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Revel Has Greenlight To Bring Tesla Taxis To Manhattan
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Stephen Nessen
Published Jul 26, 2021
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Revel
By
Stephen Nessen
Published Jul 26, 2021
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After tangling with the city’s Taxi and Limousine Commission over whether it would allow the company Revel to launch a fleet of Tesla taxis in the city, the company has finally gotten approval to move forward in August.
Revel is best known for its bright blue moped share program, which halted operations over safety issues last year when two users died. It has since revamped its training for users.
The company is now rolling out a fleet of bright blue Tesla Y taxis. It plans to release 50 in Manhattan next month. Those vehicles will only pick up and drop off customers in Manhattan below 42nd Street.
A photographer for the Daily News spotted the taxis ahead of the official announcement at a warehouse in Red Hook.
"Our thinking here is similar to when we launched 68 mopeds in three North Brooklyn neighborhoods—with a limited fleet, we need to limit our service area to a smaller area where we know there’s going to be demand,” Frank Reig, CEO of Revel, wrote in a statement. “Once we’ve established what the utilization patterns and data look like, we can consider growing into other neighborhoods and boroughs."
The city had capped new taxis from entering the once over-saturated market, but there was an exemption for electric and wheelchair accessible vehicles. Twice a year, the TLC will review the number of licensed vehicles on the road and the number of trips taken, and will determine whether additional licenses should be issued.
Unlike its rivals Uber and Lyft, Revel’s drivers are full time employees and receive minimum wages and benefits, such as paid time off and sick days. The company plans to hire 125 drivers and 25 support staff.
Revel has also agreed to install charging stations around the city that will be open to the public.
The pandemic has altered the taxi landscape in the city. Uber and Lyft users have reported high costs, and sometimes low availability, especially at airports. Access-a-ride users that are allowed to hail yellow taxis as well as vehicles that use the apps Curb, Arro, and Limosys have said they still have difficulty getting a taxi.
“Taxis have exclusive street hail privileges in NYC and their main areas of operations are the Central Business District and the NYC airports,” Allan Fromberg, a spokesperson for the Taxi and Limousine Commission, wrote in a statement. “The TLC has serious concerns about any business models that would exclude most New Yorkers and that would undermine market share for Taxis or existing TLC Licensed Operators, such as Livery and traditional Black Cars.”
The number of taxi and for-hire vehicle trips on city streets overall appears to be half of what it was before the pandemic. There were 639,013 taxi and for-hire vehicle trips in May 2020, compared to 1,023,694 in May 2019.
Update: We clarified this story to note that the TLC will review, twice a year, whether any additional licenses should be granted.
Tagged
we the commuters
revel
new york city
taxi and limousine commission
taxi
electric cars
Tesla
Stephen Nessen
Stephen Nessen covers transportation. Since 2008 he has reported on everything from Occupy Wall Street, the rebuilding of the World Trade Center site, Hurricane Sandy, to Trump’s campaign for president. His transportation reporting has taken him everywhere from the MTA’s secret Rail Control Center to the gleaming subways of Seoul. Got a tip? Email [email protected].
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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