MHA Perry Trimper—formerly the environment minister—is calling on the House of Assembly to support government’s plan for a province-wide electric vehicle charging network.
A number of new electric vehicles lined the parking lot of Confederation Building this afternoon, ranging from BMW to Audi, Tesla, Toyota, Ford, and more.
Perry Trimper wants to see a network of fast-charging stations across the province. These take around 15 minutes to charge an electric vehicle.
Right now, there are several dozen Level 2 chargers in the city, which take between three and four hours to fully charge a vehicle.
Debate on the matter was brought to the House today as part of a resolution moved by Trimper and seconded by Sarah Stoodley.
Trimper says he wants to walk the walk after being named Environment Minister four years ago, and bought an electric car. Since then, he says it has cost him about $300 to operate the car.
Trimper says it’s about $0.072 per 100 kilometres on the road.
Jon Seary of Drive Electric NL says this is the only province without these fast-chargers, and it’s the main thing holding the province back from embracing electric vehicles.
House Votes Unanimously in Favour
This evening, the House voted unanimously to support the efforts of government to establish a province-wide electrical vehicle charging network.
Perry Trimper says he was “electrified” by the outcome.
Government Reveals Green Plates in Awareness Campaign
Meanwhile, government formally announced a new initiative to spread awareness about electric vehicles.
Premier Dwight Ball along with Environment Minister Derrick Bragg and Minister responsible for Service NL, Sherr Gambin-Walsh, showed off a new licence plate.
It looks like a normal NL plate, but with green lettering and numbers. Registered electric vehicles will soon get these plates for use.
Ball says there are cars on the streets that we don’t even know are electric, so they want to bring awareness to the many on the roads.