NYC’s Revel is trying to build urban EV fast chargers and demand for those chargers (in the form of its own EV rideshare network) simultaneously. In this episode, Revel’s Tobias Lescht discusses the challenges of urban fast charging and the company’s plans to expand beyond NYC.
To the observation that one gas pump “equals” about 30-40 EV stalls David responded with “Kind of makes you wonder how we're going to do this. We're going to electrify all the vehicles.” That was my reaction as well but it occurred to me that every single mile of an ICE vehicle requires a trip to the gas station, whereas much of EV charging (most maybe?) will happen at home and work, with public charging sites providing supplemental charging for travelers, ride-share and commercial trips. Still daunting though. Great thought-provoking show! Thanks.
And most home & work charging will be Level 2, powered by solar +battery storage behind the meter, including lots of solar canopy micro grids at big, ridiculously under-utilized suburban parking lots. Another location for ride-share charging hubs.
My urbanist angle here would be to reduce as close to zero the implementation of curbside charging. The curb is becoming more and more valuable, and the absolute division there between peds on one side and cars on the other is starting to dissolve, and should have to room to continue dissolving. Most of the available public space in our cities is in the excess lanes in the streets and roads, and we need to have the flexibility to reclaim that space for other uses, and curbside charging then becomes an obstacle to this important evolution.
When your guest said utilities (eg PG&e) are paying for the energy infrastructure, it wasn’t clear he meant shareholders or ratepayers; ie rate basing. Could you ask this follow up and let us know.
I've got to wonder how this business model might intersect with Waymo, just as well as Uber & Lyft? There's so much speculative chatter about Teslas robo-taxi aspirations, but Waymo has actually been operating them in a few locations for years now. Seems like an expansion of Waymo as a franchise operation in cities with a lot of airport traffic might not be far off. That's a lot of cities. If so, will Waymo piggy-back on local fast-charging developers like Revel?
To the observation that one gas pump “equals” about 30-40 EV stalls David responded with “Kind of makes you wonder how we're going to do this. We're going to electrify all the vehicles.” That was my reaction as well but it occurred to me that every single mile of an ICE vehicle requires a trip to the gas station, whereas much of EV charging (most maybe?) will happen at home and work, with public charging sites providing supplemental charging for travelers, ride-share and commercial trips. Still daunting though. Great thought-provoking show! Thanks.
And most home & work charging will be Level 2, powered by solar +battery storage behind the meter, including lots of solar canopy micro grids at big, ridiculously under-utilized suburban parking lots. Another location for ride-share charging hubs.
My urbanist angle here would be to reduce as close to zero the implementation of curbside charging. The curb is becoming more and more valuable, and the absolute division there between peds on one side and cars on the other is starting to dissolve, and should have to room to continue dissolving. Most of the available public space in our cities is in the excess lanes in the streets and roads, and we need to have the flexibility to reclaim that space for other uses, and curbside charging then becomes an obstacle to this important evolution.
When your guest said utilities (eg PG&e) are paying for the energy infrastructure, it wasn’t clear he meant shareholders or ratepayers; ie rate basing. Could you ask this follow up and let us know.
I've got to wonder how this business model might intersect with Waymo, just as well as Uber & Lyft? There's so much speculative chatter about Teslas robo-taxi aspirations, but Waymo has actually been operating them in a few locations for years now. Seems like an expansion of Waymo as a franchise operation in cities with a lot of airport traffic might not be far off. That's a lot of cities. If so, will Waymo piggy-back on local fast-charging developers like Revel?