John Himmelheber of West Asheville charges his Ford C-Max energi hybrid
at the top of the Wall Street Parking Garage.
He said he is pleased to learn of its installation.
Need a jolt? If you park your electric vehicle at one of three City of Asheville parking garages you can charge your car while you are dining or shopping downtown.
Through a partnership with Duke Energy Carolinas, electric vehicle charging stations — called EVs for short — have recently been installed in:
- Wall Street Parking Garage, top floor
- Rankin Avenue Parking Garage, bottom level
A third EV in the Biltmore Avenue Parking Garage is privately owned and operated.
In January 2017, City Council voted to accept a $10,000 grant from Duke Energy for the $20,000 project. The City’s portion to pay for installation came from the Parking Services Enterprise Fund. The action supports Council’s Vision 2036, which promotes a clean and healthy environment, continuing sustainability efforts by promoting cleaner energy options.
Best of all, charging your car at Wall Street or Rankin Avenue garages is free.
John Himmelheber of West Asheville drives a Ford hybrid sedan C-Max energi. Using his ChargePoint card, which provides access to EV charging stations, Himmelheber has been able to charge his car in several places around town. He said he likes the fact that the Wall Street garage EV station is a more powerful, Level II, 220 charging station. At home, it would take eight hours to charge his car. At the Wall Street garage EV station it would only take four.
And a free charge offers him an incentive to use the stations. “You don’t pay anything for the Chargepoint card,” Himmelheber explained. “The thing is some Chargepoint stations charge you so when you flash your card up you have to make sure it says free or else you get a bill in the mail.”
A full charge at home is 80 cents, Himmelheber estimated. “If you charge your car at a place where they charge you it’s more like $3,” he noted.
Himmelheber’s Ford C-Max energi has a range of about 30 miles around town before any fossil fuel support kicks in. He feels good about lowering his carbon output and contributing to cleaner air through use of his hybrid car.
Now that he knows about the new EV charging stations downtown, Himmelheber said he “would definitely use it.”
We hope you will too!
