New York City just committed to the largest curbside charging build-out in the country. The city’s Department of Transportation announced this week that it will install 600 new Level 2 charging points at the curb over the next three years, growing the PlugNYC network from today’s 88 ports to nearly 700 — roughly an eightfold expansion aimed squarely at drivers who park on the street.
Where the chargers are going
The first phase targets neighborhoods across all five boroughs: Soundview and Unionport in the Bronx; Rego Park, Forest Hills, and Far Rockaway in Queens; Red Hook, Carroll Gardens, and Bed-Stuy in Brooklyn; the Upper West Side and Washington Heights in Manhattan; and Stapleton on Staten Island, with more neighborhoods to follow. Each station will offer at least four charging points — two posts with two plugs apiece.
The site selection logic is deliberate: dense areas where most residents live in apartments and park on the street, meaning a home wallbox was never an option. DOT has also opened a public feedback portal so New Yorkers can weigh in on proposed locations before installation.
A network running at capacity
If there were doubts about demand, the existing network has answered them. The current 88 curbside ports are occupied 70% of the time on average, with some stations near 99% occupancy — which the city says is the highest public curbside utilization in the country. Taxi and rideshare drivers are heavy users: drivers licensed by the city’s Taxi & Limousine Commission now log about 3 million EV trips per month, and EVs have climbed to 8.3% of new vehicle registrations in the city.
The New York Power Authority will handle procurement and construction, with Con Edison as utility partner. Drivers will pay per kilowatt-hour through multiple apps or by credit card, and DOT — not a private operator — keeps control of pricing, saying revenue should cover operating costs while keeping charging affordable. The city also plans enforcement to stop non-charging vehicles from squatting in charger spots.
What it means
Curbside Level 2 is the unglamorous end of charging infrastructure — no 500 kW headlines, no ribbon-cuttings at highway plazas — but it attacks the single biggest structural barrier to EV adoption in American cities: apartment dwellers with no driveway. New York’s numbers show what happens when you build it — near-total utilization from day one. The catch is pace. Six hundred ports over three years is an eightfold jump for PlugNYC, yet still modest against a city of more than 8 million people, nearly two million registered vehicles, and a growing electric taxi fleet. If utilization stays anywhere near 99%, the next announcement after this one should be bigger.
Giant Fleet 
Leave a comment