LA Is Planning to Make Uber & Lyft 100% Electric

In November 2019, LA-based clean tech leaders announced the Zero Emissions 2028 Roadmap 2.0.

At the time, the mayor, Eric Garcetti called for a 25 percent reduction of the city’s pollution by the same year.

Today, according to a report by the Financial Times strives to make Uber & Lyft to use only electric cars.

Garcetti noted that they have the power to regulate the car share and mandate that these vehicles are electric in the future.

The 2028 Green Plan of LA

The plan of LA to go green by the year of 2028 includes buying more electric buses and EVs for the municipal fleet of the city.

The electric vehicles would account for 30 percent of the light-duty passenger vehicles and at least 80 percent of the vehicles sold.

However, the mayor’s concept to demand rideshare services to use EVs hasn’t moved past the phase of being only an idea.

The LA city council is trying to find ways to exert more control over the rideshare services, including a creation of a driver-registration program.

The implementation of the EVs policy for Uber and Lyft drives isn’t without challenges as most of the drivers are owners of their vehicles.

Anyhow, the mayor is seeking methods to use the powers of the city to lower the negative impact of climate change.

Uber’s 2018 Pilot Program

In 2018, the company Uber announced a pilot program that provided subsidies for the drivers that use electric vehicles.

This program, called the EV Champions Initiative, included 7 cities-LA, San Diego, San Francisco, Sacramento, Austin, Montreal, and Seattle.

The drivers accrued a dollar-per-one-ride bonus if they used plug-in hybrids of full battery electric cars with a maximum payout of 20 dollars weekly.

The incentives were created to help drivers purchase an EV.

However, the program that was intended to last for a year ceased without any announcements from the company.

Sources:

INSIDE CLIMATE NEWS

INVERSE

ELEC TREK