Hertz charges up to expand electric car fleet in NYC with Revel deal

An as-yet-unreported deal in the car-rental space is angling to bring New York City into the electric vehicle era.

Hertz is providing Revel – the all-electric ride-sharing company that started out as a scooter app five years ago – with several hundred electric cars in a lease agreement and is considering a broader partnership, sources told On The Money.

Hertz – which emerged from bankruptcy in 2021 and has since tapped former Goldman Sachs CFO Stephen Scherr as its CEO – has made electrifying its fleet a priority. The third-largest car rental company in the US aims to make a quarter of its fleet electric by the end of 2024.

Nevertheless, keeping those cars charged is challenging in cities where space is limited. New York in particular is seen as behind when it comes to public charging infrastructure.

That’s where Revel comes in. The New York-based firm, which also operates in San Francisco, Miami and DC, now offers an Uber-like car service in addition to scooters – but the real play is in building out EV charging stations, sources said.

Earlier this year, Revel announced plans to create five new charging facilities it calls “super hubs.” The move will add more than 100 ultra-fast charging stalls that can charge an EV in as little as 10 or 20 minutes – tripling the number of high-speed EV chargers. 

Perhaps most importantly, Revel has gotten the support of the New York City political class — as well as cold hard cash from the Inflation Reduction Act. The company even got recent kudos from Sen. Chuck Schumer. 

“Revel is on a new and exciting mission to build electric vehicle charging infrastructure throughout New York City and other American cities, so cars — whether they be cars like Revel’s, other rideshare vehicles, or privately owned cars — can have easy access to efficient charging,” Schumer said last month in a press conference outside a Revel charging station.

Knighthead Capital Management, which owns a majority of Hertz Global Holdings, is also an investor in Revel. 

Hertz has embraced a number of partnerships in recent years including a $4 billion deal to purchase Teslas and a deal with Uber that lets drivers on the ride-share app rent Hertz vehicles. Hertz and Revel confirmed the news.