PRINCE GEORGE—After months of construction and wire connecting, Prince George is now home to the continent’s northernmost Tesla Supercharging stations.
The Tesla Supercharging stations have been turned on in the parking lot of The Great Canadian Brewhouse.
“It took about a year of owning the car before we started travelling just because how scarce the chargers in the north B.C. were.” said Owen Marshall, Tesla Owner
It’s part of $5 million dollar project funded by Natural Resources Canada to install 14 Tesla Supercharging stations in B.C., Alberta, and Saskatchewan.
Though it’s technically off of Highway 16, this new station is part of a line of Supercharging stations along Highway 97. Other sites include Williams Lake, Quesnel, and Cache Creek.
Each of these stations also include FLO charging stations that any electric vehicle can use.
“I know people who’ve been driving distances from Fort St. John to Vancouver since the 1980s. But they’ve had to come along with a lot of adapters and stuff, now they’ll be able to do the trip in way less time with way less planning,” said Doug Beckett, facilitator for the Prince George Electric Vehicle Association.
This is just one more addition to British Columbia’s resume when it comes to going green.
In late October, the province announced that B.C. had the largest uptake of electric vehicles, per capita, in the continent.
EV owners say that this change is helping close the gap between the difference in driving gasoline and electric-powered cars.
“The time taken to go from Prince George to Vancouver will be about the same in an electric vehicle as in your gas and your diesel vehicle now,” said Beckett.
They’re also hopeful that this will attract new drivers sooner than later.
“It’s crazy how easy it’s made it, and having it in Prince George is going to make it that much more exciting and better because we know they’re not going to stop here. After this link, it’s going to go the next link and we’re going to have access all over the province.” said Marshall.
“The holdback was where you could charge and the model variety. Where we can charge is really being fixed and the model variety is coming on stream more and more every year.” said Beckett.
