Best Permitting Software for Faster EV Deployment

The demand for EV charging infrastructure is high, and you have plans to meet those demands. Your team has secured sites, finished civil drawings, and lined up contractors, but your chargers are still sitting idle.

Permitting is a major hurdle for EV teams. Many cities are reviewing EV plans for the first time. Some treat chargers like a gas station, others as an electrical upgrade, and a few still don’t even know what to classify them as. This causes reviews to stall, and every delay means idle assets and lost revenue.

You can’t scale your EV deployment if permitting isn’t predictable.

Where existing permitting approaches fall short

Most EV rollout teams are using a mix of expediters, spreadsheets, and project management tools. That may work for a handful of sites, but not when you’re deploying at scale nationally across 20, 50, or even 200 locations.

Jurisdictions are unfamiliar with EV: Cities often haven’t seen charger plans before, which can lead to inconsistent requirements and unpredictable review cycles.

Multiple departments, no single process: Zoning, fire, engineering, and utilities departments each work in silos, and timelines and processes for approvals can vary by department and by city.

Tracking is inconsistent and manual: Most teams rely on contractors or internal trackers to monitor permit status, but there’s no real-time visibility.

Project management tools don’t work for permitting: Platforms like Asana can track tasks, but they can’t reflect city-specific workflows or cross-agency handoffs.

What to look for in a permitting solution

EV operators often piece together tools to meet needs at different points of the process, but each of these tools has limits. Here’s what’s commonly used for:

Visibility

Teams use Excel, Airtable, or Smartsheet to track status. But they depend on manual updates and don’t reflect what’s happening right now. Look for integrations that give you live updates, not spreadsheets that require constant upkeep.

Task coordination

Monday, Trello, or Asana can assign tasks, but they’re not designed for permitting, zoning, or utility workflows. Look for task ownership tied to each permitting phase, reviewer, and agency.

Timeline management

Most teams use calendar reminders and ad hoc check-ins with contractors, but they don’t surface delays early. Look for forecasting tools that can flag at-risk permits before they slow deployments.

Managing projects at scale

Local expeditors might get individual sites approved, but they’re hard to scale consistently and across jurisdictions. Look for permitting systems that support multiple jurisdictions and provide roll-up reporting for your entire program.

While these tools can each solve one pain point, none of them are built specifically for permitting. The result is a patchwork process that still leaves your team chasing updates and stitching together workflows manually.

EV teams are choosing Pulley as their all-in-one permitting solution

Instead of juggling spreadsheets, consultants, and project management tools, Pulley provides EV charger development teams everything they need to manage permitting in one place and get approvals up to 50% faster.

Pulley's platform offers:

Structured workflows for EV permitting: Pulley’s upfront research develops a permit plan and strategy that’s tailored to the requirements of each jurisdiction.

Direct integrations city portals: CitySync, our integration into +19,000 city portals, shows the real-time status of every application.

Live project timelines by site and program: Dynamic forecasting gives you exact dates based on data rather than guesses or ranges.

Task-level coordination: See who’s responsible at every step, from internal teams and external vendors to city reviewers.

Program-level visibility: Roll up data across markets, vendors, and timelines to adjust forecasts and report progress.

Pulley helps EV operators reduce permitting delays by creating structure, visibility, and accountability across multiple jurisdictions.

Deploy at scale and meet the demand for EV charging

Delays in EV permitting don’t just slow deployment: they keep chargers offline and revenue on hold. Pulley replaces manual follow-ups and scattered tools with one structured, real-time system.

Learn more about Pulley and deploying EV chargers in any jurisdiction or for any use case.

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