Uber and Lyft Agree to Switch to Electric Cars

On July 17, California's Air Resources Board (CARB) proposed the Clean Miles Standard program aiming to eliminate significant levels of carbon emissions from vehicles by 2030. Surprisingly, Uber and Lyft are on board with the proposal and are planning to change about 30 percent of their cars to electric.

In 2018, electric vehicles (EV) composed of 1 percent miles of ridesharing services while the Clean Miles Standard proposes that these companies have 60 percent of their miles from clean cars. Moreover, CARB suggested that transport network companies should offer incentives to their drivers.

Lyft had already committed to switching to EVs by 2030 completely. The company's head of sustainability, Sam Arons, said, "We think that CARB should continue to be aggressive."

According to CARB, about 50 percent of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in California are from vehicle fuel. Moreover, 70 percent of America's top ten polluted cities are in California.

Zero-Emission Vehicles

In 2012, CARB launched the Advanced Clean Cars program to control smog-causing pollutants and GHG emissions. It had been the state's first mandate for zero-emission vehicles or ZEV.

At the time, CARB estimated that by 2025, 8 percent of California would own ZEVs or plug-in hybrids. By 2017, although more Californians had owned more cars, they still believed their goals were "feasible, but further action is needed to ensure robust control."

There are three main types of zero-emission vehicles: plug-in hybrid, battery-electric, or hydrogen fuel cell vehicles. In the United States, the top three EV companies are Tesla, General Motors, and Nissan, which account for about 60 percent of electric cars sold in the country.

Some of the state's strategies to reduce GHG emissions include increasing vehicle pooling, improving access to public transportation, and expanding bike and scooter share services. Vehicle pooling alone is not enough to decrease GHG emissions as a study had previously shown that ridesharing services contribute to more than 60 percent air pollution. However, these changes cannot be implemented right away due to coronavirus.

Uber has not announced switching to electric vehicles but has said that they look forward to engaging with CARB, according to a company spokesperson. They also support California's Clean Miles Standard as a 'first of its kind performance-driven standard.' Earlier in February, an Uber spokesperson shared that the company wants "to be a part of the solution to address climate change by working with cities to help create a low carbon transportation future."

Environmental Costs

In the entire country, transportation is responsible for 28 percent of GHG emissions, making it the largest sector contributing to climate change, according to the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Light-duty vehicles make up about 59 percent of GHG emissions in the transportation sector.

Professor Adam Millard-Ball at UC Santa Cruz shared the importance of considering what transportation is doing to the environment. "The amount we pay to fill up a car doesn't come close to covering both the cost of extracting and refining the gasoline, but also the environmental costs; it doesn't come close to covering the two of those together."