Every year, MDOT and MPCA put out the latest numbers for electric vehicle registrations in Minnesota and I get overly excited. I find this data particularly interesting, because it helps to paint a picture that can easily be overlooked: Rochester area electric vehicle adoption is growing. In 2021 Olmsted County reached…

You might have missed it, but Rochester is now home to a new DC Fast charger for electric vehicles (since August, actually).

ZEF Energy, who installed and manages the chargers, was awarded grant funding from the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency to install fast charging stations around Minnesota to support electric vehicle travel.

Rochester has had a Tesla Supercharger for some time, but lacked a fast charging option for other EVs until now. This is great news for EV owners traveling to Rochester or through Rochester.

Since starting Rochester Electric Vehicles in 2019, I have been contacted by visiting EV owners going to the Mayo Clinic, visiting family, etc. and wondering what charging options were available outside of the various Level 2 chargers. While these options are practical if you plan to be in one area for multiple hours, they become less helpful for shorts stops.

When we decided to get our first electric vehicle, there was one thing that was causing me a bit of anxiety...I didn’t know how to actually charge an EV. I had seen the charging stations and cars using the chargers, but without any experience myself I was worried I’d do it wrong and blow myself up.

After having an EV for a couple of years, that thought seems silly now. I’m guessing others have felt the same way so today I want to bring things back to the basics and share what to know for charging an electric car.

2019 has been an important year for electric vehicles in Rochester. Let’s take a look back at the highlights from the growing EV community.

Minnesota as a whole nearly doubled electric vehicle registrations in 1 year from 6,000 to just over 10,000. I wanted to dig a little deeper into the data from and see how the Rochester area / Olmsted County stacked up for EV adoption.

Fall of 2017, probably in the middle of the night, was when I realized I needed to make a change. Our daughter Cece (also responds to The Cecemeister) was recently born and we found 2 things to be true 1) Half of your time during this period is spent calming the kid down or trying to get them to sleep and 2) you can get absolutely nothing productive done while holding them. All you can really do is read an endless supply of terrible Buzzfeed articles and quizzes. Eventually after finishing the quizzes telling you that you would have been in Hufflepuff, you stumble across some actual news.

If you’re looking for a regular electric car charging station or Tesla Supercharger in Rochester, there are multiple options around town, if you know where to find then. Find the Rochester EV charging station map here.