More EV charging in New York

Although the government and industry are urging people to buy electric cars, there is still a problem of where to refuel the car by plugging it into the socket.

Many companies are making electric vehicles with enough range for many applications. But as with the talk of hydrogen cars in the 1990s and 2000s, promoters can’t do much until enough infrastructure is in place to keep most consumers from feeling like they’re going to be caught with their cars and nowhere to go because they can’t charge.

Attempts to solve this problem have taken the form of a series of experiments that have brought together technology and CRE industry players, since charging cars requires a parking space and charging equipment.

Private partnerships have happened beforelike when Shoals Technologies Group — a company that provides systems for solar, energy storage and electric vehicle charging applications — partnered with Brookfield Renewable, a unit of Brookfield Asset Management that owns a portfolio of energy investments.

The new partnership is between Invisible Urban Charging (IUC), which provides charging services, and Hudson Valley Parking Trust (HVPT), a parking investment platform. The latter recently partnered with investment firm Broe Group to purchase ICON Parking, the largest parking company in New York City.

IUC and HVPT plan to deploy a network of 5,000 EV chargers throughout New York City. IUC offers a charging-as-a-service model. HVPT explicitly offers access to parking lots that can be converted into charging bays.

According to both companies, the number of electric vehicles in the state has increased by 660%. To achieve carbon neutrality by 2030, New York City must convert 400,000 vehicles to electric vehicles.

But to introduce so many electric vehicles, there has to be a vast, high-power charging network. If people don’t think they can charge a vehicle when they need it, it’s much harder to sell it to them. And no one wants to wait an hour or more to charge it to full.

New York government said in 2021 that the city has set a goal of creating a network of 40,000 Level 2 chargers and 6,000 DC fast chargers by 2030. By next year, the Department of Transportation has planned 1,000 chargers by 2025 and 10,000 by 2023.