Crossman said there are "probably not" enough fast chargers in the province. Fast chargers can fully charge an EV in about half an hour, as opposed to slower chargers that need to be plugged in overnight or all day. 

"Not just myself, but other fleet vehicles travel around the province. They don't sit in their office all day, and it's a concern. You need to know you're going to get home the same day you leave and [get] back to work."

He admitted all EV users face the same issue and said "hopefully" they will have access to the same kind of charger someday. 

EV driver Kiirsti Owen was one of several drivers to complain on a website that maps charger locations that the Marysville Place station is not available for public use.

The New Brunswick government's goal is to have electric vehicles account for half of all new vehicle sales by 2030.

The station's exclusivity has become a point of discussion — and frustration — for electric vehicle drivers on PlugShare, a site for sharing charger information.

Tesla drivers have their own charging network, but for non-Tesla owners around Fredericton, there are only four fast stations: at Marysville Place, N.B. Power's head office downtown, a local used car dealership and the Irving Big Stop on the Trans-Canada Highway in Lincoln.

Drivers plug in and tap their credit card. If they try that at Marysville Place, the station rejects their card with the screen display message: "Unauthorized access. For private use only." 

When drivers plug in and tap their credit card at the fast-charging station at Marysville Place, this is they message they get. (Jacques Poitras/CBC)

That means a quarter of the fast charging capacity in and around the provincial capital is being hogged by the province's Environment Department — whose climate change plan includes encouraging a lot more New Brunswickers to buy EVs by 2030.

A top government official recently acknowledged that the lack of charger availability is at odds with that objective.

"If we're going to achieve our goals and if we're going to have the ability for EV vehicles to become part of the mainstream mode of transportation in our province, we need to address the infrastructure," Tom McFarlane, the deputy minister of energy, told MLAs.

McFarlane said at a meeting of the public accounts committee Sept. 8 that his department recently conducted a needs assessment for charging stations that will be translated and released to the committee soon.

Jim Gilbert, whose Wheels and Deals auto dealership in Fredericton has one of the three publicly available chargers, said for savvy buyers the scarcity of stations is a key factor in deciding whether to purchase.

"The customer that knows EVs and did his homework, they want to know where these big, fast chargers are," he said.

  Jim Gilbert, whose Wheels and Deals dealership in Fredericton has one of the three publicly available chargers, said for savvy buyers the lack of stations is a key factor in their purchase decision. (Jacques Poitras/CBC)

"They want to know if they get to Saint John, they get to Moncton, they get to Fredericton, they want to know they're going to be able to charge up fast."

A fast charger can charge an EV in 30 to 45 minutes. The next-fastest option, Level 2, takes hours and is best used for drivers charging their cars overnight or while at their office all day.

Marysville Place has some Level 2 chargers, but in Owen's mind, the fast charger is unnecessary. 

"You shouldn't need to have a super-fast charger that can do it in 30 minutes."

For the same cost, the department could have installed more Level 2 chargers and put the fast charger "elsewhere, where it could have been used by the whole province," she said.

     A government spokesperson did not make anyone available for an interview but said the charging stations at Marysville Place 'are for the use of GNB fleet vehicles only.' (Jacques Poitras/CBC)

There are about 3,000 registered electric vehicles in the province now, and the government's goal is to have EVs account for 50 per cent of all vehicle sales in the province by 2030.

That would translate into about 140,000 EVs on the road in seven years, McFarlane told the public accounts committee.

N.B. Power said last week it had been stymied in its push to install more chargers around the province to meet what is expected to be growing demand.

Brad Coady, the utility's director of business development, told the same committee that the Energy and Utilities Board had prevented N.B. Power from getting further into the charging station business because it was outside its mandate.

But Coady said the Crown corporation has a new application before the EUB that it hopes will allow it "to play in the EV space" again soon.

     A fast charger can charge an EV in 30 to 45 minutes. The next-fastest option is a Level Two, shown here. It takes hours and is best used for drivers charging their cars overnight or while at their office all day. (Jacques Poitras/CBC)

Owen made it home last December after crossing her fingers and hoping a station in Doaktown — the range her car had left — would be free. It was.

Until more stations come on line, she said, the province should loosen up and make the Marysville charging station available to all.

"Taxpayers paid for this and they should be able to use it," she said.

"It's not like I think that everything taxpayers pay for, we should be able to use. I don't expect to be able to use the minister's office for my own private use. But I just feel like there are so few of these chargers, and there's a need for them."