Charges coming for EV charging
Apr. 6—Drivers with electric vehicles will have to pay a fee to use city-owned charging stations as of June 1.
The Lodi City Council on Wednesday unanimously approved implementing a $1.75 an hour fee to use electric vehicle charging stations for at least one year.
Charging drivers to use the stations is necessary for City of Lodi to recover some $430,670 in costs to install the equipment at various locations in town.
Those locations include two at Lodi City Hall, two at Kofu Park, and one each at Hutchins Street Square, the city's finance department, the Downtown Parking Garage and the Lodi Public Library.
Another station is proposed at Lodi Lake, as well as a location yet to be determined, staff said.
In 2021, the council approved agreements with National Car Charging, LLC and ChargePoint for the replacement, installation and maintenance of multiple Level II electric vehicle charging stations throughout the city.
The original equipment installed more than a decade ago only provided one charging port at each location, and was not able to be retrofitted to accept payments from users.
The new stations all have dual charging ports, are network operated by ChargePoint, and have both a 10-year warranty and 10-year maintenance agreement.
Staff had proposed implementing a $5 penalty against users who charge their vehicles for more than four hours, something Councilman Mikey Hothi said was unfair at this time.
He said most electric vehicles need about 10 hours to completely charge, and staff proposed penalty would only force owners to seek faster charging stations at Raley's or in Elk Grove.
"Granted, you're not always going to be at zero (charge) to get to that point," he said. "The fact is, Lodi has zero fast chargers. We have an under-utilization of electric vehicle adoption, and at a time when the the state is pushing everyone to be 100% EV by 2035, Lodi isn't adjusting to that."
Interim City Manager Andrew Keys said the federal government has awarded grants for installing fast chargers — which would only require 15 or 20 minutes to completely charge a vehicle — but they most likely will not be installed until 2025 or 2026.
Staff would have to return with a report on potential locations and costs for the faster equipment at a future meeting.
Other council members said while they appreciated Hothi's points, charging users $1.75 an hour to use the stations was not "prohibitive" to pay.
"The cost is always pushed on somebody," vice mayor Cameron Bregman said. "There is no free lunch in terms of cost. you'll have a group of people with electric vehicles the city will be subsidizing... I don't think we should offer free charging. I don't think it sends the right message to our ratepayers."
Hothi agreed to supporting the $1.75 an hour after council recommended eliminating the $5 penalty for using stations more than four hours.
