BART opens EV station in Phillips

PHILLIPS — The city of Phillips now has a level 3 electric vehicle charging station that was installed for Bay Area Rural Transit electric buses but is also accessible to the public and is anticipated to have a possible impact on visitor traffic.

The charging station is on a county owned parking lot at the intersection of Balsam Street and North Avon Avenue in Phillips on Sept. 11, 2024. It was all paid for by BART but the location was approved by Price County.

There was a delay in opening to await delivery of a large electrical CT cabinet. The cabinet holds the equipment that boosts the amperage to level 3 charging speeds and allows a full charge of around 15 to 30 minutes depending on the vehicle. The work to finish the parking lot and entrances was just completed the day before.

Jeff Willers, president of Superior Automation, Inc., has his own level 2 charging unit at home but brought his Tesla Model 3 over to the BART charger to try out a commercial charge in town.

“That’s pretty good, 16.63 kilowatts for 13.56 minutes, yeah,” Willers said. “That was about 14 minutes with $4.20 in charging. The car charge increased by 20%, which will get you 50 or 60 miles.”

The home charger is around 16 cents a kilowatt hour, which is much less at about 10,000 miles for $150, he said. On the ultra-cold days of winter with the heater and accessories the charge reduces more quickly, but hasn’t presented problems and would be the same for gas motors as well, he said.

It’s more efficient and easier on the battery if you don’t charge to full with each charge, he said. It’s best to charge at 10% or 15% percent until it reaches around 80% or just 50% if you are at a commercial charger and the distance to the next charge isn’t that long.

“It charges really fast from say 10% to 50%, so this is kind of counterintuitive to gas,” he said. “But you want to roll into a charger like at 10-to-15% because it’ll really charge fast and then as soon as you get high enough to the next charger you go again.”

Willers said there are two Tesla owners in Phillips and he is aware of a third that he has seen driving around. There is also an electric Rivian pickup that has been going back and forth through Phillips, according to Price County Administrator Nick Trimner.

Motorists use apps like PlugShare to see where all the chargers are along the way on a distance trip. The vehicles are often equipped to map out the locations and plan the most efficient route without the driver having to do all the work.

It’s supposed to be set at 30 cents a minute and a dollar per transaction.

Willers has completed two road trips through the Upper Peninsula of Michigan and didn’t experience any issues with anticipated charge durations or locating a charge, he said.

Bay Area Rural Transit Manager Patrick Daoust, said that three electric buses have been on order for some time with manufacturer delays in order to meet government criteria for use of federal funding. One delay came when a battery manufacturer was sold and the new company stopped making batteries for third party sales.

“They had to find a new Buy America compliant battery manufacturer,” he said, referring to Federal Transit Administration policies. “When they did that, then they had to find somebody to build the chassis with the new batteries and then once they’ve got that, they send it off to what they call an Altoona (Bus) Testing.”

The process ensures third party compliance with FTA requirements.

A federal grant is covering 80% of the bus purchase and BART has prepared to repay the 20% share in five years.

There are two BART charging stations at the Ashland garage, another in Washburn, and the third in Phillips. All are also accessible to the public. To start, the public can pay for charging at the station via the EvGateway app. In the near future the charging stations will also accept direct credit card payment without having to have an app access.

“Once I get the credit card working, they won’t need the app,” Daoust said.

Price County Administrator Nick Trimner said the Phillips station is not really designed for local electric vehicle owners because home charging is usually cheaper. However, the charging station is a huge step for Price County in that travelers and their vehicle apps will not be bypassing the area as Phillips and Prentice add level 3 chargers which will not automatically reroute vehicles to other highways — bringing more commerce through the county.

“It’s for the tourists, it’s for the families where their kids moved away and now they’re coming back to visit, and they can quickly charge up before they go home,” he said.

For tourism it means that drivers, or their electric vehicle navigation systems, will no longer plan routes around the county when the lack of a charging station is a factor in reaching a planned destination. It’s expensive infrastructure and wouldn’t happen without partnerships, he said.

“You need something like a bus company to make it happen,” Trimner said. “Now that this is here, it’s kind of a big step. We knew it was important to bring an EV charger to the area, but we couldn’t do that without the Bay Area Rural Transit partnership, and we’re looking at more of that.”

The third project partner, Xcel Energy Inc. will be present to inspect the new EV charger with an electric Xcel vehicle to charge up at 12:30 p.m. on Sept. 30. Xcel Energy provided $26,000 in program credits toward the project, according to Tim Bartels, Xcel Energy project manager.

“It was a pleasure partnering with Bay Area Rural Transit and Price County on a forward thinking model that meets the needs of the transit agency while supporting community needs,” Bartels said. “Utilities continue to play a key role in this space to deliver reliable, affordable, and clean energy necessary to power these projects. This partnership closes public charging gaps in the area which will continue to provide benefits in tourism and economic development for the years to come.”