An electric vehicle ride-sharing service is finally on the cards for Australia after sales of the cars more than doubled during 2023.
Australians will be able to hail electric vehicles within weeks after Uber revealed plans to launch a service dedicated to the battery-powered vehicles.
The tech giant’s Comfort Electric service will be made available to all users from January 29, six months after the company launched its Uber Green tier that offered rides in both hybrid and electric cars.
But Uber will test its fully electric service in Melbourne first, offering some customers free rides to the Australian Open tennis tournament in Kia electric vehicles.
The company’s announcement comes after unprecedented growth for electric cars in Australia, with the number of new EVs sold more than doubling in 2023.
Uber Australia and New Zealand general manager Dom Taylor said demand for the low-emission vehicles had been high among riders, as Uber Green’s service became its fastest product to reach one million trips.
“In the week before Christmas, we did half a million trips across Australia in hybrids and EVs,” he said.
“Clearly, riders are looking for a way to go green.”
Uber’s Comfort Electric service, which is available in 40 cities across the US and Canada and launched for Australian corporate customers late last year, will let ride-share users request a premium, electric vehicle.
Mr Taylor said the company was finally able to offer the service widely as more of its driver partners had adopted electric cars.
“We’re on a path to having 100 per cent EV adoption by 2040 and over the last couple of years we have been calling on car manufacturers here in Australia to bring more EVs in and get them into the hands of driver partners,” he said.
“We’ve seen really pleasing growth across all markets we operate in but particularly in Melbourne, which was a laggard.”
Uber has partnered with Kia to launch a trial of the electric service in Melbourne, and will offer Uber One subscribers within 5km of Rod Laver Arena a free lift to the venue in an electric car.
Thirty Kia electric vehicles will be used in the test, which will run from January 14 to 28.
Kia Australia chief executive officer Damien Meredith said it was important to get more electric vehicles into ride-share fleets to give more consumers a chance to try the technology and talk to drivers about their experiences.
“It gives not only Kia but all manufacturers who have EVs in their line-up a great opportunity,” he told AAP.
“The more experience Uber customers have with EVs, the better it’s going to be for the EV market, no question.”
Australian motorists bought more than 87,000 new electric cars last year, according to the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries, up from just over 33,000 in 2022.
Source: AAP