Answer extracted from The Pitch podcast — listen to the full episode below.
How does It's Electric's public curbside charging address the needs of rideshare drivers versus destination charging?
Rideshare drivers lose 20-30% of their weekly revenue simply searching for chargers and waiting in line. Public curbside charging solves this by letting drivers charge overnight in their own neighborhoods—similar to how homeowners charge in garages—while destination charging at parking lots requires 6-8 hours and doesn't meet drivers where they live, which is why it has slowed market adoption.
The Real Cost of Finding a Charger
The challenge facing rideshare drivers is not just access to electricity, but time lost away from earning. When a driver must hunt for an available charger and then wait hours for a full charge, those hours represent direct income forfeited. Destination charging—typically located at shopping centers, parking garages, or public lots—requires 6-8 hours for a Level Two charge, which means a driver can't use that time to pick up passengers.
Public curbside charging fundamentally changes this equation. As Tia Gordon explains in the episode, drivers can charge overnight in their own neighborhoods—the same way homeowners with garages charge their vehicles. The charger sits on the curb near where the driver lives, removing both the search friction and the operational burden of coordinating around destination parking locations.
Why Destination Charging Falls Short
Destination charging sounds logical in theory: put chargers where people already are. But for rideshare operators, the economics and logistics don't align with how they work. A driver can't simply park for 6-8 hours waiting for their car to charge; they need to keep moving to generate revenue. The fact that lot-based charging has slowed market adoption signals that cities and investors have learned this lesson through real deployment experience.
Neighborhood curbside charging inverts this logic. Instead of forcing the driver's schedule around the charger's availability, the charger is available whenever the driver returns home—whether that's midnight, 2 a.m., or dawn. The podcast details how It's Electric's infrastructure directly addresses this gap, making overnight charging as frictionless as plugging in at home.
"We like to say that we're the disco and sunshine of EV charging, and we're trying to make things just better and not shitty."
Tia Gordon — Co-founder, It's Electric. Gordon's background spans embedded technology work on the 9-11 Memorial and Museum of the World Trade Center, where she managed approximately 200 layers of integrated systems. She founded It's Electric during the pandemic with a cardboard and rubber prototype, winning $300,000 in non-dilutive funding from Hyundai's Open EV Innovation Challenge. Her company has since grown to raise $7 million total in non-dilutive funding plus a $6.5 million seed round co-led by Uber and fail-up.
The urgency of this solution is real: the episode reveals that New York City alone requires 80,000 rideshare vehicles to be all-electric by 2030, a mandate that makes the difference between curbside and destination charging a matter of infrastructure viability, not just convenience.
See also
What is the revenue model and payback timeline for It's Electric chargers?
Each charger costs approximately $10,300 all-in after subsidies, with a payback period of around 18 months at 40% utilization. At these rates, a single charger can generate significant lifetime value for cities and operators deploying them.
What are the key barriers preventing competing companies from replicating this charging infrastructure?
Tia Gordon identifies three primary barriers: first, many cities grant exclusivity contracts ranging from 5 to 15 years; second, obtaining UL certification for new hardware can take 2 to 3 years; third, the capital intensity and regulatory complexity of deploying at scale.
How does It's Electric differentiate its pricing model from competitors in the EV charging market?
It's Electric charges an upcharge on the base kilowatt-hour rate determined through driver surveys. For example, in San Francisco where the base energy rate is 23 cents per kilowatt hour, It's Electric charges 41 cents per kilowatt hour, generating approximately $1,000 monthly revenue per charger.
Key takeaways
- Rideshare drivers currently lose 20-30% of weekly revenue to charger searches and waiting times, making traditional destination charging economically unviable for them.
- Public curbside charging mirrors residential garage charging by allowing overnight, neighborhood-level access without operational disruption to the driver's earning schedule.
- Destination charging's 6-8 hour requirement conflicts with rideshare economics, which explains why lot-based deployments have not accelerated market adoption as expected.
- The solution directly addresses urban mandates: New York City requires 80,000 rideshare vehicles to be all-electric by 2030, making accessible neighborhood charging infrastructure a regulatory necessity.