Does Your Electric Ride Need Charging? Drive up To One of B.E.L.’s Charging Ports
Accompanied by the introduction of electric vehicles is the installation of charging ports across the country. The ones installed for the buses are part of the government’s pilot project, but as more and more private citizens and companies make the switch from petrol to power, there will be the need for charging ports across the country. The Belize Electricity Limited is well underway with the installation of charging ports. Today, News Five checked in with the utility company and found out that of the twelve charging ports it will install countrywide, eleven are already set up. For the purpose of motorists who have already made that investment in getting their electric ride, B.E.L.’s Market Research and Innovation Officer, Selene Solis shares where you can drive in to charge up.
Selene Solis
Selene Solis, Market Research and Innovation Officer, B.E.L.
“We are well advanced and have installed up to 11 charging infrastructure and are and we are finalizing the last location, which will be in Corozal. So there are various stages of commissioning. Behind me, you will see at our B.E.L headquarters on the Philip Goldson Highway a Level Three charging station, which has been commissioned. Also commissioned is our San Ignacio location at Macal River Park. That’s opposite Hodie’s for people out west. We are working on commissioning a location at ShiBel Gas Station. That’s about six miles on the Hummingbird Highway. We also have commissioned one at the Belize Biltmore Plaza Hotel here in the city and one at Caribbean Motors here in the city. Other locations that are in progress, starting from the top, we have one in Orange Walk. In Belize City, we have one at downtown, in the NICH parking lot area. So that’s the Dame Minita Gordon Drive, I believe, is the name of the location now. We have one in Belmopan, at Belmopan Market Square, that’s at the Civic Centre parking lot, right opposite Digi in that area, and we have several others that will be installed at private locations through partnerships with the government, because they are the likely first adopters. In fact, some government departments have already acquired electric vehicles and are already moving around in them.”
There different types of charging ports for electric vehicles, depending on the type of vehicle. And there are three different levels of charging ports as well, again dependent on the type of vehicle you buy, the condition the battery, and so on. A level three charging port is the equivalent of a fast charger for your cell phone. It speeds up the process to within about an hour. A level one charging port will take several hours to fully recharge your vehicle. And the cost of fully recharging your ride is expected to cost you around forty cents per kilowatt hour and for newer vehicles, the charge can take you for between two hundred and four hundred miles, but this is all dependent on the health of your vehicle and its battery.
