Revel, the company best known for electric-moped sharing, says it is about to embark in a new direction by launching one of the largest hubs for quickly charging electric vehicles in New York City this spring.
The facility will be located at the site of the former Pfizer building in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, and would have 30 stations open around the clock, capable of delivering 100 miles of charge to vehicles in about 20 minutes, the company said.
“If New York City is going to push large-scale electrification somebody needs to be building the infrastructure and Revel is leading the charge,” said Frank Reig, Revel’s co-founder and chief executive.
Revel has a fleet of about 3,000 electric mopeds, which can be rented by the minute, in New York. Mr. Reig said the expansion of Revel’s business into electric-vehicle charging fits the company’s mission of expanding green technology.
Limited charging availability is seen as an impediment to electric-vehicle growth, especially in densely populated New York where many people don’t live in a home with access to electricity close to where they park their vehicle.
Tesla Inc. offers supercharging facilities, which are capable of charging batteries to 80% of capacity in about 40 minutes, around the city for owners of its vehicles. Most other electric-vehicle owners have just a handful of fast-charging options around the city. Otherwise, they must charge their vehicle more slowly, often in a parking lot or garage, at a charger that can take four to eight hours to reach 80% capacity.
Joseph Chow, an assistant professor at New York University’s Tandon School of Engineering, said the lack of charging infrastructure has been one of the main limitations on electric-vehicle use in New York City for individuals and taxi and delivery fleets. “Having more charging infrastructure would be very helpful for adopting electric vehicles,” he said.
The city had hoped to install 120 slower-charging ports at curbside locations last year. A spokesman for the city’s Transportation Department said the project, a partnership with Consolidated Edison Inc., was delayed because of the coronavirus pandemic. Construction should begin this spring, he said, and the rollout should be completed about the end of September.
The city’s curbside chargers will deliver about 20 miles of range per hour, for a fee, and will be located near where people tend to park for longer periods, such as educational and medical facilities or commercial strips. Twenty of the chargers will be for the city’s electric fleet, with the remaining chargers for public use.
About 4,500 plug-in hybrid and fully electric vehicles were registered in New York City last year, according to city data, bringing the total number to 13,000.
Electric vehicles are expected to grow in popularity as auto manufacturers offer more models and they become more affordable. General Motors Co. said recently that it would phase out gasoline- and diesel-powered vehicles by 2035.
“The timing of us coming into this industry could not be better,” Mr. Reig said. He said Revel intends to launch more superhubs around the city, but declined to say where and when they would open. A full charge at one of the hubs will cost about $20, he said.
Mr. Reig said the Pfizer building, an eight-story former drug-manufacturing facility on an eight-acre site in Williamsburg, was chosen, in part, because it has the infrastructure to deliver large amounts of power.
Revel plans to launch the facility with 10 chargers, then expand to 30 chargers—some capable of delivering even faster charging—by the summer.
Mr. Reig didn’t say how much it will cost to establish the hub, but Revel has raised more than $40 million in funding over the past few years.
An official at the charger manufacturer, Tritium, said the stations cost between $20,000 and $100,000 per unit, depending upon hardware and software configurations.
Write to Paul Berger at [email protected]
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