The City of Prince George is investigating a program to bring public charging stations for electric vehicles to the city.
On Tuesday the provincial government announced a $2.74 million program to develop public charging stations for electric vehicles across B.C. The Community Charging Infrastructure Fund is intended to see the development of 570 charging stations across the province by March 31, 2013.
The grant program is being managed by the Fraser Basin Council on behalf of the province.
"We are certainly in contact about the new program with the Fraser Basin Council and provincial government," city supply and fleet services manager Scott Bone said. "We are certainly looking into that and seeing what availability there is for us. We don't want to lose an opportunity."
A proposal to add a Nissan Leaf electric car to the city's fleet is expected to go before city council later this month. The proposed plan is a partnership with Northern Health, the Regional District of Fraser-Fort George and UNBC to test the viability of electric vehicles in Prince George's climate.
While the city intends to build two 240-volt charging stations as part of the proposal, those would not be accessible to the public, Bone said.
Since the provincial government began offering $2,500 to $5,000 incentives for the purchase of electric, fuel-cell electric, natural gas and plug-in hybrid vehicles on Dec. 1, 2011, a total of 104 of the clean energy vehicles have been sold in the province.
