EMILY HSUEH
SHAWVILLE June 9, 2021
An electric new addition to a Shawville pharmacy is now up and running.
Familiprix recently unveiled a new electric car charging station in their parking lot. It was officially open to the public on June 3, said pharmacy owner Marc Aufranc . . .
The charging station is capable of charging two cars, but only one of the cables is available for use by the public. The other is reserved for the pharmacy’s own electric delivery vehicle.
According to Aufranc, installing an electric charger was something that he had been wanting to do for the last year. He wanted to add a new service to the Pontiac to keep up with the bigger cities. In fact, the pharmacy’s delivery vehicle was ordered after the station was agreed on.
“I wanted to have the charging stations because it wasn’t something that was available in the Pontiac,” he said. “If you want to develop the area and you don’t have the same services as other towns, people who have cottages or who come here, if they have electric vehicles, they will not come here. So that was my idea, to give services to the population and cottagers, to be attractive to them.”
To use the charger, drivers simply need to download an app called EVduty. Charging costs one dollar per hour.
The charger has been up for less than a week but Aufranc has already seen it being put to use. While there is no immediate plan to add more chargers, Aufranc said it wouldn’t be out of the question.
“There isn’t a plan right now, but if it got popular, why not? I’m a pharmacy before anything, but if there is a demand for it, sure I’ll invest in more.
