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During last week's State of the City speech, mayor Eric Adams announced that the entire Uber and Lyft fleets will have to go full-electric by 2030.
The city has already started working towards that goal, with 4,000 out of the 100,000 ride-sharing vehicles circulating local streets already transitioned over to zero emissions. In even better news, the politician announced that the city will work on installing infrastructure to support the change throughout all five boroughs, so expect to see even more electric chargers all over town in the upcoming few years.
Uber and Lyft themselves have already actively joined in on the effort, offering its respective drivers incentives to switch to electric vehicles, also enacting a new policy that would allow zero-emissions drivers to charge their passengers higher fares. In the past, both companies have made public their intention to go fully electric by 2030 as well.
"We applaud the mayor's ambition for reducing emissions, an important goal we share," said Josh Gold, senior director of policy at Uber, in an official statement. "Uber has been making real progress to become the first zero-emissions mobility platform in North America, and there’s much more to do."
The new guidelines follow similar ones announced in California back in 2021. On the other side of the Atlantic, residents are also expecting the state to actually prohibit the sale of new gas cars before 2040.
The future of transportation in New York seems to heavily rely on electric vehicles. This past summer, senator Chuck Schumer made public his Green New Wheel initiative, by which 200 electric buses are scheduled to roam the streets by 2025, for example.
Also: Lyft unveiled new electric Citi Bikes boasting LCD screens and a hydraulic brake system less than a year ago and, as widely reported just a few months ago, gas-powered cars will no longer be sold in New York State starting 2035.
We're making progress, New Yorkers!