Four Greater Boston communities now have off-grid solar EV chargers powering a new Zipcar pilot designed to bring affordable carsharing to places that have historically gone without it.
The Metropolitan Area Planning Council (MAPC) has launched CommunityEV Carshare at four locations using Beam Global’s EV ARC charging systems and Zipcar EVs. Zipcar members can reserve EVs for between $11 and $13 an hour, a discounted rate for eligible users.
The pilot is being run in downtown Framingham at the MetroWest Regional Transit Authority, at the Chelsea Housing Authority, the Boston Housing Authority, and in downtown Quincy.
The off-grid solar EV chargers generate and store their own electricity, so they don’t need connection, trenching, electrical work, or other construction. That makes them much faster to deploy in locations where installing a conventional charger could be costly or impractical.
Beam says each EV ARC can charge two vehicles at once and generate enough solar energy to provide up to 265 miles of driving per day. Because the electricity is generated on-site, there’s no per-kilowatt-hour electricity cost and no added demand on the local grid.
That setup suits carsharing particularly well: The US Department of Transportation says household vehicles are parked around 95% of the time, while the median trip in Zipcar’s Boston EV fleet is just 25.5 miles. In other words, the cars spend plenty of time parked between relatively short journeys, giving the solar chargers time to recharge their batteries.
“We are excited that this program will pilot EV charging without lengthy and expensive construction, as well as promote EV carsharing to underserved communities,” said MAPC executive director Lizzi Weyant.
MAPC is renting the EV ARC systems, lowering the pilot’s upfront infrastructure costs and giving Beam a recurring revenue stream.
The Zipcar pilot will test whether combining shared EVs with quickly deployable, off-grid solar charging can expand access to clean transportation without waiting for utility upgrades or permanent charging infrastructure. If it’s declared successful, the model could be rolled out in other communities where carsharing and charging options are currently scarce.
Transportation accounts for 38% of Massachusetts’ greenhouse gas emissions, making it the state’s largest source of emissions. Massachusetts has set a target of reaching net-zero by 2050.
Read more: This California city is adding off-grid solar + storage EV chargers
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