New York Is Turning Lampposts Into EV Chargers, Starting in Brooklyn

October 10 (IT Home) — According to the foreign outlet insideevs, the startup Voltpost has recently teamed up with New York City authorities to convert local lampposts into electric vehicle chargers. The first charger has now been installed at Bush Terminal Park in southern Brooklyn.

The charging equipment is mounted on lampposts about 3 metres above the ground, roughly at the height of a basketball hoop. Voltpost says putting the equipment higher up helps reduce the risk of damage from vandalism and flooding. The charger has a 7.6-metre cable, long enough to reach a car and without significantly obstructing nearby vehicles.

After trying it out, insideevs concluded that the charger is fairly simple to use. After the user scans the QR code on the charger, it takes just two steps for the charging cable to lower automatically from the pole. Once the cable has come down within reach, the user can plug the connector into the vehicle’s charging port; when charging is finished and the plug is removed, the cable retracts automatically. The charger costs US$0.39 per kilowatt-hour (about 2.6 yuan at current exchange rates), roughly in line with local public Level 2 chargers in New York.

Luke Mairo, co-founder and chief operating officer of Voltpost, says the biggest advantage of converting lampposts into EV chargers is low cost and fast installation. Traditional chargers often require digging up the pavement, laying new cable conduits and building dedicated electrical connections, whereas the lamppost approach can use the existing pole and electrical infrastructure, reducing construction work and approvals.

Of course, mounting an automatic cable-retraction mechanism on a lamppost also means adding a potential failure point. Asked about the effects of New York’s freezing winters, hot summers and long-term heavy use, Mairo said the charger has passed UL certification, that the relevant bodies carried out thousands of tests under different climates and temperatures, and that the device is rated for an operating temperature range of minus 30 to 50 degrees Celsius.

The real test, however, will still be how it performs once deployed at scale. Charging equipment on city streets is often handled roughly, and damaged plugs and cracked screens are not uncommon. Voltpost says the company monitors the operating status of its chargers in real time and handles some problems remotely through software; when on-site repairs are needed, it arranges for local maintenance providers to deal with them.