Last updated 1998.09.18
March 2024 - with the arrival of standards for L1, L2 and L3 charging and too many apps for finding them - none of them complete, but overlapping - and many proprietary and listing only their own chargers, and some built into EV on-board navigation systems, there is no need to provide another piece of clutter here. Do an Interweeb search to find ones useful to you.
I suppose this is progress, of a sort. The chargers are out there, though too many are poorly maintained and information on the apps can be confusing, out-of-date, and occasionally take you to where the charging station isn't.
The rest is for historical reference and keeping whiny webcrawlers happy.
This is a new feature for the EVCO Web site for 1999, which we hope will expand significantly in the months to come. One of the things that makes electric cars more practical is the ability to recharge wherever the car is parked, thereby extending the practical range of the vehicles. For example, if an EV can charge at a 110-volt outlet, drawing 9 amperes, this is about 1,000 watts of charging power. If the vehicle can travel 6 kilometres (4 miles) per kilowatt-hour (achievable by a reasonably efficient conversion - easy for a lightweight purpose-built electric car), then a 2-hour opportunity charge (say while eating dinner or shopping or at a movie theatre, etc.) will provide an additional 12 kilometres (8 miles) to the vehicle's remaining range. Every extra errand run in an EV instead of a polluting internal-combustion engined vehicle means a cleaner environment for all of us. Cleaner air means we can all breather easier.
We want businesses and institutions to provide these types of charging outlets to help make electric cars even more practical using current, off-the-shelf EV technology. At residential rates in the Ottawa area in 1997, the electricity consumed for that 2-hour charge described above would cost a total of $0.16. At commercial rates, the cost would be lower. In general, the type of outlet we are seeking is the same type used to power block-heaters on gasoline/diesel/LNG/LPG-powered vehicles and other electrical appliances like vacuum cleaners.
Unless otherwise noted, charging sites provide a single, grounded, 110-volt, 15-amp AC outlet and charge no fee for the use of the outlet.
An outlet is positioned by the front door of the building. This location is reserved for customers' EVs during business hours, but may be used by other EVs outside regular business hours.
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