GREENFIELD — Greenfield Utilities aims to plug in to the next wave of the automotive industry with the purchase of an electric car and soon-to-be-installed charging stations downtown and near the interstate.
The department plans to buy a 2019 Chevrolet Bolt EV LT, priced at $34,844, from Hare Chevrolet of Noblesville. The Greenfield Board of Works and Public Safety approved the purchase on Tuesday.
Mike Fruth, director of utilities, said the department has also contracted with ChargePoint — one of the largest networks of electric vehicle charging stations in the world — to install initially two stations in Greenfield. One will go in the Gander Outdoors parking lot on the north side of town and the other charging station will be positioned in a city-owned lot along Main Street in downtown Greenfield.
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Click here to purchase photos from this galleryThe station installations haven’t been completed as of yet, Fruth said. He’s hoping for the first charger to be up and running at Gander Outdoors by the end of the month or early 2019. The location of the charging station downtown is still being determined, Fruth added.
“We think as an electric utility that that’s an area of service that we need to participate in, help promote the use of electricity for vehicles,” Fruth said, “and even doing more than that, provide a location where people can charge.”
Fruth said the city chose downtown and Gander Outdoors because of their location to main roadways — Interstate 70, Indiana 9, U.S. 40 — and to hotels, stores and restaurants. People need amenities to occupy their time since it takes at most four hours to charge their electric vehicles, Fruth added.
“If you’re traveling from Richmond, Indiana, to Indianapolis and you say, gosh, I don’t know if I’m going to make it, I need to charge … right here in Greenfield,” Fruth said. “It makes it attractive as well for us since it’s outside of the (Indianapolis) metropolitan area.”
John Keefe, store manager of Gander Outdoors in Greenfield, said having charging stations near Interstate 70 is good for the businesses in the area and also the entire community. The devices will be installed in the southwest corner of Gander’s parking lot, close to Steak ‘n Shake, he added.
“We’re looking forward to giving another form of service to our customers,” Keefe said.
Fruth said he anticipates more local businesses may install charging stations as the market grows.
The stations at Gander and downtown will be Level 2 chargers, meaning it takes four hours for a full vehicle charge. Fruth said the city also plans to eventually install two Level 3 stations at each location, where drivers only have to spend 30 minutes to obtain a full charge. Each station can charge two cars.
It’ll cost the utilities department $2,500 a year for a five-year lease of the Level 2 stations and more than double that for Level 3 chargers, Fruth said. Drivers will be priced at $0.50 an hour with a $2 base cost. ChargePoint collects 10 percent of the revenue, with the rest going to utilities, he said.
Last month, Nelson Castrodale, superintendent of Greenfield Power & Light, said the department estimates it would cost about $134 in yearly energy costs to maintain the Bolt. The price point of Hare Chevrolet was the lowest of three bids for the vehicle. The highest came in at just more than $36,000.
The prices of electric vehicles continue to drop, Fruth said, and the batteries keep improving. Just a few years ago, Tesla owned the electric car market. But as of late, more mainstream car makers, such as Chevrolet, Ford and Nissan, have introduced new models. U.S. News and World Report ranked the Bolt No. 1 among electric vehicles. The battery’s range is built to last 238 miles on a single charge.
GlobalData, an analytics company, reported earlier this year that they estimate the number of electric vehicles in the world could rise to 300 million by 2040. There are currently 3 million globally.
“It’s not just good for the environment, but economically, it’s going to make sense as well,” Fruth said.
