A year on from outlining our global sustainability commitments, Europe is leading the way in driving progress towards Uber becoming a fully electrified mobility platform. Drivers on the Uber app are switching to electric vehicles (EVs) at a much faster rate than in the mass market, putting us on track to meet our ambitious 2025 electrification commitment across seven key European capitals – Amsterdam, Berlin, Brussels, Lisbon, London, Madrid and Paris.

However, as we highlighted in Uber’s 2020 SPARK! report, progress towards a fully electric platform is best achieved in cities where we enjoy constructive relationships with local governments who have prioritised a green recovery. These partnerships will continue to be vital in delivering our joint goals for a cleaner, more sustainable future.

Helping drivers go electric

Making it as easy and as financially attractive as possible for drivers to transition to electric vehicles has been at the forefront of our efforts to date. Our Clean Air Plan and Electric Mobility Plan (in London and France, respectively) are a critical part of our approach to helping drivers save. Over €190 million has been saved for drivers so far and millions spent by thousands of drivers in switching to an electric vehicle.

Drivers on the platform in Europe also enjoy access to a number of exclusive deals negotiated by Uber with leading companies such as Hyundai, Kia, Nissan, Renault and Tesla. Additional access to electric vehicles for drivers is available through local fleet partners such as Otto and WeFlex. Finally, we are working with UK-based startup Arrival on the development of an EV built specifically for the ride-hailing market across Europe.

Working closely with cities and policymakers has been integral to accelerating this transition. This has involved providing cities and industry partners with detailed heat maps on expected charging utilisation, joining the European Green Digital Coalition, and supporting the EU Climate Pact.

Finally, we are focused on improving charging infrastructure—one of the key concerns for drivers when assessing whether to switch to an EV. We are working with cities to help identify the key areas where charging is needed most. We are partnering with European suppliers of both rapid charging and at, or near, home charging such as BP Pulse, EDF, PowerDot, TotalEnergies and Vanderbron. Where we believe it can make a difference, we have also committed to invest. In London, we are spending at least £5 million by the end of 2023 in boroughs with the greatest need for new EV infrastructure.

Offering more ways to ride sustainably

Central to our efforts has been the continued expansion of Uber Green, whereby riders can request a low-emission ride option and drivers can earn more per trip. With Uber Green now available in 100 metropolitan areas across 2 continents, we have seen significant impact in Europe in the last year.

In London, we have doubled the number of fully electric vehicles since the launch of Uber Green in March 2021, with 90% of all drivers who join Uber with a new vehicle now opting for a fully electric car. In Paris, where we have focused on progressively removing diesel vehicles, 31% of all kilometres on the platform are now in EVs or petrol hybrids. In Lisbon, fully electric kilometres hit 9% in the first half of 2021.

We have also worked on providing further sustainable options such as public transport integration into the app, most recently in Brussels—and by mid-2022 across our seven key European cities—along with micromobility options (such as bikes and scooters), which continue to grow through Lime and Cityscoot integrations.

Where next

As we look ahead, we will double down on our efforts to provide drivers with further vehicle and charging options to accelerate the transition to EVs, as well as empowering consumers to choose Uber Green in more European cities.

We will accelerate towards our goals with clear action. We can’t do this alone, however. Success in the coming years will be defined by how we continue to work with all stakeholders—manufacturers, charging providers, NGOs and, crucially, cities and governments. Going green is a team effort, and we are proud of the role we are playing to clean up urban mobility.

Our progress in numbers

Cities included: Amsterdam, Berlin, Brussels, Lisbon, London, Madrid, Paris
  • The percent of kilometres coming from EVs reached 4.08% in H1 2021, an increase of 2.5x since H1 2020
  • This means uptake on the Uber platform is 4.6x greater than the general population penetration (0.88%) in these seven key European countries combined
  • The number of diesel vehicles active on the platform in these cities has reduced by 10 percentage points since H1 2020
  • This has combined to reduce our average emissions intensity by 6% to 97.2 gCO2/km
  • The majority of this progress has been achieved in London, Paris, Amsterdam and Lisbon, where we’ve focused our efforts the most over the last year and where the policy framework is supportive of our progress.
  • It’s still early, but we’re on track to hit our commitment of 50% zero-emission km’s across the seven key European cities by 2025

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