Uber to charge green levy as journey to all-electric fleet begins

UBER is to start charging riders a green fee as part of plans to scrap diesel and petrol cars across the UK within five years.

The ride-hailing app said it would add a 35p charge to journeys in the UK as part of its “Clean Air Plan”, and switch its main fleet of Uberx drivers to hybrid or electric cars. The changes will start in London, where Uber hopes to be hybrid or electric by 2019, and fully electric by 2025.

While the majority of rides in London are already conducted with hybrid or electric cars, the company has been criticised for contributing to congestion on the capital’s roads.

As part of the plan, the Silicon Valley company will create a £150m fund to help its drivers, who own their vehicles or can lease them under a scheme from Uber, upgrade their cars.

Up to £5,000 will be available to each driver from the fund, to which Uber will contribute £2m. The remaining money will be raised through a 35p fee on individual rides, first in London, with fees added to journeys elsewhere at a later date. Uberpool, which encourages riders to share their journeys, will be excluded from the green tax. Uber also announced a scheme to help take 1,000 of the capital’s most polluting cars off the roads, offering £1,500 credit in its app to consumers who scrap pre-euro 4 diesel cars.

It comes after a spike in air pollution in the UK in 2017, with London surpassing Beijing for a brief period at the start of the year. Ministers have identified 81 major roads and 17 towns and cities that breach EU emissions standards and are in need of urgent action. In response to the crisis, the Government has proposed banning diesel and petrol cars by 2040.

“Air pollution is a growing problem and we’re determined to play our part in tackling it,” said Fred Jones, Uber’s head of UK cities. It will install a network of electric car charging stations across central London in the coming weeks, which will initially only be available for Uber drivers. Uber has a fleet of 40,000 drivers in the capital and 3m users. It operates in a further 40 UK towns and cities.

Meanwhile, Uber rival Taxify has ordered its drivers to halt all London rides just three days after the ride-hailing app launched in the city after a challenge from Transport for London, which said the company lacked the proper private hire licences.