In August, New York City awarded a curbside electric-vehicle (EV) contract to a company called It’s Electric, which will be replacing the city’s existing curbside EV chargers and installing 600 additional chargers over the next three years across the five boroughs. The buildout directly supports NYC’s app-hail drivers – more than half of which park on the street – by giving them reliable, affordable charging in their own neighborhoods. The expansion will provide critical infrastructure for the NYC Green Rides Initiative, which mandates that the Taxi & Limousine Commission (TLC) fleet must be zero-emission or wheelchair accessible by 2030 and supports the city’s broader 2050 target of cutting greenhouse gas emissions by 80%.
For an app-hail driver living in Jackson Heights or the Bronx, keeping a battery full currently requires driving miles out of the way, waiting in long queues, and paying premium commercial electricity rates. It’s an exhausting system that actively penalizes the working class for adopting green technology. Flooding residential neighborhoods with standard Level 2 chargers fundamentally changes the economics of driving an EV for a living. By putting the hardware directly where these drivers park overnight, they can essentially plug in, go to sleep, and wake up to a completely full battery at a fraction of the cost.
Founded by Tiya Gordon and Nathan King in 2021, It’s Electric uses Level-2 charging posts that connect behind the meter, drawing spare electrical capacity from adjacent buildings rather than requiring a new utility connection. The company installs the chargers at zero cost to the property owner or city, then shares the revenue earned.
