GREEN MEANS GO
UBER OFFERS LONDON DRIVERS £5,000 GRANT TO BUY ELECTRIC CARS TO AID NET ZERO TARGET
Uber is offering drivers a £5,000 grant – plus additional discounts of up to £17,000 – to switch to an EV. The grants are part of a £145m fund for its London drivers to help make the transition cheaper, faster and more efficient. London is already Uber’s leading city for EVs globally with 25% of Uber’s miles in the capital now fully electric. However, the company says more incentives are needed for Uber to meet its target of being all-electric
in London by the end of 2025. The package being offered to its London drivers from 21 May, includes the £5,000 grant offered through Uber’s Clean Air Plan and additional discounts of between £12,000 and £17,000 available on select models – giving drivers up to £22,000 off an EV if combined with the ‘Power-up’ grant. All EV drivers will also be eligible for up to three months of free charging credits worth £750 and
an exclusive charging rate through BP Pulse. Furthermore, Redbridge Council is rolling out 34 dual chargers (68 charge points) funded by Uber, part of a £5m investment from Uber to install 700 chargers across three London boroughs. Drivers can spend their grant cash as a lump-sum on a purchase, or on a rental or rent-to-buy deal – through which drivers make weekly payments.
LONDON’S CABBIES JOIN WITH INSTAVOLT IN THE FIGHT AGAINST VAT ON PUBLIC CHARGING
Black cab drivers in London are calling for more support from government to help them make the transition to an all-electric fleet, and have teamed up with InstaVolt rapid charging network to show how this could be done. Currently, just under 60% of London’s almost 15,000 strong black cab fleet is made up of zero emission capable, electric taxis. The LDTA says reducing VAT on public charging to
5% and
improving access to rapid chargers through superhubs, like InstaVolt’s, could help accelerate the move to every cab being an EV. InstaVolt has just launched its largest ultra rapid EV charging superhub in the capital at Syon Park in Brentford. Although it’s built with all EV drivers in mind, InstaVolt says the new 14 charger superhub addresses the lack of rapid chargers in the capital. To support black cabs drivers’ campaign to have VAT reduced to
PHTM JUNE 2024
5% at public charging points in line with home chargers, InstaVolt is also removing 15% of the cost at its chargers in the capital for a month, as a sign of solidarity. Since 2018, all taxis licensed for the first time have had to be zero emission capable and there are calls for the government and TfL to step in to do more to support drivers and reduce VAT on charging points. Steve McNamara, General Secret- ary of the LTDA, said: “Well over half of London’s black cabs are now electric but the shortage of rapid public charging points and rising cost of charging remain barriers to wider uptake of electric taxis. “Reducing the VAT on public charging, bringing it into line with home chargers, would help level the playing field for those drivers unable to charge at home as well as supporting drivers with mounting oper-ating costs. “We hugely appreciate InstaVolt’s
gesture of removing the VAT equivalent themselves to demon- strate the positive impact such a reduction would have.” Transport campaigner, Quentin Willson, is the founder of Fair- Charge, which argues VAT needs to be cut on public EV charging. Quentin said: “FairCharge has campaigned for three years asking the Treasury to cut VAT on public EV charging to reduce costs for EV drivers who can’t charge at home. I’m really encouraged to
see
InstaVolt symbolically reduce their prices, to reflect the difference a VAT cut would make.” Supporting the cause is Edmund King OBE, AA president. He said: “It’s unfair that black cab drivers, and others without access to off- street parking, should pay four times as much VAT on charging as those fortunate enough to be able to charge at home. We are pleased that InstaVolt are supporting the campaign for change.”
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