A soon-to-be-opened electric charging station in Hope appears to have been vandalized.
Four charging stations on a district of Hope lot adjacent to the Hope Arts Gallery on Fort St. appear to have suffered damage which includes electric cables being completely severed at each charging station. Small amounts of coolant also appear to have leaked out from the cables attached to the charging stations. A resident noticed the damage on Wednesday, Oct. 28 around 5:30 p.m. and said the damage likely happened the night of Tuesday, Oct. 27.
Hope has several charging stations, none of which appear to be damaged save for the Fort St. station. The Tesla Supercharger station on Fraser Avenue appears to be intact, as do the BC Hydro chargers along Wallace and 4 Ave., the outside the Hope arena and at the Petro-Canada on Old Hope Princeton Way.
The Fort St. lot is owned by the district and leased to Electrify Canada, an Ontario-based partnership between Electrify America and Volkswagen Group Canada. The company has the goal of developing an “ultra-fast and convenient charging network” where customers pay per the time they spend charging their vehicles.
In B.C., the company has already opened a charging station in Merritt and has eight others projected to open this year including the Hope station as well as Abbotsford, Golden, Kamloops and Kelowna.
A media request has been sent to Electrify Canada asking how much this damage may cost and whether repairs would delay the opening of the charging station.
Do you have something to add to this story, or something else we should report on? Email:emelie.peacock@hopestandard.com
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