Northampton lowers cost to charge EVs

A Chevy Bolt EV uses the charging station on Crafts Avenue Monday afternoon in Northampton. The city announced this week that it is changing the way it charges to use the stations in the city, which will likely mean cheaper rates.

A Chevy Bolt EV uses the charging station on Crafts Avenue Monday afternoon in Northampton. The city announced this week that it is changing the way it charges to use the stations in the city, which will likely mean cheaper rates. GAZETTE FILE PHOTO

By ALEXANDER MACDOUGALL

Staff Writer

Published: 12-27-2024 3:56 PM

NORTHAMPTON — The city is changing electric vehicle charging rates at stations it owns, with the hope of making EV charging more affordable for residents.

Since October, the city has charged $1.92 per hour at public EV charging stations, which offer a combined 19 ports. But officials on Thursday announced that people who charge their vehicles at the stations will pay 32 cents per kilowatt hour, or the amount of energy used by 1 kilowatt of power after running for one hour. The use of kilowatt hours is the same used in calculating fees for home electric bills.

The change from charging by time to charging by kilowatt hour will lower the cost for almost all users and will be fairer to owners of some older EVs and plug-in hybrid EVs that may charge at a lower speed than others, officials said.

Ben Weil, director of the city’s Climate Action and Project Administration, said that the company that makes the public charging ports used in the city, Chargepoint, initially recommended the hourly rate, due to customers likely having a clearer understanding of how the fees were calculated. But Weil said the city soon realized that charging by kilowatt hours made more sense.

“Quite quickly we got a lot of communications from drivers, who it turns out are actually quite savvy when it comes to energy consumption,” Weil said. “Our judgment was that enough drivers were savvy for us to do the rational thing.”

The city had allowed people to charge their vehicles at the stations for free, but began charging in October as a way to break even on the service.

The original price was based on the rate Northampton paid for electricity. Since then, CAPA has negotiated a contract for lower electricity supply rates. This is reflected in the new EV charging rate, which is 7% lower.

Since implementing the fees, the city has been able to repair two of the public EV chargers located in the E.J. Gare garage in the city’s downtown, meaning three of the four chargers in the garage are now able to be used, according to Weil.

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Alexander MacDougall can be reached at amacdougall@gazettenet.com.