Drivers of electric cars now have more juice to hit the road. A new Tesla DC fast-charging station has been brought to Cortez, nestled between Safeway and First Southwest Bank off Main Street.
A long-haul void of chargers across more than 120 miles—from Durango to Bluff, Utah—now has a new supply of power, said Sally Chafee, acting director of CDOT.
“With this new bank of EV chargers, visitors headed to Mesa Verde or the Four Corners or driving the Trail of the Ancients Scenic Byway will know they can quickly recharge their electric vehicles and explore some of Colorado's most beautiful landscapes without range anxiety,” Chafee said.
The new station is now the fourth in Cortez. The Colorado Welcome Center, the Montezuma County Annex and the Keese Motor Company Ford dealer all have their own. But each of these other stations have only one port. The Tesla station is the most comprehensive of the four, with eight sleek, white dual-port chargers, each of which can be used for NACS and CCS charging connections.
Dan Daniel was charging up at the new station this morning with his Tesla Model Y. He was on his way back home to Arizona, returning from a road trip to visit his father in Oklahoma.
“There’s a real hole in terms of charging,” Daniel said. “There’s certain areas of the country where there’s not a lot of civilization.”
Daniel called the new charging station “an oasis.”
Both the Colorado Energy Office and Colorado Department of Transportation provided funding to build the station. According to the U.S. Department of Transportation, DC fast-charging stations can reach 80% charge in 20 minutes to an hour.
The station is part of a larger effort to power electric vehicles statewide. Cortez’s new station is the sixth site funded with the support of the federal National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (NEVI) program. Colorado expects 12 more to arrive through 2025.
