TORONTO — Uber Technologies Inc. is launching a handful of sustainability measures in Canada in an effort to reach lofty goals it has set for lowering greenhouse gas emissions.
The San Francisco-based tech giant says it will introduce its Uber Green service, which offers electric and hybrid vehicle rides, to more than 30 cities this year including Toronto, Vancouver, Waterloo and Ottawa.
Uber will charge riders an extra dollar per Green trip, but offer them three times the rewards points for every ride taken.
The company will try to convince drivers to adopt more environmentally-friendly vehicles by offering an extra 50 cents per Green ride to hybrid or EV drivers, $1 per trip for zero-emission vehicle owners and $1.50 for each Green ride for battery electric vehicle drivers.
Uber is also committing $800 million in resources to help hundreds of thousands of drivers transition to EVs globally by 2025 and partnering with auto companies like General Motors, Renault-Nissan and EVgo to offer them savings.
Uber says the efforts will help it reach its goal of ensuring 100 per cent of rides in Canada, the U.S. and Europe are completed on battery EVs by 2030 and all rides globally are emission-free by 2040.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 8, 2020.
