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    1. e-Mobility

    Quartet of E-Mobility firms win $10M grant to bring Electric Van service to NYC’s Underserved areas

    Nov. 21, 2022
    More than 120,000 people, living in New York’s “transit deserts,” travel daily in gas-powered dollar vans to reach their nearest public transit hubs in New York City
    Image credit HEVO Power
    Hevo Power 637b77f4b8816

    The New York State Energy Research and Development Authority has awarded $10 million to a coalition of companies, including clean mobility services provider Dollaride, to develop the world’s first all-electric dollar van network in New York City for underserved communities.

    Dollaride is joined by climate tech company BlocPower, wireless electric vehicle charging solutions provider HEVO and cleantech company Build Edison in the Clean Transit Access Program (CTAP) which aims to launch electric transportation services for underserved communities in New York City’s urban transit deserts.

    More than 120,000 people, living in New York’s “transit deserts,” travel daily in gas-powered dollar vans to reach their nearest public transit hubs in New York City. The Clean Transit Access Program, funded through the $85 million New York Clean Transportation Prizes program, will replace these gas-powered vans with electric vans.

    “CTAP marks one of NYC’s boldest climate tech innovations to date, including the world’s first all-electric dollar van network, the world’s largest deployment of wireless electric vehicle chargers to date, and the first financing program for transport electrification in underserved communities,” Dollaride’s Founder and CEO Su Sanni said. “This dynamic partnership between Dollaride, BlocPower, HEVO, and Build Edison – each of which is a minority, veteran, or woman-founded company – showcases the power of diversity and the NYC innovation ecosystem. CTAP is grateful to the leaders in city and state government that have enabled this partnership.”

    HEVO will deploy EV charging infrastructure while BlocPower will offer its financing services and decarbonization experience to support this innovative clean mobility project.

    Apart from fleet electrification, CTAP will provide several other benefits to the dollar van industry and the communities it serves, including –

    ·        Development of new routes for greater connectivity and accessibility for commuters,

    ·         Deployment of wireless EV charging infrastructure at crowded retail locations to offer plugin charging facility for local communities during the day and seamless charging of EV fleet at night,

    ·         Generating revenue from charging services that could be equitably distributed among CTAP and community partners,

    ·         Training, licensing, and insurance of dollar van drivers and their new vehicles, and

    ·         Reduction in gas and maintenance costs.

    About the Author

    EnergyTech Staff

    Rod Walton is senior editor for EnergyTech.com. He has spent 14 years covering the energy industry as a newspaper and trade journalist.

    Walton formerly was energy writer and business editor at the Tulsa World. Later, he spent six years covering the electricity power sector for Pennwell and Clarion Events. He joined Endeavor and EnergyTech in November 2021.

    He can be reached at [email protected]. 

    EnergyTech is focused on the mission critical and large-scale energy users and their sustainability and resiliency goals. These include the commercial and industrial sectors, as well as the military, universities, data centers and microgrids.

    Many large-scale energy users such as Fortune 500 companies, and mission-critical users such as military bases, universities, healthcare facilities, public safety and data centers, shifting their energy priorities to reach net-zero carbon goals within the coming decades. These include plans for renewable energy power purchase agreements, but also on-site resiliency projects such as microgrids, combined heat and power, rooftop solar, energy storage, digitalization and building efficiency upgrades.