How PopWheels helped a food cart ditch generators for e-bike batteries

Food carts are a staple of New York City dining, dispensing everything from dosa and doner kebabs to dogs and dim sum successful abbreviated order. But nary substance however enticing the aroma of a cart’s food, the smelly state generators that support the lights connected endanger to enactment customers disconnected their meals.

Cart owners and customers whitethorn not person to suck connected fumes overmuch longer. A Brooklyn-based startup is investigating the usage of its e-bike batteries to powerfulness nutrient carts, starting with La Chona Mexican connected the country of 30^th and Broadway successful Manhattan.

“This truly started retired arsenic a lark past summer,” David Hammer, co-founder and CEO of PopWheels, told TechCrunch. “I’m an ex-Googler from the aboriginal days, and this felt similar a classic, old-school 20% project.”

Normally, PopWheels artillery packs are zipping astir the metropolis strapped to nutrient transportation bikes. The squad soon realized that connecting them to nutrient carts was an avenue worthy pursuing.

“Are e-bike packs the cleanable vigor benignant to beryllium powering nutrient carts? Maybe, possibly not,” Hammer said. “I would reason it doesn’t matter. What matters is, tin you lick organisation and charging?”

If a nutrient cart needs much power, the proprietor tin swap the artillery packs midday.Image Credits:PopWheels

PopWheels presently operates 30 charging cabinets astir Manhattan, which service gig workers riding e-bikes, astir of whom usage either Arrow oregon Whizz models. That’s resulted successful a “de facto  decentralized fleet,” Hammer said, allowing the institution to banal conscionable a fewer antithetic types of batteries to service hundreds of customers.

Many transportation workers thrust into Manhattan from the farther reaches of the city. It’s a travel that tin pain a important information of their charge, and galore workers request 2 batteries to get done a afloat day. In response, bodegas started offering e-bike charging services, for which transportation workers typically wage $100 per month. When factoring successful artillery deterioration and tear, the full outgo nears $2,000 per year, Hammer said.

“We tin marque the economics enactment truthful that we’re really redeeming them wealth close disconnected the bat,” helium said. PopWheels charges customers $75 per period for unlimited entree to its network, and Hammer said the institution has a agelong waitlist.

The startup’s charging cabinets tin clasp 16 batteries, and PopWheels designed them to swiftly extinguish a artillery occurrence should thing spell awry during charging. (The company’s founding ngo was to stamp retired e-bike fires successful New York City, which became a important occupation fewer years ago.) After gathering immoderate archetypal cabinets, the institution raised a $2.3 cardinal effect circular past twelvemonth 2025.

Swap sites are typically tiny unfastened spaces similar parking lots, which PopWheels has retrofit with fences and the indispensable electrical connections to enactment respective cabinets. Each furniture draws astir arsenic overmuch energy arsenic a Level 2 electrical conveyance charger, which is to accidental not that much.

As PopWheels e-bike work grew, the startup began studying different opportunities. 

“There was ever a small spot of an underlying thesis that there’s thing bigger here,” Hammer said. “If you physique urban-scale, fire-safe artillery swapping infrastructure, you’re creating an infrastructure furniture that tons of radical are going to privation to get connected committee with.”

Hammer started to deliberation astir alternate uses for the batteries aft idiosyncratic sent an nonfiction astir however New York City was moving to decarbonize nutrient carts. That’s erstwhile the PopWheels squad started moving the numbers.

Food carts, Hammer estimates, astir apt walk astir $10 a time connected state for their generators to support the lights on. (Most of the cooking is done via propane, which is simply a abstracted matter.) That’s astir however overmuch PopWheels would complaint idiosyncratic to subscribe to 4 of its batteries per day. Conveniently, 4 of its batteries tin proviso astir 5 kilowatt-hours of electricity, which is capable to screen the debased extremity of what a emblematic cart mightiness draw. If they request much juice, Hammer said they tin tally to a swap presumption midday.

After realizing the mathematics penciled out, PopWheels built a prototype adapter and trialed it astatine a tiny lawsuit astatine the Brooklyn Navy Yard astatine past year’s New York Climate Week. Since then, the startup has been moving with the the non-profit Street Vendor Project to determination the thought forward. Last week’s objection with La Chona was the archetypal clip the batteries powered a nutrient cart for a afloat day. 

“I had aggregate nutrient cart owners travel up to maine and say, ‘Wait, there’s nary sound with this cart. What are you guys doing? Can I get this?’” Hammer said. 

“We are readying to rotation this retired aggressively starting this summer,” helium said. “We deliberation we could beryllium outgo neutral with gasoline for a nutrient cart proprietor portion solving each of the prime of beingness issues.”