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STAFF REPORT <br />TO:Mayor Fischer and Members of City Council <br />FROM:Bill Dircks, Public Works Director <br />DATE:May 8, 2024 <br />RE:Electronic Vehicle Charging Stations <br />Staff has been working on getting an electronic vehicle (EV) charging station installed at City Hall. It <br />would be the first City-owned station in town. There are some private businesses and housing <br />complexes that have charging stations but not many. As EVs become more prevalent on the roads it is <br />important that the City provide adequate charging solutions for those that need to use them. <br />The City Hall station can be configured in virtually any way desired. It will be a level 2 charging <br />station, which is the most common type of station in use. It generally takes 4-10 hours to charge an <br />empty fully electric vehicle to 80% depending on a number of factors. That works well for people that <br />are parked for an extended period of time and also works for those that are starting over 50% charged <br />and just looking to top the charge off in a relatively short amount of time. Other cities have indicated <br />that it is wise to charge some sort of a fee so that users don’t just park their car and leave it all day. <br />The cost of the station is anticipated to be around $30,000. <br />A Level 3 station can charge an EV from empty to 80% in 20 minutes to one hour. They are much <br />more expensive ($50,000 - $150,000) but offer faster charging times for vehicles that are only parked <br />for a short amount of time. This may be an option for a partnership with some businesses in town. <br />Staff has spoken with two different charging station companies and they said partnerships are pretty <br />common. There are unique issues with each potential partnership such as location, getting power to <br />the area, cost, revenue collection, and number of charging ports available. Those would all have to be <br />worked out in order to get an agreement in place to install a station. <br />Staff can reach out to businesses and housing complexes if the Council is interested in partnering on <br />either Level 2 or Level 3 charging stations. There are additional funds in the budget for more stations <br />after the factoring the cost of the City Hall station. Grant funds are also available for some <br />installations and more information is being gathered on those opportunities. <br />Another issue to consider is the brand of station to install in the City. There are a number of <br />manufacturers and most of them have very similar features. Staff has looked at two vendors. <br />ChargePoint has the largest nationwide network and Zef has a decent-sized network in Minnesota and <br />surrounding states. Zef is on the state contract so the pricing has been pre-bid. ChargePoint is not on <br />the contract but pricing will be obtained to see how it compares to Zef.