By Pat Thompson
There’s exciting news about electric vehicle-charging and car-sharing in Saint Paul. The city of Saint Paul has been working with many partners to make EVs more accessible through car-sharing and an on-street charging network.
Evie is a new fully electric car-sharing program run by the nonprofit HourCar in parts of Minneapolis and Saint Paul, including St. Anthony Park. As an Evie member, when you’re finished with a trip, you can drop the car anywhere in the “home area,” which includes all of South SAP and almost all of North SAP (it excludes west of highway 280 and east of Cleveland . . . see the full map and lots more info at eviecarshare.com).
Within the home area, street parking is free at meters with limits of 2 hours or more, and is allowed in any parking permit area. The cars come with a ChargePoint card for out-of-town trips if you need to recharge. All charging and insurance are included in the price of using a car.
The EV Spot charging network (evspot.org) will have at least four charging spots in each location, two dedicated to Evie cars and two available for other EV users. Rates for non-Evie drivers will be published soon. Most of the EV Spots are right on the street. Construction of the network of charger spots is starting now and it will be fully built by June 2022.
Map notes
• The map illustration is not to scale and excludes many streets.
• Evie map data was current as of Aug. 15. Check eviecarshare.com or evspot.org for the most up-to-date info.
• Existing chargers AC generally require phone-based apps to access them, such as ChargePoint—even the free ones. Get the free PlugShare app for details on each charger location.
Pat Thompson is co-chair of the St. Anthony Park Community Council’s Transportation Committee and active in Transition Town – All St. Anthony Park.
