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Helping cities and businesses build EV charging where it’s needed

Leading cities around the world know that getting EV (electric vehicle) charging infrastructure right can speed up the shift to electric mobility* and boost economic growth.** However, governments and industry face plenty of challenges when figuring out how much charging is needed and where it should go. In fact, research shows the downsides of building charging stations that are poorly located and underused.

At Uber, we’re fully committed to going electric, and we recognise that charging is still a major challenge for both cities and drivers. That’s why we’re excited to introduce EVIE, Uber’s Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Estimator—an interactive analytics tool that uses recent real-world data from Uber drivers and trips to create city heatmaps showing future charging demand scenarios—how much and where—from EV rideshare drivers.

“Tools like Uber’s EVIE play a key role in helping cities plan for an electric future. By providing insights into future charging demand, EVIE can help city practitioners make informed and fair investments in public infrastructure. We’re pleased to be working with Uber on this tool and beyond as we move towards zero emissions.”
—Cassie Sutherland, Managing Director, Climate Solutions & Networks, C40 Cities

How EVIE, our EV Infrastructure Estimator, works

By using real-world data, EVIE can help governments and businesses take some of the guesswork out of EV infrastructure planning. It brings together data collected during the normal course of business on Uber—from millions of drivers and billions of trips—to create heatmaps that show areas with high potential demand for EV charging.

The Estimator gives insights into where, how many, and what types of chargers (slow or fast charging) could best serve future EV drivers on Uber. City agencies, utilities, and businesses can use EVIE to guide how they invest in, build, and manage urban EV charging solutions.

EVIE focuses on 2 types of charging demand:

EVIE scenario data for the Richmond upon Thames and Wandsworth boroughs of London,
captured on 23 June 2025 at 9am PT (US). Go to EVIE Terms of Use.
.

Near-trip demand

Places where Uber EV drivers might look to top up or fully charge between dropping off and picking up riders. We’d expect public fast-charging infrastructure to be a likely solution for meeting this demand, helping EV drivers and fleets minimise downtime from earning trips.

Near-home demand

Areas where Uber EV drivers might need a full charge at the end of a day or a long session of giving rides. The best ways to meet this demand will differ by city and neighbourhood. For example, overnight slow-charging options usually offer drivers the cheapest electricity. In residential areas with more standalone houses, charging at home might be the best option. In higher-density areas with more apartment buildings, a mix of solutions may be needed, including slow charging in parking garages and on the street, plus extra local fast-charging stations.

“Uber’s EVIE tool offers valuable insights to guide our EV charger rollout—helping pinpoint where and how many chargers are needed. It can be a key asset for future planning and research.”
—Karen Apple, EV Program Manager, Office of Sustainability, City of Phoenix

Rideshare drivers can boost the benefits of EV charging

A bit of charging for rideshare drivers can make a big difference. Research shows that while ridesharing makes up only a tiny fraction of cars on the road, EV rideshare drivers can bring a lot of use to EV charging sites—as much as a 10-fold increase, according to one operator.

Even better, more research shows that when rideshare drivers go electric, they can deliver 3 times more clean air benefits to their community compared to drivers in the general public.

How cities are using EVIE

Uber is working with cities to share EVIE data. The tool is designed to make planning EV charging infrastructure more efficient.

Find out more in our article about how Uber used EVIE to assess EV charging needs for rideshare drivers in Greater Boston.

Read the article
EVIE scenario data for the Dorchester and Mattapan neighbourhoods of Greater Boston,
captured on 23 June 2025, at 1pm PT (US). Go to EVIE Terms of Use.
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Getting started

We’re sharing EVIE with employees of government agencies, utilities, and energy companies who are actively working to develop EV charging infrastructure.

If you received an invitation from Uber to access EVIE:

  1. Create an Uber account at Uber.com using your work email address
  2. Uber will let you know once your account has been set up for EVIE
  3. Select Launch EVIE below
  4. Sign in to your Uber account using your work email
  5. Acknowledge EVIE’s Terms of Use, and start using EVIE
Launch EVIE
EVIE scenario data for downtown Lisbon and Almada, Portugal,
captured on 23 June 2025 at 1pm PT (US). Go to EVIE Terms of Use.
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Frequently asked questions

  • Invited users can access EVIE with an active Uber account after acknowledging the Terms of Use. We’re sharing EVIE with employees of government agencies, utilities, and energy companies who are actively working to develop EV charging infrastructure. Head to the “Getting started” section of this page for what to do next.

  • To access EVIE, users need to be invited, have an active Uber account, and acknowledge our Terms of Use. Head to the “Getting started” section of this page for more info. Contact evie-support@uber.com to recommend colleagues who are actively working on EV charging infrastructure in your city.

  • EVIE access is free for invited users.

  • Please review the latest Terms of Use for details.

  • EVIE currently covers 40 metro regions worldwide—reaching nearly 60% of battery EV drivers on Uber globally—with each region often including multiple cities and local councils. Please send an email to evie-support@uber.com to check if your city is included. EVIE doesn’t cover every city worldwide and can only generate EV charging demand scenarios for metro areas where Uber operates and there’s enough user activity.

  • EVIE creates urban heatmaps that predict EV charging demand scenarios from future EV drivers on Uber. For any given scenario, the output has 2 parts: where EV charging demand might happen, shown across a grid of hexagons using the open-source H3 index, and the amount of EV charging that might be needed. The amount of charging shown varies depending on the display mode:

    • Near-trip: This shows both the number of fast-charging (Level 3, or L3) ports needed to meet the peak hourly expected electricity demand and the total daily electricity demand (in kilowatt-hours, per day)

    • Near-home: This shows the number of slow-charging (Level 2, or L2) ports needed to meet expected overnight demand

    For more info, check out EVIE’s technical methodology.

  • H3 is a geospatial indexing system that divides the world into hexagonal cells. Engineers at Uber developed H3 and released it as open source under the Apache 2.0 licence.

  • Yes. The tool supports CSV (comma-separated values) file downloads. The CSV data has an H3 index to support various geospatial analysis tools.

  • Yes. Users can interact with the data visually and tweak key assumptions to create multiple scenarios. For example, users can:

    • Zoom in and pan around to better explore EV charging demand scenarios across cities and wider metro areas
    • Switch between near-trip and near-home demand scenarios (find more info above)
    • Change the assumed split of charging demand met by EV rideshare drivers between at- or near-home and near-trip
    • Adjust the assumed future rate of battery EV uptake by Uber drivers to anywhere from 25% to 100% of trip kilometres completed (you can find data on current levels and historic trends of Uber driver EV uptake for key regions here)

  • No. The current version is based on drivers who are eligible for ride trips. In some cities, some drivers may also complete delivery trips, but these generally make up a small portion of all drivers and trips.

The images and information contained herein and in EVIE are for informational purposes only and shouldn’t be relied on for making any business or policy decisions. Use of EVIE is governed by the EVIE Terms of Use.

*California: “The impact of EV charging stations on light-duty EV adoption in California,” Centre for Sustainable Energy (June 2023), energycenter.org/thought-leadership/research-and-reports/impact-ev-charging-stations-light-duty-ev-adoption. EU: “Assessing the impacts of electric vehicle recharging infrastructure deployment efforts in the European Union,” MDPI Energies (22 June 2019), doi.org/10.3390/en12122409. Germany: “Public charging infrastructure and the market diffusion of electric vehicles,” Transportation Research Part D: Transport and Environment (September 2020), doi.org/10.1016/j.trd.2020.102413. Norway: “Technology adoption and early network infrastructure provision in the market for electric vehicles,” Environmental and Resource Economics (7 July 2022), doi.org/10.1007/s10640-022-00703-z. US: “The role of demand-side incentives and charging infrastructure on plug-in electric vehicle adoption: analysis of US states,” Environmental Research Letters (13 July 2018), iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/aad0f8.

**"Estimating the economic impact of electric vehicle charging stations,” Argonne National Laboratory (16 March 2022), anl.gov/article/estimating-the-economic-impact-of-electric-vehicle-charging-stations. “Study: EV charging stations boost spending at nearby businesses,” MIT News (4 September 2024), news.mit.edu/2024/study-ev-charging-stations-boost-nearby-business-spending-0904.