By Evie Giffin

THE administration at York College has decided to implement the installation of electric vehicle ports here on campus in the next year.

There was already a port in the bottom parking lot on Main campus. However, that was destroyed when they fixed the foundation issues so they rebuilt the station behind the ecological science and business building.

Currently, the station is open for both students/faculty and the public. It costs $1.50 per hour to charge your car during normal business hours ( 8.a.m to 5 p.m.). However, after an hour, that price goes to $3/hour, then $5/hour, then $10/hour and so forth. This is to prevent people from sitting in the ports all day. Currently, the ports are used “around 5% of the time … definitely less than 10%,” said Kevin Feil, the director of facility services.

Feil said there will be two stations built on Knowledge Park and one more on West campus sometime next year. He’s interested to see, he said, if the use of electric vehicles grows with the amount of ports. 

Preferably, he said, all users would register and get approved by the school but at the moment that is not necessary. There are only about 10 people registered with the school to use these ports and fewer than half are students; the rest are faculty members. Feil said he thinks that “usage will increase over time as EV vehicles improve and infrastructure is available.”

There is an app that the users can download that tells you which ports are in use so you can go to an empty one.

If you weren’t aware, there are other ports located in York. According to chargehub.com, there are 26 total.

While Feil wouldn’t say how expensive these are, he did note that the installation of the present one was costly for the school because they have to dig up the campus while it’s in use and try to navigate around pipes, electric lines, and other infrastructure.

The stations at Knowledge Park will be easier and less costly as they can build them into the original plans.

Feil said that they will “evaluate future installations” based on the data received from the current stations and from students, faculty, and staff.

Evie Giffin is a senior majoring in Professional Writing and Literary And Textual Studies.

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