A common gripe for electric vehicle owners across the five boroughs is that the demand for charging stations heavily outweighs their supply and availability.
“I wasn’t able to charge last night because everything was full in the neighborhood,” said Christo Morse, an electric vehicle, or EV, owner.
As part of the PlugNYC initiative — which began in June 2021 — Con Edison and the city installed 100 charging stations across 35 locations in the five boroughs. But EV owners say there still aren’t enough.
“It is getting more busy, so it is getting harder and harder, for sure,” Morse said. “So we need some more chargers in the area.”
On Wednesday, Mayor Eric Adams announced the city has been awarded a $15 million federal grant to address the issue.
The grant will allow the city to install 600 additional Level 2 chargers throughout the five boroughs, with more than half going to disadvantaged and low-income neighborhoods.
“We’re building a cleaner, greener, and more affordable city for all New Yorkers,” Adams said in a statement. “This $15 million grant will let us build the nation’s largest EV charging program, focusing on low-income and disadvantaged areas so people living in all five boroughs can afford to drive and charge electric vehicles — especially as we continue to transition all of our for-hire vehicles to EVs through our ‘Green Rides’ initiative.”
The funding will also support the construction of 32 solar-powered charging ports at eight New York City Department of Parks and Recreation locations, the mayor said in a release.
City data suggests that EVs are plugged into chargers at existing locations for approximately 70% of the time each day.
Charging stations like the one at the corner of Norman Avenue and Dobbin Street in Greenpoint have four Level 2 chargers. For every hour of charge, EVs get about 20 miles of range. So electric cars are often left in these spots for hours to get a full charge, adding to the availability issue.
“The need to get the charging time down to like 15 minutes would help a lot,” EV owner Michael Schneider said. “I mean, 8 hours to charge your battery, that is making it difficult, and a lot of people just leave their cars there.”
EV owners like Schneider say more charging stations are a good thing, but still not enough to incentivize people to transition from gas to electric vehicles.
“It’s gotten a little bit better, but I don’t know if it’s commensurate with the amount of EVs that have been sold,” Schneider said. “I feel a little bit like a guinea pig, and if you were to ask me if I would purchase another electric car living in the city, absolutely not. As a matter of fact, we’re looking to trade this in, and the top reason is because of the inconvenience of charging. If you don’t have a home charger and you live in the city, I wouldn’t recommend getting one.”