Episode 41: Diving into Urban EV Charging with It's Electric
Where to charge if you don't have a driveway or a garage with enough chargers? How about attractive little charging posts on the side of the road where you park?
This week on Everybody in the Pool, as long as we’ve been talking about electric cars, let’s talk a little more about charging.
Urban landscapes present a unique challenge for EV charging since they’re lacking in spacious driveways or sprawling parking lots filled with fast-charging stalls. Some 70 million people park on the street every day (versus driveways or parking garages), and installing charging infrastructure in cities can be both unaffordable and unfeasible.
For this week’s episode, I spoke with Tiya Gordon, co-founder of It's Electric. The company’s urban charging solution consists of compact, bollard-style chargers that connect directly to adjacent buildings, tapping their unused capacity (with permission) and paying the difference in electricity use. The benefits are many: first of all, it can take just two days to install. Second, it’s the kind of urban infrastructure that isn’t like to cause a NIMBY outcry or be unwieldy to navigate around on sidewalks.
And crucially, the chargers are basically just plugs—It’s Electric offers drivers a detachable charging cable that’s compatible with their car. Cables are often the first thing to break at public chargers, compatibility can be a concern, and also it’s just a lot nicer to use your own clean cable than wrestle with a dirty public hose.
Now, a quick note on charging speeds: It’s Electric chargers are not what are known as Level 3 or fast charging infrastructure—the thing where you plug in on a road trip for 30 minutes or so and head out on your way. These are Level 2, or as she calls it, “standard charging,” and the goal is to charge where you park for the night, since the fill-up can take several hours or more. This is the kind of charging you’d install if you were putting in a charger at your house that would run on the same voltage as a clothes dryer. Level 1 is also called “trickle charging,” aka running an extension cord to the car. I did that for a few months, it’s fine if you live somewhere with abundant public charging for quick fill-ups and top-offs. And when you buy an EV in the US, the cable that comes with your car is a slowpoke Level 1 charger.
Tiya told me it’s common for drivers in Europe to carry their own higher-speed Level 2 charging cables. And urban infrastructure is a little more common overseas, as well. In London, 1,300 lampposts have been converted to chargers, and they’ve been rolling out in Berlin, as well. An EU law also mandates interoperable fast-charging stations every 60 kilometers (37ish miles).
In China, cities boast not only giant charging plazas but the government has also mandated that charging plazas use renewable energy sources, as well. These efforts underscore a universal recognition: the transition to electric mobility hinges not just on the vehicles themselves but on the ecosystem that supports them.
Enjoy the interview, tell your friends, thanks for listening, and see you next week!
Great thank you Molly!
Hi Molly - is there any environment benefit of using Mill vs just composting? We have compost bins near NYC that drop my food at so I only want to buy if it’s better for environment. I read somewhere it stops the release of gases, but it also uses electricity.