Australia’s first fully-electric rideshare product launches nationally
Written byUber’s Comfort Electric to offer Aussies a fully-electric ride, with exclusive first access to Uber One members
Free EV rides to the Melbourne tennis precinct for Uber One members, in partnership with Kia
Last year Uber Green became Uber’s fastest ever product to reach one million trips in Australia.
Today, millions of sustainable rides in hybrid and electric vehicles occur every month and are the second most popular way Australians are choosing to travel nationally on our platform – behind only UberX.
Australians have shown they’re backing greener rides, and so it makes sense to offer them even more choice across our product portfolio. The national expansion of our Comfort Electric product will do exactly that, offering comfortable rides, with driver partners in fully electric vehicles.
“Uber Green has been the fastest growing product I’ve ever been involved in, with Aussies notching up more than half a million trips across hybrid and electric vehicles in one week of last year alone,” said Dom Taylor, Managing Director for Uber Australia and New Zealand. “The demand shows customers want more rides in more electric vehicles, and we’re helping driver partners plug into that demand with a new premium Comfort Electric product that fills a gap in the market for environmentally conscious riders that want a bit more luxury with their green ride.”
This national expansion of Comfort Electric is only possible following a multi-year investment to increase the number of electric vehicles on our platform. It’s another step on our journey to become a zero-emissions platform in Australia by 2040.
Late last year, Comfort Electric launched exclusively to corporate travellers through Uber for Business. This freshly announced expansion means that soon every rider in Australia – be they travelling for work or play – will be able to do so in a comfortable, fully electric product by selecting Uber Comfort Electric on their app.
The Comfort Electric product will start becoming visible today for Uber’s customers who have enrolled in Uber One before it scales nationally to all Uber account holders on Monday January 29.
To help more Australians discover the comfort, quiet and convenience of Comfort Electric, we’re also partnering with Kia Australia to launch complimentary Kia Electric rides to and from the Melbourne tennis precinct from 14 January through 28 January.
Uber One members will have the chance to unlock complimentary rides (capped at $100 AUD) in Kia’s newly launched EV9 vehicles alongside their critically acclaimed EV6 vehicles.
Kia will loan 30 of their top of the range EVs to driver partners to help Australian fans ride in style.
“We’ve chosen Melbourne to launch this experience because despite doing thousands of EV trips nationally every day, the adoption of EVs on our platform has been slower than we’d hoped in Australia’s unofficial sporting capital,” said Dom Taylor, “We’re optimistic partnerships, like this one with Kia, delight riders but importantly make it easier for local driver partners to see the benefit of making the switch to EVs – to prove the customer interest is just as hot here in Victoria as it is across the country.”
Uber has also made more places available in the service fee reduction program, exclusively for driver partners in Victoria. This means hundreds of driver partners who switch to electric vehicles will be eligible to have their service fees reduced by 50 percent, up to $3,500 per financial year, until June 2025.
Uber One members will only see a Kia Electric trip in their app if they are travelling to or from within five kilometres of the Melbourne tennis precinct and if there is a vehicle available at that time. Riders will not be charged for the trip (up to $100 AUD) but the driver partners will receive one hundred percent of the fare with Kia covering the cost of the ride.