NYC bike and scooter riders just got good news and bad news
If you live in New York City and enjoy getting around on two wheels, prepare to get hit with a whiplash of good and bad news from major micromobility providers in the city. Revel, known for its bright blue electric mopeds, is sunsetting those zippy little commuter machines in favor of cars. But on the other hand, the size of the electric Citi Bike fleet is set to grow considerably.
We’ve covered Revel’s rise since its early days of prototype testing all the way back in 2018. The company got its start in NYC and grew to several cities around the US. Its original business model was based on rent-by-the-minute seated electric scooters or mopeds that could carry up to two riders as well as a modest amount of cargo.
The 30 mph (48 km/h) scooters were praised for their small yet efficient size, allowing riders to skirt past grid-locked city traffic and travel at higher speeds than e-bikes yet without the added congestion or energy waste of full-size cars.
However, Revel wasn’t without problems and slowly reduced the size and scope of its scooter operations. From a peak of over 6,000 electric scooters in the US, the company now has under 3,000 scooters and operates in just New York City and San Francisco, having previously pulled out of Washington DC and Miami.
Now Revel’s NY and CA scooter operations are sunsetting as well as an announcement this week put an end to scooter operations in both locations. Instead, Revel plans to double down on its ridesharing services as well as electric car charging stations, which have been comprising a larger portion of the company’s revenue lately.
According to TechCrunch, “The last day of service will be November 18. Revel will send the decommissioned mopeds to recycling facilities in New York and the Bay Area over the next two weeks.”
On the lighter electric two-wheeler front, NYC’s shared bicycle program Citi Bike will be doubling the number of electric bikes in the program, which currently number at 10,000.
Compared to pedal bikes, many New Yorkers have taken more favorably to the electric Citi Bikes as they don’t require as much strenuous effort. Pedaling is still required to operate the bikes but riders are able to cover the same distance with less physical exertion, meaning arriving at their destination without getting as sweaty.
However, even on the Citi Bike front, the news isn’t all good news. As many have praised the doubling of the electric fleet, others have been dismayed by the lack of expansion of the program’s footprint in the city.
The electric Citi Bikes will also see a speed reduction from the current speed limit of 20 mph down to 18 mph. City Hall said the Department of Transportation also confirmed that they will be launching a public awareness campaign to teach riders about safe e-bike operations, likely in response to some concerns among the public who worry about riders operating the e-bikes unsafely. The announcement did not mention any additional safety programs regarding cars and trucks in the city, which are responsible for vastly more serious injuries than bicycles or e-bikes.
The Citi Bikes program is widely regarded as a resounding success in the city. Streetsblog refers to it as a “transit phenomenon” and explained that in August 2023, the system “set a monthly record with over four million rides, up 63 percent from the same month in 2019. On Oct. 28, there were 161,422 Citi Bike rides, which the DOT believes represents one-quarter of the total cycling trips on an average day in New York.”
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President and CEO of Saudi’s Aramco, Amin H. Nasser, speaks during the Future Investment Initiative (FII) in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia October 29, 2024.
Hamad I Mohammed | Reuters
Think of Saudi Arabia and the first thing that comes to mind might be its massive, oil-derived wealth.
While oil continues to drive Saudi Arabia’s economy, the kingdom is now expanding into areas such as artificial intelligence, tourism and sports to diversify its growth avenues.
According to Saudi Arabia’s Minister for Investment Khalid Al Falih, more than half — 50.6% — of the Saudi economy is now “completely decoupled” from oil.
“This percentage is growing,” Al Failh told CNBC’s Dan Murphy, adding that government revenue used to be almost completely derived from oil money, but now, 40% of its revenue comes from sectors and sources that “have nothing to do with oil.”
“We’re seeing great results, but we’re not satisfied. We want to do more. We want to accelerate the kingdom’s diversification and growth story,” he said.
Saudi Arabia is doubling down on fast-growing sectors such as artificial intelligence, naming it one of its new growth areas, with Al Failh saying the kingdom will be a “key investor” in developing AI applications and large language models. Saudi Arabia would also build data centers “at a scale and at a competitive cost not achieved anywhere else.”
“AI has emerged [in] the last three, four years, and it’s definitely going to define how the future economy of every nation. Those who invest will lead, and those who lag behind, unfortunately, will lose,” he pointed out.
On Monday, AI chip company Groq’s CEO, Jonathan Ross, told CNBC that for AI infrastructure thanks to its energy surplus. The country could see more than $135 billion in gains by 2030 thanks to AI, according to PwC.
Saudi Arabia’s quarterly budget performance report revealed that total government revenue for the first half of 2025 came in at 565.21 billion Saudi riyals ($150.73 billion), with oil making up 53.4% of the country’s overall revenue, down from 67.97% in the same period in 2019.
In 2024, the country reported a 1.3% rise in full-year GDP, mainly driven by a 4.3% increase in non-oil segments. Oil activity, on the other hand, fell 4.5% year on year.
The country’s sovereign wealth fund — the Public Investment Fund — has acquired stakes in tech giants, video game publishers and football clubs as it uses oil revenues to diversify into other sectors.
PIF has acquired stakes in video-game heavyweight Electronic Arts, establishing the SoftBank Vision Fund with Masayoshi Son’s SoftBank Group Corp in 2017, and a takeover of English Premier League club Newcastle United in 2021.
When asked if declining oil prices were piling pressure on Saudi Arabia’s economy and government revenue, Al Falih said that the country was not scaling back budgets and there were no cuts to public spending.
Oil prices have fallen in 2025, with Brent crude spot prices down 13.4% so far this year, according to FactSet. Saudi Arabia’s oil revenue slid 24% in the first half of 2025 from a year earlier.
The government will continue to address all activities that require government spending, Al Falih said, noting that the PIF has grown sixfold since its creation and that the country was approaching nearly $1 trillion in capital deployed across sectors of strategic interest.
Tourism has also been a key growth area for Saudi Arabia. Ahmed Al-Khateeb, the country’s tourism minister, told CNBC that the sector’s share in GDP had grown to 5% in 2024 from 3% in 2019.
“We are [opening] resorts, new airlines, new airports, and the numbers are growing, and we are focusing on countries and visitors that are coming from outside to experience our great culture,” Al-Khateeb highlighted.
The tourism minister also expressed confidence that the sector could contribute 10% of GDP by 2030, aiming to raise it to 20% eventually.
“This 20% will help Saudi Arabia to diversify the economy and make it more sustainable,” he added.
Meta just signed more power purchase agreements (PPAs) with ENGIE North America, expanding their partnership to more than 1.3 gigawatts (GW) of solar across four projects in Texas. It’s just a shame the social media giant is also going big on gas plants in Louisiana to power its data centers at the same time.
The latest PPAs include ENGIE’s new 600-megawatt (MW) Swenson Ranch Solar project in Stonewall County, southeast of Lubbock. When it comes online in 2027, Swenson will become ENGIE’s largest solar farm within its 11 GW North American portfolio of solar, wind, and battery storage projects. Meta will buy 100% of Swenson’s power to run its US data centers.
ENGIE says the $900 million project will create over 350 construction jobs and generate over $158 million in tax revenue for Stonewall County and the local hospital district over its lifetime.
“Our objective is to bring reliable, cost-competitive power to the grid as rapidly as possible, and projects like Swenson demonstrate the importance of solar to meet the timely needs of our customers,” said Dave Carroll, ENGIE North America’s CEO and chief renewables officer.
Meta’s head of global energy, Urvi Parekh, said the expanded deal with ENGIE “enables us to continue matching 100% of our electricity use with clean and renewable energy to support our data center operations,” Parekh said.
Electrek’s Take
Meta isn’t exactly putting its money where its mouth is when it comes to matching 100% of its electricity use with clean energy. The social media giant is also building a $10 billion data center – one of the world’s largest – in Richland Parish, Louisiana, that’s going to be powered by three gas-powered plants, which utility Entergy will build especially for Meta, which is paying 50% of the costs. Those three plants will produce 2,262 MW of dirty fossil fuel power. For perspective, that’s nearly 10% of Entergy’s current energy capacity across four states.
So while the 1.3 GW of clean energy that ENGIE will produce in Texas for Meta is great, it doesn’t make up for the CO2 emissions it’s about to create with this dirty project it’s building in a lower-income farming community in Louisiana. It certainly isn’t for speed, because solar is the fastest to put up. Limited state oversight – and a 2024 state law that lets the company skip paying sales tax – likely helped Meta make that destructive decision.
Read more: Texas just became No 1 in the US for most utility-scale solar
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![Genesis is building a new luxury off-road SUV, and all signs point to an EV [Images]](https://i0.wp.com/electrek.co/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2025/10/Genesis-off-road-SUV-EV.jpeg?resize=1200,628&quality=82&strip=all&ssl=1)
That rugged new Genesis SUV we’ve been waiting for might be electric after all. A Genesis EV was spotted in South Korea with a new off-road style and EV powertrain.
Is the Genesis off-road luxury SUV an EV?
Genesis is turning ten this year, and to celebrate, it’s giving the people what they want. The luxury brand has a slate of new vehicles set to launch over the next few years, including a flagship full-size electric SUV, high-performance cars, and a luxury off-roader.
Hyundai confirmed during last month’s CEO Investor Day that Genesis will offer vehicles across all powertrains, rather than electric only, as initially planned.
Although we knew the “ultra-luxe” GV90 would be electric when it arrives in 2026, Genesis has kept most details of its luxury off-road SUV a secret.
We got our first look at it in April after Genesis unveiled the X Gran Equator Concept. The rugged-looking SUV is the brand’s “first adventure vehicle concept,” but that’s about all we know.
Genesis said the off-road SUV “marries on-road sophistication with off-road resilience,” offering adventure and refinement, but didn’t provide any specifics.
After a modified Genesis test car was spotted in South Korea with off-road upgrades, it’s looking more likely that the off-road SUV may actually be an EV.
The images posted by user hscarstory on an online forum are among the first to emerge. The vehicle, a modified Genesis Electrified GV70, was being tested by the “Chassis Test Team.” You can see a few added off-road elements like a fine-tuned suspension and bigger tires.
It also has a large tow hook or wrench on the front, a staple of Hyundai XRT test cars. The test vehicle is expected to be the first of a new Genesis off-road brand or trim, similar to Hyundai’s XRT.
Genesis said the X Gran Equator Concept wasn’t confirmed for production. Still, certain design elements and features, such as the integrated roof rails and split-opening tailgate, “showcase the brand’s future design potential.”
The brand has yet to say when the luxury off-roader will arrive. We do know Genesis is launching its first hybrid, the GV80, next year.
It will introduce its first extended-range electric vehicle (EREV) based on the GV70 in late 2026 or early 2027. We got our first look at the Genesis GV70 EREV and hybrid models earlier this month, out for testing.
The GV90 is expected to arrive in mid-2026 as the first vehicle built on Hyundai’s new eM platform. Genesis has yet to reveal when it will launch the luxury off-roader, but it’s expected to arrive as a 2027 model. Since it’s introducing new powertrains, we can’t rule out an EREV or a hybrid variation of the off-roader.
Can Genesis compete with the Rivian R1S? Or the upcoming Range Rover Electric? We should learn more soon. Check back for the latest updates.
Source: HSscarstory
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