Electric vehicle owners in Philadelphia who struggle to find places to charge up will see a host of new options start popping up in the next couple years — including, for some, chargers close to their homes.

The city has picked two companies, It’s Electric and PositivEnergy, to put public EV chargers on curbs and in city-owned parking lots. Pending City Council approval, the firms will install hundreds of chargers with more than 900 ports over 10 years, with the first units to go live next year.

Many EV owners in the city don’t have garages where they can plug in and have a hard time finding a publicly available charger that isn’t occupied, especially outside of Center City, said Christopher Puchalsky, director of policy and strategic initiatives at the Office of Transportation and Infrastructure Systems (OTIS).

“We’ve just heard story after story of people who either own an EV and they don’t have access, or they have to get up at six in the morning to go to that one charger in their neighborhood,” he said. “It’s not only current people — people who would like to buy an EV are just hesitant to take the plunge when they don’t know that it’ll be available near their house.”

Puchalsky noted that Philly once again received an F grade for air particulate pollution this month from the American Lung Association, and 60% of the city’s pollution comes from conventional gas-burning cars and trucks.

“We know that introducing electric vehicles is part of the solution,” he said. “It’s not 100% of the solution, but it’s a key part of the solution of reducing some of the impacts that automobiles have on our daily lives.”

Councilmember Michael Driscoll introduced a bill Thursday authorizing the contracts. Council could give final approval in June and installation work would begin early next year.

Priority for underserved neighborhoods

Both networks will largely consist of Level 2 chargers, which can take 6 to 8 hours to fully charge a vehicle, depending on the device’s capacity, the car’s wiring and batteries, the outside temperature and other factors. 

In some city-owned lots operated by the Philadelphia Parking Authority, PositivEnergy will install Level 3 or DC Fast chargers that can typically get a car to 80% in about half an hour.

Level 3 stations require more extensive electric infrastructure, potentially including new transformers, that can cost several hundred thousand dollars for each site and involve a long wait for utility company upgrades. 

The curbside locations will be chosen in a process similar to the selection of Indego bikeshare stations, said Anna Kelly, OTIS’ senior policy advisor for EV and parking. The agency will post a map on its website where people can request charger locations, and will work with community groups as it formulates a list of sites, she said.

Neighborhoods that don’t have PPA lots or public chargers will get priority, Puchalsky said. The city’s original request for proposals also specified that companies should have plans for expanding charging to environmental justice neighborhoods, which are “disadvantaged communities that are marginalized by underinvestment and overburdened by pollution.”

“The program will create a safe, publicly available EV charging network throughout the city, closing the gap for neighborhoods that are being left behind,” Kelly said.

Profits shared with the city

The contracts with the two companies require them to fully cover the cost of building out the charger network, maintaining it, and running a payment app and data dashboard. 

The city will bear some costs for engineering design and to manage the program, but will not otherwise contribute any funds, according to the contract term sheets.  

The two firms will also share an escalating percentage of their revenues with the city over the 10- to 15-year duration of the contracts. The minimum annual payment will start at $70,000 for each company and increase 2% per year, although the actual amounts could be higher depending on how much they earn.

PositivEnergy will pay the city 17% of its system’s gross revenue in the first five years, followed by 20% for the next five and then 23% if the contract is extended another five years, the contract says. It’s Electric is slated to pay the city a fixed amount per charger until it installs its 200th port, at which point it will pay 12% of revenues.

The projects won’t receive any federal funding, despite the Biden administration’s push to support the construction of EV chargers nationwide through its $5 billion National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (NEVI) program and $2.5 billion Charging and Fueling Infrastructure (CFI) program.

Philadelphia was awarded about $11 million to install EV chargers in parking lots and other locations, but the Trump administration has sought to withhold the funding and Kelly said it is not available for the current projects.

However, OTIS is considering applying for a new round of CFI grants in August, and any awarded dollars could go toward further expansion of the It’s Electric and PositivEnergy networks.

“We intend to pursue whatever grant funding we can find for our EV concession,” Puchalsky said. “If for whatever reason nothing comes along, we’re still going to have a really great program. If federal funds come along, that will just allow us to expand farther and faster.”

Plugging into nearby power

PositivEnergy will install 435 charging ports over the course of the 10-year contract, which the city can extend for additional 5 years. Its first port must be activated within 18 months of the contract going into effect. The company typically uses chargers with two ports each, and in Philly will install both Level 2s and Level 3s.

The Florida-based company has contracted with the city in the past, installing more than 50 chargers for the Streets and Sanitation departments, Philadelphia International Airport, the court system, the Municipal Energy Office and the Department of Public Property, according to its website. 

PositivEnergy has built private charger networks for a number of other cities, universities, and companies, and at least one public charger project in Ventura, Calif. 

“We’re excited for the opportunity to work closely with the city to align with their planning priorities and engage the local workforce and businesses to deploy chargers that fit Philadelphia’s streetscape and contribute to the city’s long-term vision for sustainability,” CEO Ed Wise said.

Brooklyn-based It’s Electric is slated to install 500 of its single-port Level 2 chargers over five years, with the first being activated within 18 months. It will have a 10-year contract with a 5-year extension option, and could eventually expand its network to 1,000 chargers, company co-founder Tiya Gordon said.

The company focuses on curbside charging in cities using small bespoke charging units that draw power from the electric lines in adjacent homes and businesses. It says that eliminates the need for new utility connections and allows for quicker installation. It’s Electric installed the country’s first so-called “behind the meter” charger in Boston last year.

“By deploying chargers where urban drivers already park, in every neighborhood, we are making it easy for Philadelphians to drive electric,” Gordon said. “Of equal importance, we are enabling drivers to make the switch to their next car being electric by fully eliminating the current question of where drivers without a garage can charge. Together with the city we are eliminating emissions, improving air quality, and making America’s birthplace electric.”

To reduce clutter and downtime from vandalism, It’s Electric’s chargers do not have cables, and the company provides them free to each customer instead.

In 2024, the company announced it was getting funding from Uber and other investors to install curbside chargers in seven cities, including Jersey City, Boston, Alexandria, Detroit, Los Angeles, and San Francisco. It is also installing charges in Washington, D.C.

To accommodate hundreds of new curbside EV charging spaces, Driscoll’s bill will modify Philly’s existing EV parking regulations, which were designed around a defunct city program that let residents have private charging spaces in front of their homes. The rules will be further adjusted over the coming year, Kelly said.

“We’ll be working with PPA and the vendors to make sure we have specific regulations in place to facilitate charging and turnover, which will vary based on whether it’s a fast charger or Level 2 charger, curbside or in a surface lot,” she said. “We’re also working with peer cities to find out what regulations have worked best.”

To encourage speedy turnover of charging spaces, EV owners will be charged fees for overstaying after their charging sessions end, and the PPA will be able to issue tickets, she said. Driscoll’s bill would also authorize use of camera-based systems to enforce the parking rules and tow vehicles.