An alliance between oil and gas supermajor BP and rideshare giant Uber will see a pilot network of electric vehicle chargers deployed in the US city of Houston, Texas, replicating an initiative launched last year in London.
Under the new pilot program, which has been inked with the city of Houston, new charging sites will be identified, planned and deployed to make charging an electric vehicle more equitable and convenient for the public.
According to research done by the American Lung Association, if Houston – the fourth most populous city in the US – were to go completely electric, some 148 lives could be saved, 3,333 asthma attacks avoided, and $US1.7 billion ($A2.23 billion) could be saved each year.
“Transitioning to EVs is one of the fastest steps we can take to improve air quality and community health in Houston,” says Houston mayor Sylvester Turner.
BP’s partnership with Uber is one of several it is undertaking in efforts to move into the cleantech sector and achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2050. Its BP Pulse arm already has 7,000 public charging sites across the UK.
BP has also inked a “strategic partnership” with Qantas to explore advanced sustainable fuels and other ways to decarbonise the aviation sector.
Uber’s net-zero ambitions are centred on 100% of rides to be electric by 2040. It has offered charging discounts to EV rideshare drivers to encourage them to transition, and has also channelled more than £5 million ($A9 million) into installing chargers in London’s poorest boroughs.
Bridie Schmidt is associate editor for The Driven, sister site of Renew Economy. She has been writing about electric vehicles since 2018, and has a keen interest in the role that zero-emissions transport has to play in sustainability. She has participated in podcasts such as Download This Show with Marc Fennell and Shirtloads of Science with Karl Kruszelnicki and is co-organiser of the Northern Rivers Electric Vehicle Forum. Bridie also owns a Tesla Model Y and has it available for hire on evee.com.au.