New York City’s iconic food carts, serving everything from tacos to dumplings, may soon ditch the noisy, smelly gas generators that power their lights. A Brooklyn-based startup is piloting an electric alternative: repurposed e-bike batteries, starting with La Chona Mexican on the corner of 30th Street and Broadway in Manhattan.
Powering Up NYC’s Food Carts with E-Bike Batteries
A new initiative aims to replace gas generators with a cleaner, quieter power source for the city’s street vendors.
- PopWheels, initially focused on e-bike battery swapping, is expanding into powering food carts.
- The system utilizes existing battery infrastructure and swapping stations already deployed throughout Manhattan.
- Food cart owners could potentially save money and eliminate noise and fumes by switching to electric power.
- The startup secured $2.3 million in seed funding last year to expand its battery-swapping network.
What’s the cost of switching to e-bike batteries for a food cart? According to PopWheels, it’s roughly $10 per day, comparable to the current expense for gasoline, while eliminating the drawbacks of gas-powered generators.
“This really started out as a lark last summer,” said David Hammer, co-founder and CEO of PopWheels. “I’m an ex-Googler from the early days, and this felt like a classic, old-school 20% project.”
PopWheels currently operates 30 charging cabinets around Manhattan, primarily serving e-bike delivery workers who rely on models like Arrow and Whizz. This has created a “de facto decentralized fleet,” Hammer explained, allowing the company to efficiently manage a limited number of battery types for a large customer base.
The idea evolved as the team realized the potential of extending their battery swapping network to other applications. “Are e-bike packs the perfect energy type to be powering food carts? Maybe, maybe not,” Hammer said. “I would argue it doesn’t matter. What matters is, can you solve distribution and charging?”
Delivery workers often travel long distances into Manhattan, depleting their battery charge. Many require two batteries to complete a full workday. This demand has led bodegas to offer e-bike charging services, typically costing workers $100 per month, and approaching $2,000 annually when factoring in battery degradation, Hammer noted.
“We can make the economics work so that we’re actually saving them money right off the bat,” Hammer said. PopWheels currently offers unlimited access to its network for $75 per month and reports a substantial waitlist.
The startup’s charging cabinets, capable of holding 16 batteries, are designed with safety in mind, including a rapid battery fire suppression system. The company’s initial focus was addressing the growing issue of e-bike fires in New York City, a problem that gained prominence a few years ago. PopWheels raised a $2.3 million seed round last year, in 2025, to support this expansion.
Cabinet locations are typically in small open spaces, like parking lots, retrofitted with fencing and electrical connections. Each cabinet draws a comparable amount of electricity to a Level 2 electric vehicle charger.
As the e-bike service matured, PopWheels began exploring other potential applications. “There was always a little bit of an underlying thesis that there’s something bigger here,” Hammer said. “If you build urban-scale, fire-safe battery swapping infrastructure, you’re creating an infrastructure layer that lots of people are going to want to get on board with.”
The idea of powering food carts arose after Hammer received an article detailing New York City’s efforts to decarbonize the sector. The PopWheels team then began analyzing the financial feasibility.
Hammer estimates food carts spend approximately $10 daily on gas for their generators (excluding propane used for cooking). PopWheels could offer a comparable subscription price of $10 per day for four batteries, providing around five kilowatt-hours of electricity—sufficient for many carts, with the option to swap for more power midday.
Following a successful prototype trial at the Brooklyn Navy Yard during New York Climate Week last year, PopWheels collaborated with the non-profit Street Vendor Project. Last week’s demonstration with La Chona marked the first full-day test of the battery system powering a food cart.
“I had multiple food cart owners come up to me and say, ‘Wait, there’s no noise with this cart. What are you guys doing? Can I get this?’” Hammer recalled.
“We are planning to roll this out aggressively starting this summer,” Hammer said. “We think we could be cost neutral with gasoline for a food cart owner while solving all of the quality of life issues.”
