The city of Detroit will be implementing three initiatives with the firm itselectric, a Brooklyn, N.Y.-born electric vehicle (EV) curbside charging company, within the city’s borders as part of a plan to transition to electrification.
“The country needs 1.2 million more public EV chargers by 2030, particularly in dense urban neighborhoods,” says Nathan King, co-founder and CEO of itselectric. “Today, the biggest barrier to deployment is the cost and complexity of connecting an EV charger directly to the utility’s main in the roadway. Our charging network fully avoids this barrier, enabling affordable and scalable public charging infrastructure that benefits cities, drivers, and communities.”
To that end, itselectric is launching in Detroit with the goal of helping its neighborhoods by bringing EV charging to the city through itselectric’s model of providing and installing public EV chargers at no cost to building owners or the city.
Itselectric’s first Detroit properties to receive these chargers will be IBEW Local 58 Headquarters (1358 Abbott St.), Dutch Girl Donuts (19000 Woodward Ave.), The Schvitz (8295 Oakland Ave), Lager House (1234 Michigan Ave.), and St. Peter’s Episcopal Church (1950 Trumbull). Chargers will be rolled out for public use beginning in February of 2024.
Itselectric provides small-footprint, design-centered, Level-2 charging posts and is the only curbside charging network that offers revenue sharing to property owners.
Once a property is deemed eligible, at no cost to the property owner, itselectric installs and maintains a low-profile charger, and shares proceeds with the property owners.
With this business model, itselectric tries to help cities meet their carbon reduction targets and reduce governments’ capital expenditures by avoiding the utility infrastructure upgrades normally needed to support public charging. Building owners and drivers who would like to see a charger on their block can express interest by joining itselectric’s waitlist.
This work is being funded in part through grants provided by DTE Energy as an Emerging Tech Fund grant partner and the Michigan Office of Future Mobility and Electrification (OFME) Michigan Mobility Funding Platform (MMFP). itselectric’s work began in the Detroit Smart Parking Lab (DSPL) and is now the DSPL’s first graduate bringing their technology into real-world public deployments within the city.
The DSPL is a partnership between Bedrock, Bosch, Ford, and the Michigan Economic Development Corp. (MEDC) designed to support technology startups as they test and demonstrate solutions for last-mile mobility, sustainable parking, and electric vehicle (EV) infrastructure enhancement.
“DTE is proud to partner with itselectric and is committed to enabling the growth of electric vehicles in Detroit and across Michigan through our energy,” says Tony Tomczak, vice president of electric sales and marketing at DTE Energy. “This grant through our Emerging Tech Fund, helps fund up to 25 chargers installed at no cost to local property owners, and will strengthen Detroit’s network of public EV chargers while making it even easier for EV drivers to live, work and enjoy the city.”
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