A Brooklyn-based startup is bringing its electric vehicle chargers to Boston next year.
Itselectric, a company that makes curbside EV charging posts, is one of the companies that Mayor Michelle Wu will bring to Boston to install more EV chargers and promote EVs in the Boston and greater Boston area. The chargers are part of the city's Zero-Emission Vehicle Roadmap, established in 2020, a set of policy goals that aim to increase electric vehicle adoption.
The chargers won’t be making their way to the busy streets of Downtown or Back Bay anytime soon, however. First, itselectric, and the other charging company, Greenspot, are providing privately owned chargers in the greater Boston area, where more commuters are likely to live.
Oliver Sellers-Garcia, the Green New Deal director at the office of Mayor Wu, said that itselectric has a slightly different focus compared to other EV charging companies.
Whereas other chargers may plug in directly to a given city's power grid, itselectric partners with property and building owners to connect directly to their power supply. The installation is free, and itselectric helps to offset some of the energy cost for the property owner, as well as provide them with passive income, according to Nathan King, co-founder and CEO of itselectric.
“For itselectric, I think what is really novel is that they are tapping into excess capacity of adjacent buildings, which is quite different than anyone else. I mean there's a few, but they're really ahead in developing that concept and business model,” said Sellers-Garcia.
Compared to direct current fast-charging stations, which are also being implemented by Mayor Wu in the larger Boston area, the itselectric chargers use alternating current and take longer. The charging stations come with detachable cords that are provided for free to EV drivers. That makes the sight of the individual charging stations cleaner, as well as preventing tampering.
Compared to other EV charging companies Mayor Wu is bringing to Boston, itselectric is more focused on bringing EV charging to drivers who have a longer commute.
“We have to be really proactive and creative, which is why we set out to do a bit of an applied experiment here to figure out the different kinds of ways that we can provide EV charging for people who don't have parking spots in Boston and who need to drive,” said Sellers-Garcia
Itselectric recently closed a seed round, which closed at $6.5 million bringing its two and half year total to $11.8 million. Uber was a lead investor and is working with itsElectric to identify ride-share drivers who use EVs. The partnership between ItsEelectric encourages rideshare drivers who have EVs to continue using them, especially if the chargers are more accessible.
Itselectric is only at the beginning of its time in Boston, but has set a goal to get EV chargers up within five minutes of everyone's homes. Just recently, it was awarded a grant to deploy its charging stations in Detroit, Los Angeles, Virginia, and Jersey City.
“I think that we've got a long way to go. I mean, I think there's probably a few dozen chargers that are out there in the roadways right now. We need to kind of get that up to that hundreds and thousands eventually,” King said.
