Electric Vehicles are starting to become more and more popular in Saskatchewan, despite the concern many have about a lack of charging stations.

Moose Jaw had a number of Tesla charging stations installed at the Civic Centre Plaza in recent months, which local electric car owners have been raving about.

Local Jim Tenford bought an electric car last year and says that while the range is lower in the winter due to the cold, he believes his reason for buying one was justified.

"We really aren't doing enough to help prevent climate change. So to try and lower my own impact, my own feeling of hypocrisy, I decided we really needed to get an electric car, and we were willing to make a compromise. Then we went out to an electric car meetup and we got to drive one of these things, and we realized there's no actual compromise at all."

He says that even with the range penalty in cold weather, he hasn't had any issues getting anywhere, and that getting to plug in his vehicle at night to charge ensures he starts every day with a full battery.

Tenford says the charging stations set up in the Civic Centre Plaza do a great job of getting his car charged quickly.

"The one up at the Civic Centre Plaza will charge up to 1500km's in an hour. You can probably go from no battery power at all to 80% in twenty minutes. My car has a 500km range, but realistically I only have a 300km range. So it's not going to take us any longer to go anywhere because I have to stop for 20 minutes just for my own health."

Critics of electric vehicles in cold weather argue that the issue is just a matter of science; batteries operate at peak efficiency between fifteen to twenty-six degrees Celsius. Anything below zero can dramatically reduce the amount of power it can supply. When you combine that with an electric heater drawing power to heat the interior since electric vehicles do not have the benefit of heated air from a running engine, the effective range of a standard electric vehicle can reportedly drop forty or even fifty percent.

However, because the interior heater of an electric vehicle doesn't rely on the excess heat of an internal combustion engine, electric vehicle heaters come on instantly, which is a major plus for some.

Tenford, however, says that despite that, there are still more positives than negatives.

"Its all-wheel-drive and it also has extensive traction control. When I'm driving along there's been a couple of times when I've been on some ice and snow and I try and over-steer just to see if I can get it to spin out, and it won't. The drives better than I do. You stop at the intersections and normally my wheels would spin as I try and build up some speed, but nope, no problems."

Maintenance cost is another plus says Tenford, due to the relatively fewer moving parts of an electric engine. It could cost as little as forty dollars for maintenance over the course of four years. Tenford also says that with his new ride, oil changes are a thing of the past.