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By Ben Elgin
Uber spent years trying to make it easier for ride-hailing drivers to ditch gasoline-powered cars.
When Levi Spires, a 51-year-old Uber driver in Syracuse, New York, hit a deer and damaged his Prius last year, a $2,000 promotion from the ride-hailing giant enticed him to buy a Tesla. Over 23 months, he earned around $3,500 from Uber Technologies Inc. in additional EV bonuses driving about 139,000 miles. It was all part of Uber’s goal to rapidly move its drivers into cleaner cars.
Photographer: Nick Little
But things changed last week when Uber discontinued the monthly EV bonuses. Losing the incentive, along with steadily declining hourly earnings, has caused Spires to rethink his future: “My goal is for Uber to not be my main profession anymore.”
Uber needs all the clean miles it can get to reach its green goals and various local regulations. With 38 million daily trips globally, the company’s emissions have nearly doubled in the past three years, and its climate footprint now surpasses the entire country of Denmark. Yet despite the rise in emissions and soaring profits, Uber is scaling back some of its key climate efforts.
The company had pledged to reach 100% EVs in London by this year, and 100% in North America and Europe by 2030, but it’s far short of those goals. The San Francisco-based firm reported earlier this year that about 40% of its miles in London are in EVs, while Europe and North America are about 15% and 9%, respectively. Instead of enticing drivers into EVs with cash, Uber is ratcheting back extra payments and backpedaling in other ways.
Uber officials acknowledge they will likely miss their green targets, but they say the company is committed to cleaner vehicles, and their drivers in Europe and North America are moving into EVs much faster than the public. “We’re proud of our progress overall,” says Rebecca Tinucci, the former global head of electrification and sustainability at Uber, who recently took over as chief executive officer of Uber’s freight business.
After long advocating for stronger government policies to speed up EV adoption, Uber did a U-turn this spring and stumped for President donald trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill.” This included Chief Executive Officer Dara Khosrowshahi appearing in a White House promotional video for the legislation, which the League of Conservation Voters called “the most anti-environmental bill of all time.” The law slashed clean-energy incentives and is expected to slow EV adoption in the US by about 40% compared to previous projections.
Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi, left, at the White House with donald trump.
A handful of states and cities, including California, New York City and Toronto, have enacted rules requiring ride-hailing companies to rapidly electrify their fleets. Uber is now pushing back, urging California regulators in September to delay enforcement, in part because the scrapped federal incentives make the targets nearly impossible to meet.
“This is why we had to get a law passed,” says Nancy Skinner, a former state senator who authored California’s law, which requires Uber and Lyft Inc. to get 90% of their miles there in EVs by 2030. “They weren’t going to do this on their own.” ///
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