The city of West Sacramento pulled construction permits for 50 electric vehicle chargers to be installed as part of a program to add 74 EV chargers in the city.
The chargers are part of the city's Plug-In Partnership Program with Campbell-based ChargePoint Holdings Inc.
The chargers were supplied by and will be serviced by ChargePoint (NYSE: CHPT), and the project is funded by a $2.67 million Green Region Grant from the Sacramento Area Council of Governments.
The EV chargers will be installed on city property and on property where the owner has partnered with the city, said Stephanie Chhan, senior transportation planner with the city.
The new building permits are for a second phase of chargers to be installed at eight locations and completed in 2024 at a construction cost of $1.5 million, according to city records.
The city has already installed a mix of Level 1, Level 2 and Level 3 chargers this year as the first phase of the program. The EV charger program is part of the city's effort to meet climate goals.
Some of the Level 2 chargers installed this month as the first phase are getting used about four or five times a day, according to Chhan. It takes about five hours to charge a car with a Level 2 charger.
The city broke the work into two phases. The first-phase chargers were built on city property and had access to electricity.
Some of the new sites will be on private property. All charger stations need to have some chargers with Americans with Disabilities Act access, and some sites need the utility to run electricity to them.
The city hopes to get the second phase operating by early next year, Chhan said.
ChargePoint partnered with the city and will provide a discount on the sale of its charging equipment and its consultant services to meet the match required for the SACOG Green Region Grant.
SACOG's Green Region Plan seeks to create the groundwork for zero-carbon transportation in the Sacramento region. Under the plan, SACOG seeks to install between 25 and 68 EV chargers annually, depending on funding.
The West Sacramento EV chargers cost 35 cents per kilowatt hour for charging at a Level 2 charger and 45 cents per kilowatt hour for Level 3 charging, which is direct-current fast charging.
It takes about an hour to get 4 miles' worth of range from a Level 1 charger. A Level 2 charger can add about 30 miles of range in an hour. DC Fast chargers can take an EV battery to 90% charge in about a half hour.
The state has mandated that all new cars sold in the state starting in 2035 be zero-emission vehicles.
Some 18.8% of all new cars sold in California in 2022 were zero-emission, according to the governor's office. That represented 40% of all zero-emission vehicles sold in the nation.
Currently, more than 80% of EV charging is done at the home. But not all homes can easily support EV charging, and only 55% of California's population owns a home in the first place, according to the Census Bureau.
The state currently has about 80,000 public chargers of all kinds, and it has a goal to get to 1.2 million of them in the next seven years.
