The City of Langford has announced a first-of-its-kind Tesla centre is coming to City Gate Boulevard.
The 35,000 square foot facility will begin construction next week and is expected to bring 50 full-time jobs once it’s complete in 2023.
“It’s really important for our city to embrace this and be part of it,” says Langford Mayor, Stew Young at the groundbreaking ceremony on Thursday.
Tesla drivers on the Island will no longer have to get on a ferry to have their vehicles serviced in Vancouver or Surrey.
Also announced at the event, the West Shore RCMP will be acquiring their first-ever electric cruiser.
“The general duty member that’s going to your day-to-day call, you’ll start seeing them in electric vehicles soon,” says Supt. Todd Preston with the West Shore RCMP.
The Tesla Y Model was trialed in Washington detachments but will be the first marked, front-line electric vehicle in Canada and is currently being retrofitted in Ottawa.
It’s all part of the RCMP’s goal to be net-zero by 2050.
West Shore RCMP confirming they also hope to test the Ford Mach E as well. This vehicle was recently tested in Michigan and according to the company, passed their state police evaluation.
Locally, the Mach E is currently being trialed by Victoria Police as an administrative vehicle.
VicPD along with Saanich Police confirming they too hope to eventually go green.
“When a vehicle is looking to expire out of our service we’re going to be looking to replace those with either hybrid or electric,” says Const. Markus Anastasiades with Saanich Police.
The detachment has already designated an area of their parking lot for the new fleet but say rigorous testing needs to be done before any order is placed.
“Our vehicles are driven approximately 100 kilometers a day in Saanich, however hours are spent static idling, doing reports, sitting on scenes, so we need to ensure that the vehicles are going to be able to keep up to those demands and needs,” adds Anastasiades.
Later this year it’s expected drivers may start to see the EV RCMP vehicles on the roads in the West Shore as the City of Langford celebrates a win for the entire island community.
Hannah Lepine
