Popwheels

This was pretty special. I'm a few days late to be able to post this because of the Jewish New Year, but on Thursday the NY Times wrote a great article about the decrease in deaths from eBike fires this year, and put a spotlight on the work we've been doing with the city on that front. They feature the story of Popwheels customer Christian Acajabon, who used to sleep with his window open in case his battery caught fire before he started using us. https://lnkd.in/eiy33MfT

Woohoo! We won the audience vote at the URBAN-X Future Mobility Startup Challenge! First oversized check I've ever gotten -- now just gotta find an oversized ATM to deposit it in.

Great video that highlights the work we’ve been doing over at Popwheels

New FDNY Commissioner, Robert Tucker, was interviewed on WNYC by Matt Katz. He called our battery swap cabinets, a "creative, out of the box solution", that we need more of. https://lnkd.in/eYmk32B5

Great news today! Mayor Adams, in conjunction with the NYC DOT and FDNY, announced a series of city actions aimed at combatting the battery fire crisis. Some of these are big, visible initiatives like a multimillion-dollar trade-in program. But I'm equally thrilled by something much more subtle: NYC DOT announcing that they'll be expediting the approvals process for siting safe charging stations on the sidewalk. This is really nitty-gritty, in-the-weeds stuff -- google "Revocable Consent" if you're a glutton for punishment -- but it makes a huge difference for Popwheels and unlocks our ability to really deploy aggressively and start solving this fire crisis. Much gratitude is due to Mayor Adams, Will Carry Irene Figueroa-Ortiz 🚲 Ya-Ting Liu, Commissioners Rodriguez and Kavanaugh, and a lot of other fine folks who came together to do some smart policymaking. https://lnkd.in/ekcJ8RjM

Popwheels  participated in yesterday’s ‘Pedal Power for the Green Economy' event at the Brooklyn Army Terminal with JOCO, Net Zero Logistics, FLY EBIKE, DutchX, CLIP.BIKE Inc, Lime, Emissionless Mobility and others.   NYC and NYS  are advancing $100 million dollars into building a climate innovation hub at this historic location.  The goal is to grow green technology startups at BAT, part of Mayor Adams’ initiative to create 400,000 green jobs in NYC by 2040.  Public/private partnerships will be the key to the migration of NYC transportation to renewable energy. David Hammer participated in the panel moderated by Jennifer Sun to discuss this topic, with Chris Nolte, Irene Figueroa-Ortiz and Inbar Kishoni. All these new cargo bikes, light electric vehicles, and delivery e-bikes will need safe battery swapping, and after the panel David demonstrated our battery swapping cabinet outside Terminal B, which is one the cabinets up and running in the DOT Studio/ Newlab pilot.    Thanks Aaron Charlop-Powers for arranging everything, and Andrew Kimball, Meera Joshi and Ryan Lynch for their opening remarks, demonstrating NY’s commitment.

NYC's peaker power plants cost us about $500 million annually, cause certain neighborhoods to be referred to as 'asthma alleys' since they burn the dirtiest fuels, while mostly running only during the hottest days of summer. These plants were set to be brought offline already, but NYC's power needs are growing faster than we can implement cleaner sources of energy. As Popwheels rolls out an e-bike battery swap network locally, we are looking at ways we can share power back to the grid to help the city get rid of these plants for good.

A nine year old boy, living in Ozone Park, Queens, died in a tragic fire started by an electric scooter battery. His immigrant father was working as a food delivery rider and was charging the scooter battery in the house so he could work. The family was living in an illegal garage apartment, with probably faulty wiring. It was probably the best living situation the family could afford. We started Popwheels to prevent these types of incidents from happening. All over the city people are charging batteries they need for work in unsafe situations, putting at risk not just themselves, but everyone who lives around them. It's a recipe for disaster, and it happens over and over. Everytime we read a story like this it's heartbreaking, and further motivates us to make a difference in improving the lives of NYers.

Love the new swappable E-bike battery service available in Manhattan’s Cooper Square. Approx 100 delivery couriers are enrolled in the initial phase. Low carbon, convenient and safe. Cool stuff Ydanis Rodriguez 😎 🔋 🚴 https://lnkd.in/gCfSufTV