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Uber announces plans to electrify its London fleet by 2025

Uber announces plans to electrify its London fleet by 2025

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The company is adding a surcharge of 35p ($0.46) to trips to help meet its green ambitions

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Uber’s UK operation has announced a new goal to electrify its entire London fleet by 2025. The company also says by 2019 it wants all vehicles on its uberX service (the cheapest and most popular tier) to be either fully-electric or hybrid.

The new goals are partly in response to legislation passed by London’s transport agency. This mandates that by 2020 all new private hire vehicles operating in the capital must be zero emissions capable. Uber has been aggressive in pursuing this goal, expanding its fleet of all-electric vehicles in London to 150 earlier this year.

Today, Uber also announced new funds for drivers who want to upgrade their car to an electric or hybrid (“up to £5,000”) as well as a scrappage scheme that will give 1,000 Londoners who choose to dump their old diesel vehicle “up to £1,500” in Uber credit. Uber plans to invest £2 million to fund these schemes next month, and says it could spend up to £150 million in total.

And how will it pay for this? Partly by adding 35p to the cost of every ride taken in the capital, with all proceeds from this surcharge going towards the new fund. (Shared trips on UberPool will be excluded.) It’ll be Uber’s customers, then, that help meet the cost of the company’s government-enforced obligations to go green.