City Council Approves Rollout of 250 Curbside EV Charging Stations in Boston

Boston, Massachusetts, under the leadership of Mayor Michelle Wu, is going all-in on supporting residents who drive EVs, as well as visitors to the city driving EVs. The city is taking bold action to install more EV charging stations in Boston.

The City of Boston’s “Recharge Boston: Boston’s Zero Emission Vehicle Program” has a goal of every household being within a 10-minute walk of a public EV charging station or EV car share. The city’s plan, announced in February 2024, will include installation of 250 curbside EV chargers as part of the Recharge Boston program.

How the Boston EV Charging Station Program Will Work

In March 2024, the Boston City Council approved a measure allowing the city to hire two companies to install 250 curbside EV chargers along Boston streets. This will allow EV drivers without charging available at their own driveways or garages to top up their battery-powered cars. Brooklyn-based Itselectric and Jersey City-based Greenspot were chosen to install the curbside EV charging.

At no cost to the property owners, Itselectric will install and maintain a low-profile, Level 2 EV charger at the curbside. The chargers are powered by a partner property’s spare electrical supply. The property owners who partner with Itselectric to host chargers earn a passive income. In fact, partner properties can earn $1,000 per charger or more every year.

EV drivers who sign up with Itselectric are sent a portable EV charger that’s registered to the driver’s account. These drivers can then plug and charge at any Itselectric charger in Boston or other places or cities the company serves.

Greenspot specializes in EV charging for multifamily living and offers curbside charging. It also shares revenue with building owners at no cost to the city. It installs both Level 2 and DC fast EV chargers featuring built-in cables.

According to news outlets, Itselectric and Greenspot haven’t signed contracts with the city yet. Sources spoke to the news outlets anonymously because the contracts aren’t finalized. The contracts will run for 10 years, once approved.

Deployment Details for Recharge Boston

The Recharge Boston plan has many parts, including:

Publicly accessible EV charging stations: Boston is expanding the number of publicly accessible EV charging stations, including curbside charging. Some stations will be owned and operated by the city of Boston, while others will be public-private partnerships.

Municipal parking lots offering EV charging: Parking in Boston’s municipal parking lots is free. EV charging for EV drivers is $0.25/kWh. There is a $1.00 per hour inactive charge once EV charging has completed. The Recharge Boston website offers a map of planned and in-use municipal parking lots that offer EV charging.

EV car-share program: Boston is home to EVGood2Go, an EV car-share program with sliding scale rates to support low-income families. It supports affordable access to clean transportation options in the greater Boston area, including Nubian Square, Roxbury, and surrounding neighborhoods in Boston. Good2Go is fully funded by grants and foundations. 

Many electric car charging stations in Boston require drivers to pay a parking garage or entrance fee and are located at condos, hotels, public garages, high rises, shopping centers, and other locations. With the Recharge Boston program, the City of Boston hopes to create more affordable and accessible public EV charging stations for drivers, without requiring these fees.

The City of Boston is to be commended for installing curbside EV charging stations. Curbside EV charging is important because it is a vital need for city-dwelling EV drivers. Most of these drivers cannot charge at home, living in multifamily units or other housing that doesn’t offer EV charging. Single-family homeowners have the advantage of charging EVs with the cheapest and most convenient form of charging. Nearly one-third of Americans are multifamily dwellers, and only a small fraction of them currently have EV charging. It’s a vastly under-served market.

The multifamily EV charging market is also a tremendous opportunity for investors and charging companies to pursue, as there is a lot of potential profit. Itselectric and Greenspot are to be commended as well for providing top-notch, innovative products and services to support EV drivers. Cities and companies such as these are driving the American EV revolution forward and making the world a better place.

EVs have zero emissions and are therefore important for fighting climate change by replacing internal combustion engine vehicles, which contribute to global warming through their significant carbon emissions.