New York is set to become a hub for electric cars, after Mayor Mike Bloomberg announced plans for a fifth of new parking slots in the city to have battery chargers.
The move could see the Big Apple’s electric charging slots rise from 220 to 10,000 by 2019.
“To make New York even more environmentally-friendly, during the year ahead we’ll encourage use of electric vehicles by installing curbside battery chargers at sites throughout the city,” Bloomberg said.
“We’ll work with the City Council to require that 20% of publicly available slots in new private parking lots have such battery chargers, too.”
One hour of ‘supercharging’ can power a Tesla Model S for around 270 miles
The city is also exploring options to install two high-speed charging points that could refill a car’s battery in under half an hour.
Bloomberg is a strong advocate of affirmative climate action. In the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy he declared his support for Barack Obama as President, citing his leadership in tackling the issue.
According to the mayor the city’s PlaNYC has enabled it to cut emissions by 16% in the last five years.
He also plans to ban styrofoam food packaging and encourage greater recycling of food waste.
Electric wars
Electric car charging points are a hot topic in the city as a result of an ongoing row between Tesla Motors and the New York Times over a review of the car maker’s latest model.
Journalist John Broder claims the Tesla S Model he was driving ran out of power, forcing him to call a truck to tow him home.
In response Tesla chief executive Elon Musk said Broder: “unplugged the car before it was fully charged, drove faster than he claimed and drove around in circles to deliberately run down the battery”.
Tesla also says it has data from the car in question to back up its comments. The New York Times says it is investigating the complaint.
AUDIO: Mike Bloomberg on electric charge points