Electronic charging stations headed for downtown Shreveport

SHREVEPORT, LA (KSLA) - New charging stations for electric vehicle owners could be coming soon to downtown Shreveport.

Tesla has already added charging stations in the city like the one near St. Vincent Mall, but SWEPCO wants to jump in and add some downtown.

They have partnered up with the Downtown Development Authority, and they are looking at two possible locations.

The first one would be near the 700 block of Texas Street, and the second on the 400 block of Edwards Street.

“We have a lot of young people who are interested in downtown, and that seems to be the same demographic that is interested in EV’s, “said Michael Corbin with SWEPCO. “It would be great if we had three of four block that had charging stations, they were full all the time.”

It takes four hours to fully charge an electric car, and the price depending on the size of the car can range anywhere from two to $16 to charge. The DDA believes there is enough traffic and things to do in the downtown area to keep people busy while they charge their cars.

“You want to have restaurants and galleries and theaters and office space and residential, so that when that car is charging you have places to go,” said Liz Swaine with the DDA.

Some residents believe it’s a good move for the city.

“That’d be great,” said Brian White. “A new way of moving around is never a bad thing.”

I always see charging stations at hotels and gas stations and more out west there are charging stations everywhere, and I feel like it would be absurd to not have that in the south as well,” said Camille Miller.

While some have some concerns.

“It seems to me that it would cost more money to maintain the infrastructure than the benefit that it would have,” said Clark Crank Heflin.

But some are excited to see Shreveport catching up with other cities utilizing this new method of transportation.

“Shreveport’s growing every day and things are changing around us so it’s good to see that we’re keeping up with that and allowing our people to go outside their comfort zones and try something new also,” said Kaitlyn Nix.

SWEPCO and the DDA hope that by bringing these stations to downtown Shreveport it would create the opportunity for a private investor to come in and create a charging station in one of the lots downtown.

They are looking for feedback from the public on which location would be best, and they plan to spend a little over a month collecting feedback.

If you would like to give your thoughts you can call the DDA at 318-222-7403, or leave a comment on its Facebook.

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