Buffalo Bayou Park gets new EV chargers funded by Houston City Council member | Houston Public Media

Buffalo Bayou Park visitors can now charge electric vehicles there after Houston City Council member Abbie Kamin launched newly constructed chargers at the park Tuesday.

The charging station with two chargers is the first to be built using city council district funds, with a $100,000 allocation from Kamin’s District C office.

“District C has some of the largest users of electric vehicles in the entire city, and we are also home to parks that hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of people travel to with their vehicles every year,” Kamin told Houston Public Media. “We shouldn’t even call it an amenity at this point. It is basic modern infrastructure as we not only seek to tackle climate change head on, but allow affordable, accessible options for Houstonians.”

The charging station, located off Allen Parkway in the Buffalo Bayou Park lot near Eleanor Tinsley Park, was constructed by Houston-based company EV Bolt. The initiative was organized through a partnership between city departments and District C; Downtown Houston+, a coalition of organizations and authorities that oversee downtown Houston’s development; CenterPoint Energy; and Evolve, an organization that encourages electric vehicle adoption in Houston.

“These aren’t large chargers, but it’s still something important to ensure that the grid can support the overall load coming in,” said Chad Stein, director of strategic business engagement for CenterPoint. “We want to ensure that we continue to proliferate these charging locations to create a higher adoption rate overall for EVs across the city of Houston and surrounding counties to ensure, you know, a clean air future.”

Costs for users will be based on the fluctuating market rate, much like gasoline. But the city of Houston will make no profit from the chargers, instead charging money only to meet the cost of electricity and ongoing maintenance.

Justin Doud/Houston Public Media

“That’s what makes this so special,” Kamin said. “The rates are going to be competitive and affordable, and that is why we are giving greater access to those who come to our parks. We are not only the energy capital of the world, we are the energy transition capital, and we are meeting the rising demand for cleaner, efficient transportation options.”

A spokesperson for EV Bolt, which operates the chargers, said the company also plans to implement idle charges in the future, which would add fees once a vehicle is fully charged to encourage users to unplug and share the devices.

Kamin’s allocation came from District C’s service program fund, dedicated to a district’s “neighborhood needs” and in accordance with constituent input. Each district has around $525,000 in available service funds for fiscal year 2025.

Texas has seen a steady rise in EV registration over the past few years, rising from fewer than 12,000 in 2016 to 230,000 in 2023, according to the U.S. Department of Energy. Nearly two-thirds of that growth came between 2021 and 2023, leading Texas to hold the third-highest number of EV registrations in the U.S. Still, EVs account for a little less than 1 percent of the state’s vehicles.

The project in Houston has been in the works for three years, and Kamin said while the city has applied for federal grants, those addressing climate change, resiliency and sustainability have been cut or put on hold, leading the district to take action directly. Kamin said she hopes other city council districts will see the opening as a sign that individual districts can take action successfully.

“As a city, we are still lagging behind other major cities when it comes to the number of chargers available and in chargers now available on public city property that are funded through the city of Houston,” Kamin said. “It has been over a decade since the city of Houston itself has added publicly accessible charging stations on city property.”