City of Vancouver Approves Fees at EV Charging Stations
The City of Vancouver recently approved the charging of user fees at 16 City-owned locations in an effort to encourage turnover at the stations and ensure that they can be accessed by EV drivers. The affected charging stations provided over 17,000 charging sessions in 2016, a near-doubling of usage over 2015. On average, users were connected to the charging stations for about 3 hours each session, which was approximately double the amount of time required to receive a full charge. The City will begin with introductory fees based on the time a user is connected to a charging station:
- $2 per hour ($0.033 per minute) for Level 2 charging stations
- $16 per hour ($0.267 per minute) for DC Fast Charge stations

Prices for both types of stations will be adjusted over time, based on the usage of the stations to ensure adequate utilization and turnover at each location. It is estimated that the cost of charging a vehicle at the above prices is approximately half of the cost of fueling an equivalent gasoline vehicle.
A list of the affected locations, along with other program details, can be found at http://vancouver.ca/ev . The City will begin charging user fees in late summer 2017.