EV Charging Is Finally Improving In America's Worst City For Driving

Ride hail start-up Revel opened Manhattan’s first public fast-charging station that will be open round the clock.

Revel Manhattan charging station

Photo by: Revel

Suvrat Kothari

By: Suvrat Kothari

Sep 26, 2024 at 3:00pm ET

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Revel inaugurated on Thursday Manhattan's first public fast charging station that will be open round the clock.
The new station will have 10 stalls, with a maximum rated output of 320 kilowatts, equipped with both NACS and CCS connectors.
Fast-charging options in NYC are limited, but things are starting to change after tens of thousands of rideshare drivers went electric last year.

One would imagine that charging an electric car in America’s largest and wealthiest city would be a reasonably good experience, if not great. But unfortunately that hasn't been the case, at least until now.

A number of reasons hampered New York City’s quest to deploy EV fast chargers en masse. That includes limited space, exorbitant property costs and painfully long permitting processes. But things are slowly improving. Since last year, the city has been more proactive in bringing plugs online after tens of thousands of rideshare drivers suddenly went electric.

And Brooklyn-based ride-hail start-up Revel—which operates neon blue Teslas and other EVs in the city—has done considerably more than others to bring fast charging stations online.

Revel inaugurated on Thursday Manhattan’s first public fast charging station that will be open round the clock. Located by the FDR Drive freeway along the East River, the station is home to 10 320-kilowatt stalls made by Finnish manufacturer Kempower. It will be open to all EVs, with both NACS and CCS connectors.

Revel Manhattan station

Revel

The company has become the city’s largest operator of fast charging stations, with 64 public chargers opened so far across Brooklyn, Queens and Manhattan. It plans to expand to 300 stalls by the end of next year. Revel said this will include a 48-stall site outside LaGuardia Airport and a 60-stall site in Maspeth, Queens—both will be among the largest charging stations in the U.S. when they open in 2025.

“Hundreds of thousands of rideshare and taxi trips go in and out of Manhattan every day," said Revel CEO and Co-Founder Frank Reig. "With our new Pier 36 charging station, Revel is bringing the fastest charging on the market directly to those drivers so they can access EVs easier—saving them money and saving us all from breathing in more needless car pollution.”

Maspeth is also getting a new Tesla Supercharger after public records showed that the company paid property developer Wildflower $18 million for an empty parking lot. There are many Superchargers in the city, but nearly all of them have pay-to-park fees that most rideshare drivers cannot afford. That’s in addition to the several slower Level 2 Tesla Destination chargers.

The two Supercharger stations in South Brooklyn and JFK Airport that don’t require pay-to-park fees are overcrowded and far apart. Several rideshare drivers’ told InsideEVs in January that insufficient charging options were causing them nightmares. They were losing hundreds of dollars by waiting in long lines at overcrowded Superchargers due to limited quick charging options elsewhere.

Long Line At Tesla Supercharger In Brooklyn

But thanks to the new Revel station and other projects in the pipeline, they may have some relief in sight. Google-backed start-up Gravity, which started as an electric taxi fleet operator back in 2021, opened 24 500 kW stalls in March at a parking lot near Times Square at 401-471 West 42nd Street. It doesn’t have pay-to-park fees either and also has NACS and CCS connectors.

Hundreds of additional Level 2 and Level 3 stations are in the pipeline. The city will get 600 Level 2 stalls thanks to $15 million from the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Charging and Fueling Infrastructure Program (CFI) under the Biden Administration's Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.

Separately, there are more city-funded fast chargers coming to the White Plains Road Municipal Field in The Bronx by November 2024 and Bensonhurst Municipal Field in South Brooklyn early next year.

While it may still hold the title of the worst city for driving, New York could shed its reputation as the worst city for EV charging once these projects come online in 2025 and 2026—assuming all goes according to plan. And Revel, as well as city officials and executives from energy provider Con Edison think New York could even lead the way for the U.S. by setting a blueprint on how to mass deploy chargers in dense urban settings.

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"If we want to meaningfully reduce emissions, more cars will need to plug, rather than chug," said New York's Deputy Mayor for Operations Meera Joshi. "But modal shift will only happen once there's the infrastructure to support it. Along with our 80,000-strong for-hire vehicle fleet's transition to electric, the first 24/7 charger in Manhattan is a strong indicator of what's to come."

Contact the author: suvrat.kothari@insideevs.com