The Search for Viable EV Charger Business Models Continues
The company is installing chargers where a building with enough unused power can host the connection.
One of the biggest areas of practical research into electric vehicles seems to be finding how to place and fund chargers. They’re necessary if EVs are to be used because they need to be fueled somehow.
Some of the approaches have included private equity-backed installation of designated chargers for apartment units and sale-leaseback financing.
The latest entry is itselectric, a Brooklyn-based electric vehicle curbside charging company. The company announced a deal with the city of Boston to create a scalable EV charger deployment model. The devices to into public right-of-way.
The company says that its “Level 2 charging posts eliminate the need for utility permitting, connection, and coordination by connecting behind-the-meter to draw spare electrical supply from adjacent buildings.” They said the approach allows installation “at zero cost to property owners or cities.” The charger is a Level-2 running off 240-volt power and that should be able to charge a vehicle within a number of hours. The company says that an hour of charge provides 25 miles of range, so this is primarily for overnight charging.
Spare electrical supply is available power from properties that haven’t maxed out usage. The company runs a conduit from the charger at the curb (or in a parking lot if necessary) to the building’s electrical panel and installs a “revenue-grade sub-meter at each charger,” which allows the electric company to separately bill itselectric for the power.
Property owners get a revenue share that itselectric has estimated at between $800 and $3,400 a year.
As for drivers, they sign up for a phone app and receive an RFID (radio frequency ID) card and a detachable power cable. Someone needing a charge uses the app to find a charger and connects the cable to the charger. The cost to the consumer supposedly ranges between $0.40 and $0.43 per kilowatt-hour.
This also sounds like a capital-intensive undertaking. According to Crunchbase, itselectric has raised $2.4 million over five funding rounds. The latest round was in July 2023.