Three new electric vehicle charging stations went up this week in the City Hall parking garage in Edmond, Oklahoma, bringing the city's total public EV charging network to 34 stations. The new chargers can power up to six vehicles at once and sit inside a free, 216-space garage that includes seven accessible parking spots and is open to all visitors and residents.
The expansion is part of a grant-funded partnership with the Association of Central Oklahoma Governments, according to News 9. The station's report says the three new City Hall chargers were funded in part by a $47,084 grant, and each unit can charge two vehicles simultaneously. City Hall now joins a growing list of public charging locations around Edmond, including Mitch Park, UCO visitor lots, the Edmond Tennis Center, the Railyard, and the Service Blake Soccer Complex.
What It Actually Costs to Plug In
Charging at an Edmond public station runs $0.25 per kilowatt-hour, per the same News 9 account. For comparison, the U.S. Department of Energy has reported that charging an EV with a 200-mile range and a fully depleted 54 kWh battery costs about $6 at a national electricity price of 10.7 cents per kilowatt-hour — meaning the same 200-mile-range vehicle would run about $14 to fully charge at Edmond's public rate. That gap reflects the premium of public charging infrastructure compared to home charging rates, though Edmond drivers still avoid the standalone excise tax that some Oklahoma station operators must pay.
Under the state's DRIVE Act, enacted in 2021, public EV charging station operators are required to pay a $0.03-per-kilowatt-hour excise tax on electricity dispensed to EVs starting January 1, 2024, according to the Oklahoma Tax Commission. Stations that dispense free power are exempt from that tax. Oklahoma also charges EV owners an annual weight-based registration fee — $110 for passenger EVs weighing 6,000 pounds or less and $158 for those between 6,001 and 10,000 pounds — with the surcharge revenue funneled into the state's DRIVE Revolving Fund to support transportation infrastructure, per the U.S. Department of Energy.
Wind Power Behind the Plug
Every public charging site in Edmond runs on 100 percent domestic wind energy delivered through Edmond Electric and the Oklahoma Municipal Power Authority, per News 9's report. That clean-power backbone traces back over a decade: Edmond Electric purchases wholesale municipal power through OMPA, which helped Edmond become Oklahoma's first designated EPA Green Power Community in 2014, with municipal facilities heavily supported by wind power, according to the Oklahoma Municipal Power Authority. OMPA supplies public power to 39 municipal utilities across the state.
Edmond's public charging stations delivered 86,000 kWh of electricity last year, the station's report notes, an amount the city says avoided emissions equivalent to planting 1,039 tree seedlings for a decade or preserving 63 acres of U.S. forests for a year. Edmond and the University of Central Oklahoma have secured more than $150,000 in grant funding for EV infrastructure since 2019, and the city has already scheduled installation of two additional charging stations at the Uncommon Ground sculpture park for 2027.
A Multi-Year Municipal Push
Edmond's charger buildout didn't start this week. The Association of Central Oklahoma Governments named Edmond Sustainability Coordinator Phil Jones its 2020 Clean Cities Stakeholder of the Year for leading the grant-funded installation of the city's initial network of six municipal EV charging stations, according to ACOG. ACOG grants have continued to subsidize Edmond's clean transportation projects in the years since, including this latest round funding the City Hall installation.
Edmond's expansion also lands within a broader statewide push. ACOG and the Indian Nations Council of Governments relaunched Drive EV Oklahoma in August 2025 as a coalition to promote EV adoption, expand infrastructure, and lower transportation costs; the two organizations administer Oklahoma's two DOE-designated Clean Cities Coalitions. ACOG separately awarded $4.2 million in Public Fleet Clean Air Grants in April 2024 and approved another $50 million in March 2026 for regional transit, road, and clean air projects across Central Oklahoma.
Statewide Growth, and Growing Pains
Public EV charging ports across Oklahoma grew from 540 in 2023 to 640 in 2024, with projections reaching 740 ports by late 2025, according to the Oklahoma Corporation Commission's Public Utilities Division, as reported by OK Energy Today. That outlet notes that regulatory meter-accuracy testing rules — administrative requirements under OAC 165:14-3-5 and OAC 165:14-5-5(c) — along with meter calibration equipment shortages for DC fast chargers, have slowed the pace of new charger installations statewide.
Federal money is also flowing toward the corridors around Edmond. Oklahoma was allocated more than $66 million in federal funds through the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure program to build fast-charging stations spaced every 50 miles along major highway corridors, including I-35 near Edmond, according to the state's EVOK program. Those NEVI-funded sites are required to offer at least four 150 kW fast-charging ports open 24/7, per the Oklahoma Department of Transportation. Statewide, Oklahoma now has 1,527 electric vehicle charging ports operating across 2,158 alternative fuel stations as of 2026, according to the U.S. Department of Energy's Alternative Fuels Data Center.
