PITTSBORO — Chatham County has installed two electric vehicle (EV) charging stations with the aid of a grant from the state and the Volkswagen Settlement Fund.
Chatham County was awarded two grants in 2021 to install an EV charging station in Siler City at the Smithfield’s Chicken ‘N Bar-B-Q restaurant and in Pittsboro at the Chatham County Agriculture & Conference Center. These grants are administered by the N.C. Dept. of Environmental Quality and funded by the North Carolina portion of the Volkswagen Settlement Fund.
The county worked closely with Duke Energy and ChargePoint, an electric vehicle charging station manufacturer, to design and build the two stations. Installing these two stations aligns with the county’s Comprehensive Plan goal to encourage adoption of electric vehicles and reduce carbon emissions in the county. The two stations charge EVs at different rates and are designed for different purposes.
“The direct current (DC) fast charger at Smithfield’s is designed to quickly charge a vehicle and will be mostly used for drivers charging with a destination farther away,” said Kevin Lindley, Chatham County Environmental Quality Director. “The location near the junction of Hwy. 421 and Hwy. 64 is ideal for a charging station like this. The Level 2 station at the Agriculture & Conference Center will more often be used as a destination charger since it charges more slowly. This will be ideal for people who want to drive their EV to an event at the Center but might not have enough range to make it all the way there and back without charging.”
EV owners who want to use these two stations will need to create an account with the ChargePoint network. There is a charge to use the stations, which was set by the county to recover the cost of electricity used to charge the vehicles.
For more information, contact Lindley at 919-545-7875 or email at kevin.lindley@chathamcountync.gov.