Inside Uber’s plan to switch entire car fleet to electric vehicles

Australia’s millions of Uber passengers may have to get used to a new way to travel as the rideshare giant reveals a major change to how it works.

Uber has pledged to be fully carbon emissions-free by 2040.

Uber is accelerating its push to have all its drivers adopt electric vehicles, as EV sales in Australia continue to soar.

Global Head of Sustainability Strategy at Uber, Chris Hook, said the recent growth in EV sales had convinced the company to put electrification high on its priority list.

Australian EV sales in the first ten months of this year are up 200 per cent on the same period last year. They now make up more than 7 per cent of new-car sales.

“A few years ago it wasn’t guaranteed we were going to go down this path but now it seems pretty locked in,” Mr Hook said.

He said it was “hard to predict” where the company would land over the next five-year period but added the car industry was scaling up EV production “quite quickly”, which would drive EV adoption.

Chris Hook, Global Sustainability Strategy Lead at Uber

Uber has pledged to be fully carbon emissions-free by 2040 and recently signed a deal with EV importer EVDirect to make more than 10,000 electric vehicles available to Australian Uber drivers at competitive rates.

Mr Hook said the shift to an EV-only fleet was not expected to have an impact on prices for passengers.

“This should be pretty effortless as a rider. In all the big cities in Australia you can now order an Uber Green (a low-emission ride option) and it’s the same price,” he said.

But the plan could meet resistance from drivers, who until now have baulked at the cost of EVs.

Mr Hook said the company would try to give incentives to drivers to make the switch from cheaper petrol and diesel vehicles “where we can”.

“We can’t fund the whole gap between an EV and a non-EV. Where we operate we have a whole bunch of programs set up to bridge that gap.”

In Victoria, where EV uptake has been slow, the company has introduced incentives to make the switch, including offering drivers a 50 per cent reduction in service fees, which could save as much as $3500 per financial year up until June 2025.

He said the price of EVs was also coming down, which would make the switch easier for drivers.

“An Uber driver isn’t someone who’s, generally speaking, buying a $70,000 new car, so the more and more models available that are at a reasonable price and are not premium, the easier it is for professional drivers to get hold of them, so we see that being a big contributing factor.”

Tesla Model 3, Polestar dual-motor and Ioniq 6 dual motor are among the EVs increasing in popularity. Picture: Thomas Wielecki

Uber has said as it will not allow any petrol vehicles on the platform from 2040 and there will come a time, potentially before that, even, when petrol vehicles are are not allowed on the app.

Uber driver Sisir Barman, who drives a Camry hybrid, said he would consider an electric car in “maybe two or three years”.

“Right now I’m happy with the hybrid. I can save a lot of fuel with it and it’s environmentally friendly,” he said.

There were too many unknowns with electric vehicles, he said, including their range, battery reliability and price.

“If you want to buy a good electric vehicle it’s gonna cost you around $70 to $80,000. That’s pretty expensive.”

Mohammad Shehbaz, who owns a seven-seat Toyota Kluger hybrid, said range and size were issues, as he did a lot of long-haul airport drop-offs.

Uber says more than 1.2 million Uber rides were taken in an EV in the third quarter of this year alone. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Jenny Evans

“For me, electric doesn’t work. I live in Gosford (on the NSW Central Coast) and I do a lot of regional driving. I also need to put a lot of luggage in the car,” he said.

He said there weren’t any suitably priced seven-seat EVs, which meant he couldn’t pick up Uber XL rides. XL rides are more profitable because they accommodate six people.

Despite the barriers, Uber says more than 1.2 million Uber rides were taken in an EV in the third quarter of this year, an average of 13,000 trips per day.

More than 2400 EVs operate on the platform.

“The goal is 100 per cent by 2040,” Mr Hook said.

“That’s the end point There are certain markets where we should be able to get there faster. That will be a lot depending on the economic makeup of those countries.”

AUSSIES’ CHANGING CAR HABITS

It comes after Uber Australia released findings from its One Less Car trial which evaluated Australians’ relationship with their vehicles.

The research involved 58 Australians being paid to leave their cars at home for four weeks and instead rely on other months of transport.

What it found was that participants across metro and regional areas needed access to at least four different alternative modes of transport to get where they needed to go in lieu of having a vehicle.

Uber’s Australia’s General Manager Dom Taylor said Australians should look beyond their current transport if they are to join quash emissions use.

“We believe that Australia’s road to zero emissions depends not solely on EV adoption, but on a fundamental shift across society away from private car dependence,” he said.

“With One Less Car, we set out to explore just what it would take to disrupt Aussies’ reliance on their cars, and the results have been clear that there is appetite and opportunity for real change.

“The data tells a fascinating story and suggests that embracing a car-light lifestyle could deliver significant benefits to individuals, cities and our planet.

“Encouragingly, we believe there are some immediate steps Australian cities and citizens can take to build a car-light future today.”

Australian households spent at least $78 billion annually on owning and operating cars, compared to $79 billion on health, and $113 billion on food.

Uber’s research found 72 per cent of Australia’s mobility trips take place in a car, significantly outpacing walking or cycling (15 per cent), public transport (13 per cent) or rideshare and taxi (1 per cent).

Originally published as Inside Uber’s plan to switch entire car fleet to electric vehicles