City’s Electric Vehicle Charging Pilot A Rip-Roaring Success After 18 Months, Says DOT Report
Six charging stations in Manhattan were measured in the pilot, with a reliability rate of 99.9 percent and a sharp upswing of their usage rate after a year-and-a-half. This marks a promising start for the city’s transportation element of their ambitious “PlaNYC” climate framework.
| 18 May 2023 | 08:17
The Level 2 FLO charger in action at 170 E. End Ave. in Manhattan. A DOT report that included this charging location measured a 99.9 percent reliability–or uptime–rate. Photo: Google Street View. (
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In a report that exceeded even optimistic expectations, NYC’s Department of Transportation (DOT) Commissioner Ydanis Rodriguez announced that the first eighteen months of a pilot installing Level 2 curbside chargers for electric vehicles (EVs) in NYC has proved to be remarkably reliable and growing in popularity.
With a 99.9 percent uptime rate–measured as the share of time chargers are in operation–and a surge in utilization rate from fourteen percent from thirty-four percent, the pilot seems to be a proof of concept that clean energy transportation is well on its way to viability. Level 2 chargers are classified as those that provide twenty miles of range per hour of charging, per the DOT’s website on electric vehicles.
In a statement, Commissioner Rodriguez noted that “the data is clear: New Yorkers love curbside Level-2 EV charging and our equitable distribution of infrastructure brought promising usage across communities.” Mayor Eric Adams also responded to the data, saying that “this first-in-the-nation study shows that the demand for electric vehicles is real, and the transition is possible. Our administration is meeting New Yorkers where they are with electric vehicle chargers, because the climate crisis is urgent and the time for action is now.”
The pilot is structured in partnership with ConEd and the FLO charging company, and is a part of the “PlaNYC: Getting Sustainability Done” framework, the city’s official climate strategy for rapid decarbonization. Specifically, the pilot is encompassed by the “Transportation” section of the framework, which includes objectives such as: ensure that every New Yorker lives within two-and-a-half miles of an EV fast charger and transitioning taxis and for-hire vehicles to electric vehicles.
The pilot’s seven charging stations in Manhattan are split between the UES and the UWS. The locations of UWS stations are: 115 Fort Washington Ave., 4 W. 93rd St., 160 W. 84rd St., and 125 W. 76 St. The locations of UES stations are: 170 E. End Ave., 101 E. 78th St., and 498 E. 67th St.