NYC Playing Catch Up in The EV World

Does New York City need to have electric chargers? How can this city benefit by entering more of the EV world?

Many of us know people from this city who never use anything but public transportation, but many people drive themselves around in this massive city every day. How can the largest city on the planet be so far behind the rest of the country when responding to the need for electric chargers? It seems leaders in New York failed to add more charging stations as a priority.

A Jarring Image Requires Immediate Action

Living in a city of nearly 8 million people requires a lot of vertical real estate and challenges that need to be overcome. New Yorkers have done it, whether that means finding a new way to fit in a small space or running necessary equipment around the block to have essential needs met. Hank Gutman, New York’s transportation commissioner, learned this first hand. He saw a couple living in the Bronx charging their Nissan Leaf by running an extension cord from their apartment across the sidewalk to their car. Just imagine what they would have done if they had to part on the opposite side of the street.

NYC Faces a Massive Emissions-Based Challenge

Public transportation in New York City is responsible for nearly 30 percent of the greenhouse-gas emissions in the city. The other 70 percent comes from privately-owned vehicles. As the largest city globally, the negative impact on the environment is incredible. We don’t often hear about a smog problem in New York, but there must be a problem with air pollution coming from vehicles. One of the best ways to solve this problem is to entice the population to drive electric cars.

How Does New York Catch Up in the EV World?

There are very few incentives for driving an electric vehicle in New York. If residents need to run electrical cords from several stories to charge their EV, they won’t buy them. This city is extremely far behind the rest of the world regarding chargers. Last year, officials set a goal to add 120 new chargers over four years. This seems like a paltry number considering it would not benefit many drivers in this city. There has to be something New York can do to make a much more significant difference.

New York Must Add More Chargers Right Away

Even though officials in New York offered a stated goal of reducing its long-term carbon target before the end of the decade, very little has been done to move the needle. Currently, there are nearly 20,000 electric cars on the road in New York City. This puts this massive city exceptionally far behind the rest of the EV world. New York is exceptionally far behind towns in California and Europe, none of which are the size of New York, which is a severe problem.

To reduce the carbon impact on the environment, there need to be at least 400,000 electric vehicles on the roads in New York by the end of the decade. Out of 100 metro areas in the United States to accommodate electric car driving, New York ranks 93. This is highly disappointing and something that must be done.

The simplest solution is sometimes the right one. To catch up with the rest of the EV world, New York needs to install many new chargers around the city. This is a massive undertaking but something that must be done.

What Does NYC Need to Do?

New York City must install chargers throughout the city to reach its carbon reduction goals. Before 2025 1,000 curbside chargers are necessary across the five boroughs. Five years after that, the total must reach at least 10,000. This will take up many parking areas along city streets, but cars are already parked on nearly every street in this massive city. Of course, the city can’t stop with curbside charging points. The next step is to add charging points in municipal parking lots and garages. To reach the same goal, at least 20 percent of these spaces need to be dedicated to electric charging.

A Frightening Future Goal

If, in 2022, New York City is this far behind the rest of the EV world, how will this massive city reach the goals set by Governor Kathy Hochul? She signed a law stating all cars and trucks sold in the state must operate with zero emissions by 2035. This is one surefire way to phase out vehicles that use gasoline and diesel engines. If the city participates in this initiative, electric charging stations need to be in place immediately.

The Cart Must Come Before the Horse

You might think that more electric cars would need to drive on the streets of New York City to justify the need for more charging stations, but the opposite is true. This city, much like many large metro areas, is much more of a vertical living area than one that allows the population to sprawl out and spread themselves across the landscape. If there aren’t any charging stations that New Yorkers know they can use every day, they will not buy a car that requires charging.

Designated Chargers Will be Next

Indeed, more public charging stations are an essential step forward to ensure residents of New York can charge their vehicles, but it’s not the only step. Locations where parking spaces are designated by apartment number need to encourage owners to install charging ports in their parking spaces. This is a step forward that many New Yorkers can take but has been met with strict regulations and difficult installation methods. Its entirely possible one of the best ways to encourage New Yorkers to buy electric vehicles is to offer incentives to have these private chargers installed at their designated parking spaces in private parking areas.

Will New York City join the rest of the EV world and build the electric charging stations needed to bring the population closer to a lower-carbon goal?