Volkswagen and Uber have launched a pilot project for the utilisation of electric vehicles within the sustainable ride hailing service “Uber Green”. The objective of the pilot project is to use a number of year-old e-Golf vehicles which may run into three digits. Volkswagen has already been using the e-Golf for its own car sharing service We Share since 2018.
Holger B. Santel, Head of Sales and Marketing Germany for the Volkswagen Passenger Car brand, said: “Through our cooperation with Uber, we are helping improve air quality in urban areas with our locally carbon-neutral electric vehicles. In addition, with the demanding continuous operation of battery-electric vehicles in a ride hailing service, we will gain valuable experience which we will be able to use for future vehicles.”
Christoph Weigler, General Manager Uber DACH, added: “We are pleased to have gained Volkswagen, one of the world’s leading drivers for e-mobility, as a partner for our intermediation platform. Electric vehicles from Volkswagen are a perfect match for our sustainable “Uber Green” concept. This cooperation offers our hire car partners an economically attractive possibility of switching to zero-emission drive systems at short notice. In addition, our experience shows that people are considerably more open to the topic of e-mobility after their first ride in an all-electric vehicle.”
Uber has already announced that it intends to evolve into a zero-emission mobility platform by 2040, with 100 percent of the rides offered using zero-emission vehicles, public transport or micro-mobility offerings.