Uber bets on electric cars from BYD: New deal brings 100,000 cars to global fleet !
Online taxi service Uber has entered into a deal with Chinese electric car manufacturer BYD, the world’s largest, to add 100,000 electric cars to its fleet. Both companies will offer Uber drivers incentives to switch to these vehicles through discounts on maintenance, charging, financing and leasing. The multi-year deal covers Europe and Latin America, with later expansion to regions such as the Middle East, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, the UK’s BBC reported.
The companies stressed in a statement that they want to reduce the cost of owning electric vehicles for Uber drivers, accelerate the deployment of these vehicles on the Uber platform worldwide, and offer riders a greener transportation option. They also announced that they will work together to integrate BYD’s self-driving technology into Uber.
In this case, Uber has decided to favour the Chinese manufacturer over US-based Tesla, with whom it struck a similar deal in the US earlier this year. The announcement comes at a time when EV sales are slowing globally, while Chinese carmakers, which dominate the market, face higher import tariffs in the US and EU as those regions seek to protect their own car industries.
This pressure has prompted Chinese EV manufacturers to expand production capacity outside China. BYD, for example, is building its first factory in Europe in Hungary and in June signed an agreement to build another plant in Turkey, where annual production is planned to reach 150,000 vehicles with a start-up date of late 2026. Last month, BYD opened its first factory in Southeast Asia in Thailand with a similar production capacity. It also plans to build a plant in Mexico in the future.
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