In 25 locations across North America, Uber’s upscale electric car service is now accessible. Uber announced the expansion of its Comfort Electric feature to 14 more cities in North America, increasing the total number of markets for this upmarket electric car service to 25.
Uber introduced Comfort Electric in a few locations in May, and the list of those cities has been slowly expanding ever since. For Comfort Electric journeys, only high-end EVs like the Tesla, Polestar, and Ford Mustang Mach-E would be accepted. It will coexist with the business’s other electric vehicle product, Uber Green, which charges drivers an additional price of $1 for using electric vehicles.
The following 25 cities offer Uber Comfort Electric:
- Atlanta
- Austin
- Baltimore-Maryland
- Boston
- Charlotte
- Chicago
- Connecticut
- Dallas
- Denver
- Houston
- Las Vegas
- Los Angeles
- Miami
- New Jersey
- NYC Suburbs
- Philadelphia
- Portland
- Sacramento
- San Antonio
- San Diego
- San Francisco
- Seattle
- St Louis
- Vancouver Canada
- Washington, DC
Uber Comfort was expanded to include Comfort Electric, allowing customers to order greater legroom, silent vehicles, and other extras often found in its more expensive Uber Black service. Although Uber Comfort is not as expensive as Uber Black, users still pay 20 to 40% more than the average Uber X journey.
Uber wants to create a “zero-emissions platform in the US and Canada” by 2030. This is a challenging objective because Uber considers its drivers to be independent contractors and can’t legally require them to all use electric cars. In order to “assist hundreds of thousands of drivers in the US, Canada, and Europe migrate to battery electric vehicles by 2025,” the firm has stated that it will spend $800 million of its own money.
The state of California is not willing to do anything while Uber voluntarily decides what to do. The Golden State passed new regulations in 2021 that mandate ride-sharing businesses electrify their fleets by 2030. This is a few years before the state plans to totally ban the sale of new gas vehicles.
Uber is attempting to persuade more of its drivers to transition from gas-powered vehicles to electric vehicles. Through its cooperation with the car rental company Hertz, Uber recently revealed that 25,000 drivers have signed up to hire Tesla vehicles. Vancouver is now the only city outside of the US to receive the company’s EV service under that partnership’s recent expansion to Canada.
The vow to switch to electric vehicles by transportation companies is not unique to Uber. By 2030, Lyft promised it will convert “100%” of its fleet to electric vehicles. Which company succeeds first, if at all, has added to the rivalry between the two businesses.