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-We live in a time of change: a changing
climate and changing roadways of Puget Sound.
-I do see a lot of electric cars.
-Part of that change is driven by drivers like Laurie Kempen,
who decided to give up gas and chose an EV
a few years back.
She wanted to reduce her carbon footprint
and found it easier than expected,
even as the infrastructure to power these cars
is still being built.
-I think it's a lot easier.
You know, I never have to go to the gas station.
It's always charged and ready in the morning.
It's very easy.
-Infrastructure is the key concern for EV adoption.
It's a change.
And people are justifiably nervous
about battery range, charging access,
what life will be like untethered from a gas station.
Research by consulting firm Ernst & Young
found a lack of charging
stations is the top deterrent of potential EV buyers,
with 51% of U.S.
consumers more worried about finding a charging station
at nonresidential facilities than charging costs.
-They can use an app on their phone or an RFID card
to access this.
-That's why Seattle City Light is installing
curbside chargers like this across town, places for people
to access level two faster charging.
It's designed to help those in denser
housing like townhomes and apartments.
-Seattle is an extremely dense city.
The majority of people who live here
do not have access to driveways or garages,
so that they want to be able
to have their own type of charging infrastructure.
-31 stations like these are going in
focused in residential areas. At $0.21 a kilowatt,
which is about three miles of driving,
it's cheaper to fill up than the cost of gas.
And interest is high.
When City Light asked for community input on locations,
they received more than 1,800 requests.
-So we're trying to keep that
from being the hurdle that people are stumbling on
before they go out and they look into buying one.
The more infrastructure that people have access to,
it's more of an idea that “an electric vehicle is for me.”
(freeway traffic hums)
-The City of Seattle has a goal
to reduce transportation emissions 83% by 2030.
An important part of that is getting more
gas engines off the road,
especially in the urban core of Seattle,
where a large percentage of air pollution and emissions
comes from transportation sources.
Energy from SCL is 86% clean
hydropower and every car off the road helps.
A study by Cox Automotive found Americans
bought about a million fully electric vehicles in 2023.
-I think incrementally it does make a big difference
because ultimately climate change is a reality.
-They are already seeing results.
This station at Portage Bay is often
busy near Laurie Kempen’s home.
-You know, anything that makes it more convenient.
-And though she charges at home,
she's glad her neighbors in apartments
can access the same lifestyle changes.
-I do everything that I can to reduce my carbon footprint
and I hope that more and more people will do the same.
I think that our government and governments
around the world really need to make massive changes
in order for us to maintain a habitable planet.
-There we go.
-It also helps recent adopters like Evan Pham,
who took the electric plunge just after Thanksgiving.
-No, I do you not have a charger at home.
I do live in a house, but I have a detached garage.
So I need to actually go through
the process of installing one.
-So he frequents this city charger
in West Seattle's Alaska Junction.
-Just to get me in between the big charges.
So, like, right now,
it's like I have an errand that I'm doing.
I’m gonna hop over to Trader Joe's and while I'm there,
this should be ready. If you get a charger
and can find one, which is the key,
they're really fast.
So usually I'm here for no more than, you know,
20 minutes tops,
but that usually gets me from a 30% to an 80%,
which is pretty much all you need
to get around for about a solid week or so.
-Proof of concept, as the program looks at next steps.
-We need to learn from these,
so we want to get these up and running.
We want to see how the public interacts with them.
We'll definitely watch the data,
see which ones are being used more.
And then we'll probably do some follow up, find out
what the public thinks before we start another round.
-Changing the streets of Seattle.
One charger at a time.
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Tuesday nights at 7 on the Seattle Channels
or find us anytime online at SeattleChannel.org.