Philadelphia is moving to quadruple its public EV charging network through a 10-year public-private partnership called ChargePHL, with legislation introduced Thursday by Council member Michael Driscoll and Council President Kenyatta Johnson that would authorize more than 800 publicly available chargers across the city. The network will be built at no direct cost to Philadelphia’s budget. Two private companies, It’s Electric Inc. and PositivEnergy Inc. will fund installation from their own capital and federal grants, and the first chargers are expected in early 2027.

The gap the program addresses is stark. The average Philadelphia resident lives about half a mile from a gas station. The nearest public EV charger is, on average, 1.4 miles away, most of the estimated 200 chargers are concentrated within the Center City. This leaves large stretches of the city with essentially no accessible public charging. Many residents resorting to obscure measures to keep their cars charged, running cords across sidewalks and dangling cords out of windows.

The city’s Office of Transportation and Infrastructure Systems selected two companies during a committee hearing Tuesday: It’s Electric Inc. based in Brooklyn and PositivEnergy Inc. based in Miami. They will be in charge of designing, installing, operating, and maintaining, their own network at curbside locations and surface parking lots including those owned by the Philadelphia Parking Authority.

EV charging breaks into three tiers by speed and cost, and Philadelphia’s plan covers multiple levels. A DC fast charger — the kind that can fully charge a vehicle in 30 minutes or less — costs up to $800,000 per unit. A Level 2 charger, which handles overnight or workplace charging on a multi-hour schedule, runs between $15,000 and $25,000 installed. The legislation does not specify exactly how many of each type will be deployed, but a separate bill before Council would authorize PositivEnergy to install four DC fast chargers at the cell phone lot at Philadelphia International Airport, open to rideshare operators, passengers, and the general public.

What ChargePHL Actually Involves, in Dollars and Hardware

That airport deal has its own revenue structure. The Department of Aviation collects 33% of charging revenue during the contract’s first five years, stepping up to 37% in years six through ten. The companies keep the rest.

For everyday users, the city estimates an overnight charge through the network will cost approximately $13 — positioned as a competitive alternative to gasoline. Anna Kelly, an adviser for the city’s Office of Transportation and Infrastructure Systems, told Council that motor vehicles account for 60% of Philadelphia’s air pollution. The American Lung Association currently grades Philadelphia an F for particulate pollution.

New Parking Rules Come With the Chargers

The legislation would amend Philadelphia’s traffic code in two ways that matter for daily use. Non-EVs would be barred from standing or parking in designated charging spaces — an enforcement gap that has hobbled public charger networks in cities across the country. EV drivers who finish charging would have 20 minutes to move before facing penalties of $150 to $300.

The 20-minute post-charge rule is worth watching closely. Without it, a slow trickle of idle EVs can back up a handful of chargers in a busy lot for hours. Whether Philadelphia can enforce it consistently — given the city’s historically patchy parking enforcement record — will shape whether ChargePHL works in practice, not just on paper.

Council member Jeffery Young Jr. raised a usage pattern that shows exactly why location matters as much as quantity. He noted that rideshare drivers operating EVs as Uber vehicles are currently driving to Northeast Philadelphia — a significant detour — just to find a charger. “I would just hope that we take a look at the neighborhoods where we want expansion of electric vehicles and put the infrastructure there to incentivize residents to purchase electric vehicles,” Young said during the committee hearing. It is the right instinct. Chargers concentrated in Center City serve commuters and visitors. Chargers in residential neighborhoods serve the people most likely to be apartment dwellers without private garage access — exactly the demographic that has the hardest time owning an EV today.

EVXL’s Take

Philadelphia’s charging deficit is not unique. When covering Nevada’s struggle to build out its public charging network, the state had one station for every 73 registered EVs — a ratio that would embarrass most countries where EV adoption is taken seriously. Philadelphia is a denser, wealthier city with far better grid access than rural Nevada, but the core problem is the same: charging infrastructure gets built where it is easiest and most profitable, which is usually where EVs are already concentrated, which is usually where people have garages and easy home charging option. The cycle is self-reinforcing.

ChargePHL at least has the right structural feature: zero city budget exposure. The private operators take the capital risk, the city provides the right-of-way and the regulatory framework. That is a cleaner model than the federal NEVI program, which spent years trying to deploy $7.5 billion through state DOTs that had no experience building charging networks — with predictably slow results. Letting companies that actually operate chargers for a living take the financial lead makes sense.

What it does not resolve is the pace. Ten years to install 800 chargers in a city of 1.5 million is not an aggressive buildout — it is a cautious one. EV adoption in the U.S. is already showing signs of flattening even in California, the country’s most EV-forward market. If Philadelphia’s first meaningful wave of neighborhood chargers does not appear until 2028 or 2029, the program risks being late for the peak adoption window, not early for it.

Source: The Philadelphia Inquirer

EVXL uses automated tools to support research and source retrieval. All reporting and editorial perspectives are by Haye Kesteloo.