PORT TOWNSEND — Businesses on the North Olympic Peninsula can promote themselves and increase tourism by installing free charging stations for electric cars, a Port Townsend businessman told his business peers.
“There should be a plethora of electric car chargers,” said Andy Cochrane, co-owner of Power Trip Energy of Port Townsend, who spoke to a Jefferson County Chamber of Commerce audience last week.
“If we had more chargers, it would have a positive impact to the town and would bring in more tourists who would spend time here,” he said.
“And spend at local businesses while they were waiting for their cars to charge.”
Cochrane spoke to an audience of about 50 people.
He said he will install a free charger at any Port Townsend-area business that agrees to provide a parking space and give away the electricity.
Under current electrical rates, the cost of this would be a few hundred dollars a year, Cochrane said.
That would pay off as people charging their cars would spend time and money in town, he added.
This leads to what Cochrane calls the EV Touring Initiative, which involves the installation of chargers, joint marketing efforts and the gathering of data from users about their point of origin and how they spent their time while in Port Townsend.
Charging stations are also a natural place for promotional material, letting customers know what is available in the neighborhood as they charge their cars, he said.
Other possibilities include a shuttle bus to take customers from charging stations to different parts of town along with advertising and maps around each station.
Cochrane said charging times vary but average an hour for about 15 miles of driving.
This translates to about four or five hours to charge a Nissan Leaf, Cochrane said.
A full charge will take the car around 70 miles, with car owners generally plugging in their cars overnight in their homes.
Jefferson stations
Cochrane said there are six free charging stations in Port Townsend: Northwest Maritime Center, 431 Water St.; Port Townsend Laundromat and Car Wash, 2115 W. Sims Way; Windermere, 1220 Water St.; John L. Scott, 2219 W. Sims Way; Synergy Station, 1531 W. Sims Way; and Power Trip Energy, 83 Denny Ave.
Wild Birds Unlimited, 275953 U.S. Highway 101, Gardiner, is the only Jefferson County station east of Port Townsend, according to Cochrane.
He said there is no way to judge how many people charge their cars at home through standard electricity, although doing so is a slow process, “like trying to fill your gas tank through a straw.”
Also unknown is the amount of private chargers in which companies follow a membership model where customers use exclusive stations and are billed monthly.
Cochrane said the current number of chargers in Port Townsend meets demand, but his fantasy “is that too many people try to use these chargers.”
Electric car owners are accepting of the technology’s major limitation to only travel 70 miles per full charge, Cochrane said.
But that will become less of an issue as more chargers are made available, he said.
Cochrane said the draw of electric cars is losing the dependency on gasoline while saving money.
The Leaf, at $30,000, is an expensive vehicle “but is a lot nicer and of higher quality than any other car in that price range.”
Fuel savings depend on gasoline prices.
Cochrane, whose company has focused on solar energy since its founding in 2003, said acceptance of the two technologies is similar.
“At first, people didn’t have an understanding of solar energy,” he said. “They thought it was a novelty and was just for environmentalists.
“That changed once we were able to get the word out and tell people that it actually saves them money because not everyone is so concerned about the environmental aspect.”
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Jefferson County Editor Charlie Bermant can be reached at 360-385-2335 or cbermant@peninsuladailynews.com.