When Manny Fordjour needed to juice up his rental car, he didn’t need a gas station — he needed a charging station.

“It’s actually quite difficult finding electric charging stations in Brooklyn, so this is the closest one to me,” Fordjour said. He found one in Brooklyn run by the electric-mobility company Revel.

“There’s a great opportunity for them if they want to expand, adding more charging stations,” Fordjour said.

What You Need To Know

  • Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer on Monday visited an electric vehicle charging facility operated by Revel, the electric mobility company

  • The Inflation Reduction Act offers credits for the purchase of electric vehicles and companies that build charging infrastructure

  • Revel is planning to open new charging facilities around the city

Revel operates a for-hire car service and moped rentals. Its charging spots are open to the public, and it’s planning an expansion.

Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer visited Revel’s public charging facility in Brooklyn Monday to promote the provisions for electric vehicles in the Inflation Reduction Act, like credits for buyers of new electric vehicles and for companies setting up more charging stations.

He also took a ride for the company’s one millionth trip.

“Revel is undertaking something very new and exciting and that’s to lay out a charging infrastructure throughout New York,” Schumer said.

That should encourage people to buy electric vehicles, says Patrick McClellan, director of policy at the New York League of Conservation Voters.

“We certainly expect to see a more medium-term impact from the Inflation Reduction Act in the build out of the charging network because for a lot of people who are considering buying an EV, the thing that’s stopping them is a concern about range anxiety, as they call it, the fear that they’re going to run out be stuck some place where there aren’t any chargers nearby,” McClellan said.

According to Con Edison — which tracks electric vehicle infrastructure and offers incentives to build it — there are about 650 public EV chargers in the city and another 3,500 that are not public.

The National Renewable Energy Laboratory estimates that nationwide — tens of thousands of fast chargers will be needed by 2030.

Revel CEO Frank Reig says federal funding from the infrastructure package that passed last year is helping.

“It accelerates all of this. It allows us to build faster, put more chargers in the ground faster, hire more folks, it allows us to accelerate this EV transition we’re talking about,” Reig said.

Revel wants to add a hundred fast charging spots open to the public, around the city in new facilities in the Bronx, Queens, Manhattan and Brooklyn.