Seven electric vehicle charging stations now available in Las Cruces

The City of Las Cruces is advancing the use of electric vehicles (EVs) with the installation of eight ChargePoint Level 2 chargers at seven sites in Las Cruces.

The sites where EV chargers are now available include:

• Plaza de Las Cruces, 100 N. Main St.
• City Hall, 700 N. Main St.
• Las Cruces Convention Center (two chargers), 680 E. University Ave.
• La Lloroña Park, 3440 W. Picacho Ave.
• Museum of Nature & Science, 411 N. Main St.
• Sage Café, 6121 Reynolds Drive.
• Armando “Mondy” Casteñeda Service Center, 1501 E. Hadley Ave.

The chargers will collect a fee for service, but EV drivers will quickly find that electricity is cheaper and cleaner than gasoline.

The EV chargers were made possible through a Volkswagen Settlement Grant, administered by New Mexico Environment Department and installed by Solar Smart Living.

Without the higher costs of gasoline and maintenance, EVs are already competitively priced with current internal combustible engine (ICE) vehicles.  EV drivers can find the rates of each site on the ChargePoint app or at each location.

All of ChargePoint’s stations are designed for public use and offer multiple payment options including credit and debit cards stored on the ChargePoint app, Apple Pay, Google Pay, contactless credit cards, RFID cards, through roaming partnerships, and via a 24-hour, toll-free telephone number, 888/758-4389.

For information, visit the ChargePoint website for a video on how to use the charger at https://www.chargepoint.com/resources/how-start-charge-chargepoint-station/, or the ChargePoint app at https://www.chargepoint.com/drivers/mobile/.

For people concerned about climate change, using EVs can help reduce the city’s transportation emissions, which is as much as 50 percent of the carbon footprint for all of Las Cruces.

Thanks to the New Mexico Energy Transition Act (ETA), concerns that electricity is another dirty substitute for gasoline are becoming a thing of the past. The ETA requires that utilities like El Paso Electric generate 40 percent of their electricity from renewable energy by 2025; 50 percent renewable energy by 2030; 80 percent by 2040; and all clean fuels by 2045. As electricity becomes cleaner, EVs become an even better alternative than ICE vehicles.

In 2025, ICE vehicles will emit 10 times the greenhouse gases (GHGs) as EVs. By 2040, ICE vehicles – if they are still around – will emit 30 times the GHGs of their quiet, efficient competitors.

For information, contact Lisa LaRocque, Sustainability Officer, at 575/541-2177, or by email at llarocque@las-cruces.org.