Sleek, Stylish Curbside EV Charging Station: BYO Cable

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Last Updated on: 23rd April 2025, 09:43 am

The malevolently incompetent Commander-in-Chief who currently occupies the White House has been failing at, well, everything, so it’s no surprise to see him fail to stop people from buying EVs. In fact, ever since Trump swore to uphold the Constitution of the United States of America on January 20, startups and legacy firms alike have been pulling out all the stops to make EV charging easier and more accessible, helping to swing the needle over to zero emission mobility.

Instant EV Charging: Bring Your Own Cable

First up is the award-winning Brooklyn startup It’s Electric, which has come up with a turnkey solution that enables building owners to earn passive income by shunting their electricity to a curbside charging station. It’s Electric states that its charging stations can also be positioned in parking lots and garages, though curbside is their sweet spot.

Turnkey charging-as-a-service solutions are becoming commonplace for rental properties and other locations that resist traditional charging station setups. It’s Electric has figured out a way to paste its own, very unique stamp on the idea. The company’s sleek-looking charging stations look sleek because they are not draped with clumsy-looking charging cables. EV drivers who subscribe to the service receive their own charging cable, which they carry with them.

That may seem like a minor break with EV charging tradition, but eliminating extraneous cables from a piece of street furniture on crowded city streets is a potential game changer. Aside from eliminating cable theft and damage risks, the BYO cable idea makes it easier for It’s Electric to pitch its product without having to answer concerns about aesthetically disturbing street clutter. [Editor’s note: This approach to charging is very common in Europe.]

The company has received recognition from numerous publications as well as the World Economic Forum. It’s Electric is in the news again this week because it is installing two charging stations in San Francisco. If you drive an EV around there and you’re interested in getting an It’s Electric charging cable, check out the city’s charging FAQ page.

Ford Doubles Down On Home EV Charging, Again

The Ford Motor Company is also in the news this week, mainly on account of its 650-megawatt solar power purchase agreement with Michigan utility DTE, spread among a series of new solar power plants. As if to give Trump a poke in the eye over his put-downs of wind and solar energy, Ford and DTE made a big deal out of celebrating the official start of construction on the first array.

In other recent news, Ford has extended its “Power Promise” program again. Launched last September, the program offered Ford EV buyers a complimentary home EV charger until the end of 2024. The program seemed to be a factor in the company’s Q4 2024 EV sales spike, so earlier this year Ford extended the offer.

“The program is designed to help more people benefit from the convenience of filling up at home with a complimentary Ford home charger as well as the potential to save money on gas,” Ford explained in a press release on January 3.

The extension was set to lapse on March 31. However, after Q1 2025 EV sales rolled in, Ford has extended the complimentary charger program again to June 30.

Trump Or No Trump, More And Better Public EV Fast Charging Stations Are Coming

Trump has more than a few tricks up his sleeve to play on the US auto industry, none of which are helping automakers sell more EVs. In one particularly dramatic move, Trump summarily suspended the $5 billion NEVI public fast charging program in midstream. The state-administered, federally funded program was designed to assure EV drivers of a quick recharge along Interstate highways and other main arteries.

However, Trump failed to stop other stakeholders, including the Ionna charging consortium and various travel centers, from pushing forward with public fast charging schemes of their own.

All that hard work is beginning to pay off. The EV charging software firm Paren is among those seeing signs that public charging stakeholders have been resolving the broken stations and connectivity lapses that beset the earlier days of public charging networks.

In an introduction to its inaugural quarterly EV charging report earlier this week, Paren declared that “2024 was a year of mixed news in the US DC fast charging (DCFC) industry, but we believe that it will be remembered as a pivotal turn to a new era known as ‘Charging 2.0.’”

While taking note of the bad news from last year — like when Tesla axed about 500 people from its Supercharger division — Paren also gave the industry props for increasing reliability. The firm also noted that some states managed to distribute their NEVI funds last year, before Trump monkey-wrenched the program.

As for Q1 2025, Paren describes a “typical” seasonal decline in EV charging installations, and a smaller decline in driver use, both being temporary blips on the bigger screen. “While the overall trend of utilization is increasing significantly, the Q1 period typically sees a slow-down in sessions due to reduced long-distance travel,” the firm explained.

“However, reliability improved, and the average ratio of new ports per station for non-Tesla networks continued on a positive upward trend reaching 3.9 versus 3.6 in Q4 2024 and 2.7 in Q1 2024,” Paren emphasized.

Wait, What Is Paren?

If you’re wondering what Paren is, that’s a good question. The startup is new to the pages of CleanTechnica, but not to investors. Last fall, Paren raised $3 million in seed funding to scale up and add services. Base10 Partners spearheaded the round, with Founders Network Fund also participating, in addition to Google Street View and Lyft 5 founder Luc Vincent. The company describes itself as a “software platform powering electric mobility with unified data insights,” focusing like a thousand points of light on charger reliability and the driver experience.

“Paren was founded in 2023 with the goal of accelerating the adoption of electric vehicles by enabling a seamless driving experience,” Paren says of itself. According to the firm, there will be more than 1 billion charging sessions in the US by 2030, under a scenario in which 7.5% of vehicles on the road will be BEVs.

“Access to rich data sets, including EV charging station reliability, is key to realizing this expansion,” Paren emphasizes. Paren is aiming to support fleet managers, map makers, and other electric vehicle stakeholders in addition to US automakers.

Your move, malevolently incompetent Commander-in-Chief.

Photo (cropped): EV charging station innovators are making the EV driving experience more reliable and convenient than ever before (courtesy of It’s Electric).