Volkswagen partners with Uber to provide sustainable public transportation

German automotive marque Volkswagen, in partnership with ride-hailing platform Uber, launched a pilot project last Friday, September 25, for the utilization of electric vehicles within the sustainable public transportation service dubbed “Uber Green”.

The project is set to use Volkswagen's e-Golf, a local zero-emission alternative from the Volkswagen model portfolio available in Berlin. The objective of the pilot project is to use a number of used e-Golf vehicles for ride sharing. Volkswagen has already been using the e-Golf successfully for its own car sharing service We Share since 2018. 

“Through our cooperation with Uber, we are helping improve air quality in urban areas with our locally carbon-neutral electric vehicles," Holger B. Santel, Head of Sales and Marketing Germany for the Volkswagen Passenger Car brand, said. "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.”

As part of its electrification plans, the Volkswagen brand plans to offer at least one electric car option in all major vehicle segments by the year 2022. Volkswagen aims to become the world market leader in e-mobility in the coming years and is investing €33 billion (PHP1.87 trillion) group-wide by 2024, 11 billion of which will be solely invested by Volkswagen brand alone. The brand expects to push out upwards of 1.5 million e-cars by the year 2025.

“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," Christoph Weigler, General Manager Uber DACH, shares. "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.”

Recently, Uber announced that it intends to eventually transition into a zero-emission mobility platform by 2040, with 100 percent of the rides offered using zero-emission vehicles.

Photos from Volkswagen 

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