Electric car charging station coming to Tim Hortons in Azilda, 'A great stepping stone'

E-cars can now charge up at this Tim Hortons Tim Horton’s outlet in Azilda is installing a quick charge station for electric cars. Jessica Gosselin reports.

People in Sudbury will soon have the chance charge up their electric vehicles in about 30 minutes, at a high powered charging station currently being installed at a Tim Hortons' location in Azilda.

"We've been working on this for the past four months and it's finally here," said Randy Annett, who owns the Azilda Tim Hortons location.

"We should have it up and running this weekend."

Annett said his store was chosen for the charging station because of the location. He said the area could soon see more of them pop up.

"The customers are ecstatic," said Annett.

"They can't believe this is happening here in the City of Greater Sudbury. I think it's a great stepping stone. It might take a little, while but sooner or later I think it's going to work out really well."

Local environmentalist group, reThink Green, is pleased to see the new addition.

It says Sudbury does have a handful of smaller charging stations, but they take about 12 hours to recharge your vehicle.

"The importance of having this more powerful charging station is creating a network, so longer distance travellers can move their electric vehicles from city-to-city and that's really the value of what they've put out in Azilda," said Richard Eberhardt, reThink Green program manager.

Eberhardt said Sudbury is a bit behind in this evolution to electric vehicles, and he's pleased to see the private sector stepping up.

As part of its green economy north program, reThink Green will be working on a project in the coming months to help accelerate the adoption of electric vehicles in Sudbury and across northeastern Ontario.