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Revel has shut down its ride-hailing service in New York City, in yet another pivot for the company that started out by renting electric scooters in 2019<\/a>. Moving forward, Revel will instead focus on its nascent EV charging business, which includes operating five stations in New York and one in San Francisco.<\/p>\n A visit to Revel\u2019s app on Monday showed a message thanking users for \u201criding with us the last 4 years!\u201d and announcing it has \u201cpermanently closed our rideshare service.\u201d Revel\u2019s website echoed the same message, adding: \u201cMoving forward, Revel will continue to grow our Fast Charging business with more sites and cities opening soon.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe have made the difficult decision that the best way we can keep the EV transition moving forward is by ending our rideshare service and focusing on building the fast charging infrastructure our biggest cities need to keep going electric,\u201d Revel co-founder and CEO Frank Reig said in a statement to TechCrunch. <\/p>\n Revel will sell or return the bright-blue Tesla and Kia vehicles that make up its fleet, according to Bloomberg News<\/a>. The company will also sell the 165 \u201cfor-hire vehicle license plates\u201d attached to those vehicles, which Reig told Bloomberg could be worth between $20,000 and $25,000 each.<\/p>\n Revel revealed its first chargers in 2021<\/a>, around the same time it launched the ride-hail fleet<\/a>. But the company slow adoption in those early years for its charging business. The company told TechCrunch that total utilization of the network in early 2023 was just 21%, with 19% of that coming from Revel\u2019s own ride-hail fleet.<\/p>\n Fast forward to early 2025, and that utilization rate had jumped to 45%, with only 12% of that charging coming from Revel\u2019s fleet. The company got a big boost in 2024 when Uber struck a deal to send many of its drivers to Revel\u2019s chargers<\/a>. Revel says it plans to have \u201cover 400\u201d charging stalls operational in Los Angeles, New York, and San Francisco by the end of 2026.<\/p>\n Techcrunch event<\/p>\n