Brooklyn-based startup It’s Electric is revving up NYC’s electric vehicle charging game — installing public curbside chargers in front of commercial and residential properties and compensating owners for the electricity they provide.
This comes when America has set a target of making half of all cars sold electric by 2030. New York City alone is expected to see EV registrations grow from 62,000 today to nearly 3 million in that time frame.
But a bigger issue is figuring out where to charge the millions of new vehicles, especially in cities like New York where few people have home driveways or garages and instead rely on street parking.
It’s Electric, which uses the tagline “Power from the People,” aims to help expand NYC’s charging network from 1,400 EV chargers to 10,000 by 2030.
The company’s charger is smaller than a fire hydrant. “We’ve removed the big, the bad and the ugly [from charging stations]co-founder Nathan King told NYNext.
Customers who use the charger pay about $10 per session and can either download the company’s app or use a credit card to pay the fee — and most of that money goes to providing the space and electrical connection. Will be given to the person who does it.
“We’re just putting a little charger in front of someone’s building,” said Tia Gordon, Nathan’s wife and co-founder. “And they’re making potentially thousands of dollars per year – offsetting their annual electricity bill [and] Putting money in their pockets.”
According to company estimates, an average home-owning family in New York who shares access to their electricity can expect to earn $3,500 per year by allowing It’s Electric to install a charger.
“And their electricity bill never increases because we measure their electricity usage separately from what the charger uses,” Tia said.
Its electric focus is on creating so-called Level 2 chargers, which use comparatively less power but take 4 to 10 hours to fully charge a vehicle. These are ideal for areas where people plan to charge their cars overnight.
Level 3 chargers, like startup Gravity’s newly opened hub on 42nd Street, can fully charge a car in less than an hour, but require far more energy — which is why transportation The Energy and Transportation Office of the department is emphasizing on this. Seven times more Level 2 chargers will be manufactured compared to Level 3.
It’s Electric has raised a total of $11.8 million from major venture capital firms like Brooklyn Bridge Ventures and Uber, which could help the company bring more electric vehicles to the ride-share business.
Despite the fact that they have now raised millions, architect King, 49, and museum designer Gordon, 46, said their relationship as a married couple was initially one of the biggest concerns for prospective investors.
“For some investors this is an alarm bell… [they think] It’s too risky,” Gordon explained. “My answer is that you should only invest in married couples because we’ve been together for over 20 years… We’re not two kids who just hung out in a dorm. Have met. We are not going away. This is our life..”
The two, who live in an apartment in Crown Heights, decided to start the company after purchasing an EV during the pandemic and noticing how difficult it was to find a place to charge their car.
The king immediately started thinking how he could find a solution.
“EV charging… is an urban design problem… it’s a construction problem,” he said. “When you build things in cities, you need to figure out… how can you design things so that it can be easily deployed.”
“The business model of connecting with the hardware itself and private building owners really solves a lot of the permitting problems,” Gordon said.
It costs a few thousand dollars to make a charger, and even more to install them. It’s Electric will send a free cord that connects any TV to its charging device, although each one costs the company a hundred dollars or more.
And it’s not until the company’s chargers become widely adopted and frequently used that the initial investment will pay off. But Gordon and King see it as an investment in infrastructure, much like railroads were built in the 1800s.
“We are living through a once-in-a-lifetime transformation in transportation,” King said. “Charging an EV is really like leaving your phone plugged in at night. All you need is that outlet. And that’s effectively the infrastructure that we’re putting in place.”
It would also be beneficial to be one of the first to develop an EV network. The charging industry alone will be worth $150 billion by 2030.
Right now the company has a handful of chargers near the Brooklyn Navy Yard headquarters, as well as on private property in Brooklyn. Some in Detroit are also planning to launch hundreds more events in the new year in seven cities, including Boston, Jersey City and Los Angeles.
“I was very skeptical about EVs before I started driving them,” says Gordon. Now?
“I will never consider getting a gas car again. And I think as people start to encounter EVs, they’ll start to get it… I’m very optimistic.
this is part of the story NYNext, a new editorial series Which highlights New York City’s innovations as well as leading figures across a variety of industries.
