EGN NEWS DESK
The 600 new chargers can even reserve parking spots for EVs and use the identical pricing mannequin because the preliminary pilot, in response to the NYC Department of Transportation.
The metropolis continues to be figuring out which EV chargers to make use of. In its Con Ed pilot, it selected the corporate FLO. But putting in these chargers required digging underground to connect with a essential energy line, then patching up the road or parking zone — a course of that’s not solely costly however time-consuming to get the fitting permits for.
The invoice for FLO’s development was $13.4 million — virtually as a lot as town’s new $15 million grant — to deploy simply 60 chargers over six years. That per-charger price would make it expensive to put in 600 EV chargers, not to mention the 10,000 town needs to finally construct. But there are inexpensive approaches.
Voltpost, which put in two chargers in NYC as a part of one other pilot venture, converts lampposts to EV chargers. Its mannequin cuts prices considerably as a result of it doesn’t require digging, stated founder Jeff Prosserman, although it does entail upgrading {the electrical} capability of streetlights from 150 to 240 volts. That will be finished with a single wire that connects to the lamp, Prosserman stated, at a value that’s lower than the standard charger mannequin.
Prosserman declined to share particular per-charger prices, however stated his firm would have the ability to deploy 600 chargers throughout the $15 million price range and may retrofit a lamppost in a single to 2 hours.
Another technique for getting EV chargers near shoppers is connecting them to buildings — the mannequin Itselectric makes use of. That additionally avoids the necessity to dig by tapping into vitality already being despatched to buildings. Each Itselectric charger prices underneath $10,000 to put in, in response to Gordon, who stated the corporate might deploy greater than twice the quantity of chargers throughout the metropolis’s $15 million price range.
“The energy is already there on the precise proper degree, as a result of Level 2 charger is identical as an electrical dryer or electrical oven that you’d put into that constructing,” Gordon stated, referring to the usual charging degree that curbside chargers use. “That permits us to deploy chargers actually anyplace there’s a constructing and a curb.”
Neither Itselectric nor Voltpost is formally concerned within the NYC venture at this stage, although each say they intend to use to DOT as soon as it points a request for proposals. A timeline for development will probably be introduced later this 12 months, DOT stated.
Once constructed, the hope is that the brand new curbside chargers will nudge extra of NYC’s automobile homeowners to decide on electrical autos. While New York has extra sturdy public transit choices than most U.S. cities, providing residents a a lot climate-friendlier approach to get round their metropolis than even proudly owning an EV, almost half of its households nonetheless personal a automobile. If town is to decarbonize, these automobile homeowners — together with town’s fleets of taxis, buses, vehicles, and supply vans — want to go away fuel behind.
For all these autos, “we need to make sure that they’ve the capability to go from fuel to electrical,” Prosserman stated. And that may occur solely with the right charging infrastructure in place.
