Upper East Side To Get 2 New Electric Car Charging Stations

UPPER EAST SIDE, NY — The city will install two new electric vehicle charging stations on the Upper East Side as part of an effort to boost the use of the climate-friendly cars, officials told Patch.

The new chargers will be installed this spring or summer on East 67th Street between York and First avenues, and on East End Avenue between East 86th and 88th streets, according to the Department of Transportation.

Their arrival comes three years after the city announced plans to partner with Con Edison to build 120 curbside charging stations across the five boroughs, hoping to reduce carbon emissions by encouraging more car-owning New Yorkers to switch to non-fossil-fuel-burning vehicles.

While maps show dozens of existing electric vehicle chargers across the Upper East Side, most are tucked inside parking garages, making them inaccessible to the general public. The city has asked New Yorkers to pinpoint where chargers should go in their neighborhood by dropping points on a map.

City Councilmember Ben Kallos praised the new chargers, though he said the city "has a lot of ground to cover if we are going to reduce our carbon footprint significantly by 2030."

"We want our City to be a public transport oasis where residents can walk places, buses are running smoothly and on time, and where bike lanes are always open," Kallos said. "We do know EV's are part of the future, and infrastructure has to keep up."

In September 2019, DOT representatives presented to the Upper East Side's Community Board 8 about eight possible locations for electric vehicle chargers in the neighborhood, including Lenox Hill Hospital, Asphalt Green and Rockefeller University. According to maps of existing chargers, however, none of those spots ever got one.

Of course, it may be an open question just how many Upper East Siders will make use of the chargers: according to Census estimates, less than a quarter of Manhattan households own a car.