TLC Seeks to Disallow New Revel Taxi Service

     Revel, the electric-vehicle sharing startup, will launch a new convoy of Tesla taxis on the streets of New York City, in defiance of New York's Taxi and Limousine Commission (TLC), which voted this week to prohibit new for-hire licenses for electric vehicles.

     In response to the TLC’s roadblocks, Revel CEO Frank Reig call the agency’s new rules, “unprecedented resistance” to the ride-sharing company’s plan, which was to create an initial fleet of 50 electric Tesla Model Ys that are driven by employees, rather than by independent contractors.

     “You can’t stop the future and you definitely can’t stop my team,” said Revel CEO Frank Reig in a late-night Tweet on Wednesday. “We’ll be launching shortly, and I can’t wait to show New Yorkers the future of rideshare!”

     The TLC further complicated Revel’s plans by decreeing that the company, which specializes in electric vehicles, can only launch its electric taxi fleet if the company buys 50 for-hire gas cars and exchanges their licenses for those of the Teslas.

     Reig, who has not taken kindly to the TLC’s new ruling, has slammed the new requirement as “the very definition of limiting market competition.”

     “Building a business is hard,” tweeted Reig, who has not yet make clear whether he will buy cars that use gas or merely launch his new Tesla taxi service independently of the TLC. “Especially when shortsighted bureaucracy and entrenched interests stand in your way.”