U.S. tech transportation company Uber on March 21 rolled out an eco-friendly taxi service in Kyiv.
Called Green, the service allows users to order an electric car for a ride. Green has been plugged into the existing Uber mobile application and available from its drop-down menu.
A ride with an electric car is charged under Uber’s second cheapest UberSelect tariff: $1 rate plus 5 cents per minute, and plus 17 cents per kilometer. The minimum price for a ride is $2.
For this service to operate, Uber has amassed in Kyiv a fleet of 200 electric cars, including Nissan Leaf, Renault Zoe, Hyundai Ioniq, Tesla S, BMW i3, Chevrolet Volt, and Chevrolet Bolt cars.
“The future is about electric autonomous transport that can be shared,” Georgii Sokolianskyi, the head of development at Uber in Central and Eastern Europe, said at a company press event on March 21. “But we still have a long way to go.”
According to Sokolianskyi, the goal of this service is to encourage people in Kyiv use electric vehicles and thus stimulate the development of demand for electric cars in Ukraine. Uber even plans to cooperate with “authorities, automobile manufacturers, and other players in the energy market” to make renewable energy more widespread.
Uber expects 10,000 people using the service by the end of April.
The Ukrainian capital is the second city in Central and Eastern Europe to benefit from the service, after Bucharest. So far Green is available in Amsterdam, Paris, London, Lisbon, Porto, Zurich, and Munich.
The Kyiv Post’s technology coverage is sponsored by Ciklum and NIX Solutions. The content is independent of the donors.
