Cape Cod EV Chapter to the rescue!
EVA Cape Cod forms to promote charging infrastructure
EVACC chapter co-founder Matt Scinto and daughter in his Tesla
While electric vehicle (EV) chargers may be plentiful in Boston and elsewhere in Massachusetts, the popular tourist destination of Cape Cod is a charging desert.
“It’s like our own little universe out here,” said Matt Scinto, an orchestra conductor who co-founded the Electric Vehicle Association of Cape Cod (EVACC) at the end of last year. “We should be much farther along with infrastructure, but no one’s felt the need to pool resources to do something about it.”
Scinto noted that the offseason population of the Cape—approximately 200,000—expands four times in the summer months.
“That’s a million people who come out here in the summer, so even if 5 percent are driving electric, we’ll have issues,” he said. “And it could be more than 5 percent. We’re a tourist destination in a progressive area of the country.”
The situation is somewhat better for Tesla drivers, with three Superchargers in the area. “It’s drivers of other EVs who are in danger of shortage,” Scinto explained. “Presently, there’s just one fast charging station in Hyannis.”
“We needed a cohort of EV owners to guide the process. That’s why we started a chapter in a state where there are so many other chapters.”
EVACC co-founder Terry Gallagher
Voice from the road
“I’m thrilled,” EVACC co-founder Terry Gallagher said by phone about his Volkswagen ID.4 as he and his wife Elaine headed from Cape Cod to Palm Desert, California, with a stop in North Carolina to visit Gallagher’s mother. “We love this car. It’s the second time we’ve done this trip.”
Like Scinto, Gallagher believes that charging access on the Cape is woefully inadequate.
“Tesla may be opening its network to non-Tesla vehicles, but for now the situation is horrible,” he said, noting that many of the chargers he has encountered on his road trip are at big-box locations like Walmart and Target. “We don’t have many big-box stores on Cape Cod.”
Now serving his third term representing his hometown of Eastham on the Barnstable County Assembly of Delegates, Gallagher believes, “Promoting tourism is valuable to all residents of Cape Cod, but we can’t promote it if we don’t have the infrastructure.”
“Our primary tourist attraction is the Cape Cod National Seashorel” he said. “It’s a real gem of wilderness, but you have to drive to the Outer Cape to get there and you need a decent amount of charge.”
Working toward June
EVACC’s Facebook group has been expanding, now upwards of 60 members. Plans are forming to support the Recharge Cape Cod EV Test Drive Event on June 3 in Hyannis, and Scinto hopes to bring members and potential members together for other in-person meetings or Zoom chats.
“There’s no doubt we’ll grow quickly,” said Gallagher of the chapter. “There are lots of new and enthusiastic owners of EVs on the Cape. People like to get together with other people with common interests. That’s how Matt and I came together and that’s how any organization forms.”
