Electrifying Ride-Hailing in the United States, Europe, and Canada: How to Enable Ride-Hailing Drivers to Switch to Electric Vehicles

Abstract

Efforts to reduce transportation emissions through electrification can accelerate their impact by focusing on intensively used vehicles. Vehicles driven on ride-hailing platforms such as Uber and Lyft are intensively used, and their distinct charging patterns can support the development of essential electric vehicle (EV) charging infrastructure. However, vehicles used for ride-hailing are often missed by actions to electrify other intensively used vehicles, and an array of disparately available financial incentives, EV models, and charging options produce a complicated landscape where it is often unclear whether an EV costs more or less than an internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicle or is suitable for ride-hailing. As a result, in U.S., European, and Canadian cities, the share of EVs among vehicles used for ride-hailing is often lower than or similar to the share of EVs in the overall vehicle stock. This paper identifies the largest barriers that prevent ride-hailing drivers from accessing EVs and analyzes ways that governments, industry and other stakeholders can tackle those barriers. It includes city scorecards that evaluate 10 U.S., European and Canadian cities on their progress towards dismantling these barriers, using an original methodology and data from Uber.