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⚡🤔 Who Got The 1,000 New EV-Only TLC Plates?
AutoMarketplace analyzes if the 1,000 *new* EV-only FHV Licenses (TLC Plates) assigned in March are active and how the allocation looks thus far?
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⚡🤔 Who Got The 1,000 New EV-Only TLC Plates?
On March 15th, first 600 of 1,000 EV-Only FHV Licenses (TLC Plates) were assigned on a “first come, first served basis” within minutes
Process was ONLY open to individual TLC drivers
Successful applicants had 120 days to complete process or assigned FHV License would be distributed to waitlist
On March 29th, last 400 of 1,000 EV-Only TLC Plates were assigned on a “first come, first served basis” within minutes
Process was open to BOTH individuals and businesses
Successful applicants had only 30 days to complete process or assigned FHV License would go to waitlist
Over 150 days have now passed since the March processes, AutoMarketplace analyzes how many of the 1,000 EV-Only TLC Plates have been assigned and how the allocation looks
Quick Refresher
In January 2023, the NYC Taxi & Limousine Commission (NYC TLC) officially approved the release of 1,000 *new* FHV Licenses (TLC Plates). Some were happy, some were upset, many were confused.
How would the TLC Plates be distributed?
Why was the TLC adding more vehicles to the road, as thousands of taxi medallions remained inactive? What about congestion?
We covered all the different dynamics extensively throughout late 2022 and 2023. Long story short, two separate “first come, first served” processes were held, one on March 15th and the other on March 29th. On the first date, 600 of 1,000 EV-only TLC Plates could be claimed ONLY BY individual TLC-licensed drivers. On the 29th, the remaining 400 EV-only FHV Licenses could be assigned to a combination of individuals and business entities.
Shortly after the EV-only FHV License allocation process was complete, the TLC revealed that nearly 45% of the 400 EV TLC Plate allocation went to business entities. It framed the numbers as 174 of 1,000, but as most in the industry knew, the initial 600 (of 1,000) allocation on March 15th was exclusively for individual TLC drivers.
“According to the TLC, 826 of the new plates went to individual drivers while 174 were registered to business entities.”
- New York Daily News
Given the process was a “First Come, First-Served” (“How quick can you click"?) and any individual or entity would have to apply “one at a time” (up to 25 per entity), it was highly unlikely that any individual (or business entity) was going to be able to claim more than 1 FHV License, maybe a few AT BEST.
In addition, the TLC disclosed the 1,000 EV-only TLC Plates had more than 100,000 applications 👀! Probability pointed to maximum individual or business entity allocation of a few EV FHV Licenses, to a few lucky quick-clicking folks and businesses.
“A thousand EV licenses were successfully filled this month, and more than 100,000 applied for the wait list”
- TLC Chair & Commissioner David Do
1,000 *New* TLC Plate Analysis
We believe a good way to approximate how many of the 1,000 *new* EV-only TLC Plates, assigned in March, are now active (as of August 26th, 2023) is:
Using the NYC Open Data list of all active For-Hire Vehicles (FHVs)
While TLC Plate numbers can be randomly assigned, new FHV License numbers seem to be assigned in order, by incrementally increasing the FHV License number (i.e., 60019xx is followed shortly by 60020xx)
Let’s start with NYC TLC’s March 21st tweet.
When we look at the NYC Open Data database we find a record that matches the picture:
TLC Plate # : T110336C
FHV License #: 6023044
Name: Zhang, Ruixuan
License Expiry (2 years from passed inspection): 3/21/2025
Vehicle Type: BEV (Battery Electric Vehicle)
VIN: 2023 Tesla Model Y
Therefore, we believe all FHV Licenses with a number equal to or greater than FHV License # 6023044 with a vehicle type listed as an electric vehicle (“BEV”), will give us a good sense of how many of the 1,000 *new* EV TLC Plates allocated in March are now active.
The analysis reveals the following:
A total of 2,777 new FHV Licenses with a number equal to or greater than 6023044 have been issued.
This figure is unusually high and implies nearly 3,000 *new* TLC Plates have come online since March 21st!
The majority of the increase relates to additional Wheelchair Accessible Vehicles (WAV), SHL Pilot permits and TLC Plates being pulled out of the soon expiring pandemic era storage program
When sorted ONLY for EVs, 746 *new* EV-only TLC Plates were issued with an FHV License Number (#) starting from 6023044
Therefore, our first conclusion is only 746 (~75%) of the 1,000 EV-Only TLC Plates assigned in March are active, more than 150 days after the TLC allocation process.
Here are some stats on how the 746 have been distributed.
Chart #1: Individual vs. Business Entity
Top 5 Allocations:
Revel Fleet Corp IV*: 18
Revel Fleet Corp I*: 14
OIP SPV EV LLC: 12
Revel Fleet Corp II & III*: 5
Hertz FHV #3 & #4, LLC*: 5
*Affiliated to Revel base Electric Peppers LLC
Chart #2: Base Affiliation
Top 5 Base Affiliations:
Uber USA, LLC: 605
Electric Peppers LLC (Revel): 42
NY Car & Limo Service Inc.: 18 | Tri-City, LLC (Lyft): 18
Grand Transportation Services Inc: 8 | Zync Inc.: 8
Chart #3: Make & Model
Top 5 EV Models:
Tesla Model Y: 339
Tesla Model 3: 172
Kia Niro: 55
Toyota bZ4X: 46
Hyundai Kona: 41
Thoughts
One of the first thoughts that crossed our minds was if electric vehicle (EV) demand was so robust among individual TLC drivers, it’s confusing why less than 75% of the 1,000 *new* EV-only TLC Plates are currently active. More than 150 days have passed since the March processes and there is a massive waitlist to engage.
Here are a few explanations:
Our analysis is wrong (please feel free to correct us, but we are doing the best we can with public data)
TLC inspections are taking unusually long to complete
NYC TLC drivers might be having a hard time sourcing/affording EVs (i.e., EV dealer supply, credit score issues, cost of auto loans).
The recent calls to release *new* or reissue EV-only TLC Plates, probably shouldn’t even be considered until all 1,000 EV-only FHV Licenses from the March processes are active. This is setting aside our, and many others, additional points about the impact of additional EV-only TLC Plates on congestion, driver earnings and taxi medallion values.
Revel
In terms of Revel’s allocation, what can we say? The probabilities around the company already having such a large allocation do not make sense, given the documented demand and how the process was technically run.
For example, no business entity could apply in the first 600 TLC Plate process on March 15th. During the March 29th process for the remaining 400 TLC Plates, an individual or entity couldn’t apply for 25 at once, but had to apply one at a time. Revel-affiliated entities, thus far, have managed to secure ~10% of the *total* business entity allocation and over 50% (!) of the currently active corporate allocation that has been distributed, this seems probabilistically improbable 🧮. In addition, the TLC’s rule that no one entity could apply for more than 25 EV-only TLC Plates was easily gamed out by Revel, via creating multiple business entities.
We think Revel either paid a lot of people to be in front of computers on March 29th or they are picking off TLC Plate allocations from the waitlist (to be clear, both actions are NOT illegal). Outside of these two explanations, their ability to get such an outsized allocation, is confusing. Furthermore, it appears ~250 of the *new* 1,000 EV-only TLC Plates are still not active, so Revel’s final allocation could actually be larger after all 1,000 *new* EV-only FHV Licenses are active.
We will continue to track this and share the data.
Video Summary of Article:
As always, let us know your thoughts in the comments section below or by emailing us at info@automarketplace.com.
AutoMarketplace NYC covers the for-hire transportation industry and automotive news. Check out AutoMarketplace on YouTube ▶️
Submitting the paper work via the tlc online portal for approval was daunting. Would get rejected and re submit correction that would take weeks to be reviewed. I lost a months worth of wait time. FH-1 Insurance was paid for a month and not used due to incompetent tlc moderators reviewing correction. 1/600 ev current owner operator.
If you got a plate, do you also need a medallion? How does this impact the demand for medallions (if at all)?