Electric mobility startup Revel is taking its 3,000 rideshare mopeds off the streets of New York and San Francisco after ridership fell 30 per cent from last year’s peak.
The Brooklyn-based company set up five years ago, allowing riders to hire an electric blue moped through an app and pay by the minute.
But as usage dropped 30 per cent from last year’s peak – and the mopeds were dogged by safety concerns – the company said it was ‘unsustainable’ to continue.
From November 18, the company’s last remaining 3,000 mopeds will be taken off the streets and sent to recycling plants.
San Francisco and New York were Revel’s last two moped sharing markets and the company says it will now focus solely on its electric ride-hail and EV charging businesses.
The mopeds are being removed after a drop in usage and years of safety concerns following crashes and fires
Riders could book the mopeds through an app and pay by the minute to ride
It marks the end of an era for Revel which started out with a Bushwick storefront and just 68 electric mopeds in 2018.
By 2021, the company had more than 3,000 e-mopeds in New York City and another 3,000 across Washington D.C., Miami and San Francisco.
But with its expansion came safety concerns with a series of deaths, collisions and fires.
Because Revel mopeds do not exceed 30 miles per hour, the state did not require users to have a motorcycle license but as a result, many people were not familiar with the controls.
According to the Times, 17 percent of Revel crashes in 2020 occurred on the user’s first ride and the crash rate for all riders rose by 59 percent in the overnight hours.
In 2020, Revel was forced to temporarily shut down following the deaths of three riders in New York City in fatal accidents in the same month.
CBS reporter Nina Kapur, 26, was riding as a passenger on one of the electric scooters when she was killed in Brooklyn.
Then Jeremy Malave, 32, died after crashing his Revel moped crash in Queens, and a 30-year-old Bronx man, Francis Nunez, suffered head injuries in Washington Heights, dying a few days later.
At the same time the company grappled with a dozen personal injury lawsuits.
It was eventually able to reopen with enhanced safety features, which required users to complete a 21-question test and send a selfie of them wearing a helmet each time they ride.
Nina Kapur died in a crash in 2020
Revel announced it was closing the moped service on Friday
When the company reopened, users were forced to take a 21-question test and send a selfie of them wearing a helmet
But now the company is winding up its entire moped branch to ‘fully focus on its all-EV, all-employee rideshare and public fast charging businesses’.
In a memo to staff on Friday, seen by TechCrunch, CEO Frank Reig, said: ‘The service has been strained and ridership isn’t what it used to be.’
Moped services will stop on November 18, but the company insisted ‘this is not the end of Revel’.
The electric ride-hail branch of the company now has a fleet of 500 electric vehicles – made up of Tesla Model Ys and 3s and Kia Niros – available across New York City.
They are also focusing on creating charging infrastructure opening a new ‘superhub’ in Brooklyn in April with 15 public EV charging stalls that can fully charge a car in 10 to 20 minutes.
A spokesperson for the company, Robert Familiar, said: ‘I can confirm that Revel’s CEO Frank Reig informed all employees Friday that the company is bringing an end to its shared electric moped service and will now fully focus on its all-EV, all-employee rideshare and public fast charging businesses.
‘Revel is currently developing large public fast charging networks in America’s two densest metros, New York and the Bay Area. The last day of moped service will be November 18.’