Report: Ride-Hailing Vehicles 'Perfect' for Electrification

The Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI) released a report last week detailing the obstacles and need to electrify ride-hailing vehicles.

While transportation network companies (TNCs) represent only a small portion of yearly miles traveled in the United States, RMI identified three main reasons to focus on ride-hailing electrification:

• full-time ride-hailing drivers travel about three times as many miles per year as the average American and therefore has a lot to gain from lower battery electric vehicle (EV) operating costs.
• Concentrated fleets of electric ride-hailing vehicles can serve as critical anchor tenants for much-needed high-speed public charging, helping to enable broader deployment in more diverse parts of cities.
• Each vehicle serves many passengers, which, if electric, provides a valuable public education and awareness opportunity.

"Electrification of TNCs, such as Didi Chuxing, Lyft, Ola, and Uber, presents a unique opportunity to significantly reduce global transportation emissions," the report says. "By converting conventional gasoline ride-hailing vehicles to electric, we simultaneously eliminate dangerous tailpipe emissions and leverage the rapidly decarbonizing power sector to reduce overall vehicle carbon emissions."

However, getting ride-hailing drivers in to EVs is a problem. Some TNCs like Lyft and Uber have partnerships with rental agencies and mobility firms to incentivize and help drivers transfer to EVs.

To read the full report, click here.

Originally posted on Auto Rental News