Ocean City to offer faster electric vehicle charging, but with a fee

Ocean City's free electric vehicle plug-in stations haven't put a charge into drivers, but town officials say it's time the resort got something back for the service.

The Town Council agreed Tuesday, April 10, to begin assessing a fee for vehicles that juice up at its charging stations. It also gave the town's charging station supplier permission to upgrade several of the stations to models that fill batteries faster.

Ocean City has been operating nine charging stations at four locations over the past two years. Under an agreement with the Baltimore-based Electric Vehicle Institute, a charging equipment dealer, the stations were provided and installed for free, and the town covered the cost of electricity.

Despite the free electricity, the stations have experienced "negligible use," said Town Engineer Terry McGean. The exception has been the Roland E. Powell Convention Center, whose two Tesla-only chargers and single universal charger have seen "relatively frequent use," McGean said in a memo.

The service's tepid popularity mirrors the slow adoption of electric vehicles nationwide. 

The federal government has been offering up to $7,500 in tax credits for newly purchased electric cars since 2010. The spigot shuts off for a particular maker a few months after it sells its 200,000th car.

Eight years later, no manufacturer has reached that threshold, although Tesla is close.

Ocean City faces a geography problem, town officials say.

“I know we’re a different kind of city," McGean said. "We’re a drive-to destination.” 

Electric vehicles have a range of 100-300 miles, depending on the model. The drive from Baltimore to Ocean City is about 180 miles.

The network of charging stations remains sparse, particularly on the Shore. In Ocean City, a smattering of hotels offers places for drivers to plug in, but they are a slower variety and bring batteries to a full charge in three hours or more.

The only public fast-charging station, a so-called Level III which charges a battery in about 30 minutes, is at the Royal Farms just across the Route 50 bridge. And that station doesn't always work.

The Electric Vehicle Institute plans to add a universal Level III station, the town’s first, at the convention center. It also is looking to upgrade to a Level II at 125th Street and 100th Street and add a Level II at the Worcester Street parking lot. An existing Level I will be removed at Third Street.

McGean said the town will begin charging drivers using the parking app, Parkmobile, which the local government already uses to collect parking fees.

Connecting to the charging stations will cost $2 per hour. That should easily cover the town's hourly $1.25 cost of electricity, McGean added.

Council President Lloyd Martin said the experiment is worth continuing until the private sector adds more charging stations around town.

“The vehicles aren’t out there much yet, but I think you will see more and more of them," he said.

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