Todd Penney, who owns Dalex Auto Services in Fort Nelson, B.C., said he got his first call from a driver who was searching for a way to charge an electric vehicle (EV) around six years ago.
At the time, there were no charging stations in his northeastern B.C. community. Instead, it took “a little bit of ingenuity” from a local electrician to figure out that his welding plug could be the solution.
“He felt kind of lost,” Penney recalled. “He didn’t have enough power to go back and he didn’t have enough to go forward, so he was pretty elated once we were able to get him charged up.”
His auto shop quickly became a destination for EV owners travelling through the region who were in need of a charge.
“As an advocate for tourism in the Northern Rockies, I had no issue, whatever it took to get people to …