There will be five new electric car chargers installed at the University of Massachusetts in the coming months, according to Bill Watts of Transportation Services.

According to UMass News and Media Relations, two of the chargers will be installed at Robsham Visitors Center, two at the parking garage and the final charger will be at Transportation Services.

Media Relations said that four of the chargers are level two chargers, which have the capacity to fully charge two cars in four to five hours. The fifth charger is a level three charger, which can charge a car from zero to 80 percent in 30 minutes. They added that the level three charger installed at UMass will be the first one in the state of Massachusetts.

According to Watts, the funding for the electric chargers came from campus funds, and added that “the Chancellor’s Office was very generous.” However, Watts said that “because they are not installed yet, I only have rough ball parks [for the total cost] … worst case scenario is upwards of $70,000 for hardware and installation.”

Watts explained that there are currently seven electric cars on campus, all belonging to faculty and staff. For the students, Watts said that there is a “catch-22…because with no chargers there is no reason for students to bring [the cars] up here.” However, he hopes that having electric chargers on campus will influence students to purchase and drive electric vehicles.

“Electric vehicles are considerably better for the environment in terms of their emissions and as a green community that is going to help us move forward,” Watts said. While he said that the electric chargers are “a considerable investment, it is definitely worth it as this is one of the avenues that we are going towards for carbon neutrality in 2025.”

Student reactions about the new electric chargers are mixed.

“I think it’s great … I think that is very important that we transition to a more sustainable campus,” said freshman David Ruymen.

However, sophomore Kevin Fitzgerald is not so certain that the chargers are a smart investment.

“I think that it is an interesting move because I don’t think that a lot of people have electric cars… it would be kind of a waste if they invested all that money, and then there were no cars to be charged,” he said.

Despite the mixed responses, Transportation Services is moving forward with its plans, and anticipates a second phase of the project which will provide long-term chargers for faculty and staff, according to Watts. However, he said that due to uncertain funding, there is no timeline for phase two yet.

Nikoleta Nikova can be reached at [email protected].