For people who live in houses, having an electric car can be amazing. Every morning, when you wake up, your car is fully charged and ready to go wherever you need.
But if you live in a big city and don’t have a garage or driveway, having an electric car isn’t so easy. Many people in cities have to use public fast chargers. Some even run cables from their homes to charge their cars on the street, which isn’t very safe. In some cities, like Cambridge, Massachusetts, people can get permits to use special cable protectors on the sidewalk. It helps a bit, but it’s not a perfect solution.
There might be a better option: lampposts. Lampposts are everywhere, and they already have all the wiring needed to charge electric cars. A company called Voltpost, based in New York City, has made a product that turns regular lampposts into electric car chargers. After a year of designing and testing, they introduced their lamppost charger.
The charger looks like a cover on the bottom of the lamppost. Inside, it has all the stuff needed to charge two to four electric cars at a time with regular speed. It’s not super fast charging, but it’s good enough for most people to charge their cars overnight.
The charger is easy to use. It’s at a height where you can reach it, and the charging cable can be pulled out and has a hook to keep it off the ground. If there’s a problem, it’s designed to be easy to fix or upgrade. The people who manage the chargers can use special software to set prices and check on them from far away.
Like other electric car chargers, there’s an app you can use to see when your car is charging and pay for it. You can even use the app to reserve a charging spot, which might cause some arguments between neighbors but can be helpful.
Voltpost says their chargers can be installed quickly. In tests with the New York City Department of Transportation, it only took an hour. They’re already working on projects in New York, Chicago, and Detroit. They recently got $3.6 million to keep developing their chargers.
