London has set goals for zero emissions on vehicles by 2050, but they’re aiming for 2020 for private hire vehicles. Consequently, Uber is now planning to move to electric cars for uberX by 2019. They hope to have the entire fleet be electric cars by 2025.
Large-vehicle services such as UberXL will likely go away in London, as all those vehicles burn diesel.
Who will pay for electric vehicles?
Going green to placate the government and save the environment sounds great, but it understandably raises questions for drivers. Top on the list of questions is the price tag. Since Uber doesn’t own their own vehicles, who’s going to pay for this new fleet of electric vehicles?
The 40,000 London Uber drivers are—sort of.
London rules will eventually prohibit drivers from doing business with their vehicles. However, Uber isn’t relying just on that for incentive. Instead, it plans to offer funding assistance up to £5,000 ($6,604 USD) for drivers wanting to upgrade to an electric or hybrid.
Of course, Uber isn’t handing out this assistance for free. Riders will be paying an additional £0.35 ($0.45 USD) per ride in London in order to help recoup the cost. The company is spending around £2m on top of the fee increase, however.
The Mayor of London and Transport for London also announced funding assistance for taxi drivers needing to acquire a compliant vehicle.
Why is London changing the rules?
London has been plagued with air pollution issues in the last few years. A recent study found that pollution in London contributes to 9,500 deaths each year.
This problem has led to a number of clean air initiatives. Last year saw the first long-range, electric, double-decker bus. Transport for London partnered with electric vehicle manufacturer BYD said they chose London for the bus because it was a “pollution hotspot.” All the buses in London will also be transitioning to electric under the new rules.
Now, the hotspot will affect Uber drivers too. Currently, around half of the Uber drivers in London have electric vehicles.
Incentives for car-owners
Uber will not only help subsidize the cost of car upgrades for their drivers; it will also pay average car-owners to get rid of their gasoline cars.
Uber announced yesterday that it was offering a £1,500 credit to spend on Uber or UberPool rides for the first thousand London drivers to get rid of their gasoline or diesel burning car.
The company has set aside £150 million toward this initiative. The head of Uber in the UK, Fred Jones, said this is Uber’s attempt to do their part toward fixing the air pollution problem.
