In the three years since New York City began installing curbside chargers for electric cars, demand for the spaces has boomed — both from EV owners looking for a place to plug in and from gas-engine drivers willing to risk a ticket in exchange for street parking.
“Across usage, availability, awareness, everything has exceeded our original expectations when we first started this project,” Rada said in an interview. “Let’s take our learnings here, let’s start the next rollout, so we can make this more accessible to more people in our city.” A Canadian EV charging firm, FLO, was hired to install and maintain the curbside chargers for the pilot as well as 18 city fleet chargers located in front of municipal buildings, the last of which was completed in January. The street spots for the general public cost $2.50 per hour, or $1 per hour at night, covering both parking and charging. They’re located in all five boroughs, primarily Brooklyn.
Still, it hasn’t been without its problems. Enforcing the “EV charging only” parking regulation has been difficult, Con Ed said in its fourth-quarter progress report. Last year, the NYPD said it issued a total of 2,197 summonses for parking violators using the spots. It’s gotten so bad that some plug-in owners call up their other EV-driving friends to come take over when they’re about to leave, he said. But availability still falls woefully short of demand. Although some homeowners charge in their own driveways or pay to use parking lots or garages with connections, drivers of the city’s 53,564 registered EVs simply want more.