Las Positas College plans to impose a $0.35 fee per kilowatt-hour for its electrical vehicle chargers, according to a campus-wide announcement on Wednesday, Nov. 1. An additional $3.00 fee will be imposed every hour an electric vehicle is connected to a charger after it has been fully charged.
Owen Letcher, Vice Chancellor of Facilities, Bond Program and Operations at Las Positas College, sent an email on Nov. 1 to introduce the fees.
“The implementation of this fee for charging will allow the district to better support, maintain and expand the electric vehicle charging network across the district to support the needs of our community,” Letcher said.
The fees are detailed under Administrative Procedure 6750 of the Chabot-Las Positas Community College District procedures. The procedures state, “The colleges may establish fees for electric vehicle charging services to recover the costs of vendor services, capital renewal costs, periodic maintenance, electricity and other costs associated with the total cost of ownership.”
Anyone with an electric vehicle could use the chargers on campus without a fee or time limit. Currently, there are 24 electric vehicle chargers on campus which includes those reserved for faculty only.
The revenue from the new charger fees will be used to expand the Las Positas College Electrical Vehicle network. No further details were specified.
Nikoles Srioudom, a student majoring in Informational Technology, expressed concern about the issue.
Srioudom said that it takes about 14-15 kW to charge his car.
Regarding the extra charge, there was some confusion.
“I did not know there was an extra charge,” Srioudom said.
In comparison to other chargers, Srioudom did not rank the chargers on campus as his top choice.
“I recommend Superchargers and home chargers,” Srioudom said.
According to Green Cars, most cars come with either a Level 1 or 2 charger. They also say that Level 1 chargers are great for plug in hybrids. Any fully electric car relies on Level 2’s higher voltage because they use only electricity.
It may be in students’ best interest to compare the on-campus and off-site charging costs. The convenience of charging on campus does come at a cost that it may be cheaper to charge your car at home rather than charging it at LPC.
Brighton Matus is the Editor-in-chief at the Express. Follow him on X, formally Twitter @Bmatus475
