Mayor Emma Mulvaney-Stanak and Burlington Electric Department Share Annual Net Zero Energy Roadmap Update, Announce New EV Fast Chargers, Introduce New BED AI Customer Support

Burlington, VT – Today, Mayor Emma Mulvaney-Stanak and Burlington Electric Department (BED) shared Burlington’s Net Zero Energy (NZE) Roadmap update for 2025, announced availability of new downtown, public electric vehicle (EV) fast chargers, and introduced BED’s new customer support artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot, “Sparky.”

The Roadmap update shows that Burlington’s greenhouse gas emissions in the ground transportation and thermal/buildings sectors are down 17.8 percent in 2025 compared to the 2018 baseline, representing a moderate overall rebound in emissions compared to 2024 when emissions were down 19.6 percent. In the ground transportation sector, there are very positive results with fossil fuel consumption down 24.3 percent compared to 2019 due to a combination of more EVs/Plug-in Hybrids and E-buses plus fewer registered gasoline vehicles in the City.

Thermal emissions saw an uptick in 2025 relative to 2024, largely due to colder weather and more heating degree days in 2025 compared to 2023 and 2024. As part of the 2025 update process, Synapse Energy Economics, BED’s Net Zero Energy Roadmap partner, updated data on thermal and ground transportation fossil fuel and emissions and on electric technology adoption. For the first time, BED worked with Synapse to produce weather normalized data for thermal, which accounts for weather variability. The weather normalized data shows 2025 thermal fossil fuel consumption matching 2024, indicating a more positive sustained trend partly due to the deployment of more than 3,400 heat pumps in Burlington.

“The updated Net Zero Energy Roadmap data shows strong progress on reducing transportation emissions in Burlington, and we are proud of the work Burlingtonians have done to reduce car usage and switch to electric and plug-in vehicles,” stated Mayor Emma Mulvaney-Stanak. “We have more work to do to consolidate and build on progress in the buildings sector, and my Climate Advisors report will help us reemphasize our efforts to track action on our rental weatherization ordinance and other building-related policies in Burlington. I am pleased that Burlington Electric continues to offer some of the strongest incentives to help our Burlington ratepayers switch to EVs, heat pumps, geothermal, and efficient appliances.”

“Burlington Electric is excited to see strong progress on reducing fossil fuel usage for ground transportation in our City, with a 24.3 percent reduction since 2019 far outpacing state and national trends,” said Darren Springer, General Manager of BED. “BED is committed to continuing to offer the strongest possible incentives for our customers in the face of federal policies that eliminated support for EVs and heat pumps and other key technologies. While federal headwinds make our work on strategic electrification more challenging, we know that switching to EVs helps our customers save money, reduces emissions, and keeps more of our energy dollars local in Vermont.”

The progress on ground transportation included having 1,465 EVs and plug-in hybrid vehicles (PHEVs) registered in Burlington in 2025, a 521 percent increase from 2018. EVs and PHEVs now represent more than six percent of Burlington’s registered light duty vehicles. In 2025, Burlington had the lowest number of registered gasoline vehicles since Roadmap tracking began.

While the colder weather and increase in heating degree days drove thermal emissions higher in 2025 than in 2024, weather normalized data showed a more consistent trend in the thermal sector. The increase in thermal usage caused the moderate rebound in emissions overall in the 2025 data, seen in the chart below comparing the actuals through 2025 to the Roadmap 2030 trajectory and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) target for 2030:

New EV Fast Chargers Open Downtown

The Mayor and BED also announced that two new DC fast chargers (DCFCs) now are online and available for use downtown on St. Paul Street. The DCFCs are located at the first two parking spaces just north of the northwest corner of the St. Paul Street/Bank Street intersection. The two chargers are linked so that, when only one is in use, the one charger can provide up to 125 kW, making it the fastest public charger in BED’s Burlington network. More EV charging investments are planned as part of the implementation of BED’s Net Zero Energy and Grid Reliability Revenue Bond, approved by voters in November of 2024 and issued in 2026. Driving electric saves Burlingtonians money at the gas pump. One new tool that helps make the case for driving electric is the EV Cost Savings Index, created by Coltura, a national nonprofit group, indicating that Vermont drivers who drive 15,000 miles annually would save more than $2,400 on fuel and maintenance combined.

New BED AI Customer Support Live
BED also introduced its new AI customer support website chatbot, named “Sparky.” Sparky is available to help customers learn about BED rebates, programs and offerings, and more. We invite BED customers to click on the green “Chat Now” bar on the bottom right of BED’s website to chat with Sparky and to learn more about steps they can take on the road to Net Zero Energy.

*BED GM Springer presented the Net Zero Energy Roadmap update before the City Council on April 27, 2026. The presentation slides are available here.