Good EV vibes in Cal City, 2 grants help for new charging station

Cal City Councilman Jim Creighton who applied for grants for a EV charging station said it needed to be solar-powered California City, California, has received over $100,000 in grants for a new solar-powered EV charging station. The station, which is free of charge, could potentially be used when necessary to reach Mojave, where there are more quicker chargers. The city applied for two grants four years ago and the station has been in place for about a month so far, providing roughly 450 miles of free electricity. The only thing required for the station is a maintenance contract and a point-sale system.

Published : 3 months ago by Steven Virgen, 23ABC in Auto

• In this video, California City Councilman Jim Creighton says two grants over $100,000 helped the city acquire a new solar-powered EV charging station.

• Leland Krelle, who lives in Tehachapi, says the EV charging station is good for the city and could be used when necessary to get to Mojave, where there are more quicker EV chargers.

California City staff is feeling "charged up" about some recent good fortune...

The city received more than $100,000 in grants... for a new solar-powered EV charging station. And the entire unit was basically free.

"We could not have put this on the grid because… we don't even have sufficient electricity to power up the cannabis industry. So, having this solar does not affect any businesses in town. It doesn't lessen the quality or the quantity of electricity we get."

That's Councilman Jim Creighton saying that Cal City needed its new EV charging station to be solar-powered. As such it is slow to give an electric vehicle some mileage.

"If somebody needs to get just enough to get down to Mojave where they do the faster chargers, it'll give them that confidence to get there safely."

Leland Krelle lives in Tehachapi and works in various parts of east Kern, including Cal City and Mojave.

For now, EV drivers like Krelle can use the station for free.

"It's going to be great for the city… There are times when you do a lot of driving. You get stuck, and this is one way to avoid being towed," says Leland Krelle, an owner/broker for West Coast Realty.

Electric vehicle infrastructure in America grew by 23.9 percent in the past 12 months, according to the last study by I-See-Cars that identify the most EV-friendly cities and states in the U.S.

California ranks No. 2 with 1 charger for every 757 residents.

Bakersfield has 1 EV charger for every 1,296 residents and is No. 37 out of 210 metro areas for EV friendliness, improving 22 percent in 2023.

"It helps because electric vehicles are becoming more and more prevalent," Creighton said.

Creighton applied for two grants four years ago … $99,000 from KCOG and $50,000 from the East Kern Air Pollution Control District.

The city put the charging station at the Aspen Mall parking lot on California City Boulevard, where Creighton says the city owns that section.

"Anytime we can get anything like this, specifically free of charge to the city, where we don't have to pay anything at all on this … the only thing we're obligated to is a maintenance contract and a point of sales system. So, yeah, it doesn't affect our resources within the city at all," Creighton says.

The station has been in place for about a month now... so there's been roughly 450 miles of free electricity provided to date.