Uber passengers in London will be able to request a fully electric car, as the ride-sharing company adds a green option to its service.
Uber Green will operate in central London with passenger fares unchanged to those trips made in petrol, diesel and hybrid Uber vehicles. However, EV drivers will be charged a reduced service fee.
Whilst the journey must commence in London’s Zone 1 area, destinations will be unrestricted.
Jamie Heywood, Uber’s regional general manager for northern and eastern Europe, said: “With cities beginning to open up once again, we have a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to drive a green recovery by ensuring that every car on the Uber app in London is fully electric.
“We continue to partner with drivers to help them make the switch to electric and today we are excited to start offering riders the option to select an electric vehicle at no extra cost, allowing everyone using Uber to play their part in cleaning up urban transport.”
This is the latest step in Uber’s wider plans to ensure all of its cars in the capital are fully electric by 2025.
The company began adding a 15p per mile clean air fee in London in January 2019, this fund was aimed to help drivers with the cost of switching to greener cars.
To date it has raised £125m enabling the number of fully electric Uber cars in the capital to increase from 100 to 1,600.
As it currently operates 45,000 vehicles in London, only a small percentage of the firm’s cars will be eligible for the Uber Green initiative.
