EV Charging Grant

The City of Hillsboro has just been informed that we have been selected for an EV Charging Station Grant.  Last week the City Commission was informed by the North Dakota Department of Environmental Quality that Hillsboro was a recipient of Volkswagen Settlement Funding.  We were one of many North Dakota applicants that requested funding.
As part of the Volkswagen Settlement, Hillsboro will receive a $108,775 grant to install a 62.5 kW level 3 DC electric vehicle (EV) fast charging station. The charging station will be located immediately off I-29, next to the substation at the intersection of County Road 11 and 6th Street NW. The planned level 3 fast charger is outfitted with multiple charging plugs.  This rapid charging system will be capable of charging an Electric Vehicle fully in approximately 30 to 45 minutes, depending on a vehicle’s battery capacity. Tesla electric vehicles can charge by utilizing their factory supplied converter plug. The project is expected to begin in the spring of 2020 and be fully operational by the early summer.
I think Hillsboro may be the first city to have a level 3 charger in the state of North Dakota.  In our application package, we had reached out to Manitoba to get the support of their EV/Hybrid vehicle owners.  They have over 5000 of these types of vehicles and were happy to support having charging options for their trips to North Dakota.  I look forward to drawing in more traffic off I-29 that will spend dollars in Hillsboro.  As a community we need to have discussions about how to optimize these chargers in order to highlight our Hillsboro Business Association (HBA) and their businesses.  As part of that conversation, there is an option for a business to provide a coupon for an amount of charging time if redeemed at the business.  The City of Hillsboro is looking forward to leveraging this cutting-edge technology for our visitors and citizens.  Our city continues to make history with another first for our region. 

Terry