Revel

Revel shut down its ride-hailing service in New York City in August 2025 to focus on its EV charging business.¹³⁴⁶ The company started in 2019 by renting electric scooters, then launched a ride-hail fleet in 2021 before pivoting to EV charging.¹⁷ Revel plans to sell its fleet of Tesla and Kia vehicles and the associated for-hire vehicle license plates.¹

Timeline

Money raised

Revel's ride-hail fleet consisted of more than 500 EVs made up of Tesla Model Ys and 3s and Kia Niros in New York City and parts of Northern New Jersey.⁷ Revel will sell the 165 for-hire vehicle license plates attached to its vehicles, which could be worth between $20,000 and $25,000 each.¹ Revel unveiled a $60 million plan for the NYC boroughs to build 267 charging stalls.⁴

What happened

Revel came on the scene in 2018, introducing 68 e-mopeds in Brooklyn, New York.⁷ Revel started out by renting electric scooters in 2019.¹ Revel suspended its moped ride-sharing service in New York City after a Brooklyn rider died when he crashed into a light pole in Queens, making it the second moped-related death within weeks.⁷ In 2021, Revel re-opened its moped service in Brooklyn and expanded into Manhattan.⁷ In November of last year, Revel closed down its Miami and Washington, D.C. locations.⁷

Revel's e-moped ridership dropped by roughly 30% since last year and it was no longer a sustainable option to keep it going.⁷ Revel announced the end of its moped-share option in both New York City and San Francisco on November 3, 2023.⁷ The final nail in Revel's e-moped coffin occurred on November 18 when service shut down for good and the mopeds were sent to a recycling facility in New York and the Bay Area.⁷ Revel added rideshare in June of last year, starting with a fleet of 50 Teslas.⁷ That number grew to more than 500 EVs made up of Tesla Model Ys and 3s and Kia Niros in New York City and parts of Northern New Jersey.⁷

Revel revealed its first chargers in 2021, around the same time it launched the ride-hail fleet.¹ The company experienced slow adoption in those early years for its charging business.¹ Total utilization of the network in early 2023 was just 21%, with 19% of that coming from Revel's own ride-hail fleet.¹ By early 2025, that utilization rate had jumped to 45%, with only 12% of that charging coming from Revel's fleet.¹ The company got a big boost in 2024 when Uber struck a deal to send many of its drivers to Revel's chargers.¹

Revel has shut down its ride-hailing service in New York City.¹³⁴⁶ Moving forward, Revel will instead focus on its nascent EV charging business, which includes operating five stations in New York and one in San Francisco.¹ A visit to Revel's app on Monday showed a message thanking users for riding with them the last 4 years and announcing it has permanently closed its rideshare service.¹ Revel's website echoed the same message, adding that moving forward, Revel will continue to grow its Fast Charging business with more sites and cities opening soon.¹ Revel co-founder and CEO Frank Reig said in a statement that they made the difficult decision that the best way to keep the EV transition moving forward is by ending their rideshare service and focusing on building the fast charging infrastructure their biggest cities need to keep going electric.¹

Revel will sell or return the bright-blue Tesla and Kia vehicles that make up its fleet.¹ The company will also sell the 165 for-hire vehicle license plates attached to those vehicles, which Reig told Bloomberg could be worth between $20,000 and $25,000 each.¹ Revel says it plans to have over 400 charging stalls operational in Los Angeles, New York, and San Francisco by the end of 2026.¹ Revel has already created the single largest charging plaza on the East Coast.⁴ Earlier this year Revel unveiled a $60 million plan for the NYC boroughs to build 267 charging stalls, spanning nine separate charging plazas across several boroughs.⁴

As part of the plan, 30 charging stalls are being added to Greenpoint, Brooklyn; 60 stalls to a plaza in Maspeth, Queens; and 20 stalls in the Port Morris section of the Bronx.⁴ The single 60-stall complex in Maspeth will be the largest single charging station in the northeastern US.⁴ Other underserved areas are due to receive significant boosts in charging opportunities with 44 stalls to be built near La Guardia airport and an additional 24 near JFK.⁴ Revel's turn away from ride-sharing highlights that ride-hailing and ride-sharing businesses in the US had been deeply unprofitable for years.⁴ Uber recently turned to the black after losing almost $1 billion a year for several years, while the margins in the ride-hailing business remain exceedingly slim.⁴

These ride-hailing giants are now in the process of another capital-intensive transformation as they begin using robotaxis instead of gig-economy human drivers.⁴ EV charging offers less risk in the longer term, even as the EV adoption rate crawls along at a slower pace than in many countries in Europe.⁴

Where the founders are now

Frank Reig is the co-founder and CEO of Revel.¹

Sources

1. Revel shuts down its ride-hail business to focus on EV charging | TechCrunch, TechCrunch, 2025-08-11
3. Revel to End New York Rideshare Business to Focus on ..., bloomberg.com, Aug 11, 20
4. Here’s Why Revel Is Quitting NYC Ride-Hailing Business—But Charging Ahead, Autoweek, 2025-08-13
6. In Its Second Major Pivot, Revel Bets Big on EV Charging, inc.com, Aug 13, 20
7. Revel Is Reportedly Getting Out of the Moped Business, Gizmodo, 2023-11-03

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