EV charging infrastructure startup Revel secured on Monday a $60 million loan from New York’s clean energy investment fund NY Green Bank to more than triple its current public fast-charging network in New York City.
The $60 million loan is a first for NY Green Bank, which has yet to fund EV-charging infrastructure. The fund’s involvement is a signal both that New York is committed to electric vehicles and that debt lenders are beginning to see EV charging infrastructure as a returnable investment.
The funding will help Revel build out nine sites across the city that will eventually translate to 267 new fast-charging stalls by 2027. Over the next 12 months, Revel intends to complete construction on five public charging sites with around 158 charging stalls, including its recently announced site at John F. Kennedy airport, and four more across Queens, Brooklyn, and the Bronx.
The company broke ground in November at its JFK site, which it expects to open in the first quarter of 2025. Like its upcoming station at LaGuardia Airport, the JFK site is located close to where ride-hail drivers wait for passengers.
Revel’s upcoming site in Maspeth, Queens, will have 60 stalls, which would make it one of the largest public charging stations in the nation.
“In support of the transition to a clean energy economy, it is critical that we continue to build electric vehicle infrastructure to ease the shift to EV ownership for more New Yorkers, especially those in urban areas,” New York governor Kathy Hochul said in a statement. This significant investment addresses the key need of providing electric vehicle users in New York City with much needed public charging options while reducing local emissions.
In 2022, New York state mandated that all new sales or leases of light-duty passenger vehicles must be zero emissions vehicles by 2035. Revel is focused on other markets as well. A spokesperson for Revel told The Tech Spot that the company is continuing to fundraise, specifically equity and debt, to build out more charging stations in California.
Revel hopes to launch a site in the Bay Area this year, with an eye toward slotting into the burgeoning electric robotaxi industry there.
Rivian opens commercial van sales to all businesses.
Rivian will sell its commercial electric vans to any U.S. business that wants one — more than a year since ending an exclusivity deal with backer Amazon.
The company will sell two vans — the smaller 500 and the larger 700 — but buyers will have to be registered businesses, according to the company. That means any hopeful van-lifers will have to wait and see if Rivian ever sells them direct.
The launch of its commercial van fleet business opens up a potential revenue stream that has sat dormant since Rivian and Amazon ended their exclusive deal in November 2023. The new potential line of business comes at a crucial time for the company, which is doing all that it can to pare losses ahead of the launch of a more-affordable SUV next year.
Rivian has been spotted performing a number of trials with potential fleet customers. And the EV maker has spent the past year preparing a commercial fleet line for a broader swath of businesses, which included building out service infrastructure, digital infrastructure, and collecting feedback via pilots from fleet customers, according to spokesperson Tanya Miller.
“Over the last year we have been focusing our efforts on testing with some larger fleets, and we’re really pleased with how those trials have gone,” Tom Solomon, Rivian’s senior director of business development, said in a statement.
Rivian first started producing the commercial vans in 2021, two years after Amazon announced it had order 100,000 of the vehicles as part of an effort to reduce its climate impact. Amazon was already deeply invested in Rivian when it struck the exclusivity agreement for the commercial vans. Just seven months before, the e-commerce giant led a $700 million investment round in Rivian.
Amazon now has 20,000 commercial vans produced by Rivian in its fleet, according to Solomon.
