This spring the City of Evansville wrapped up installing five additional electric vehicle (EV) charging stations around the city, bringing the total to 15.
The most recent unit was installed in the “Back 40” parking lot behind the Civic Center.
Lauren Lynch, director of the Evansville Climate Collaborative, (ECC) said EV charging stations are among several attractive amenities to outside visitors.
“People might move here from other parts of the country or the world, and they're kind of like, ‘What's going on in Evansville? Why don't we have this recycling, or why don't we have more EV chargers?’ So they kind of come from other areas and wonder why we're not keeping up par with other cities. So it's important for us to make Evansville a good place to live. People expect those kinds of services.”
Of course, making it easier to use an electric vehicle in the city can help lower emissions — a central goal for the Climate Collaborative.
The Evansville Climate Collaborative implements the city's Climate Action Plan.
Lynch said transportation is an important area for fighting air pollution, and that it accounts for about 48-percent of our emissions.
“Community-wide, it accounts for 15-percent of our emissions,” she said. “And it's air pollution that's put out by gasoline engines, and it's right here … as we walk to and from, or go to our car in a parking lot, or walk downtown, or bike, or any of that — we're more susceptible to that air pollution. So we want to clean up our air quality.”
Those five additional charging stations were funded by a grant. Other new public chargers are at Swonder Ice Arena, Mesker Park Zoo, Deaconess Sports Park and the Evansville Museum.
The city has dozens of private EV chargers in places like apartment complexes, hotels and other businesses.
According to plugshare.com, there are more than 3,000 EV chargers in Indiana.
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