Revel will shut down its ride-hailing service and shift its focus to electric vehicle charging, the company confirmed.

The Brooklyn-based firm, which started in 2018 with electric moped rentals before introducing a fleet of Tesla vehicles for ride-hailing, cited intense competition from larger companies like Uber and Lyft as a reason for the move.

Revel’s ride-hailing operations mainly served New York and New Jersey.

The company is looking to sell 165 for-hire vehicle license plates and its fleet of Tesla and Kia vehicles.

Revel has opened several EV charging hubs in New York City and California, and plans to expand its charging infrastructure further.

🔗 Source: The Verge

🧠 Food for thought

1️⃣ Scale creates insurmountable barriers in winner-take-all rideshare markets

Revel’s monthly ridership of 100,000 trips illustrates the massive scale disadvantage smaller players face against established giants like Uber and Lyft, which together handle over 20 million monthly trips 1.

This 200-to-1 difference in volume helps explain why Revel’s CEO described rideshare as “very competitive and asset-heavy” with low margins.

The dominant players’ combined 72.5% market share creates network effects that make it nearly impossible for smaller competitors to achieve the rider density and driver utilization needed for profitability 2.

Revel’s journey from 50 to 500 vehicles over three years demonstrates that even substantial fleet growth couldn’t bridge the competitive gap when facing incumbents with vastly superior scale 1.

The company’s decision to sell its 165 for-hire vehicle license plates at $20,000-$25,000 each also reflects the reality that these valuable assets are better monetized than continuing to compete in an extremely challenging market position 3.

2️⃣ Infrastructure plays offer better positioning than competing directly with platform giants

Revel’s pivot to EV charging represents a strategic shift from competing against network effects to building the infrastructure that enables the broader electric vehicle transition.

The U.S. EV charging market is projected to grow nearly tenfold by 2030, expanding from approximately 4 million to 35 million charge points 4.