EV Spot Network Project Planning

Introducing the EV Spot Network  

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The EV Spot Network is an initiative jointly undertaken by the City of Saint Paul, the City of Minneapolis, HOURCAR, and Xcel Energy. Its primary objective is to establish increased use and access to electric vehicles through on-street EV Spot Charging and Evie Community Carshare. Formerly known as the Twin Cities Electric Vehicle Mobility Network, this program enables the public to conveniently utilize and experience the benefits of electric transportation.

• EV Spot Charging: The charging hubs in Saint Paul and Minneapolis are strategically positioned along public roadways and jointly managed by both cities. These hubs feature dedicated charging for Evie Carshare vehicles to conveniently charge their shared electric vehicles, as well as designated ports for members of the public to charge their privately-owned electric vehicles.

• Evie Carsharing:  Evie Carsharing, operated by HOURCAR, is a unique car-sharing service operating in the Twin Cities. Unlike traditional models, Evie implements an all-electric, one-way, -floating system. This means that you have the freedom to conveniently pick up a car, travel to your desired destination, and park it on any street within the designated service area. Receive drive credit when plugged it into a green  EV Spot Charger at the end of your trip.

Walking, biking, and taking public transit are still the most sustainable ways to get around, but some trips require driving a car. This car-sharing service offers a new option for sustainable transportation, complementing public transit and the Twin Cities' network of biking and walking paths.

The service also offers its members reliable car access without the cost of car ownership. Pay by the minute, hour, or day -- review the rates here. You won't need to pay for parking, insurance, or charging for the trip.

Evie Carsharing Overview

Similar to renting a car, using a car-sharing service lets you access a vehicle without having to own one. Unlike traditional car rentals, you can pick up one of many cars parked within the service area any time of day or night. Find available cars using the Evie/HOURCAR app on your smartphone.

Car-sharing makes car access a community resource, helping people save money, reducing air pollution, and lowering traffic congestion and parking demand in the area. For every car-sharing vehicle available in a community, the people of that community purchase 8 to 11 fewer cars than they did before. This lowers local air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions while protecting public health and helping slow climate change.

Learn more about Evie Carshare here

How to Use the Network

The Evie Carsharing Service

To use these car-share vehicles, apply for an HOURCAR membership to verify that you have a driver's license, you are over 18 years old, and a few other details. You can visit Evie's Join Us page to see how to apply.

Charging the Vehicles: Receive driving credits when you plug in and charge the Evie to an EV Spot Charging hub. Use the Evie/HOURCAR app to find charging hubs near you. Not able to plug in? No problem - park the Evie at any legal street-side parking space within the service area if that's more convenient.  

The Service Area:  The service area is the region of the Twin Cities in which the cars circulate. All trips must start and end within the service area but you can drive outside of the service area during your trip.

Using the Evie App, you can see the map of where the cars are located. Then, when you finish driving, you can park the car in any legal street-side parking space in the service area or at any of the designated charging hubs. 

The EV Spots

As part of this project, electric vehicle charging hubs (EV Spots) are built throughout the Twin Cities. At each EV Spot, at least one charger is available for public use and another charger for the Evie car-sharing vehicles. 

These EV Spots will substantially grow the existing charging network. One of the goals of creating this network is to make it easier for people to purchase electric vehicles knowing that they can easily charge them throughout the cities. The cost of EVs is dropping fast. As soon as 2024, many EVs will be less expensive than gas-powered cars of a similar model. When prices fall, we expect higher demand for public charging, and this network will help meet that demand. 

Click here to learn more about electric vehicle chargers in Saint Paul

How We Choose Charging Hub Locations

Car-sharing thrives in areas with a dense population and reliable transit options. However, we acknowledge that equitable access to car-sharing and efficient transit services has not always been a reality. Our aim is to enhance accessibility in Saint Paul and Minneapolis by introducing car-sharing to neighborhoods that have previously not had this resource. This way, we can ensure that more individuals can benefit from this valuable service.

Within each neighborhood in the service area, we're working to make the hubs conveniently and centrally located. We're taking into account a host of factors in placing these hubs in proximity to affordable housing, multi-family housing units, local businesses, schools, libraries, and recreation centers, while also locating them close to public transit networks and bike-friendly streets. In Minneapolis, siting is being coordinated with their mobility hubs pilot program. There are many logistic factors as well, including where there is space available and other city planning activities. Finally, we consider hyper-local information such as unmarked loading zones and other local curbside activities that we would find alternative solutions for as part of this project.

Use the Evie app to see the location of all EV Spots. 

Community Input and Designing the Service

Gathering and Responding to Community Input

Within neighborhoods in the service area where car-sharing is a new service, we are partnering with local community organizations to help us do community outreach and inform people about the new charging hub network. Through this outreach, we are gathering input about the barriers that people may have to accessing car-share, as well as how pricing can be structured to minimize those barriers to access. In the fall of 2019 and spring of 2020, we also held focus groups supported by resources through the American Cities Climate Challenge as part of a project prototyping process. We began to hear from a diverse group of residents about how they would use (or not use) this new car-sharing service, helping us design the service with the goal of making it as beneficial as possible to our local community.

Prototyping- What is it and why was it done?

Community Engagement and Outreach Report

Note that these meetings took place prior to the new "EV Spot Network" name for the project.

Our Partners

HOURCAR

HOURCAR is a locally based non-profit that introduced car-share to the Twin Cities in 2005. They currently have over 60 hubs throughout Minneapolis and Saint Paul and 8 different car models to choose from -- including an electric plug-in Prius and pick-up trucks. Although most cars are used for short-term rental, some can be checked out for a weekend getaway. HOURCAR offers a variety of plans for individuals and businesses.

City of Minneapolis

The City of Minneapolis is working with the City of Saint Paul to help design this service and host charging hubs throughout our two cities.

East Metro Strong

East Metro Strong is a public-private partnership of businesses, cities, and counties working together to bring more and better transit investment to the East Metro and catalyze job growth and economic development opportunities.

Xcel Energy

Xcel Energy provides energy that powers millions of homes and businesses across 8 Western and Midwestern states. Xcel Energy's plan to build a carbon-free future lays out a bold vision for reducing its carbon footprint. By 2030, Xcel plans for its electricity fuel mix to be 80% carbon-free. By 2050, the company plans for all its electricity generation to be 100% net carbon-free.

Funders

The Saint Paul Foundation, McKnight Foundation, 3M Gives, Otto Bremer Trust, Minneapolis Foundation (through its Climate Action & Racial Equity Fund), Metro CERT (Great Plains Institute), and Energy Foundation, have all generously supported this project, in addition to the Bloomberg Philanthropies American Cities Climate Challenge. 

This project is also a recipient of Federal Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality funding via the Metropolitan Council's Regional Solicitation process, as well as a recipient of a Department of Energy grant with the partnership of the Lung Association.