Demand for public electric vehicle charging in Brookline has been slow to spark.
Charging company Greenspot recently decided to temporarily shutter 24 EV chargers in two public parking lots due to underuse.
In a report to the Transportation Board last week, the town’s director of engineering and transportation Dan Murphy wrote that Greenspot is reducing active EV stations at the Fuller Street Lot near Coolidge Corner from 20 ports to 6, and at the Kent/Webster Lot in Brookline Village from 14 ports to 4.
“The equipment will remain but will be bagged and signed as out of commission and the EV-only parking restriction at the stations being taken offline will be removed,” Murphy wrote.
The 24 chargers to be bagged represent 39% of the 62 total charging stations around Brookline.
Town staff say the move is a business decision by Greenspot, not a town policy decision. Greenspot pays to maintain and operate the stations, which were installed in late 2023 with funding help from Eversource, the town’s electric utility.
At the time, town officials predicted an increase in demand that hasn’t materialized. EV sales decreased sharply at the end of 2025 as the Trump administration revoked federal incentives for buyers.
“The goal is to bag them for one year and then reevaluate,” said Sam Downes, a town transportation engineer, at the Transportation Board meeting last week. “We don’t want to remove the infrastructure.”
In the long term, the market for EVs is likely to keep growing, Downes said. While the majority of charging still happens at home, demand for public EV charging is likely to keep growing, according to research firm Wood Mackenzize.
About 7.5% of active vehicles in Brookline are fully electric, according to state data, much higher than the statewide rate of 1.8%.
Brian Kane, chair of the Transportation Board, emphasized that the decision was Greenspot’s.
“They’re just not seeing utilization to justify their costs,” he said.
“EV users are used to getting lots of things for free,” Kane continued. “Those days I think are over.”
Greenspot did not respond to a request for comment.
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