Story by Chelsea Church
In honor of Earth Day, the City of Staunton unveiled the first electric car charging station in the central Shenandoah Valley in historic downtown Wednesday morning.
Sessions at the charging station, located across from the New Street Parking Garage, cost $6 and last 20 minutes.
Robert Pingry, charger owner and operator, and Matthew Wade, Virginia Clean Cities representative, came together as a private partnership to deliver something new to the city of Staunton.
Staunton Mayor Carolyn Dull gave a brief speech at the Earth Day kickoff event about how exciting it is for Staunton to be “historic and hip” by having a charging station downtown.
Charging stations are not only innovative, but they are also good for the environment. They are more efficient than gasoline engines and emit no pollutants from the tailpipe.
There are 20 other electric car charging stations in the state of Virginia. With one located every 50 to 80 miles of each other, it makes for the development of a sort of corridor for electric cars. Having a charging station in Staunton is not only great for residents of Staunton, but it will also bring those travelling in electric cars to come to the city.
Charging one’s car is very simple. There is a scan code and a numeric code that you type into your phone with an app, which unlocks the station making it available for use. There are two charging ports. The one on the right is for Asian electric cars while the one on the left is for European electric cars.
As of right now there are two American made cars that are compatible with the station: Tesla and Chevy Spark EV. The Chevy Volt is not compatible with the station because its electricity is too powerful for the car.
Photo by Mark Holland
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