Metro

‘Manhole’ charging stations set for Washington Square Park

Electric-car charging stations that look like manhole covers will debut next spring near Washington Square Park.

The pilot project, launched by a Soho-based company called HEVO Power, will charge two NYU public-safety patrol vehicles.

Drivers will bring the cars to the station and use a charging receiver on the bottom of the vehicles to sync wirelessly with the cords and cables under the cover in the ground.

It takes about one to two hours for a compact car to fully charge, but significantly longer for larger vehicles and trucks.

“It’s similar to the way an FM tuner on your radio tunes into the right radio station,” said HEVO Power founder Jeremy McCool, 33, an Iraq War veteran who lives on the Upper West Side. “Once that frequency tunes in properly, the vehicle automatically begins to charge with the charging stations.”

The company is now part of an “incubator” at NYU Poly-Technic. The university purchased the charging stations through a city grant.

McCool picked a manhole-cover design to blend in with an urban environment, and came up with the idea while he was standing on a cover at 116th and Broadway.

“It appeared to me how you could eliminate plug-in stations and make it easier,” he said.

Future customers will download an app that will show them available charging stations. McCool said the price would be comparable to those of current plug-in stations, which range from $2 to $5 an hour.

The company is also working to create green loading zones for electric trucks at curbside locations, where they can both charge and unload, through a grant from the New York State Energy Research Development Authority.

“When you talk with any fleet operator with electric trucks, their greatest barrier is their inability to be able to charge en route at the delivery site,” said McCool. “This is the biggest barrier.”

Companies like Pepsi and City Harvest, which have electric trucks, are interested in using the chargers, he said. HEVO Power also hopes to bring the chargers to loading yards and distribution centers.

McCool has a Purple Heart from serving in the Iraq War, where he was injured by blast shrapnel.