New York City plans to install its first curbside charging stations by this October. According to The Wall Street Journal, the city’s Department of Transportation will install 100 Level 2 charging ports for public use and 20 for the city’s vehicle fleet. Public charging will reportedly cost $2.50 per hour during the day and $1 per hour overnight.

The city currently has some 1,400 Level 2 chargers and 117 DC fast chargers, most of them located inside parking garages. EV drivers have reported that many of these are inconvenient, expensive or, in some cases, inaccessible.

The first of the city’s new charging stations has been installed in the Norwood section of the Bronx. The DOT has picked network operator FLO to manage the network under contract with local utility Consolidated Edison. The latter told the WSJ that it’s planning to invest in more than 21,000 Level 2 chargers and more than 525 fast chargers, the majority of which will be located in NYC.

The new chargers may be barely enough to meet growing demand. The DOT told the WSJ that 15,000 EVs are registered in the city, a number that increased by 50 percent in the past year. City government has set a goal that 20 percent of new vehicle registrations will be EVs by 2025.

Several private companies have been expanding EVSE options in the city. Electric transportation company Revel just opened a charging hub with 25 Tritium DC fast chargers at the historic former Pfizer building in Brooklyn—the first of a network of fast charging Superhubs that Revel plans to open across the city.

Source: Wall Street Journal via Engadget