Chargers the next big battle in EV adoption, say Uber’s new local boss

Uber says the biggest barriers to its drivers buying EVs are costs and charging stations – and it’s the latter which is a difficult problem to solve.

Uber Australia and New Zealand managing director Emma Foley.

Uber’s next big battle in its net-zero ambitions isn’t electric vehicles themselves but the infrastructure required to charge them, says the company’s new Australian managing director Emma Foley.

“The thing that I think we do know is that the charging piece is going to be one of the hardest pieces to solve,” Ms Foley told a crowd at Australia’s Economic Outlook lunch, co-hosted by The Australian and Sky News, on Friday.

Uber’s electric vehicle fleet had grown “significantly” over the past two years and was now at a point where it was completing some 20,000 trips a day.

Ms Foley said Uber’s statistics challenged the notion that electric vehicle adoption was slowing in Australia.

Uber, which is the world’s most popular rideshare platform, is responsible for about 150,000 people on Australian roads, including drivers and delivery people.

“We obviously feel a big responsibility and we know because of the outsized impact of rideshare drivers, that we can have a real impact here,” Ms Foley said.

The push toward a green future was not just being driven by Uber but its passengers, who were increasingly opting to take trips in electric vehicles.

“For our comfort electric product, which is our EV-only option, we’re actually the most successful country in the world for that. So we’re really seeing Australian consumers respond to that and make those choices,” Ms Foley said.

Australian Uber customers have taken 1.86 million trips in electric vehicles with over 4000 Uber drivers in the first quarter of 2024, according to statistics provided by the company.

About 4 per cent of every kilometre travelled on the Uber platform was taken in an electric vehicle over the same period.

Ms Foley said Uber had sought to tackle the two main issues its drivers raised regarding a switch to electric vehicles.

Uber passengers can select a hybrid or electric vehicle for their journey.

“Two things that we hear now from our drivers, the first one is cost and the second one is charging,” she said.

Uber had formed a local partnership with Chinese electric vehicle manufacturer BYD that provided financing and leasing options on up to 10,000 of the company’s Atto 3 vehicles.

“We’ve put $30m behind subsidising drivers into electric vehicles and in our grand view that’s something that has shown real great success,” she said.

The second issue drivers raised was charging, which Ms Foley said was going to be one of the hardest issues to solve.

“We’re not going to do that alone. I think we’ve really seen the government make great progress with things like the New Vehicle Efficiency Standard recently, and we really welcome that new legislation, but the charging piece, that’s going to be hard,” she said.

An Uber spokeswoman said the company was looking to tackle the charging issue with partnerships with bp pulse and EVSE.

Uber has partnered with Chinese RV manufacturer BYD to provide financing and leasing options. Picture: David Geraghty

“We’re tackling that challenge head on as part of our ongoing work to bring down the costs of going electric,” she said.

Across Australia there are more than 180,000 electric vehicles on the road, with 98,436 new EVs sold in 2023 alone, according to the Australian Electric Vehicle Industry Recap report.

The report recorded more sales outside of CBDs, 43 per cent of new EV sales taking place in outer metropolitan areas. Inner metropolitan areas accounted for 39 per cent of new EV sales while rural and regional areas accounted for the remaining 18 per cent.

Originally published as Chargers the next big battle in EV adoption, say Uber’s new local boss