How one EV charging startup is helping cities and states navigate federal uncertainty

The federal funding tap has been turned off.

That’s the reality cities, states, and the clean-energy sector are facing just months into the new Trump administration.

It’s electric, a Brooklyn-based curbside EV charging startup, is trying to make the best of the situation by helping its clients—like the cities of Boston, San Francisco, and Detroit—figure out effective ways to pursue their electrification goals without federal support.

“We’re really excited to be bringing this technology to all of these different cities, who are facing not only the same problem they faced before, which is how to scale EV infrastructure in a way that’s actually affordable,” Tiya Gordon, it’s electric’s co-founder and COO, told Tech Brew, “but the larger issue…is that most cities now are having to proceed with their electrification plans without any federal subsidies.”

“Their grants have been frozen or removed or put on a very high shelf, with a lack of clarity around when it can get pulled down from that shelf in the future,” she added. “So we’re working shoulder-to-shoulder with a lot of our city and state partners to try and find solutions for electrification, with these new challenges around us.”

Gordon will join Tech Brew on Thursday, May 29, for a panel discussion on priorities in EV infrastructure during our live event, “Power Shift: Navigating the Intersection of Energy and Transportation.”

The company’s business model involves partnering with property owners to tap into existing electricity supplies in buildings, bypassing the need for any new utility connections. It installs Level 2 EV chargers and pulls power from behind the meter, at no cost to the property owner. The model aims to help solve for the fact that while about a third of US households live in multi-family housing, most of those households don’t have access to at-home charging.

Gordon said that it’s electric knows from firsthand experience that federal funding has been cut off, and at the same time no new federal funding opportunities are available.

It’s electric’s model is free to cities, so the startup is trying to take advantage of the opportunities that are still out there.

“Cities are rudderless when it comes to reliance from federal support,” Gordon said. “But what that’s created is an opportunity for cities to just lead this process by themselves.”