Tesla charging stations coming to four downtown sites

Four prominent downtown Barrie locations are getting a total of 54 Tesla charging stations. 

Tesla has provided the city with a proposal for installation and is willing to build them at no cost to the city.

The units will be installed at the Collier St. Parkade, Heritage Park, the city marina and the Barrie Public Library.

"This represents a significant investment by Tesla and an upgrade in both numbers of units and numbers of universal units than was anticipated during initial meetings with Tesla," corporate facilities director Rick Pews said in a memo to councillors.

The entire fifth floor of the Collier St. Parkade will have 24 units - 16 for Tesla vehicles and 8 universal units.

The parking lot in front of the splash pad at Heritage Park will have 12 units installed including one with a 12-volt connection for mobility devices.

Eight Tesla and four universal units are going in at the marina and six at the Barrie Public Library - 4 Tesla and two universal.

"It's official. Barrie is the leading city in the entire country when it comes to EV charging infrastructure and we are ready for the future, today," said an ecstatic city councillor Sergio Morales, who put forward the proposal.

"Best of all, we're going to the build these at no cost to the property taxpayers thanks to city policy and negotiating with the private sector."

The policy Morales is referring to is the EV charging business plan he moved a motion to create in Oct. 2016 and council adopted this month.

Tesla intends to start work on the Parkade as soon as possible and may have it completed before year's end.

The other sites will have power connections run prior to year end but installation will take place in spring.

Signs will be developed for all site indicating that parking spots with charge stations are not reserved for electric vehicles only. All sites will be sub metered to monitor use of the charge stations.