USA: Revel completes scooter sharing tests in NY
The New York City-based startup Revel Transit has completed a nine-month pilot project on electric scooter sharing, in which 68 mopeds were used. Now 1,000 of their shared electric scooters were released onto the streets of Brooklyn and Queens.
The mopeds used in the initial pilot have been replaced with more modern vehicles, and had been limited to “the Bushwick, Williamsburg or Greenpoint neighbourhoods.” Now the sharing programme has been expanded to include a total of more than 20 neighbourhoods.
“During the nine-month pilot, we learned what worked well, what needed fixing and what users wanted from the service going forward,” Revel co-founder and CEO Frank Reig stated in a press release. While city officials are concerned with the safety aspects of releasing yet more vehicles into the crowded city, Revel made sure to go through the appropriate safety channels, receiving proper safety certification and insisting on drivers using helmets, the app registration also covers a drivers license inspection fee to ensure that nobody inexperienced with traffic will be hitting the New York roads with the electric scooters.
The scooters feature a top speed of 30 miles per hour (about 48 km/h) and are the NGT scooters from Niu. A 2.4 kWh lithium-ion battery pack coupled with the 3 kW motor actually allows for a top speed of 43 mph, however, the sharing provider limited the speeds for safety reasons. The range is said to be upwards of 100 km, as stated by the manufacturer, but with a payment model that goes by time ($1 for activation, $0.25 per minute after) this will not likely be a major concern for drivers. The scooters can also be charged in 3.5 hours, but as Revel warns their drivers not to venture too far, the scooters likely won’t be exhausting their batteries all that often: “don’t try be cheeky and take it into Manhattan.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RZKQhCUX2XM
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