Charging Your EV in St. Albert Is Surprisingly Simple
Few feelings are worse than the chugging shudder of a vehicle that’s run out of gas—particularly if you’re far from home and just realized you forgot your phone. Buying an electric vehicle is a great way to never have to worry about this again since you’ll leave the gas pump behind forever; of course, you still have to be mindful of your battery’s charge. The great thing about that, however, is that it’s actually much easier to keep a battery electric vehicle (BEV) or plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV) charged than it is to keep a traditional vehicle’s gas tank topped off.
If you’re interested in EVs for sale near St. Albert, then you might be wondering what you’re getting yourself into with owning a BEV or PHEV, particularly if this will be your first one. The good news is that these vehicles are incredibly fun to drive, and owning one in St. Albert is convenient and enjoyable for a number of reasons. Not only are these sorts of cars and SUVs a great fit for this area and enjoyable to drive, but you have a tremendous variety of charging stations and options available. This makes it easy to get the most from your vehicle, whether you’re running errands around St. Albert, heading to Edmonton for the day, or going on a longer road trip.
The Simplest Charging Solution: At-Home Charging Options
Most of us have never even considered having a gas pump installed at home—that’s the sort of thing you see celebrities with ridiculous car collections do. While it would certainly be convenient to be able to fill up at home, it’s far from practical and not something we’ve ever considered as an option. Yet, with an EV, that’s exactly what you have: a charging station at home that you can use easily. Level 1 charging uses the basic 120V outlets that you already have at your home to charge your battery, effectively giving you a “gas station” at home.
While Level 1 charging is the slowest option, it can still give you a good amount of battery charge overnight while you relax and sleep. If you’re looking to upgrade, then you can have a Level 2 charging station installed in your home for far less than what a private gas pump would cost. In fact, if your home already has spare 240V service, you can add a Level 2 charger for a couple hundred dollars. These chargers give you much more power in a short period of time, creating an incredible at-home charging option that lets you fully appreciate the difference that EVs have made. When you’re out and about in St. Albert, you also have numerous options available to you with public charging stations.
Charging on the Road: Level 2 and Level 3 Solutions
There are a couple of advantages to using public charging stations. First and foremost, they offer Level 3 DC fast charging for quicker turnaround times. This means you get access to the fastest charging technology currently available, letting you add plenty of range with a relatively short stop. It’s important that you look at the type of charging plug offered at a station since more than one kind is currently available. Most Level 2 chargers use the J1772 plug, which is compatible with nearly every EV on the market, but Level 3 charging is split between the CHAdeMO, CCS, and NACS plugs.
We have customers come to us all the time who are concerned about what their charging options will be while enjoying a Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV or another EV model, and they’re often surprised to learn how many public charging stations there are in the St. Albert area. Most of us are used to paying attention to where gas stations are and making note of them, even if it’s something we do unconsciously. We don’t always notice or recognize public charging stations, but there are plenty of them out there.
St. Albert Offers Plenty of Charging Solutions
Just in St. Albert, there are nearly a dozen different charging stations available to the public, with more being built. Some of these are free to use, like the Level 2 charging plug that you can find at the St. Albert Economic Development Department at 29 Sir Winston Churchill Avenue. Others have a fee to use them, but most of these are quite inexpensive: usually about $2.00 or $3.00 per hour of charging time. In some instances, you’ll only find a few plugs, like the two plugs available at Riverside Motorsports at 15 Inglewood Drive or the two plugs at the St Albert Fire Station.
Other locations have far more available at any given time, such as the six plugs you’ll find at the Fountain Park Recreation Centre at 4 Cunningham Road or the six plugs at St. Albert Place at 39 St. Thomas Street. We could keep going, but you get the idea—there are plenty of charging locations available to the public throughout St. Albert, so no matter where you find yourself, you have options available to you for keeping your vehicle charged. Of course, that’s assuming you don’t want to simply go home and plug in there.
Even More Options in Edmonton
Although we love how easy it is to keep your vehicle charged in St. Albert, we’d be remiss to ignore the fact that these are far from the only options available to you. The electrified elephant in the room (so to speak) is that if you live in St. Albert, then you’re just a short trip away from Edmonton, where you’ll find dozens of different charging stations and more than 100 charging plugs throughout the city. No matter where you find yourself in Edmonton, you have a huge number of options available to you, which makes it easy to find a location with what you need.
You might stick close to home and go to the Nakî Transit Centre & Park and Ride at 15520 Campbell Road or the Oasis Orthodontics at 13613 163 Street, both of which have numerous plugs, and they’re not far from St. Albert. If you find yourself on the east side of the city, there’s a free plug at The King’s University, as well as numerous plugs you can use at the Meadowbrook Centre at 3819 34 Street Northwest. There are also many more in Sherwood Park, down in Leduc, and all throughout the area.
The point is this: you have a lot of options available to you for keeping your vehicle charged. There was a time when owning any kind of EV felt like a niche, and you needed to worry about the vehicle’s range and hope that one or two charging stations were nearby. Those days are long gone, however, and getting the most from an EV is easier than ever in St. Albert and all throughout the Edmonton area.
EVs Are Perfect for St. Albert Drivers
There’s never been a better time than now to check out a PHEV or other electric model. Whether you’re interested in something like a new Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV or a pre-owned all-electric option, you have incredible opportunities available to you to get the most from it. As you can see, there are plenty of EV charging options in St. Albert, Edmonton, and throughout the surrounding area, with more charging stations coming in the not-too-distant future. There’s no denying that the future of the auto industry is electric, and few parts of the country are as ready for it as we are. No matter what you’re looking for in your next ride, contact us or come visit us at Northside Mitsubishi, and we’ll help you find a vehicle that you’ll enjoy for many years ahead.