First curbside EV chargers installed in San Francisco on Fillmore Street
SAN FRANCISCO — San Francisco is powering up its electric vehicle presence as it moves to install the city's very first curbside chargers.
Thursday, the first curbside chargers were installed on Fillmore Street, with plans to scale the program to hundreds — and potentially thousands — more.
Last week, the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA) approved its first-ever permit to allow for curbside EV charging, and Brooklyn-based company, it's electric, is leading the surge. The company's goal is to address a city's key hurdle to EV adoption: the lack of home charging options for apartment dwellers. Roughly 70% of San Francisco residents live in multi-family housing, where access to private charging is scarce.
Under the program, EV drivers register with it's electric, receive their own charging cord, and plug into sidewalk-level Level 2 chargers that draw energy from nearby residential or commercial buildings with spare electrical capacity. According to co-founder Tiya Gordon, the power demand is equivalent to that of a dishwasher — lightweight enough to avoid adding utility costs to the building owner, who also receives a share of the revenue generated.
"This is about bringing the same gold standard of EV ownership — coming home, plugging in, and waking up to a full battery — to people who park on the street," Gordon told CBS News Bay Area.
"San Francisco has one of the highest EV adoption rates in the country, yet much of the city still lacks the infrastructure to support it," she explained.
The curbside units cost nothing to the property owner, said Gordon, and construction is less invasive than traditional utility installations, requiring only a small conduit below the sidewalk surface. The existing units took three days to install, including a survey, installation, and approval.
However, enforcement remains an open question. While each spot is marked for EV use only, city officials have yet to detail how the SFMTA will ensure compliance.
The pilot is part of San Francisco's broader push to meet ambitious climate goals. The city aims for at least 25% of private vehicles on its streets to be electric by 2030, and 100% by 2040. That will require 1,760 publicly accessible chargers by the end of the decade. Currently, the city has 1,152, including fast chargers and Level 2 units.
Joseph Piasecki, policy coordinator for the city's Department of the Environment, called the new curbside chargers "a new frontier" that helps fill a critical gap.
"This curbside pilot is going to help supplement that level two charging. It's meant to be able to park charge, whether it's overnight, get a small charge, be able to get on your way," Piasecki said.
The first charging stations were installed outside the IBEW Local 6 Electrician's Union building, a fitting spot for a group that has serviced the city's electricity needs for over a century.
"We've been involved in electrical transportation in San Francisco for 130 years, so including all of our time at Muni and before Muni," said IBEW Local 6 board member John Doherty. "We believe in the future of electric vehicles, and we're here to make sure that everybody knows that not only do we know how to do it, that we're already prepared and trained."
But not all neighbors are enthusiastic. Sustainable transportation advocate Luke Bornheimer said the program prioritizes car infrastructure over the safety and mobility needs of cyclists and pedestrians.
"This is an example of how the city continues to invest in cars and car infrastructure in an attempt to address the climate crisis, when in reality, what it should be doing is dedicating time and resources and funding to infrastructure and policies that will actually help people shift trips away from cars altogether," said Bornheimer.
Bornheimer also raised concerns that curbside chargers could impede the installation of bike infrastructure in the future:
"These chargers and their cords will impede the ability for the city to implement protected bike infrastructure and other improvements around the city once they're installed. So all of a sudden, they won't just be about preserving on-street car storage for people who want to store their cars on the street, but it'll also be that now we have these electric car chargers on the sidewalk as well."
The SFMTA recently approved its first permit for curbside EV charging, paving the way for a broader rollout. For now, early users can expect charging to cost between $1 and $5 per hour and take 6 to 8 hours for a full battery. But a full battery, Gordon says, isn't always the point. Healthy charging prioritizes frequent but slower charging that the Level 2 chargers emit.
On Friday, city leaders will gather to commemorate the new charging stalls in a ribbon-cutting at 55 Fillmore.
