By David F. Rooney
Revelstoke may soon have a Tesla Motors electric car charging station off Laforme Boulevard.
During a special meeting on the afternoon of Tuesday, September 16, City Council approved a permit for the development of such a station behind the Best Western Hotel at 1925 Laforme. This is not a Tesla Motors dealership. So far, the only Tesla dealerships in Canada are in Vancouver, Toronto (which has two) and Montreal. The company is busy planning and/or building charging stations across the continent. But so far only Vancouver, Whistler, Toronto and Montreal have charging and general service centres. Please click here to see a map of Tesla’s charging and service centres.
Tesla Motors is an American designer and manufacturer of electric cars that has been very successful at promoting its products through the news media in recent months. It claims its Model S vehicle can get up to 425 kilometres on a full charge. It is also producing an electric SUV, the Model X, but so far makes no claims regarding its range. These vehicles are not cheap. The Model S starts at $77,800 in Canada. The model X could cost as much as $100,000. It is working towards a more affordable Model E (it’s nowhere near on-market status but is being discussed openly on the company’s web-based forum) that could cost ‘just’ $40,000, according to reports that emanated from the Detroit Auto Show earlier this year.
According to the application discussed by Council:
“The applicants are proposing to construct an electric vehicle charging station that includes the installation of equipment for four charging stands and construction of an accessory building for associated equipment. Two of the charging stands would be for Tesla vehicles only and two would be for any electric vehicle.”
