6 finalists share electric vehicle charging ideas in NYCx challenge

As New York City works toward dramatically increasing electric vehicle use, six competition finalists demonstrating new charging technologies were announced by the office of Mayor Bill de Blasio on Friday.

The finalists, each of which received up to $13,000 to demonstrate their technologies, are part of a ” Climate Action Challenge ” first announced in December under the city’s NYCx initiative , designed to “encourage global entrepreneurs to partner with the City to propose solutions to real-life problems and deliver groundbreaking business models that transform and improve the way we live.”

One winning technology showcased by finalists “may” find its way to a longer demonstration with the city’s transportation or administrative services agencies, influencing the course of the region’s environmental history. New York’s goal is to have one-fifth of all registered vehicles be electric by 2025.

The six finalists:

• San Francisco-based Volta Charging supports an advertisement-based business model for deploying electric vehicle stations and demonstrated a visual mock-up of what it envisions the future of a fast-charging hub in NYC looks like.
• The Salt Lake City-based Wireless Advanced Vehicle Electrification, or WAVE , demonstrated how wireless charging retrofits could be implemented in existing fleet vehicles and how wireless charging pads could be installed on existing roadways.
• Adaptive Motion Group , a “smart mobility” company based in Solana Beach, California, develops mobile electric vehicle chargers and demonstrated how one such device can navigate the tight corridors of parking lots of industrial yards to charge stationary vehicles.
• JUMP Bikes , a Brooklyn-based electric bikeshare company, demonstrated its newly installed chargers in its existing Brooklyn Navy Yard pilot.
• Ubitricity , a German company that has integrated mobile metering into its charging cables, demonstrated various components of its light pole retrofit technology.
• Boston-based Innogy Consulting built and demonstrated a physical installation of lightpole retrofit technology and demonstrated via virtual reality its vision for fast-charging hubs in the city.

The technologies being developed by the finalists could make it easier for residents to switch to “alternative, clean modes” of transportation, de Blasio said. By the city government’s accounting, about one-third of its greenhouse gases come from transportation, which is 90 percent private vehicle pollution.

The winner of the challenge will be announced in July.