Convenience in the form of a plug-in charger with more electric vehicle charging stations is now available in San Luis Obispo.
Father Ian Dellinger has been driving electric since 2021 and has found it increasingly harder to find charging stations without a wait.
“For the last two years I've had to wait for a charger probably 50% of the time," he said.
The City of SLO, in partnership with Valta Energy, is now adding level three DC fast-charging stations at four different city-owned parking lots to make it more accessible for users. They are the first fast-charging stations at the city-owned properties.
A ribbon-cutting was held at the first location, Johnson Park, on Monday.
“We know that the limited amount of charging infrastructure that is existing today in SLO isn't enough to meet the demand," the city's Sustainability and Natural Resources Analyst, Lucia Pohlman, explained. "We have lines at some of our EV chargers around the community.”
For Barry Rands, who owns two electric vehicles, and his son, who also uses one for work, new fast-charging stations make it easier for them.
“[My son] drives Uber and so when he's got a busy night, he has to charge in the middle of the night and he needs to do it with a fast charge otherwise he's losing money," Rands said.
The DC fast-charging stations are faster compared to level 1 or level 2 chargers, helping charge Father Dellinger’s Chevy Bolt in under an hour.
He says that it can go from 15% to 80% in an hour.
According to Plugshare.com, there are 182 charging stations around San Luis Obispo with only 32 of them fast-charging. The additional fast-charging stations with the city also help push San Luis Obispo's goal of being carbon-neutral by 2035.
“Chargers are the closest that we get to a gas station experience for an electric vehicle charging session," Pohlman said.
A total of 16 level 3 chargers, which include these four new ones, will be installed by the end of the year at the city-owned properties of Santa Rosa Park, the Calle Joaquin parking lot and the Amtrak station parking lot.
