Cities, private property owners presented with EV charging opportunity

BIRMINGHAM — Electric vehicles are growing in popularity, but there are currently no electric vehicle charging stations affiliated with the city of Birmingham.

The only charging stations in Birmingham are owned by private entities, such as the Daxton Hotel.

“Adding charging capabilities to our valet service provides a necessary resource as the market for electric vehicles grows and is part of a number of sustainability practices we have in place at the hotel to be mindful of our impact,” Autumn Griffith, the general manager at the Daxton Hotel, said in an email. “There’s been positive feedback from our guests for our ability to offer this highly requested feature.”

Birmingham city officials said they are promoting a program that offers a turnkey solution for private property owners and municipalities.

The General Motors Dealer Community Charging Program was announced in 2021 and has a presence in nearby cities such as Oxford, Ortonville, Clarkston, Madison Heights and Westland. Through this program, participating dealers can receive up to 10 Flo CoRe+ Max 80-amp, 19.2 kilowatt Level 2 EV chargers to be distributed to key community locations to be available to all EV drivers.

“When EV drivers find out that they are Level 2 80-amp chargers, which is the fastest at the Level 2, they are very excited to hear about that, because they know that they are going to get a quicker charge with that Level 2 charger,” said Mary Kay Andrews, the national program coordinator at State Electric Co.

Flo is the charging station provider for the General Motors Dealer Community Charging Program. These charging stations will primarily be produced in Auburn Hills.

The goal of the program is to install 40,000 charging stations throughout the United States and Canada.

“The program is free to municipalities,” Andrews said. “The municipality does not incur any costs to bring EV chargers to their municipality for this program.”

Birmingham Parking Systems Manager Aaron Ford said that, “at this particular moment, we are not moving forward with this program. Not to say that we won’t, but we are sharing this info to make sure other private entities within the city know that this opportunity exists, and we are helping promote it because it is a good option.”

This program does not require the municipality or private property owners to own, operate or maintain the charger.

“For somebody who’s not in the parking business, it’s a really good opportunity, because they don’t really have to get into it,” Ford said. “This program kind of addresses every level of it.”

Ford said the city is currently researching options and deciding on the best fit for the community.

“Right now the city is assessing not only which charger to use, but really we want to think long-term about this,” Ford said.

They are prioritizing options that are reliable and will be around for a while, he said.

More information on this program can be found at gmenergy.gm.com/dealer-ev-charging-program.