Owners of electric vehicles can now charge up their vehicles if needed at an electric vehicle (EV) charging station located at Port Alfred’s Royal St Andrews Hotel.
Though research is not available at this stage, early indications are that not too many folk own electric vehicles in the Port Alfred precinct. “I think there might be only one or two,” says the hotel’s managing director, Justin Bekker.
“However we do have hotel guests who have used the EV facility over the past few weeks,” he says.
Technology group, Rubicon,who installed the hotel’s solar panel network more than a year ago, had suggested the hotel installs an EV charger on the premises. “We had (the latest one) installed on December 15 (2024) and, once they had authorised it to start working, it was up and running within two days. It is tied in to the solar panel system, so if you charge your car here you are getting clean energy straight from our solar system,” added Bekker.
With not too many Port Alfred residents owning electric vehicles in the area, what would have been the reasons for the hotel’s move to an EV station?
“A time will come a time when more people will have electric cars,” said Bekker. “And it’s a good drawcard for people who have electric cars. People visiting the hotel used the facility over the festive season.
“We are the only EV charging facility in town; PE and East London have charging stations as well.”
The EV charger is compatible with both AC and DC charging vehicles.
“It depends on your type of vehicle: some cars require AC charging and others DC. The DC mode is faster charging and it provides 40Kw of DC charging, depending on the battery size. From 20 to 100 per cent to a full charge will take about 90 minutes, again, it depends on battery size.”
So if you are travelling in a hurry on an urgent matter from let’s say one part of the province to the other, you have to factor in those kind of times?
“Well then you shouldn’t have an electric car I guess,” muses Bekker. “Or you can come in to the hotel and relax, have a drink and put your feet up. But the average waiting time is about 30 minutes, (if the charge is not too low when you start) depending on battery size. And it’s still much cheaper than petrol.”
Rubicon paid for the installation of the facility and receive commission on its use.
How does it work?
EV owners can log into the Rubicon App on their phone; check out the charge points list and select a charger. You can start or stop the charging session remotely or set a limit for the length of the charging session.
You can apply for a Radio Frequency Identification Card (RFID) on the Rubicon website and buy tokens with the RFID card to activate and pay for charging. Some chargers may allow you to tap your (bank) card to pay for the charge.
- This article was first published in Talk of the Town, January 16, 2025. The newspaper serving the communities of Ndlambe and the Sunshine Coast, with a weekly wrap of Makhanda news, is available at stores from early on Thursdays.
