Perhaps the largest hurdle for adoption of electric vehicles in the U.S. market right now is a lack of competent charging infrastructure. For those of us in a living situation that has dedicated garage space, charging is hardly an issue. We pull in, plug in, and barely ever have to worry about it. The average workaday American drivers for whom EVs would be a huge benefit are pushed out of the market because they don’t have the ability to conveniently charge overnight. A startup called Voltpost wants to bring EV charging to the streets where it is needed.
Most Americans don’t go on long road trips, so the need for highway-adjacent DC Fast charging infrastructure is not a concern for them. The idea of driving to a station once or twice a week to sit and fill up for 45 minutes or whatever is anathematic. If you were able to simply park on the street outside your favorite bar or restaurant—or most conveniently your apartment—and plug in for a top up, you’d never have to worry about having enough energy for your daily drive.
Lamp posts are already everywhere. They already have the wiring in them to make curbside charging possible and without a huge expense. Voltpost is one of many who have glommed on to this idea, and has begun building street lamp charger conversion kits.
These conversion kits are pretty genius, if you ask me. The Voltpost device is essentially a shroud that surrounds the bottom eight feet or so of the post. It contains all of the gubbins necessary to charge two or four electric vehicles (or PHEVs) at standard Level 2 speeds. It’s not going to get you full in an hour, but a standard EV should be able to charge up from depleted overnight.
Voltpost claims that it can have a new charger installed in under an hour, which is important for quick and seamless nationwide proliferation.
This, or another something like it, could really push EV adoption in the U.S. Focus on getting regular and inexpensive charging to average everyday people, instead of catering to the wealthy tech-interested elite, and you’ll really have something on your hands. We need this installed on damn near every street light in the country yesterday.