New York City to Add Electric Vehicle Charging Stations in the Five Boroughs
New York City will add more electric vehicle (EV) fast-charging hubs across the five boroughs by early 2018.
Announced by Mayor Bill de Blasio in September, the plan is an extension of a 2016 pilot program that required a minimum of two charging stations in each borough by March 2018.
The initiative is a part of the administration’s long-term goal to have 20% of the city’s cars be electric by 2025.
“By helping develop the infrastructure necessary for electric vehicles, we’re going to make it easier than ever for New Yorkers to switch,” de Blasio said in a statement.
In 2015, 931 plug-in electric vehicles were registered in New York City. There are now more than 300 charging stations across the city and only 16 have fast charging. The initiative will cost $10 million and add at least one site in each borough. These stations will have the capacity to charge 12,000 electric cars every week.
In 2016, New York City passed a law to reduce carbon emission to 80% by 2050. It was proposed by Costa Constantinides who is now chair of the Council’s Environment Protection Committee.
“This plan to build fast-charging EV hubs across our city will spur further adoption,” Constantinides said.
The 2017 Electric Vehicle Outlook by Bloomberg predicts a steady growth in EV sales and adoption due to dropping battery costs and increase of available vehicles. General Motors announced 20 electric cars models by 2023, while Ford also has announced investments in more electric cars.
Nilda Mesa, director of the Urban Sustainability and Equity Planning Program at Columbia University’s Urban Design Lab, says that the “biggest issue in the lack of adoption rate is the lack of charging stations, and not affordability.” Mesa, who previously worked with de Blasio administration, says these chargers should be in places where people leave their cars for longer periods of times, like shopping malls.
Fred Lambert, editor-in-chief at Electrek.com, a news site that tracks the transition from fossil-fuel transportation, says that most electric vehicle manufacturers other than Tesla have relied on third-party charging networks with low number of chargers per stations. Lambert says that “if the new NYC network is as extensive as announced, with several charge points per ‘hub,’ it would be a welcome addition to charging options for other EVs.”
