Uber has just announced that it is halving the service fees for EV drivers in Australia.
Uber slashes services costs for EV drivers in Australia
In some other markets across the world, Uber riders have the option to use Uber Green. This allows them to opt for electric vehicle rides.
This isn’t a viable option in Australia because only 0.7% of cards sold in Australia each year are electric. Instead, Uber is cutting the service price of EVs in half.
According to Uber’s website, “the service fee is the fee drivers pay Uber, and it varies from trip to trip. It’s the difference between what a rider pays and what a driver earns on a trip, excluding tips, tolls, fees (including the booking fee), driver promotions, taxes, and surcharges.”
This could potentially be a huge saving for regular drivers in particular. This incentive program will run for a year — from July 1, 2021 to June 30 2022,.
“We can’t address some of the challenges facing electric vehicle uptake in Australia, but we believe it’s important to do our part,” Uber said in a statement.
[related_content first=”1680754″]
This matters, because incentives in Australia are weak
This is a big deal because at the present time Australia is having a huge problem with EV uptake.
Compared to many other countries in the world, there are very few incentives for EV adoption. There are only a handful of state incentives and zero at a federal level.
And recently Victoria proposed a new tax on EV and hybrid vehicles that is set to roll out in July — despite the fact that only 0.7 per cent of Australian drivers have a low emissions vehicle.
These factors help to keep the costs of EVs high. There’s also the problem of range anxiety, which is compounded by Australia’s public charging network being severely lacking, despite the few grants that have been pledged towards this.
So having a huge company like Uber offer an incentive like this is a great step, at least for the drivers who can afford an EV.
At the present time most of the ‘cheaper’ options hover around the $50,000 mark.
Still, it seems like a lot more than what the federal government is offering at the moment.
[related_content first=”1690702″]
It doesn’t include Hybrids
It’s worth noting that hybrids are not eligible for Uber’s incentive program.
Uber has confirmed with Gizmodo Australia that petrol and plug in hybrids will not be included. This incentive program is for 100 per cent EVs only.
It is our understanding that this is most likely to encourage uptake of zero emission vehicles.
“We believe in doing this we can encourage more Australians with electric vehicles to share sustainable rides with Uber,” Uber said in a statement.