you have a system that’s already working for you, why would you change? It’s going to cost me money, investment, why would I change to something else? but maybe that next car that you get, you’ll think about it in 2019 when ten years ago you wouldn’t have thought about it at all,” said Ken Mays, Director of Automotive Technology at COCC
“An electric car with incentives is pretty good price, having access to charge is a good thing, the range of vehicles is getting better, all of these great things are happening right now. 2019 is a magic year,” Mays said.
Charging up your vehicle is a different experience than topping off with gasoline.
“So you’ll top it off and that might take an hour at the level 2 charging station, these are not fast charging stations just level two,” Mays said.
But the cost saving to fill-up at one of these station probably outweighs the time.
“It might be 50 cents compared to the 25 dollars for your car, it depends on the amount of charge that’s already in your car,” Mays said.
