Drivers will have to start paying to use these EV charging stations in Gig Harbor

The two public EV-charging stations run by the city of Gig Harbor won’t be free to use anymore, starting next month.

A measure the City Council unanimously passed April 8 allows the city to start charging a fee for electric vehicle drivers to use the stations in the Maritime Pier parking lot and the Finholm View Climb parking lot.

The stations will charge drivers 25 cents per kWh, and while it really depends on the vehicle , that could work out to something like $18 for the average electric vehicle driver to get a full charge, Public Works Director Jeff Langhelm told the Gateway April 16.

He said he expects drivers will start paying to use the stations in early May.

There will also be an overstay fee. That means drivers will get a notification when their cars are fully charged and then have 15 minutes to move the vehicle before they start getting charged 40 cents per minute.

The stations have cost the city about $55,000 to operate since they were installed in 2017.

The new payment system will bring in roughly $5,500 annually, the city estimates.

Langhelm said most local cities started charging customers to use their EV stations when they were installed, but Gig Harbor chose not to in 2017 to try to get more EV drivers downtown.

“Right now if you use either of the city’s two public chargers, and you plug in, you will be charged $0 for that service,” Chloe Wiser, an associate engineer for the city, told the council at its March 25 meeting . “Staff believes it is time to start assessing a fee for that.”

ChargePoint is the company that provided Gig Harbor’s charging stations.

Wiser’s research showed the regional average cost to use a ChargePoint station is 45 cents per kWh. In Seattle it’s 21 cents and in Bellingham it’s 25, which is what Gig Harbor will charge.

The idea is to use the revenue to help add more charging stations throughout the city, though that’s a decision for the council down the road.

“It would be our intention to use any fee revenue to purchase additional EV charging stations,” Wiser said at the March 25 meeting.

They’ve seen use of the stations increase in recent years, Wiser said.

“Clearly we have a need to expand the network,” she told the council.