Rural communities want the benefits of EVs, so they’re making their own charging networks [Video]

When people in B.C.’s Kootenay region saw electric vehicles and chargers multiplying in urban communities on the coast, they realized they were missing out on potential visitors and customers.

“We needed to build infrastructure to bring those people this way,” recalled Danielle Weiss, director of transportation initiatives for the Community Energy Association, a B.C.-based group focused on local energy, decarbonization and climate adaptation.

So the group worked with local municipalities, as well as other levels of government and utilities, to create the Accelerate Kootenays charging network of dozens of EV chargers across 1,870 kilometres of rural southeastern B.C. in places like Revelstoke, Nelson, Cranbrook and Invermere.

They’re among rural communities across the country that are finding ways to bring EV charging infrastructure to their regions so they don’t get left behind in the EV transition, when private and public investment normally goes to dense urban centres. Some are already enjoying …