Days after the deadline to answer a request for proposals for “green” transportation support services to help East Hampton Town achieve its sustainability goals, the town’s energy sustainability and resiliency committee recommended a green light for Tesla Inc. and Electrify America to install 12 electric vehicle charging stations in a municipal parking lot on South Euclid Avenue in Montauk.
Lauren Steinberg, an environmental analyst with the town’s Natural Resources Department, made the recommendation following remarks by Linda James, the chairwoman of the energy sustainability and resiliency committee. Tesla and Electrify America, Ms. Steinberg said, were the only respondents to the request for proposals, which were due last Thursday.
The installation of the charging stations, Ms. James told the board, “introduces an opportunity for a public-private partnership that would make a project of this scope possible for our local community.” Electric vehicle charging stations “are no longer a luxury item,” but rather “a necessary contribution to maintaining the town’s transportation infrastructure.”
Eight of the charging stations would be specific to Tesla electric vehicles, and the other four to universal chargers. The stations will be Level 3, the fastest type of electric vehicle charging station, which can deliver an 80-percent charge in as little as 30 minutes, according to the website homechargingstations.com.
The recommendation follows a 2018 pitch from Tesla to install charging stations, at no cost to the town, in the Kirk Park Beach parking lot in Montauk, which was met with a mixed reception by the town board. Tesla modified its proposal and took on Electrify America as a partner in the project, however, and at its meeting on Tuesday the board was amenable.
As they had previously, board members expressed some discomfort with the charging stations’ branding and potentially unappealing aesthetic characteristics.
“Have we asked Tesla if they can eliminate their branding?” Councilman Jeff Bragman asked. Yes, and they cannot, was Ms. Steinberg’s answer. “Are they lit?” he asked. “They are illuminated,” she answered. “They don’t project light, but the stations are illuminating.”
Tesla is the market leader in electric passenger vehicles in the United States. According to its website, the company has installed 14,497 Level 3 “superchargers” at 1,636 stations in North America. One such station is on County Road 39 in Southampton. Tesla’s “destination charging” network comprises Level 2 chargers installed at hotels, restaurants, and shopping centers, including Gurney’s Yacht Club and Gurney’s Resort in Montauk and the LongHouse Reserve in East Hampton.
Electrify America, a subsidiary of the Volkswagen Group of America, owns and manages a network of electric vehicle charging stations. It was established in 2017 as part of a federal consent decree that settled claims by the federal Environmental Protection Agency and Federal Trade Commission against Volkswagen AG stemming from the German car manufacturer’s emissions scandal. One requirement of the settlement was Volkswagen’s $2 billion investment in establishing a zero-emission-vehicle infrastructure and brand-neutral public awareness campaign for such vehicles.
The town and East Hampton Village have installed electric vehicle charging stations in a few locations, including the parking lot at Town Hall, the municipal parking lot in Amagansett, and the long-term parking lot off Railroad Avenue in the village.
