‘Tesla Taxis’ Dealt Blow As NYC Votes To Remove Cap Exemption For EVs

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An up-and-coming ride-hailing service called Revel says it will move forward with its plan to launch a fleet of Teslas in New York City, despite a recent vote removing an exemption that was important to the company’s future.

Revel was planning on using a rule set in 2018 that excluded EVs from the city‘s Taxi and Limousine Commission’s (TLC) cap on taxis and ride-share services. The exemption, though, was removed on Tuesday in a 5-to-1 vote, The Hill reports.

The new rule means that anyone looking to get a new taxi or ride-sharing vehicle license in the city has to go through the same review process, be it a gas-powered vehicle or an EV. According to the TLC, the move was intended to protect New York from further congestion.

Read Also: Arrival Signs Deal With Uber For New Ride-Hailing EVs

Building a business is hard. Especially when shortsighted bureaucracy and entrenched interests stand in your way. But you can't stop the future and you definitely can't stop my team. We'll be launching shortly and I can't wait to show New Yorkers the future of rideshare!

— Frank Reig (@FrankReig) June 24, 2021

“It is not sustainable to allow an unlimited number of new vehicles to the road in a city that is all too familiar with the choke of traffic congestion,” TLC Chair Aloysee Heredia Jarmoszuk said during the organization’s meeting, per The Hill.

For Revel, which had planned to introduce a fleet of 50 Tesla Model Ys, the move was impactful but not deadly, according to CEO Frank Reig.

Taking to Twitter, he said: “Building a business is hard. Especially when shortsighted bureaucracy and entrenched interests stand in your way. But you can’t stop the future and you definitely can’t stop my team. We’ll be launching shortly and I can’t wait to show New Yorkers the future of rideshare.”

The TLC’s vote even caught the eye of Elon Musk, who tweeted “??” in response to news of the organization’s vote. Just how Revel plans to react it is not yet known, but the company told the New York Post it was exploring all options and was convinced it could still launch in the near future.

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