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<\/p>\n\u201cNobody drives in New York City. There\u2019s too much traffic.\u201d Clich\u00e9 as that joke is, the truth is that New York\u2019s streets and parking garages are full of more than 2 million registered cars, with countless more coming in and out daily from New Jersey, Connecticut and other places.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Even with efforts to improve public transit and make more car-free spaces, those vehicles probably aren\u2019t going anywhere for a long time. Now, imagine a future where most\u2014if not all\u2014of those cars are electric. Right now, about 42,000 EVs are registered in New York City (not counting the ones parked in the city that are registered elsewhere) but like EVs everywhere, that number is growing quickly.\u00a0Where, and how, will they all stay charged?\u00a0<\/p>\n
Brooklyn-based startup itselectric has one potential solution to this problem: curbside EV chargers that draw electricity from spare capacity in residential and commercial buildings, and supply power to cars via detachable cables that drivers take with them. The chargers themselves are discreet, sleek-looking silver posts placed close to the curb, and they don\u2019t need the bulky frames seen on other streetside options.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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In theory, this keeps New York from becoming a kind of hellscape of charging wires for cars everywhere, interfering with sidewalks and bike lanes. The program allows property owners to generate income\u2014estimated at up to $1,000 per year\u2014by \u201cselling\u201d their electricity to drivers. And it\u2019s an aggressive, innovative approach to a known problem that so far has very few solutions: how to keep EV drivers charged up if they don\u2019t have access to a home garage or even chargers at an apartment complex parking lot. (And it keeps people from running 100-foot extension cords out of their windows to charge their EVs, a sight that\u2019s not terribly uncommon in Brooklyn these days.)<\/p>\n
\u201cI hate to say it, but generally speaking, urban solutions are often ones that are not the ones that are in front of the line,\u201d itselectric co-founder Tiya Gordon told InsideEVs recently. \u201cIt should be as easy as it is when you go home and plug in your car at night in your garage, but the exact thing on the street.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Itselectric was founded by Gordon, a veteran of the design industry, and her husband Nathan King, an architect who specializes in sustainability and urban projects. Their idea has been making waves as of late. The nascent company has already struck up a partnership with the New York City Economic Development Corporation and Hyundai Cradle, the Korean automaker\u2019s venture capital and startup investment arm. This year, it closed on a $2.2 million pre-seed round of funding, set up six pilot chargers at an old bank building in the Brooklyn Army Terminal in Sunset Park, recently won a \u201c2023 Next Big Things in Tech for Sustainability\u201d award from the publication Fast Company<\/em>, and has and big expansion plans for 2024. They\u2019ve gone from countless rejections to a waiting list for streetside chargers in the hundreds.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cA year ago, in November 2022, we were still in this phase of cold calling cities and saying, \u2018Hey, have you heard of this thing called curbside charging?\u2019\u201d Gordon said, \u201cNow we’re responding to inbound [requests from cities] that are that are specifically looking for not only curbside charging, but for innovation in curbside charging.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n