I would very strongly support charging fees for electric car users [City of Powell River Council votes for fees to charge electric vehicles,” January 17].
I recognize that their owners have paid a premium price to help protect the environment but we really need to free up the charging stations for other users. I suggest that the electricity use should require a credit card for activation and the accumulation of charges be terminated only when the vehicle is unplugged.
If the owner is required to unplug the vehicle he or she would have some incentive to park it elsewhere at the same time. These charges would help to pay for additional charging stations to be installed.
With gas prices around the $1.50 per litre, the non-electric car owner pays between 15 and 25 cents per kilometre for fuel, or $15 to $25 per hundred kilometres.
The electric vehicle, with the proposed fee of $2 per hour and a three-hour charge (estimated average) would pay $6 per hundred kilometres. Extended unnecessary charging would only penalize them for the extra time and give them no additional benefits. We wouldn’t need anyone to patrol the parking stations to ticket unpaid parking violators.
Jim Rose, Poplar Street
Powell River
