The City of Dauphin is developing a plan to install rapid charging stations for electric cars.
Steven Sobering says the plan is to have stalls installed by this summer.
“I’m working on the direct current fast chargers, as part of the city’s commitment to sustainability. The city is interested in growing the economy around sustainability and active living, and currently when we look at the greenhouse gas emissions in the province of Manitoba 30 percent of that is from the transportation sector.”
Sobering says their plan will offer stations that would allow charging a vehicle from an empty battery to full in around an hour.
Mayor Dowhan says having these stalls will help with the city’s goal of developing tourism.
“We talk about tourism all the time, but we need to have the infrastructure and the necessary sites and that for people to come. Provincial tourism is what’s happening in the industry right now, and we have a lot of it here.”
The idea is to have the largest rapid charge network in Manitoba that goes from Dauphin to Winnipeg and connect the communities in between.
“Especially with the 2020 Summer Games and the world-class mountain bike trail that we’re building we need this type of devices in our community to attract people. And also along the way, like Neepawa, Portage, etcetera. So they can see Manitoba easily, and there’s not a drawback for people to access our communities,” Dowhan said.
The project is in the research stage, and Steve is pursuing different partners like the province, Manitoba Hydro, and other forward-thinking municipalities to help build a network.
