Cincinnati committee hears plan to expand public EV charging and electrify city fleet

The Climate, Environment and Infrastructure Committee heard a progress update on electric-vehicle (EV) charging and fleet electrification, including two federal and regional grants, a contract with a private curbside-charging vendor and a consultant plan recommending initial focus on passenger cars and SUVs.

The committee was told the city was awarded $850,000 through the Federal Highway Administration Charging and Fueling Infrastructure grant and expects about $1.2 million from a regional Carbon Reduction Grant administered by OKI to install DC fast chargers in neighborhood business districts. Director Ollie Kroner, Administration, described those and other efforts as part of a strategy to “make it easier to live without a car” while electrifying the remaining vehicle trips; he said, “This will be $850,000 that will support EV charging across the city.”

Why it matters: transportation produces roughly one-third of the city’s estimated 6 million tons of annual carbon dioxide emissions, and officials said expanding public charging is a key step to reduce private-vehicle emissions. The city is pursuing multiple lines of work — public- and curbside-charging deployments, fleet charging hubs, telematics data collection and a certification process to reduce regulatory friction — that together are intended to make charging more equitable and operationally reliable.

City grants and private contract Kroner and staff described three complementary efforts for public and curbside charging. The FHWA award will support curbside and public charging work. A separate Carbon Reduction Grant (about…