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Uber has announced a deal to integrate 100,000 electric vehicles (EVs) from China's BYD into its global fleet. According to a report on BBC, the multi-year agreement aims to incentivize Uber drivers to switch to EVs through discounts on maintenance, charging, financing, and leasing.
The rollout will begin in Europe and Latin America, followed by the Middle East, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand.
This partnership comes amid a slowdown in global EV sales and increased import tariffs on Chinese cars in the U.S. and the European Union. The initiative is intended to lower the total cost of EV ownership for Uber drivers, accelerating EV adoption and promoting greener rides worldwide.
Uber and BYD also plan to integrate BYD's self-driving technologies into Uber’s platform. This follows Uber's earlier collaboration with Tesla to encourage EV use in the U.S. and plans to develop a dedicated EV with South Korea’s Kia.
Recently, the U.S., EU, and other markets have raised tariffs on China-made EVs to protect their domestic industries. This has driven Chinese EV manufacturers like BYD to establish production facilities outside China. In July, BYD secured a $1 billion deal to build a manufacturing plant in Turkey, set to produce 150,000 vehicles annually and create 5,000 jobs by 2026. BYD also opened a plant in Thailand with the same annual capacity, expected to generate 10,000 jobs.
Additionally, BYD is constructing its first European passenger car factory in Hungary, projected to create thousands of jobs, and is planning a manufacturing plant in Mexico.
Backed by U.S. investor Warren Buffett, BYD is the world’s second-largest EV manufacturer, following Elon Musk's Tesla.
[Information sourced from BBC]
