Last year, Revel canceled its moped rental business in New York City and San Francisco following a drop in ridership. Now, the electric mobility startup has changed course as it aims to become the dominant provider of electric vehicle charging stations in major U.S. cities.
Last Thursday (Sept. 26), Revel unveiled a new charging station at Pier 36 in Manhattan that includes ten direct current fast charging (DCFC) stalls, each with 320 kilowatts of power that can replenish a battery in 20 to 30 minutes and is compatible with Tesla (TSLA), Kia and other EV makers. It’s the first 24/7 “fully public” fast charging station to open in the borough, according to the Revel, bringing the total number of charging stalls to 64—the largest network in New York City. The latest charging hub could make it easier for professional drivers in the Big Apple to adopt EVs as the city seeks to fully electrify its rideshare fleet by 2030.
“It is great to see New York City taking significant steps toward a greener future through this partnership with Revel and Kempower to build sustainable infrastructure,” Assemblymember Grace Lee said following the Sept. 26 ribbon-cutting event during Climate Week NYC. “By expanding access to high-speed EV chargers in Lower Manhattan, we are not only promoting green technology but also reducing harmful emissions and improving air quality for our community.”
Looking ahead, Revel seeks to build 300 EV charging stalls across NYC in neighborhoods like Maspeth, Red Hook and South Bronx as well as LaGuardia Airport by the end of 2025. Eventually, the company plans to expand its EV charging network to other major cities like Los Angeles and San Francisco.
Observer sat down with Revel’s founder and CEO Frank Reig last week to discuss the role his company is playing in accelerating EV adoption across NYC and beyond. The following conversation has been edited for length and clarity.
Observer: What differentiates Revel’s EV infrastructure approach from major players like Tesla? How do you stay competitive in a growing industry while maintaining your mission of accelerating EV adoption?
Frank Reig: We’re extremely urban focused. If you think about a lot of the fast charging infrastructure to date, who was it built for? It was built for EV owners in the last ten years who typically are higher net worth individuals who live in suburbia and have a garage, driveway and at-home charging. So most of the fast charging buildout traditionally has been on highway corridors and suburban areas. Urban areas like New York City have been completely ignored. I think that’s very much changing, especially with rideshare electrification. I want to be the first charging operator here in New York with 1,000 stalls eventually before anybody else has a 100.
The Green Rides Initiative requires New York City’s rideshare industry to go fully electric by 2030. How does Revel plan to support New York in this transition?
The Green Rides Initiative in New York is a pretty incredible policy initiative. We really do see the electrification of rideshare being the accelerant for the electrification of all mobility in an urban area like New York. Since this program went into effect, Revel has seen a 10x increase in the utilization of our charging network here in New York. Policies like this make a real impact, and we’re seeing that impact immediately. That increased utilization also allows Revel to build even more infrastructure.
What do you see are the biggest barriers to EV adoption in cities like New York?
The biggest barrier to EV adoption is making sure the infrastructure layer is reliable, ubiquitous and within a five- to ten-minute drive of all folks in that city. That’s exactly what Revel is building right now in New York. There’s a ton of focus here at making sure every site we build has incredibly high uptime so a user knows that the charger works. That’s the expectation you have when you go to a gas station, and it has to be the same with EVs.
What unique challenges have Revel encountered when scaling its EV infrastructure?
By far the number one is access to power in the grid. When you think about the Pier 36 site, it’s close to a megawatt half of power, the kind of power you need for a large skyscraper. Getting that access to power in a very congested grid in cities like New York City or San Francisco is extremely difficult. Secondary to that, but still extremely important, is zoning, especially in New York where 90 percent of the city is immediately not available to us. Every site we go through, you’re going to need Department of Buildings approval, ingress and egress to the site. You need to work with government partners in order to make that site viable. So just the bucket of permitting, and every site has its own unique challenges because urban areas typically have a lot of different competing priorities.
Uber (UBER) has committed to go all-electric by 2030. But just recently, the CEO mentioned Uber’s EV transition is not happening as fast as it should. How do you see the pace of ridesharing companies’ transition to EVs impacting your charging infrastructure strategy?
Uber isn’t just saying things. They’re putting money behind their words, meaning partnering with us and guaranteeing a level of utilization at our sites. Uber is stepping up in a big way in a city like New York working with a company like us. All I can do is give them credit for that. It’s been pretty impressive what I’ve seen from folks like Uber.
Revel said rideshare drivers are the company’s target customer demographic. How do you tailor your infrastructure to meet the needs of both professional drivers and general EV owners?
I don’t worry about it too much, because the things that a public customer will want is very similar to what a rideshare driver wants. They want the fastest charging speeds, a good location near a high traffic thoroughfare. For a lot of the sites we’re building, we need to make sure there’s bathroom access. And then think about amenities. Is there a coffee shop within a two- or three-minute walk? Is there a place to get a slice of pizza? Whether you’re a rideshare driver or you’re a person who owns a Rivian and works at a tech company, you’re going to want all those things.
What are you most excited about moving forward in electrifying the city?
Day in and day out, the work is hard, but the years go by pretty quick. So here we are about to go into 2025 you snap your fingers sometimes, and 2035 is here. Ten years can go by quite quickly. And in ten years, I can see a city like New York essentially eliminating tailpipes, where the vast majority of transportation now is done with zero emission. That’s not that far away. It’s hard to see, because day in and day out it can be hard, but man, years go fast sometimes, and what ten years can do to a city like New York is pretty incredible.