Volkswagen and Uber launch pilot project with electric vehicles in Germany

Volkswagen and Uber have launched a pilot project for the utilisation of electric vehicles within the sustainable ride hailing service 'Uber Green'. Within the framework of a virtual event, Uber hire car partners informed themselves about the background and possibilities of the cooperation.

With the e-Golf, they now have a locally zero-emission alternative from the Volkswagen model portfolio available in Berlin. The objective of the pilot project is to use a number of year-old e-Golf vehicles which may run into three digits. Volkswagen has already been using the e-Golf successfully for its own car sharing service We Share since 2018.

Holger B Santel, Head of Sales and Marketing Germany for the Volkswagen Passenger Car brand, said, "Through our cooperation with Uber, we are helping improve air quality in urban areas with our locally carbon-neutral electric vehicles. In addition, with the demanding continuous operation of battery-electric vehicles in a ride hailing service, we will gain valuable experience which we will be able to use for future vehicles."

Christoph Weigler, General Manager Uber DACH, added, "We are pleased to have gained Volkswagen, one of the world’s leading drivers for e-mobility, as a partner for our intermediation platform. Electric vehicles from Volkswagen are a perfect match for our sustainable “Uber Green" concept. This cooperation offers our hire car partners an economically attractive possibility of switching to zero-emission drive systems at short notice. In addition, our experience shows that people are considerably more open to the topic of e-mobility after their first ride in an all-electric vehicle."

As part of its e-offensive, the Volkswagen brand plans to offer electric cars in all major vehicle segments by 2022. Volkswagen aims to become the world market leader in e-mobility in the coming years and is investing 33 billion euros group-wide by 2024, 11 billion of which will be invested by the Volkswagen brand alone. The Volkswagen brand expects to produce 1.5 million e-cars in 2025.

In September, Uber announced that it intends to evolve into a zero-emission mobility platform by 2040, with 100 percent of the rides offered using zero-emission vehicles, public transport or micro-mobility offerings.