Montana "Fast Charge Your Ride" program follow-up

[Mockingbird]

You may remember the announcement from earlier:

New Charging Stations Bring Expanded Travel for Electric Vehicles Across Montana

New electric vehicle charging stations, made possible by the Montana Department of Environmental Quality’s (DEQ) share of the Volkswagen Settlement funds, will expand travel options across Montana’s key corridors for electric vehicle drivers. The grants match private investments in electric...

news.mt.gov

I recently asked for a follow-up on this project and got the following response:

As you read in our press release, DEQ awarded NorthWestern Energy funds to install charging equipment at nine Town Pump locations and a separate award directly to Town Pump for three other locations.



The nine NorthWestern locations are still moving forward. Start of construction has been delayed for a variety of reasons but the grant agreement has project activities being completed by November 2024.



Unfortunately, Town Pump decided to terminate the agreement for its award. Fortunately, we had received an eligible application from Flathead Electric and were able to re-award the Town Pump funds to Flathead Electric for fast-chargers in Libby and Kalispell. Because Eureka is not in FEC’s service territory, there are currently no plans on a charging location there. I believe construction has started in Libby but there’s a delay with the Kalispell location we hope to resolve soon.



I hope that helps but please let me know if you have any additional questions.



Thank you for your interest and reaching out!

 

[rbhamilton]

Great that you got a response and thanks for asking. I wonder what happened to Great Falls? That's the major stumbling block for tourists coming from Canada. Without any high speed option in Great Falls, people from Calgary heading south can't really use the I15. That turns a 7 1/2 hour trip into a 10 hour trip including a detour through the neighboring province of British Columbia then down to Kalispel and from there to Missoula and finally back towards Butte. Kalispel already has a fast charger so adding another one, while nice, does nothing to open up this major north/south corridor.

 

[Mockingbird]

Great that you got a response and thanks for asking. I wonder what happened to Great Falls? That's the major stumbling block for tourists coming from Canada. Without any high speed option in Great Falls, people from Calgary heading south can't really use the I15. That turns a 7 1/2 hour trip into a 10 hour trip including a detour through the neighboring province of British Columbia then down to Kalispel and from there to Missoula and finally back towards Butte. Kalispel already has a fast charger so adding another one, while nice, does nothing to open up this major north/south corridor.

Since that's a NorthWerstern Energy location, it's still coming.