For New Yorkers who rely on street parking, charging an electric vehicle has often been more hassle than habit, but a major change is underway.
New York City selected Brooklyn startup It's Electric to spearhead a broad curbside charging expansion, which will make it far easier for apartment residents, rideshare drivers, and other motorists without private garages to switch to cleaner cars, according to InsideEVs.
Here's what to know
The city plans to install 700 Level 2 curbside chargers.
The rollout will reach every borough, with extra attention on neighborhoods that have high concentrations of Uber, Lyft, and taxi drivers.
While parts of Europe have already made curbside charging common, most large American cities still have relatively few options. That shortage can be a major obstacle in dense neighborhoods where drivers lack driveway or garage access.
Tiya Gordon, It's Electric co-founder and chief operating officer, described the regional divide in comments to InsideEVs.
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"Once you leave L.A. and you go to Boston, you go to New York, you go to San Francisco, you go to D.C., you go to Philadelphia, you go to New York, it's a desert," Gordon explained.
The city is also linking the charger rollout to a broader transportation goal: transitioning all rideshare vehicles to electric by 2030.
More background
The city already has some experience with curbside charging.
Officials said a pilot program installed 88 curbside Flo chargers, called them "immensely popular with EV owners," and expects to replace them with It's Electric equipment.
City Department of Transportation data indicated heavy use at those locations: EVs occupied the sites 70% of the time overall, some stations reached 99% occupancy, and power was being delivered during 85% of the time the spaces were occupied.
For Gordon, that demand is especially significant for the city's 80,000 rideshare drivers.
"Without curbside charging in neighborhoods like Jackson Heights or Flushing or the Bronx, [drivers] are being forced to drive to a limited amount of fast charging stations, wait in long lines … pay 50 cents per kilowatt hour, and then drive two hours back into Manhattan," she stated.
For everyday drivers, more neighborhood chargers means less wasted time, lower fueling costs than gas, and an easier path to owning a vehicle that produces no tailpipe pollution.
What's being done?
It's Electric said the chargers were built for crowded city streets.
The stainless steel posts have no dangling charging cords, screens, or credit card readers, which the company says reduces sidewalk clutter and better matches city design standards.
Rather than depending on a separate utility hookup, the chargers use power from nearby apartment buildings, which It's Electric said lowers installation costs and speeds up deployment.
Gordon said there will be no more than two chargers on a single block, and the units will be made in Queens.
The company is also growing beyond New York. Alongside the city announcement, It's Electric said a funding round brought its total funding to $15 million.
Gordon told InsideEVs the startup now has 50 chargers in operation and 700 customers, and has also landed contracts in Boston, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Philadelphia.
"By putting chargers in the neighborhoods where these rideshare drivers just park overnight and go to sleep, they're waking up and they have that full battery," she said.
Where can I learn more?
These articles dig into apartment charging access, highway build-outs, vandalism, theft, and wireless charging roads.
• Texas is adding 50 new charging stations along major highway corridors.
• In Los Angeles, copper theft at chargers is driving up repair costs and outages.
• Detroit is testing roads that can charge electric vehicles while they drive.
As more Americans make the switch from gas-powered vehicles to EVs, charging infrastructure is slowly but surely rising to meet that increasing demand.
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