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Revel opens first fast-charging EV station in Manhattan at Pier 36

Credit: Revel

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Revel has opened its first-ever fast-charging electric vehicle station in Manhattan at Pier 36 on the Lower East Side.

This is the first fully public, 24/7 EV charging station in Manhattan, which has been a major challenge for companies and individuals utilizing EVs due to very limited real estate.

Revel developed the site with New York City’s Economic Development Corporation (NYCEDC). The site features 10 320 kW chargers made by Kempower.

The big challenge with EV ownership when living in New York City is access to public chargers.

While Revel, Tesla, and others are operating charging infrastructure in various boroughs like Queens and Brooklyn, Manhattan is so limited on space that those who utilize EVs for personal use or ride-sharing truly struggle for options.

Frank Reig, Revel’s Co-Founder and CEO, said:

“Hundreds of thousands of rideshare and taxi trips go in and out of Manhattan every day. With our new Pier 36 Charging Station, Revel is bringing the fastest charging on the market directly to those drivers so they can access EVs easier — saving them money and saving us all from breathing in more needless car pollution…This is Revel’s first in the borough, but definitely not our last!”

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Revel has had this new station at Pier 36 in the works for some time. Last year, they hinted during an interview with me that they were working on something in Manhattan. It’s finally here.

This station brings Revel’s total network to 64 public fast chargers across the five boroughs of New York City. Their plans are to expand rapidly, hoping to have 300 active chargers by the end of 2025.

The significance of this station being in Manhattan was recognized by several figures:

State Senator Brian Kavanagh:

“The introduction of this first 24/7 public fast charging station in Manhattan represents a pivotal step in our journey toward a zero-emission transportation network. With the busy flow of rideshare and taxi traffic in and out of Manhattan, providing the fastest charging options directly to drivers not only saves them money but also helps us all breathe a little easier by reducing harmful car pollution.”

NYCEDC President and CEO Andrew Kimball:

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“The opening of Revel’s first Manhattan charging station will help New York City become an innovator in accelerating low-carbon alternatives in the transportation sector, spark cutting-edge innovation that will unlock solutions for the global climate crisis, and create new economic opportunity for the city.”

Assemblymember Grace Lee:

“By expanding access to high-speed EV chargers in Lower Manhattan, we are not only promoting green technology but also reducing harmful emissions and improving air quality for our community. This is a crucial investment in the health and well-being of Lower Manhattan, and I look forward to continuing to support initiatives that advance our city’s environmental goals.”

Deputy Mayor for Operations Meera Joshi:

“New York is charging ahead! If we want to meaningfully reduce emissions, more cars will need to plug, rather than chug.  But modal shifts will only happen once there’s the infrastructure to support it. Along with our 80,000-strong for-hire vehicle fleet’s transition to electric, the first 24/7 charger in Manhattan is a strong indicator of what’s to come. Thanks to Revel, EDC, DOT and all our partners for this Climate Week milestone. In partnership with the private sector, government continues to deliver for New Yorkers.” 

Revel’s expanding number of EV fast chargers will support the evergrowing number of drivers utilizing sustainable powertrains for ride-sharing purposes. The New York City Taxi & Limousine Commission issued approximately 10,000 new licenses for electric-for-hire vehicles in October 2023.

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This has brought the share of EV trips to over 10 percent of the total rideshare volume, or approximately 1.5 million rides per month.

I’d love to hear from you! If you have any comments, concerns, or questions, please email me at joey@teslarati.com. You can also reach me on Twitter @KlenderJoey, or if you have news tips, you can email us at tips@teslarati.com.

Joey has been a journalist covering electric mobility at TESLARATI since August 2019. In his spare time, Joey is playing golf, watching MMA, or cheering on any of his favorite sports teams, including the Baltimore Ravens and Orioles, Miami Heat, Washington Capitals, and Penn State Nittany Lions. You can get in touch with joey at joey@teslarati.com. He is also on X @KlenderJoey. If you're looking for great Tesla accessories, check out shop.teslarati.com

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Elon Musk

Elon Musk weather update tips Tesla Roadster speculation into Plaid Mode

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elon musk
Credit: Tesla

Tesla CEO Elon Musk certainly tipped off some details of the Tesla Roadster event with a broadening of information regarding the company’s decision to delay the unveiling for two weeks.

For years, people have speculated about what the Roadster will be capable of. While there have been plenty of things said about what it *could* do, we have not seen or been told by Tesla what it will actually be capable of.

However, over the past few days, Tesla’s weather updates have truly pushed the speculation into Plaid Mode, basically all but confirming the car will have some sort of aerial capability — whether that would be hovering or fully flying remains to be seen — but it definitely seems that it will be able to leave the ground intentionally.

“Because this event can only be held outdoors…”

Tesla posted on Monday that it would delay the Roadster event until October 15, and it indicated that it had to do this because the event “can only be held outdoors.”

With the potential SpaceX collaboration to develop cold-gas thrusters that will help the vehicle go airborne, doing this indoors is probably not a safe, or even plausible, possibility.

FAA Airspace Restriction

The FAA gave Tesla a Temporary Flight Restriction (TFR) for 10,000 feet above ground level, much higher than the typical 2,000-foot restrictions that are usually placed at SpaceX’s McGregor, Texas site.

Tesla Roadster event requires restricted airspace, and the FAA obliges

Some have said that this massive increase is due to Tesla’s need to restrict unauthorized drone use for spying on the event.

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Elon Admits High Winds

“Due to high winds, the new Roadster demo is postponed by 2 weeks,” Musk said in a post on X yesterday.

A reply reading, “What’s strong wind got to do with a car demo with four grounded wheels?” was directly below Musk’s post, satirically and sarcastically probing for more details.

All signs are pointing toward an aerial demonstration for the Roadster.

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Tesla snags $30B in fresh credit lines for expanding its biggest projects

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Credit: Grok

Tesla has secured $30 billion in fresh credit lines from Citibank and Wells Fargo in an effort to scale its biggest current projects.

Tesla agreed to a $20 billion three-year delayed-draw term loan facility from Citibank, it announced on Tuesday. Additionally, it signed a five-year, $8 billion revolving credit facility and a $2 billion, 364-day term credit facility with Wells Fargo.

In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), that it “may draw” from the $20 billion delayed-draw term “from time to time” and “no more than ten times during the 18 months following the closing date.” This loan matures on September 29, 2029.

The five-year revolving facility from Wells Fargo will also be accessed by Tesla “from time to time,” and will become due and payable on September 29, 2031. Tesla can request two separate one-year extensions.

On the $2 billion, 364-day revolving loan, it becomes due and payable on September 28, 2027. Tesla can also increase its additional commitments to an additional $4 billion across the Revolving Facilities. This would increase the total facilities to $14 billion. Tesla said it does not plan to utilize any of these loans in 2026.

Tesla plans to utilize the money to help prop up its ambitions to scale its biggest products, each of which is either in early launch phases or still in development. Of course, we’re talking about Cybercab and Semi, which have launched, and Optimus, which is still under heavy development and working toward initial release.

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All three Tesla products have one thing in common: they’ve all required Tesla to build new manufacturing lines for them.

For the Semi, Tesla built a brand new factory in Sparks, Nevada, adjacent to the Tesla Gigafactory. For Optimus, Tesla sunset Model S and X production at the Fremont Factory, which brought an end to the two flagship models, thus creating manufacturing space for the humanoid robot. Finally, Cybercab is being built at Gigafactory Texas and officially entered production earlier this year.

Tesla Cybercab fleet doubles to well over 100 units

The cash will help Tesla bolster its finances for the continuing development of these products. Tesla said that it forecasts its CapEx to be over $25 billion, up from just over $8.5 billion last year. These loans surely help with that spending.

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Elon Musk

Elon Musk and Trump are closer than ever, and Tesla could be the big winner

Elon Musk sat beside Trump as AI leaders signed a voluntary White House safety accord.

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Elon Musk had the seat right next to President Donald Trump on Tuesday as the White House hosted the leaders of America’s biggest artificial intelligence companies for a lunch that ended with a voluntary industry accord on AI safety.

A seating chart Trump posted on Truth Social placed Musk at the president’s left in the East Room, with Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang on his right, according to an Associated Press reporter. Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, OpenAI President Greg Brockman, Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg, Google’s Sundar Pichai, Microsoft’s Satya Nadella and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos also attended, along with Vice President JD Vance and House Speaker Mike Johnson.

After the lunch, Trump told reporters outside the West Wing that the executives had signed “The White House Accord on Superintelligence: A Joint Commitment on Frontier SI Responsibilities.” Johnson described it as a voluntary statement of principles built on “robust internal controls and layers of internal and external review,” while Zuckerberg said company boards would independently review reports from outside auditors. Trump called the document “morally binding,” said he would name a new AI czar within days, and signed an executive order formally renaming artificial intelligence “super intelligence,” CNBC reported.

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Musk was not in the room for Tesla alone. Since SpaceX absorbed xAI, he runs the company behind Grok and one of the largest AI training operations anywhere. On September 25, he said another 220,000 Nvidia GB300 chips would come online at Colossus 2 within a week, with more expected in November and December.

SpaceX confirms third massive compute deal at Colossus data center

 

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Musk also used the trip to restate his energy ambitions. “SpaceX is aiming together with Tesla to do 200 gigawatts of solar production per year,” he said at an event in Washington. It is the same combined target he laid out that feeds directly into Terafab, the Tesla and SpaceX chip venture that will need enormous amounts of power.

The showing between Musk and Trump has come a long way, since the two had the very public split in mid 2025 after Musk opposed the “Big Beautiful Bill” and left DOGE. They reconciled at Charlie Kirk’s memorial that September, and Trump later called their relationship “good”. Since then, Musk has joined Trump’s China delegation in May and attended last week’s White House state dinner for Chinese President Xi Jinping.

For Tesla, that access to government official could pay dividends. As Teslarati noted in January, federal autonomy rules, NHTSA oversight and a single national standard for driverless vehicles all run through an administration Musk can more easily reach directly as Tesla works to scale Robotaxi and Cybercab beyond Texas.

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