Brooklyn startup It’s Electric is changing the way New York City charges EVs

Brooklyn-based startup It’s Electric is revving up NYC’s electric vehicle charging game — installing public curbside chargers in front of commercial and residential properties and compensating owners for the electricity they provide.

This comes as the US aims for half of all cars sold to be electric by 2030. New York City alone expects EV registrations to jump from today’s 62,000 to about 3 million in that time frame.

But one big issue is finding where to charge the millions of new vehicles, particularly in cities like New York where few people have home driveways or garages and instead rely on street parking.

It’s Electric, which uses the tagline “Power from the People,” is aiming to help NYC’s charging network grow from 1,400 EV chargers to 10,000 by 2030.

The company’s charger is smaller than a fire hydrant. “We’ve removed the big, the bad and the ugly [from charging stations],” co-founder Nathan King told NYNext.

Customers using the charger pay around $10 per session and can either download the company’s app or use a credit card to pay for the charge — and most of that money will be passed on to the person providing the location and the electrical connection.

“We’re just putting a little charger in front of someone’s building on their curbside,” Tiya Gordon, Nathan’s wife and co-founder added. “And they’re earning potentially thousands of dollars per year — offsetting their annual electric bill [and] putting money in their pocket.”

An average home-owning family in New York who shares access to their electricity could expect to make $3,500 a year for letting It’s Electric install a charger, according to the company’s estimates. 

“And their electric bill never even goes up because we separately meter the use of our electricity that’s used by the charger,” Tiya said.

It’s Electric is focused on building so-called Level 2 chargers, which use comparatively little electricity but take between 4 and 10 hours to fully charge a vehicle. These are ideal for neighborhoods where people plan to charge their car overnight.

Level 3 chargers, like the ones at the newly opened hub from startup Gravity on 42nd street, can fully charge a car in less than an hour but require far more energy — which is why the Department of Transportation’s Office of Energy and Transportation are pushing for seven times more Level 2 than Level 3 chargers to be built.

It’s Electric has raised a total of $11.8 million from major venture capital firms like Brooklyn Bridge Ventures and Uber, which is betting the company can help it get more electrical vehicles into the ride-share business.

Despite the fact they’ve now raised millions, architect King, 49, and museum designer Gordon,46, said their relationship as a married couple was initially one of the biggest concerns for would-be investors.

“For some investors it’s a red flag ,.. [they think] it’s too risky,” Gordon explained. “My retort is that you should only invest in married couples because we’ve been together for over 20 years … we’re not two kids are just met in a dorm. We’re not going to walk away. This is our life..”

The two, who live in an apartment in Crown Heights, decided to launch the company after buying an EV during the pandemic and seeing how difficult it was to find a place to charge their car.

King quickly began thinking about how he could build a solution.

“EV charging is … an urban design problem … it’s a construction problem,” he said. “When you build things in cities, you need to figure out … how you can design things so it can be easily deployed.”

“The hardware itself and the business model of connecting with the private building owners really sort of smooth out a lot of those permitting issues,” Gordon added.

Building a charger costs a few thousand dollars, and installing them is even more. It’s Electric will send a free cord that connects any TV to its charging devices, though each costs the company another hundred dollars or so.

And it’s not until the company’s chargers are adopted widely and used frequently that initial investments will pay off. But Gordon and King see it as an investment in infrastructure, much like building the railroad was in the 1800s.

“We are undergoing a once in a lifetime transition within transportation,” King said. “Charging EVs is really most like plugging in your phone at night. You just need that outlet. And that’s effectively that infrastructure that we’re putting out there.”

Being amongthe first to develop an EV network will also be lucrative. By 2030, the charging industry alone will be worth $150 billion.

Right now the company has a handful of chargers near its Brooklyn Navy Yard headquarters, as well as on private property in Brooklyn in the borough. There are also some in Detroit with plans to roll out hundreds more across seven cities in the new year including Boston, Jersey City and Los Angeles.

“I was very skeptical about EVs before I started driving one,” Gordon adds. Now?

“I will never consider getting a gas car again. And I think as people start to encounter EVs, they’re going to get it … I am very optimistic.”