Lead will focus on the early EV charging business, which includes operating five stations in New York City and one station in San Francisco, to move forward, closing ride services in New York City and yet another pivot of the company that started by renting electric scooters in 2019.
A visit to the Revel app on Monday gave a message of thanks to users who said they had been “riding in the last four years.” “The ride-sharing service has been permanently closed,” the announcement said. The Revel website repeated the same message, adding:
“We have made the difficult decision that the best way to advance the EV migration is to terminate ride-sharing services and focus on building fast charging infrastructure.
According to Bloomberg News, Rebel will sell or return the bright blue Tesla and Kia vehicles that make up the fleet. The company will also sell 165 “employment vehicle license plates” mounted on these vehicles. This could be worth between $20,000 and $25,000 each, Reig said.
Rebel revealed its first charger in 2021, but it was about the same time that it launched the boarding fleet. However, the company was slowly adopted in these early days for the charging business. The company told TechCrunch that the network’s total utilization rate in early 2023 was just 21%, with 19% coming from Revel’s own passenger sailors.
Fast forward to early 2025, its utilization jumped to 45%, with just 12% of its charge coming from Revel’s fleet. The company received a major boost in 2024 when Uber signed a deal to send many of its drivers to Revel’s chargers. Rebel says it plans to operate “over 400” charging stalls in Los Angeles, New York and San Francisco by the end of 2026.
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