- Revel, the Brooklyn-based electric mobility startup, is getting a $60 million loan from New York State.
- The funding will allow Revel to build out 267 EV chargers across nine sites.
- The plans include charging stations by John F. Kennedy and LaGuardia Airports, along with a huge 60-stall site in Queens.
The electric rideshare and infrastructure startup Revel on Monday snagged $60 million in funding from New York State to build nearly 300 electric-vehicle charging stalls. It just goes to show that, as the Trump administration lodges an attack on federal funding for EV infrastructure, some states may play a big role in picking up the slack.
“Anytime there’s a change in D.C. or a change in policy, what happens to, let’s say, some of the blue states at the local and state level? They dig their heels in even more,” Revel cofounder and CEO Frank Reig said on a recent episode of the InsideEVs Plugged-In Podcast.
Brooklyn-based Revel’s new funding comes in the form of a loan from the New York Green Bank, the state’s clean-energy investment fund. It’s the Green Bank’s first investment in EV charging.
The $60 million should go a long way toward boosting access to public DC fast chargers in New York City. It will fund the construction of 267 charging stalls at nine new sites. The New York Governor’s office says that 178 of those stalls, spread out across five sites, should be active within the next 12 months.
The first sites include a 44-stall location near LaGuardia Airport, a 24-stall station at John F. Kennedy Airport and a mammoth 60-stall location in Queens. Today, Revel operates four locations with a combined 64 charging ports.
From the first day of his second term, President Trump has tried to stymie federal funding for EV charging infrastructure. He issued a day-one executive order halting the disbursement of funds from two key charging programs. A judge later ordered federal money to continue flowing to certain states after a lawsuit.
Then, last week, the U.S. Department of Transportation ordered a freeze on new contracts through the $5 billion National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure program, which InsideEVs was first to report. Policy experts and Democratic governors blasted the latest move as illegal, and it’s unclear whether it will hold up in court. (Lawsuits haven't happened yet, but they seem inevitable.)
Reig said uncertainty around the direction of federal EV policy or country-wide EV sales don’t worry him too much, since Revel is building its business around areas with tailwinds for electrification. New York, for example, has mandated that all rideshare vehicles be electric by 2030, which should spark huge demand for public EV chargers. While Reig says Revel doesn’t bake federal support into its business plans, local utility incentives in New York are “extremely important.”
“Whichever way this wind blows or where it ends up, we have our business and we’ve made our decisions without that risk in it,” he said, with regard to federal EV charging policy.
Revel has positioned itself as the EV charging leader in New York City, which is one of the hardest cities to own an electric car in. About 80% of EV charging in America happens at home in a driveway or a garage, amenities that are hard to come by for most New Yorkers. The company plans to open several sites in the San Francisco Bay Area this year.
Got a tip about the EV world? Contact the author: Tim.Levin@InsideEVs.com
