Despite New York state having a number of the most formidable local weather targets on the planet, New York City severely lags different U.S. metropolitan areas in electrical car adoption.
Fully electrical and plug-in hybrid automobiles made up solely 3.4 % of NYC’s new passenger car gross sales final yr, far behind San Francisco (22 %), Los Angeles (11.9 %) and Seattle (11.7 %), in accordance to Atlas Public Policy, a analysis group primarily based in Washington D.C. New York even lags the nationwide common of 4.4 %.
To perceive why a progressive, climate-conscious metropolis such because the Big Apple has so few EV drivers, contemplate this: Home to 2 million automobiles, NYC has a complete of 100 public EV charging factors, 86 of which sit on crowded curbs, among the many loading docks, bike racks and outside eating buildings. These curbside charging spots so usually have non-electric automobiles parked in entrance of them, a number of the metropolis’s EV drivers refer to this common incidence as getting “ICE-ed” by an inner combustion engine car.
The transition to electrical automobiles requires a dependable, accessible community of chargers, and NYC is engaged on an growth. But as a dense, extremely populated city space the place out there actual property sells at a premium — and the overwhelming majority of residents stay in condominium buildings with out a personal storage the place they’ll plug in — it faces huge challenges.
Revel, a Brooklyn-based electrical mobility firm based in 2018, desires to assist remedy this electrification conundrum. The brainchild of Staten Island native-turned-Brooklyn resident Frank Reig — co-founder and CEO — Revel is greatest recognized for its sky-blue rental mopeds, which might be present in San Francisco; Washington, D.C.; and Miami, as well as to NYC. Revel’s service works very like different shared scooter companies: Using the corporate’s app, prospects discover a close by moped, guide it and trip to their vacation spot, the place they’ll depart the scooter parked in any authorized spot. Due to accidents that resulted in two riders’ deaths in 2020, Revel requires a video coaching course and a selfie of the rider carrying a helmet earlier than they’ll take off.
In addition to the moped leases, the startup final summer time kicked off an Uber-style rideshare service, with 50 Tesla Model Ys working in Manhattan. At the identical time, Revel opened an EV charging “superhub” in Brooklyn, in an simply accessible car parking zone the place 25 quick chargers can be found to the homeowners of any EV model on a 24/7 foundation. Revel is slogging by means of the tough means of opening extra charging facilities across the metropolis, Reig informed me after we met just lately on the superhub in Brooklyn’s Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood. The following represents only a portion of that interview, edited for size and readability. To hear extra of Revel’s story, tune into the May 13 episode of the GreenBiz 350 podcast.
CJ Clouse: We’re sitting in a stark white room, stuffed with rows of industrial-sized steel energy packing containers. Tell me about this area.
Frank Reig: We’re within the energy room at our first quick charging station, at the back of a former Pfizer manufacturing plant. So they used to make medication and chemical compounds right here, and since it was a large-scale manufacturing web site, there are 35 megawatts of energy right here linked to the grid. So after we constructed this charging station, we did not have to do an improve with [New York utility] ConEdison and wait two years to get energy. The energy was simply sitting right here. But these websites are unicorns. You do not discover locations like this fairly often. We actually obtained fortunate with this one.
Clouse: Do you get lots of EV drivers coming right here at this level? Do individuals know this charging station exists?
Reig: It’s attention-grabbing, simply anecdotally, what number of of us have emailed our customer support, saying, “I live within 20 blocks of this station you built, I was deciding between an electric vehicle or a gas car, and your station pushed me over the edge.”
Clouse: But you are not a charging firm, proper? You do not construct these chargers or do you?
Reig: Our workforce project-managed this web site and made it occur, however we’re not constructing the chargers themselves. There are many different corporations that do this. But our workforce is totally constructing infrastructure and extra websites like this all through New York City proper now. For us as an organization, we have now a spotlight not simply on quick charging, however quick charging at scale in city facilities.
Clouse: Can you inform me the place these different websites shall be?
Reig: We cannot announce something simply but, however there are a bunch extra within the pipeline. Our total thesis right here is the EV transition solely occurs when there is a dependable infrastructure community in a metropolis. So if we put two chargers right here and two chargers there and two chargers there, in my thoughts, it is sort of meaningless. Because for those who get an EV, and also you drive to that web site with two chargers, and considered one of them is being blocked by a gasoline car and the plug on the opposite one does not work, that is not dependable. For us, infrastructure is at scale. You know once you come right here to a web site with 25 plugs, you are going to give you the option to charge your car.
We’re additionally attempting to construct these websites the place rideshare drivers stay. Because what goes to be the primary car sort to electrify at scale? It’s going to be taxis and rideshare. So after we take into consideration the place to construct future websites, we actually have two foremost concerns: Where is there a excessive throughput of automobiles? Think about the place gasoline stations are. And let’s ensure that we construct large-scale websites in neighborhoods the place rideshare and taxi drivers stay.
Clouse: Speaking of drivers, Revel drivers are precise workers, not contractors, right?
Reig: Yes, the drivers that we have now working with us, they’re all W-2 workers. They get entry to the identical healthcare plan that I’ve. That’s been a core tenet for us as an organization since we began. Even with the moped facet of the enterprise. We have over 200 individuals on the moped facet, throughout 4 main markets within the U.S. From day one, each battery swapper, customer support agent, mechanic, they’re all W-2 workers as nicely. I do not know, possibly it was the way in which I used to be raised. I simply felt prefer it makes much more sense. Get any person purchased into your organization, and ensure they care in regards to the firm. I do not assume you are going to actually get that if they seem to be a gig employee.
Clouse: So, what in regards to the energy facet? You mentioned this web site is a unicorn.
Reig: That’s the place the issue is available in with EV charging infrastructure at scale. You want the true property, you want a landlord keen to lease you the appropriate sort of property on the proper worth, and also you want to ensure that there’s energy on the grid to provide that web site. And that is one other complete dialog [with the utility]. Sometimes it will possibly take years to get energy, and generally it does not matter how lengthy your timeline is, you are not getting energy for quite a lot of causes.
So, we have got some critical constraints right here. We’ve obtained a metropolis the place actual property is at a premium, and it is onerous to discover area wherever. And then even when you will discover area, more often than not you possibly can’t get the ability. So once more, in a metropolis like New York, you’ve obtained 2 million automobiles. If they’re all going electrical within the subsequent 15 years … I do not know the place [all that infrastructure is] going to occur.
Clouse: Well that doesn’t sound very encouraging.
Reig: I’ll say, although, I’ve solely been within the electrical car trade for just a few years now. When I speak to of us who’ve been within the trade for 10-plus years, they at all times have horror tales of working with utilities again within the day. When calling a utility, you may as nicely have been calling customer support for an airline, proper? You’re not getting by means of, you are not getting assist, they are not going to do something for you. That is just not the case anymore. For instance, ConEdison has been an outstanding companion for us. I feel it is as a result of, actually, it’s the political strain. We want to really get stuff achieved.
We are sitting right here in 2022, and nothing’s occurred on electrification and rideshare in a metropolis like New York, as a result of how can it? Nobody’s bringing these items collectively. It’s so simple as that. And the one approach to carry it collectively is you’ve obtained to construct infrastructure, you’ve obtained to run mobility companies, on this case rideshare. The solely approach to do that is to really go all in, roll up your sleeves and do it. Or else you’ll simply be any person speaking about 2030.