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Oct 19, 2024

Philly EV chargers: Broken chargers could mean fines - WHYY

Electric vehicle owners say the city does not have enough public chargers, and the ones that do exist need to be maintained. Nate Golubiewski tries to use an electric vehicle charger in the MOM's

Electric vehicle owners say the city does not have enough public chargers, and the ones that do exist need to be maintained.

Nate Golubiewski tries to use an electric vehicle charger in the MOM's Organic Market parking garage, but discovers that it's not working. (Emma Lee/WHYY)

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Medical student Abay Tadesse drives his electric Toyota SUV daily, commuting to clinical rotations at hospitals in the Philadelphia area. He charges the car once a week at shopping centers and Wawas. But often, he finds those electrical vehicle chargers are in use or are not working.

“Sometimes you get to the charging station and the equipment’s broken,” Tadesse said. “The computer might be down. Sometimes there’s just really not an explanation — it just says out of order on the machine.”

Tadesse uses an app to check which chargers are available and operating before making the trip. He said the chargers closest to his Fishtown home have frequently been out of order the past year.

“I tend to have to plan my day around it,” he said.

A bill Philadelphia City Council passed last week aims to fix this. It would allow the city’s Department of Licenses and Inspections (L&I) to fine property owners who don’t keep their electric vehicle chargers functional. The measure is awaiting the mayor’s signature.

The bill applies to properties with more than ten parking spaces. It requires property owners to get a permit from L&I before installing EV chargers, to use electricians certified in working with EV charging infrastructure, to clean up any vandalism to the chargers and, crucially, to maintain the chargers in working order.

“[When a charger] is not working and you’re almost out of juice in your car, it’s a very anxious time,” said at-large Councilmember Nina Ahmad, who sponsored the legislation. “We want to address range anxiety by making sure that these chargers are maintained.”

Under this month’s bill, if L&I finds one of these public EV chargers out of order, the department can fine the property owner $300.

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“It seems to be the only way people pay attention to going that extra step of making sure your charger is operational,” Ahmad said. “This is really not to penalize charging station owners as much as making the user experience positive, so people actually adopt more use of EVs.”

If signed, the bill would go into effect April 1, 2025. A previous version finalized late this spring applies only to residential and commercial properties and went into effect Oct. 1.

Basil Merenda, the city’s commissioner of Inspections, Safety & Compliance Department, testified during a Council committee hearing on the new bill that the department will be prepared to enforce it beginning in April.

Tadesse thinks the bill is a step in the right direction, but may not solve the problem.

“I think that these companies need a pretty strong incentive to go out there and make some of these fixes,” he said. “Obviously if those fines are affecting their bottom line, it would be very beneficial, but I don’t think many of them would blink an eye if it’s just a flat $300 charge.”

Under the earlier version of the bill, if a charger is out of order for more than 30 days, L&I can fine the property owner $300 each day it continues to be non-operational.

Ilya Knizhnik, an EV owner and advocate who lives in the Cedar Park neighborhood of West Philadelphia, said the bigger problem is a shortage of public chargers overall. He thinks Philly should require or incentivize parking lot owners to install more.

“The only thing that the city is doing by ignoring this issue is that they are restricting EVs to wealthier individuals who may have a garage, and who may have a suburban home, rather than people who would be using public chargers,” he said.

Ahmad said she plans to introduce additional legislation that would require properties with at least 10 parking spaces to make a certain number of parking spaces EV charger-ready, or to install EV chargers.

City officials have said they see electric vehicles as playing a role in reducing transportation emissions, but are prioritizing more equitable climate-friendly solutions, like walking, biking and public transit.

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