The rollout: 600 chargers, 4 plugs per site
Over the next three years, the New York City Department of Transportation (NYC DOT) will deploy the 600 new chargers across all five boroughs. Each location gets at least two charger posts with two charging points apiece, delivering four Level 2 plugs per site. The programme prioritises densely populated neighbourhoods where off-street parking is scarce and large numbers of taxi and ride-hailing drivers operate, according to a NYC DOT announcement reported by electrive.com.
The first construction phase covers neighbourhoods from Soundview in the Bronx to Far Rockaway in Queens, Red Hook in Brooklyn, the Upper West Side in Manhattan, and Stapleton on Staten Island. In parallel, NYC DOT is also rolling out 92 DC fast charging points and 180 additional Level 2 chargers at municipal parking facilities — a significant, if less publicised, expansion.
The numbers: 70 % average, 99 % at some sites
The most striking figure isn’t the 600 new plugs — it’s the utilisation data from the existing 88 curbside Level 2 points. The NYC DOT states that utilization rates have surpassed 70 %, with individual locations approaching 99 % occupancy. Charging sessions account for more than 85 % of the time the plugs are occupied, meaning they are rarely blocked by non‑charging vehicles.
That level of demand makes the business case for curbside charging hard to dispute. It also underlines a problem familiar to European cities: in dense urban areas with little off‑street parking, overnight home charging is simply not an option. While Europe’s supercharger network now counts 483 locations, that addresses long‑distance travel, not the overnight needs of apartment dwellers. The cheapest public fast charging we track currently sits around €0.25 per kWh, whereas residential electricity in many EU countries costs half that — a gap that curbside Level 2 can close.
What the utilisation tells us
The near‑100 % occupancy at some NYC chargers means drivers are relying on these plugs as their primary charging source. That matches the pattern we saw in our earlier comparison of EVgo’s US expansion and Europe’s supercharger network: Americans without driveways are desperate for reliable curbside power. In Europe, pilot schemes in Paris and London have tested lamp‑post chargers, but none are close to 700 plugs of guaranteed, maintained curbside infrastructure.
NYC DOT is future‑proofing these sites with electrical capacity for public e‑bike charging, electrified bike‑sharing docks, and cargo bike logistics hubs — a detail that suggests the city is thinking beyond just passenger EVs. Whether similar multi‑modal planning will appear in European curbside projects remains to be seen.
Cost and the charging calculator
Pricing for the new plugs hasn’t been disclosed, but the existing Level 2 chargers likely operate in the $0.20–$0.30 per kWh range. For a driver adding 50 kWh once a week, that’s $10–$15 per session — far cheaper than a tank of petrol, but potentially more expensive than a home rate. If you’re comparing the cost of public Level 2 versus fast DC charging, our charging cost calculator lets you plug in local rates and see the per‑100‑km difference immediately.
The bottom line for urban EV adopters: infrastructure like this removes one of the last barriers to going electric when you park on the street every night. The 600‑plug expansion turns the NYC pilot into a permanent, scaled service. European cities staring at similar utilisation rates would do well to take note — the numbers from the five boroughs leave little room for doubt that curbside charging works.
