This week, Aspen City Council approved two additional electric-vehicle charging stations in the downtown core. It's part of efforts to encourage the switch to electric.
The use of public charging stations for electric vehicles is growing in Aspen, up 110 percent in 2017, and 300 percent from the year before. But electric vehicles still only make up a tiny fraction of cars registered in Pitkin County.
Laura Armstrong, with the climate action department, said the city expects more growth in the use of electric vehicles (EVs) and can help by providing infrastructure.
“If you live in multi-family housing, or otherwise just don’t have access to an outlet, that can be a really big barrier to buying an EV, because where are you going to charge?” she said.
Armstrong also expects that use of such stations will increase as more visitors arrive by electric cars, which now have longer ranges and access to more charging stations along the I-70 corridor.
The city covers the cost of electricity, but people will need to pay standard parking rates while they charge.
Aspen received a grant from the Colorado Energy Office that covers a third of the $36,000 bill for installation. The two new stations, which can charge a total of four cars, should be operational by June.
