Uber’s EV ridehailing business is maturing

Uber is holding its annual Go-Get conference in London today. As part of the event, the company is rolling out a number of changes to its ridehailing and delivery business to reflect the fact that more drivers and couriers are using electric vehicles.

Uber Green, the company’s EV and hybrid ridehailing product, is going fully electric in several select cities. Uber says Uber Green is now an EV-only service in 40 cities and states.

Previously, Uber Green featured both electric and hybrid vehicles, offering an extra per-trip fee (usually $1) to drivers who used any vehicle with less tailpipe pollution. Now, the service is going to exclusively feature battery-electric vehicles, a reflection of the fact that more drivers are using EVs on the platform than ever before. Uber says 180,000 drivers are currently using EVs in the US, Canada, and Europe.

The new EV-only Uber Green is available in 40 cities, including New York City, Los Angeles, New Jersey, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Denver, Phoenix, San Diego, Orange County, Sacramento, Las Vegas, and Palm Springs. Internationally, it will be available in all cities in France, including Paris, and cities across Australia and New Zealand, including Sydney, Melbourne, and Auckland.

Customers who want to ride greener can now adjust their account preferences to automatically match with an EV when there’s one available. Uber designed the feature so that if the ETA is within a few minutes of a standard UberX, an EV will be en route. If it’s longer, the algorithm will match you with a gas-powered vehicle.

These app tweaks build on changes made by the company last year to guide its two main categories of customers — passengers / delivery customers and drivers / couriers — toward more environmentally friendly decisions.

In that way, the company has a better chance of reaching its sustainability goals, which have it going completely carbon neutral in North America and Europe by 2030 and in all global markets by 2040. To that end, Uber announced a partnership with Chinese auto giant BYD last July to bring around 100,000 EVs to Uber drivers starting in Europe and Latin America. 

But drivers still have lots of questions about switching to EVs. So, the company is adding a new chatbot to its driver app to help with some of the more basic queries. Powered by OpenAI’s GPT-4o, the chatbot is intended to help drivers answer questions like which model to buy, where to charge, and how much range is enough. The chatbot will launch in early 2025, the company says.

Uber is also tapping its EV-using drivers to help mentor other EV-curious ones. A new mentorship program is launching through the company’s Greenlight driver resource center to allow EV drivers to directly communicate with their peers who are thinking of making the switch. Uber drivers who participate are eligible for cash rewards and other bonuses.