Over the past few years, a lot of companies made huge commitments to electric vehicles. Not just automakers, of course, but also rental car companies and even ride-hail fleets. But the global electrification race is turning into a competition of the survival of the fittest: A test of who’s willing to stick it out for the long haul, and who has to pull back in favor of short-term results.
Uber is one such company that’s committed to running all-electric ride-hail fleets in the U.S. and Canada by 2030. And at the World Economic Forum, in Davos, Switzerland, Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi confirmed the company is still “continuing to lean forward” on an all-electric future.
“The average Uber driver is moving to EVs five times faster than the average driver,” Khosrowshahi told Wall Street Journal tech columnist (and prolific Ford Mustang Mach-E owner) Joanna Stern. That makes a significant climate impact, Khosrowshahi said, given that “the average Uber driver is driving five times the miles and kilometers of the average driver.” He said the company has added its own route-planning and charging software for Uber’s EV drivers to make juicing up on the go a lot easier.
Plus, Khosrowshahi said, the drivers and the customers are fond of the electric experience. “What encourages me, even though the environment is one where [automakers], etc. are pulling back, is that our customers and drivers love the product,” he said. Since Uber drivers are responsible for their gas costs, car repair and maintenance costs, EVs’ lower overall running costs are helping them to save money.
To put it in plain terms, Khosrowshahi said in 2022 that any Uber driver who is operating a gas-powered vehicle would not be allowed on the platform by the end of this decade. That would mean 5 million drivers worldwide at the time who would need to go electric (or, of course, bow out for drivers who will.) After all, Uber does not provide cars to its contractor operators, who are expected to use their own vehicles for the job. The company does provide leases and rental deals instead, and at Davos, Khosrowshahi said the rental program has been an effective way of letting drivers try out EVs.
Still, that’s a very tall order when viewed from our current lens. Uber’s all-electric goal for the U.S., Canada and Europe is only five years away now, but EVs made up just 8%, 16% and 14% of new car sales in those respective countries in 2024.
But Khosrowshahi was also frank about the challenges standing in the way of that goal—namely cheaper electric options and a market full of good used ones. “The cost of an EV still is too high, and the residual values still are to some extent unknown and quite volatile,” he said. “We need cheaper EVs. And many of the [automakers], especially in the U.S. and Europe, are targeting the luxury customer… in order for EVs to go mass-market, we need to bring prices down.”
Some major cities have helped contribute to this goal; New York, for example, has a Green Rides Initiative requiring that all rideshare vehicles be zero-emission or wheelchair accessible by 2030. That has led to big EV growth in the massive taxi and rideshare market in the Big Apple, and charging options to support it.
But Khosrowshahi was quick to point out there’s really only one place where the growth of affordable options is happening in a major way: China. (I’d add that Europe and South Korea are seeing big progress on this front, but certainly not at the scale we’ve seen in China.) “And the quality of their cars is excellent,” he added.
But that’s where he took exception to President Donald Trump’s executive orders this past week that could begin the process of ending EV tax credits, and puts a stop to the Biden administration’s EV growth goals that’s been falsely called a “mandate.”
“It’s not good,” Khosrowshahi said. “It’s not good in the U.S., but we’re a global company… one of the reasons why we came here to Davos is [that] Europe is still committed to the climate.”
He added, “I do think we are going to make progress [with electrified fleets] in the U.S, but we will make more progress outside the U.S., especially in Europe. And that’s fine from from our perspective.”
Waymo Zeekr robotaxi doors open revealing interior
You also can’t talk about the future of ride-hail these days without addressing autonomous driving. Uber’s plans to develop driverless cars in-house in the 2010s before Khosrowshahi came aboard was an infamous debacle, complete with a high-profile fatal crash, IP lawsuits and billions of dollars in sunk costs. These days, Uber still predicts an eventual driverless future, but it’s partnering with Google’s Waymo and a number of different other companies to get there.
“I believe that 10 years from now, for example, [autonomous vehicle] software is going to be built into every single car sold,” Khosrowshahi said. “Fast-forward 15, 20 years, and I think that the autonomous driver is going to be a better driver than human drivers.”
As for any Uber drivers worried about losing their jobs to, say, a Zeekr autonomous vehicle: “I think over the next 10 years, it’s a great gig,” he said. But after that, “it’s going to make sense for AV companies to put their robots on the on the Uber network as well.”
Both are bold predictions, and as we’ve seen in the EV an AV fields over the past decade, promises and commitments about future tech seldom square with reality. But for now at least, the world’s largest ride-sharing company is sticking to its guns.
The whole interview is embedded above and worth a watch in full.
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