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Mayor Mike Moore today announced the City is working toward installing its first electric vehicle charging station in downtown Jeffersonville.

“This is an exciting venture for the City of Jeff,” said Moore. “Right now there aren’t many places in the City for people to recharge, so this will fill a void. Plus, providing a charging station downtown is a great way to allow residents, employees and visitors to recharge their car while they explore downtown, grab a bite to eat or do some shopping.” 

Chad Reischl, Director of Planning for the City of Jeffersonville, says there are other benefits as well.

“The owners of electric vehicles regularly use an app on their phone or in their car to locate charging stations. Having a place to charge a car Downtown Jeffersonville, may actually be a draw for folks coming in from out of town,” Reischl said. “Having a charging station in a prominent location also sends the message that Jeffersonville is progressively looking to the future.”

The station to be installed will be located in the public parking lot in the 100 block of East Chestnut Street.  The City plans to pave and stripe the parking lot.

It will be a Level 2 Charging station that runs on 240 volts of power. The station will have hookups for two cars to charge simultaneously. Drivers will pay for their charge through a phone app, or a reloadable RFID card provided by the company that services the station. This way, the City will only pay for the station and the installation.

Moore said placing a charging station in downtown is only a first step.

The City hopes to monitor use of the charging station to determine if more are needed in other locations. More importantly, the City hopes to incentivize the placement of electric vehicle charging stations in new developments, encouraging developers of new hotels, large apartment buildings, office buildings and other major employers to provide electric vehicle charging stations and/or install the infrastructure that would allow them to be added later as part of their development plans.

“It’s much cheaper and easier, to install the electrical infrastructure needed for EV Charging at the time of construction, than it is to retrofit them later,” Reischl said. His department will be looking to update the Parking Standards in its Unified Development Ordinance to include language about EV Charging Stations in the coming months. 

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