Mayor Eric Adams’ administration wants to place electric-vehicle charging ports meant for buses and trucks at five locations around the city, part of an effort to reduce carbon emissions in the city’s freight and transportation industries.
A request for proposals released Monday and shared exclusively with Crain’s names five city-owned parking lots in Manhattan, Queens and Staten Island where the city’s Economic Development Corp. hopes to place charging hubs for medium- and heavy-duty electric vehicles. EDC is asking companies — whether they be electric-vehicle operators, real estate developers, community groups or others — to submit bids to build charging ports that could be used by passenger vehicles, fleet trucks or for-hire cars.
The sites include a lot next to the FDR Drive near Stuyvesant Town in Manhattan; another in College Point, Queens; a lot on Staten Island’s North Shore; and two more sites near Arthur Kill on the island’s South Shore. The locations were chosen because they are close to industrial areas and have access to truck routes, said EDC spokeswoman Chelsea Sudaley.
The RFP is among the first concrete steps being taken as part of the “green economy action plan” released by the Adams administration in February, which called for investments in low-carbon transportation. Although EV adoption has steadily grown in the city in recent years, that transition has higher barriers to entry for medium- and heavy-duty vehicles compared to smaller cars, EDC said.
A form meant to encourage partnerships between interested vendors is due by May 22, with the full RFP due in September. Sudaley, of EDC, said the market for heavy-duty EV chargers is “just emerging” in the city, with these ports intended to meet the industry’s expected growth in the next five years. The city will leave it up to vendors to decide how many charging ports they would build at each site.
The RFP, although limited in scale, is one of several efforts the Adams administration has taken to cut climate emissions in the pollution-heavy shipping sector. In February, the city announced plans to convert six waterfront sites to maritime freight hubs in an effort to increase the use of boats, rather than trucks, for transporting local goods.
The initiatives would contribute to the city’s goal of reducing its carbon emissions 80% by 2050.
Also on Monday, the administration announced the next three companies that will be invited to pilot new climate-friendly technologies at the Brooklyn Army Terminal as part of a program launched last year. The selected startups are Benchmark Labs, which plans to construct sensors providing AI-based weather forecasts at the terminal; ReVert Technologies, which builds power adapters that use AI to reduce the amount of energy used by plugged-in electronics; and Matcha, an electric vehicle charging company. (Three initial companies were announced in September.)
“These groundbreaking initiatives … will accelerate low-carbon alternatives in the transportation sector, spark cutting-edge innovation that will unlock solutions for the global climate crisis and create new economic opportunity for the city,” EDC president and CEO Andrew Kimball said in a statement.
Nick Garber , 2024-04-22 15:33:05
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