News that 2023 was the hottest year on record was a sobering start to the year. It underscored the urgency behind Uber’s goal to become a zero-emission platform by 2040. As the world’s largest ride hailing platform, we facilitate millions of trips a day, whether by car, motorbike, auto rickshaw or bus. Rightly, we are expected to lead on electrification wherever we operate.
There are structural issues that make it hard for drivers to switch to EVs. EVs are more expensive than the models we typically see on the platform. And public EV charging stations in cities across the world are patchy at best.
As we begin 2024, the good news is that we continue to invest time and money in helping drivers get more affordable EVs, and are working with cities and industry to expand urban charging points. In fact, in North America, drivers on Uber are going electric seven times faster than in the overall market. Given the amount of time many of them spend on the road, this is already delivering an outsized impact on CO2 reduction targets.
Here in Asia, we started 2023 with just one country with a green option available on the app. By the end of the year, riders could choose an EV vehicle or hybrid in Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Taiwan, India and South Korea. In total, we more than doubled the number of zero-emission trips on the platform. It’s a good start, we still have a huge task ahead of us. I’m excited to see more progress in 2024.
#EVs #sustainability #mobility
Car Driver
3moGood luck!