Uber is to levy a clean air surcharge on its fares to help fund a complete switch to hybrid and electric vehicles by its drivers.

Uber clean air surcharge to fund switch away from diesels

The ride hailing giant’s Clean Air Plan for the UK envisages that all London-based vehicles on its uberX service will be 100% hybrid or fully electric by the end of 2019 and fully electric by 2025.

Across the UK, Uber is also targeting a date of 2022 for all vehicles on its app to be hybrid or fully electric, but has not announced a date to go fully electric.

The switch to hybrid and pure electric vehicles will be funded by a dedicated Clean Air Fund for Uber drivers, offering up to £5,000 towards the cost of the upgrade and is expected to cost more than £150m in total. This will be funded in part by a £2k investment by Uber as well as a 35p surcharge now being added to rides taken through the uberX app (uberPOOL rides are exempted) in London – with the surcharge to be added in other UK cities over the next year.

The switch to electric will also be facilitated by a network of Uber-branded rapid chargers, due to go live in central London in the coming weeks and initially only for use by people using the Uber app.

Uber is also running its own diesel scrappage scheme. The incentive applies to the first 1,000 people in London to scrap a pre-Euro 4 diesel vehicle and will offer up to £1,500 of credit to spend on Uber or uberPOOL rides.