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Brooklyn-based Revel to shut down its moped business
By
Arun Venugopal
Published Nov 4, 2023
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Charles Lane/Gothamist
By
Arun Venugopal
Published Nov 4, 2023
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Revel mopeds will soon be a thing of the past on New York City’s streets.
After five years, the Brooklyn-based company announced on Friday that it would end operation of its bright blue two-wheelers, which once numbered in the thousands, on Nov. 18.
“In short, ridership reached a low point that made mopeds unsustainable to operate for another season,” Bobby Familiar, a spokesperson for Revel, told Gothamist.
The news was first reported by TechCrunch, which noted that Revel would also lay off 67 employees.
According to Familiar, the company will now turn its attention to its “all-EV, all-employee rideshare service combined with public fast charging stations.”
Revel launched in 2018, operating with a small fleet of electric mopeds out of its Bushwick storefront. But it quickly expanded to other markets, including San Francisco, Miami and Washington, D.C., and at one point it had 3,000 mopeds across the five boroughs and an equal number spread across its other markets.
However, demand slowed considerably in 2022, forcing the company to pull out of certain markets. Currently, Revel mopeds are only available in San Francisco and New York.
Revel briefly suspended its New York City operations in July 2020 following the deaths of two riders, though New Yorkers were once again able to rent the ubiquitous blue mopeds just a month later after the company imposed stricter safety measures.
The company said it’s been growing in other areas, including a rideshare service and the development of “superhubs” for charging electric vehicles. Revel cut the ribbon on a 24-hour charging station at Queens Plaza in Long Island City on Nov. 1,. which brought together company officials and Queens Borough President Donovan Richards.
“We’re bringing similar public infrastructure to the South Bronx, Harlem, Lower Manhattan, and more of Brooklyn and Queens in the next year,” said Familiar. “Those stations will be particularly useful to rideshare drivers going electric under the City’s new Green Rides Initiative.”
In his letter announcing the shutdown of Revel’s moped business to riders on Friday, CEO and co-founder Frank Reig said that in New York, “we have 500 EVs operated by over 1,500 employee drivers delivering rides across all five boroughs.”
Mopeds, said Reig, “are a huge part of Revel’s story and they’ve offered such a fun way to get around the city.”
“We are grateful to all of you who have been on this journey with us,” he said.
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new york city
revel
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Arun Venugopal
Arun Venugopal is a senior reporter for the WNYC and Gothamist Race & Justice Unit who focuses on issues of race and bias in our region. His reporting also tackles the topics of immigration, faith, and inequality. Arun serves as the regular fill-in host of the station's "U.S. of Anxiety" program. Arun was the creator and host of Micropolis, a series about race and identity. He is a contributor to NPR's Morning Edition and All Things Considered. He has appeared on PBS Newshour, On the Media and Studio 360, and has been published in The Guardian, The Wall Street Journal and Salon. He also frequently serves as an emcee and moderator of panel discussions on race, religion, and identity issues and has been a guest host of NPR's "Fresh Air." He lives with his family in Queens.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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