A new option for clean commuting is coming to the Garden State.
Uber, the ride-sharing tech giant, announced Wednesday the launch of Uber Green to North Jersey and the New York City metro area. The service allows riders to specifically choose rides in electric or hybrid vehicles for a $1 fee. The company said the fee will go toward a new program to help Uber drivers switch to electric vehicles.
Members of the Uber Pass program will see their 10% discount applied to Uber Green rides as well.
“We all have a role to play in protecting our environment, and as the largest mobility platform, it’s our responsibility to aggressively tackle climate change,” Harry Hartfield, the public affairs manager for Uber in New York, said in a statement. “The launch of Uber Green, and our commitment to electrifying vehicles on our platform, are important parts of our larger efforts, and we will continue to take bold steps to confront climate change head on.”
Uber did not provide a specific list of New Jersey cities and towns that will be serviced by Uber Green when asked by NJ Advance Media. Robert Familiar, a spokesman for the company, said Uber is working to bring Uber Green to the rest of the state, but there is no timeline for that effort.
Wednesday’s news is part of Uber’s major expansion of the program, with the company boasting of Uber Green availability in 1,400 cities and towns around North America. To support its electrification goals, Uber said it has committed $800 million to help “hundreds of thousands” of drivers in the U.S., Canada and Europe switch to electric cars by 2025.
Uber is also launching a partnership with the rental car company Avis, which allows Uber drivers to rent electric cars at a discounted rate. This deal is only available to Uber drivers in Los Angeles currently, but Uber plans to expand it to other cities in coming months according to Familiar.
The company hopes to have 100% of its rides in American cities be in electric vehicles by 2030, and to be a fully zero-emission platform by 2040.
Uber’s efforts to electrify come as New Jersey pushes for more electric cars to fight climate change.
The transportation sector is the largest source of air pollution in the Garden State, and accounts for about 40% of greenhouse gas emissions in the state according to the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection.
Last fall, the DEP recommended that all new cars, trucks and SUVs sold in New Jersey be zero-emission vehicles by 2035. That recommendation is non-binding, but it surpasses two targets already codified in state law: To have 330,000 electric cars registered in New Jersey by 2025, and 2 million registered by 2035.
For comparison, more than 6.3 million cars and light trucks were registered in New Jersey at the end of last year.
A state law enacted last year offers New Jerseyans up to $5,000 worth of incentives for buying electric cars. That incentive program, dubbed Charge Up New Jersey, opened in May and had dispersed $21.6 million in incentives for nearly 4,500 applications by the middle of December, according to the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities. That total was expected to grow to $30 million in incentives for 6,000 applications by the end of 2020, exhausting the funding for the programs first phase.
Phase two of the incentive program is set to open this summer.
State officials and industry representatives have warned that a lack of charging stations in New Jersey will make people less likely to buy electric cars. A new bill put forward by state lawmakers, S3223, would change municipal land use law to make it easier for electric car charging stations to be built. That bill was passed by the state Senate on Monday and is now being considered by the Assembly.
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Michael Sol Warren may be reached at mwarren@njadvancemedia.com.
