Fleet EV Charging in NYC

I landed at LGA Airport yesterday and, for the first time, had a Tesla Uber Model 3 I was a bit surprised to see. We lived in Brooklyn and drove a Model 3, and I find the charging infrastructure to be incredibly difficult to deal with. Let alone on a fleet level.

From PlugShare, we can see that the only “true” (120kW+) SuperChargers in the NYC metro are in NJ or JFK Airport. If we lower the limit to 70kW, we get a few more options, but if we think that at 120kW, the bare minimum takes 2+ hours to go from 0-100%, it’s daunting.

Which got me thinking, how do you drive an Uber EV and deal with the NYC traffic flows. It wasn’t like my driver was nursing the battery as he shuffled through traffic. When we parted ways, I saw him punch into GPS a charger though he was at 245 miles on the “tank.”

The only way fleets in NYC get away with the lack of density is by:

1. Chargers EVERYWHERE
2. Change in how fleets are managed
3. Capacity for true superchargers (250kW+)

The argument is that self-driving cars change this dynamic, and yes, that is true, but we are still far off from that dream. It is interesting to watch the dynamics of carbon vs incentives vs laws play out in something as simple as a ride from LGA to Brooklyn.

120kW+ Tesla SuperChargers in NYC Metro

70kW+ Tesla SuperChargers in NYC Metro