Tesla electric car, the new Rolls Royce
Currently Island businesses are not allowed to charge for the electricity used in electric car chargers. This is plain silly. After all Islanders are used to pay through their nose to pay for the electricity used to dry their clothes in a laundromat, why should charging an electric car be treated any different?
This is something the government should fix immediately, through an executive order. Doing so would encourage businesses to install chargers as a means to attract business. As charging a battery takes time, such charging stations should be located near restaurants or shopping malls.
I was surprised to find, looking at the Internet, that P.E.I. already has over 20 public charging stations, and it’s free for electric car owners to use. You would think that the 40-50 electric car owners on P.E.I. would flock to get their cars “filled up” for free, but it turns out that these chargers are only “level 2” stations, so it takes many hours to recharge the batteries. This is clearly inconvenient, but not really a problem for local electric car owners. One of the real conveniences of electric cars is there is no need to go to the gas station. Instead you just plug in the car at home before going to bed and it will be fully charged next morning.
But this does not work for tourists, so I fully support the government’s suggestion that the Province install level 3 charging stations across the Island as a good promotion for attracting tourists. Owners of electric cars are after all generally well heeled as the cars cost at least double the cost of regular cars and the premier electric car Tesla with all the options is over $100,000.
But this Tesla has an acceleration that will leave a Rolls Royce and most other sports cars behind in the dust and also have a range of 450 km. Let’s do what we can to lure those car owners to PEI, and indicate on our PEI maps where they can “fill up”.
The P.E.I. Energy Strategy suggests that P.E.I. subsidize the purchase of electric cars. While I support the concept of free “gas” to those cars, a direct subsidy is not only very expensive but also can have other consequences such as a higher peak demand on the PEI electricity system. I suggest we wait until electric cars are more affordable and Maritime Electric is smart enough to use “smart meters” that can postpone charging of car batteries and other heavy users of electricity such as water heaters to times of day or night when the electrical grid can handle to loads.
Meanwhile the good bureaucrats might suggest to our premier that he purchase a Tesla for himself. This will send a powerful message to other movers and shakers on P.E.I. to get with it and get the latest and most fashionable electric car. It is always good to see a leader doing the right thing.
The good news is that serviceable electric cars are available right now. If you live on P.E.I., chances are that you can easily reach your destination and return home without needing to charge your battery.
If you do run out of power, there are over 20 free charging stations on P.E.I. Just imagine getting your “gas“for free. Just Google for locations.