Uber and Nissan have signed a deal to help drivers in London switch to fully electric vehicles, as part of the ride-hailing company’s push to make all its journeys in the capital emission-free by 2025.
Nissan will make 2,000 of its Sunderland-made electric Leafs available to Uber drivers at below the market rate, at an undisclosed discount, which they can rent or buy outright from approved vendors.
Drivers will also be able to use money accumulated from Uber’s “clean air fee,” which charges riders 15p per mile on all London journeys, to help pay for the cars. The fee was launched in January 2019 to help all 45,000 drivers operating in the UK capital switch to electric vehicles by 2025, and has raised more than £80m so far.
“Uber drivers will be the early adopters of electric vehicles,” said Jamie Heywood, Uber’s regional general manager for the UK, northern and eastern Europe. “You pay a slightly higher price up front but have lower running costs.
“Cleaning up air pollution in cities and switching away from dirty vehicles is our priority,” he added.
Drivers may use the funds they have “saved” from the fee once they have accumulated at least £1,000 — money which is held in a central pot by Uber. Once they have an electric car, the fee will support “ongoing vehicle costs”.
The Leaf is the only vehicle currently available through the scheme, and London the only city in the world with an Uber clean air plan.
However, some drivers are reluctant to adopt electric cars because of concerns that there are not enough charging points in and around the capital — let alone enough free or superfast ones.
This month, motorway services operators said Britain’s electricity network was “not fit for purpose” and was stifling the rollout of electric vehicle chargers. Electric vehicles currently account for only about 2 per cent of sales in the UK, but this is expected to rise sharply as the country works to hit its legally binding target of net zero carbon emissions by 2050.
Writing on an Uber driver online forum, one user said: “I spent some spare time ‘pretending’ I needed a rapid charge as if I was in a Leaf, in random parts of London and suburbs. In half the scenarios the charger wasn’t working or a black cab was charging or someone was blocking the space.”
According to Nissan, the Leaf can travel up to 168 miles on a single charge. Although charging infrastructure is improving, there is still some way to go, said Mr Heywood.
Some forum users also expressed concerns that the three approved Uber partners through which they can hire the Leaf — WeFlex, Otto and Drover — charge rental premiums they may be unable to afford. When renting to buy, the overall cost of a car can increase by thousands of pounds over the lifetime of the contract, potentially more than the sum a driver had accumulated via the clean air fee.”
However, Nicko Williamson, chief executive of WeFlex, said he had seen a “surge” in the number of drivers enquiring about electric vehicles this month — around 400, compared with under 100 per month last year — although some were put off by the Leaf’s range and relatively small size.
He pointed out that, starting this year, Transport for London will no longer grant new licences to new private hire vehicles that are not zero emission capable.
In the past year, the number of Uber journeys made in electric vehicles in London has increased by more than 350 per cent to 900,000, said Uber.
Uber’s future in the UK capital is uncertain, however. In November, the company was stripped of its London licence for the second time in two years by the transport regulator, following passenger safety concerns. Uber is appealing against the decision and can continue to operate until a final decision is reached.
