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Passengers to be charged more for Uber journeys in petrol cars
Uber journeys in petrol cars will become more expensive than in their electric counterparts when travelling from the airport as part of a push to decarbonise the taxi service.
The company said it would start applying a 10pc discount to electric journeys from Heathrow and other airports.
With electric and petrol journeys booked through Uber currently costing the same, the additional reduction means electric rides will become cheaper for the first time.
Uber has said that all of its cars in London will be electric by the end of 2025, up from one in five today, and globally by 2040.
It is also rerouting journeys to be more fuel efficient, and will redesign its app for drivers to allow them to incorporate charging into their shifts.
Uber said it was now at a point where it had enough supply of electric vehicles and chargers around Heathrow, as well as airports in Madrid, Portland and Phoenix, that it was able to subsidise the journeys without leading to a demand shortage.
The company is subsidising the discounts, with drivers of electric vehicles also paid more.
Electric cars collecting passengers from Heathrow and the other airports will also have more convenient dedicated pick-up spots, while Uber said drivers would also have discounted or free charging.
The changes are part of a wider environmental push from the company unveiled in London by its chief executive Dara Khosrowshahi.
Uber said it would seek to eliminate single-use plastics from its takeaway delivery service by 2030, and that its food delivery couriers would have zero emission vehicles by 2040.
The company’s drivers and couriers are not employees, and provide their own vehicles, but Uber said it was redesigning its app to make it easier to buy or rent electric cars with help from the company.
The app will also suggest quieter times of the day for drivers to charge their vehicles, and send them on fewer long journeys if a car is close to needing to recharge.
Uber said its drivers travel approximately five times as much as the average motorist, making it a priority to electrify its fleet.
Mr Khosrowshahi said: “Our drivers on Uber are the first people that we should be targeting to go green because of the outsize impact as they switch over to an electric vehicle.”
Currently, around 62,000 Uber drivers are using electric cars, less than 2pc of the global total but up threefold in the last year.
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