For The Verge: Can Revel get New York City’s dismal EV charging system out of neutral?
There are approximately 2 million cars registered to New York City households, a number that doesn’t even include taxis, buses, motorcycles, commuters, or vehicles from outside of the five boroughs. Every day, those drivers navigate traffic, potholes, a short supply of parking, infamously bad road manners, and the fraught consequences of driving in a city that could probably use a lot fewer cars.
Now, imagine a future where most of those cars, if not all, run on electricity instead of gasoline.
One way or another, the future we seem headed toward will need a lot more plugs. The purchase and use of electric vehicles in New York City is rising quickly, but the city’s public charging infrastructure leaves a lot to be desired — worse, even, than the rest of the country’s admittedly subpar network.
Fixing that is the next big play from Revel, the Brooklyn-based ridehailing service that started in 2018 with its signature neon blue rental mopeds and graduated to an all-Tesla Model Y ridehail alternative to Uber and Lyft. Having grown that operation quickly, it’s now moving into the charging business in a big way.
