⚡🔵🤨 Revel & Uber Partner on NYC EV Charging, Revel TLC Drivers Need Backup Plan!
Uber & Revel have announced a strategic partnership on EV charging in exchange for financial support and charging discounts. We predict Revel will close its NYC rideshare service in near future
Uber & Revel announced a strategic partnership on EV charging in exchange for Uber’s financial support and charging discounts for drivers
Revel is looking to raise $200 million to fund EV charging infrastructure investment in NYC and other cities
Revel might close its NYC rideshare business to focus on charging infrastructure and its TLC drivers should have a backup plan(s)
In January, Revel said it operated a fleet of over 500 EVs and employed about 1,500 drivers as W2 employees
Both Bloomberg and Electrek reported that Revel and Uber have entered into a new strategic partnership ⚡🤝 in which Uber will financially support Revel in expanding its charging infrastructure in exchange for exclusive charging discounts for Uber drivers.
NYC TLC drivers are said to be the first beneficiaries of the new agreement between Revel and Uber. Electrek reports Uber drivers become eligible for charging rate discounts of up to 25% when using Revel chargers, which is determined by a driver’s status in Uber Pro – a rewards and ranking program that Uber uses for its drivers.
“Tackling urban charging deserts is an important part of building an all-electric future. Since our earliest days, Uber has proudly served underserved communities with rides and earning opportunities and we are thrilled to continue that progress in partnership with Revel to ensure the next wave of charging infrastructure in New York City serves EV drivers and city residents alike.”
- Andrew Macdonald, Uber’s Senior Vice President of Mobility and Business Operations
“Together, Revel and Uber are showing how to accelerate EV infrastructure in the hardest to build places, dense cities. With Uber’s guarantee of demand at our sites, we’ll be able to expand our public charging network faster first here in New York and soon in other big rideshare markets like San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago, Boston and more.”
- Frank Reig, Revel’s CEO & Co-Founder
Revel Needs Money, NYC TLC Drivers Working For Revel Need Backup Plans!
In February, Bloomberg reported Revel was seeking to raise another $200 million to expand the company’s public EV-charging infrastructure in NYC and other cities. Based on our research and publicly available data from Tracxn, Revel has, to date, raised over $150 million in debt and equity from investors including Blackrock, Toyota, Goodyear, Shell and Maniv Mobility.
Revel Has Been Partnering With TLC Rental Companies
Based on AutoMarketplace research we also believe Revel has been partnering with NYC TLC rental companies, including American Lease. This, again our opinion, indicates to us that Revel is cutting capital expenditures related to what it’s now determining as a non-core business (i.e., its rideshare service). In other words, it appears Revel is not buying their electric vehicles (EVs) anymore, it’s partnering with others so they aren’t stuck with a huge fleet and the associated costs. Their investors might also be telling them to focus spend on their extremely capital intensive “core” EV infrastructure business as well.
NYC TLC Chair David Do might want to really, really check any future use of the word “predatory” in describing TLC leasing companies like American Lease. He’s cutting Revel opening ceremony ribbons and their historical lobbying clout is clearly documented and obvious. That Revel is now dealing with other companies that TLC Chair David Do has publicly and repeatedly called “predatory”, is something we believe demonstrates the highly political nature of the reinstatement of the EV exemption to the FHV License Pause.
Yes, now, after adding over 10,000 *new* NYC FHVs in one year (!) the TLC has decided that there is no need for additional EV TLC Plates. However, if we do not call this out, the same policy mistakes are bound to happen next year or in following years.
Also, we are not saying there are no predatory leasing companies, we’ve consistently said there are other ways to address legitimate TLC driver concerns (i.e., FHV Lease Caps, redistribution of retired TLC Plates). Adding more for-hire vehicles (FHVs) is counter to so many City & TLC policy goals - from reducing congestion to protecting driver earnings and the taxi medallion industry.
The decision to add more EV TLC Plates, in our view, was driven by political interests, not driver interests. It’s quite clear.
Moving on…😌
Conceptually when you start partnering with and getting financial support from companies you once publicly vilified and fundamentally compete with (on the rideshare side at least), it probably means you’re running out of or tight on money. This, we predict, is indicative of Revel preparing to close its NYC rideshare business.
“One thing that gets my blood boiling is the Prop 22, everything that happened there in California in November. Their first talking point on Prop 22, this third classification, is, “We’re going to pay the Door Dashers and Uber drivers of the world 120% of minimum wage, but only of engaged time.” And everyone knows when you use those apps, engaged time is probably 40%-50%. So your point is literally you admitting you’re paying your people less than minimum wage. And that’s like, your big program. What? How do you even fall for this? It’s ridiculous.”
- Frank Reig, Revel’s CEO & Co-Founder (Interview with Smart Cities Dive, January 2021)
We’re not mentioning this to be patronizing, we’re mentioning this because Revel stated in January 2024 that it employs ~1,500 W2 driver-employees. We also personally know NYC drivers who quit Uber and Lyft and handed-in their TLC Plates to work for Revel.
“Revel operates a fleet of over 500 electric vehicles (EVs) — including Tesla Model Ys and Model 3s and Kia Niro EVs — delivering rides in all five boroughs, parts of northern New Jersey, and to-and-from the three major airports. Revel employs about 1,500 drivers as W2 employees who have guaranteed hourly wages and access to benefits like healthcare, paid time off and 401(k) retirement planning. Revel also covers all vehicle costs like leasing, maintenance and charging.”
- Revel press distribution (January 17, 2024)
We genuinely hope we are very wrong on this prediction, but we need to warn our readers who drive for Revel NYC to start making backup plans, especially with increasing Uber and Lyft NYC driver waitlists. We’re old enough to remember Juno’s promises and their ultimate demise in NYC.
Below, we describe in more detail why we **think** Revel’s NYC rideshare business (not infrastructure business) might close.
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Why We Think Revel Rideshare Is Going to Shut Down?
Before we begin, we do not want Revel’s NYC rideshare business to close, which in January 2024 announced ~1,500 drivers were working for them as W2 employees. We believe they will close their rideshare business to focus on EV infrastructure. Below, we share some copy-paste from a previous article, which lays out our logic.
Revel is currently a huge beneficiary of the shortage of Tesla Superchargers and the addition of thousands of new EV TLC-plated vehicles.
“Revel’s public fast-charging Superhubs have seen about four times more public utilization in the last two months, which we see as a direct outcome of the Green Rides initiative. We’re anticipating an even greater uptick as more drivers look to skip long lines and hidden fees by charging at our higher-volume Superhubs.”
- Robert Familiar, Revel spokesperson
We believe this will lead to Revel shutting down its NYC rideshare business, so they can offer more fast charging capacity to the general public, including NYC TLC drivers. Remember, their own NYC rideshare fleet is likely taking up a lot of the available charging capacity (time), they could otherwise offer to the public or (now) other TLC drivers working for Uber.
Counterintuitive? 🤔 This is our logic (Note: we could be totally wrong, it wouldn’t be the first time).
Since Revel launched its “rideshare” service in NYC, we were always of the opinion that the company’s strategy was more about charging infrastructure than creating an Uber or Lyft competitor.
“However, where [we] think Revel is going to be proven very right is the company’s bet and investments in NYC EV charging infrastructure. [We] believe the company’s interest in a rideshare service relates to creating a mechanism to initially fully utilize their newly opened charging hub in Brooklyn, until more EVs hit the road in NYC.”
- AutoMarketplace (July 26, 2021)
Furthermore, we are fairly certain Revel’s rideshare business is deeply unprofitable and would require a lot more capital to scale to achieve even a marginal net positive cash flow. Today, we believe, their current (or any new) investors will not have the patience to continue funding the rideshare business and will ask the company to focus on its charging infrastructure business, which still has a difficult but easier path to profitability or exit (i.e., another company buying Revel or initial public offering (IPO)).
A more existential question for Revel will then become what truly differentiates their charging infrastructure business? Is it real estate? Access to government subsidies? Expertise? For example, Tesla is more vertically integrated (makes their own vehicles), is partnering with other OEMs so vehicles made by other automakers (i.e., GM) can access Tesla’s charging network and has an existing expertise in building / managing thousands of Superchargers, across the world, over several years. Just yesterday, we covered Gravity Mobility’s announcement of a new extremely fast (hyper) charging hub in NYC. Revel also has a host of larger, potentially more capitalized standalone competitors, such as Electrify America, EVgo, Chargepoint and Blink.
Even if we look at how Revel’s publicly-traded EV charging competitors (comps) are doing, the stock charts might tell us a story about investors patience for investing in EV charging network businesses, their attractiveness as investments or their prospects of near term profitability. That being said, the federal government is set to spend a lot of money subsidizing the build out of chargers across America, including NYC (“a rising tide lifts all boats?”).
We hope Revel proves us wrong because we know how hard it is to start a business, but we are simply sharing our honest opinion. An opinion we think our readers should consider and think about, especially as it relates to whether Revel is a long term player in the NYC for-hire transportation industry and in what capacity.
⚡ NYC EV Charging Discussion With Benjamin J. Stein
As it relates to this topic, we also think it’s worth mentioning our recent discussion with Benjamin J. Stein, who was among the first 350 employees at Uber, joining the company in 2013. His experience at Uber included recruiting new drivers and helping the company build their NYC ‘vehicle solutions’ business, including partnering with TLC leasing companies. Ben also worked for American Lease, a large TLC leasing company, before founding Outpost Energy. Outpost Energy is focused on NYC electric vehicle (EV) charging infrastructure.
What a hard hitting article and prescient opinion piece that I, too, believe will come to fruition. When Revel first came out with W-2 driver pay AND benefits something smelled fishy because those costs just seemed to high to perpetuate to eke out a profit. My guess then was investor money was funding this venture until maaaaybe there might be some scale to overcome their costs on the rideshare side. Nevertheless, if Revel is going to end those rideshare operations, they must give a WARN notice. WARN, the New York State Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act, requires that companies with at least 50 full-time employees file a notice of a mass layoff or a closing 90 days in advance. See what happens but this will be more devastating than Juno in my opinion. With Juno you had drivers still driving for Uber and Lyft as independent contractors and they merely lost their multi-hundred dollar investment. If Revel lays off hundreds of drivers they will be left scrambling to secure rentals all at the same time (this causing a temporary bump in rental rates). Those drivers would be wise to leave now and find those rentals before they’re in competition with their fellow Revel drivers for the same vehicles. It’s also possible Revel gets into the EV rental business but at terms much less favorable to the current drivers they have on payroll and, of course, with no payroll benefits at all. Revel can also sell their EV vehicles and keep the FHV license to lease thereby getting out of the business of fleet management. It’ll be interesting to see what unfolds.