If you rent in Seattle and park on the street, you can now ask the city to put an EV charger outside your door. Seattle plans up to 200 public curbside Level 2 chargers by 2030, aimed at people with no driveway outlet to lean on.
City Light says more than half of the city's homes are apartments or condos, and some older houses and houseboats have nowhere to plug in either. The utility and the Seattle Department of Transportation say they'll favor neighborhoods with the fewest charging options, and every new charger will be open to the public.
How to ask, and how long you'll wait
Requests go through City Light's program page and stay open through fall 2027. The city says it will weigh charging gaps, environmental and equity goals, and whether a spot already has the electrical capacity for a charger.
That last test matters. A request is not a promise, and a street with weak power nearby may wait longer. The coverage we read doesn't say how many requests the city expects, how it will rank them, or whether applying early improves your odds.
The schedule is a plan, not a delivery. Installs are slated to start in fall 2027 and run through 2030, so someone applying today is looking at a wait of a year or more.
What a charge would look like
These are slow, steady units for topping up near home, adding roughly 12 to 30 miles (19 to 48 km) of range an hour. City Light's current Level 2 rate is 21 cents per kilowatt-hour, which puts a 30 kWh fill-up near $6, though curbside pricing hasn't been announced.
The chargers follow a 2023 to 2024 pilot at 31 sites that SDOT says drew strong use. The money comes from the transportation levy voters approved in 2024.
The next dates to mark are fall 2027, when the first batch of sites is due to start going in and when City Light's request window is set to close. To apply, use the EV charging request page on City Light's website.
Sources
Reported by the WattsUpNext desk from the sources linked below. Spot an error? Tell us at corrections@wattsupnext.com.
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