I like to leave the house early in the morning. I
like empty streets. Morning light. I love London.
Every day it's a constant journey of discovery.
Never know where I'm gonna pass.
I'm always know where I start. I never know where I will end up.
Within the space of only a decade, the ride hailing
industry has grown from nothing at all to today having millions of
drivers and over half a billion users globally. These vehicles
are contributing enormously to the total miles driven. I'm Tom
Elvidge and I look after Arrival's vehicle programmes.
Uber has set out really bold ambition to go fully electric
with all of the drivers in London by 2025, across the UK
2030. And then globally, Uber drivers will need to upgrade to
an electric vehicle. We are partnering with Uber in the
development of the Arrival Car. Our mission is to help cities
all around the world to realise their net zero emissions
targets.
One of the really cool things about starting with Uber
was getting my own car. I'm Kasey Clarke from London. I'm an
Uber driver and entrepreneur. In order to make this kind of work,
work, you need your vehicle to be the most economical you can
get your hands on. After driving a diesel engine for a year and
finding the costs to be exorbitant, I was so excited to
get into it. I had to find a way to save money when I was doing
this job because all of my money was going into the petrol pumps.
Like who am I working for here?
How you doing? Very good. Can I get a lovely full English please and
a cup of tea. Wow,
that was quick. Thank you. Having a choice on how I work in
the day is the main reason I chose to do this. I'm Charlie
Holding. I'm an Uber driver. And my work vehicle is my domestic
vehicle. I'm doing school runs, football matches, shopping runs,
or everything anyone else would do in their car.
When I decide to buy my car, I open an Excel sheet and
I put the number together. I'm Giovanni, I'm from Italy and
I'm an Uber driver in London. My car is our family car basically. I adapt
my car to my job, the fabric of the seat are not built on purpose
to carry a lot of passage every day.
We have to enable drivers to make that switch because they're
the ones owning the vehicles at the end of the day and the
vehicles are really core to their everyday life and they need to
feel comfortable switching into a fully electric vehicle. I'm Becs
Jeffery, I work for Uber and I lead a lot of our
electrification initiatives here in the UK. Arrival's approach is
different because it's really design-led. And it's bringing in
Uber drivers to contribute into that design process and ensure
that what's being built is actually meeting the needs of
ride-hail drivers, from their personal needs to their
passengers needs, which hasn't been done before.
So this is the actual interior, this front passenger
seat acts as a seat or you can stow it in this way and it actually
goes right under the dashboard. It's acres of space. All made
possible by the fact that this is a complete ground-up design
on the basis that it's an electric vehicles. So the Arrival
Car is the third product from Arrival. We're developing a Bus, a
Van and the Car is purpose designed around ride hailing. So
think of it as the ideal vehicle for an Uber driver.
Uber doesn't actually own the vehicles. So this really has
to meet the drivers needs. They're going to be the ones
that choose it.
The barriers for Uber drivers getting an EV at the
moment, I would say, are basically costs. That'd be
top top of their list.
Getting a car specifically for doing this job,
It's a big chunk of change to come out of your wallet every
week.
There shouldn't be a premium that people have to pay
to choose to go to an electric vehicle. In order to develop a
vehicle that can be really, truly affordable, Arrival takes an
approach where we are developing our vehicles in Microfactories
that reduce the logistics and supply chain costs. And we're
using our own proprietary materials that can be lighter
and more affordable. All of this can come together to remove the
barriers for ride-hail vehicles to upgrade to an electric
vehicle.
Uber recognises its role and its responsibility in
tackling climate change and pollution in cities as the
largest mobility platform in the world. Back in 2018, we first
committed to being fully electric in London by the end of
2025.
Diesel fumes are disgusting, it's a horrible
thing to breathe in. Suddenly thousands of vehicles driving through
London in confined spaces - children go to school in that space. We
do have to clean the air up. I think the EV thing is the way
to do that.
To get to fully electric is a really complex
challenge. And as Uber we're collaborating with many partners -
from cities, to charging partners and also vehicle
manufacturers, helping our drivers move into electric
vehicles and enabling our riders to make a sustainable choice.
It means a lot to have a valid input into what a
private hire driver requires from our private hire vehicle.
And what I've seen so far is quite an innovative vehicle.
It's a great shape. It's got a good size. It's the technology of
the future. I want the cars to look like the future. And I
certainly think Arrival have ticked that box for me. It looks
fabulous.
We have to look at all of the miles that are driven and
how do we systematically transition to electric vehicles.
Having an electric vehicle that's perfectly suited
to a private hire drivers needs has the ability to accelerate
EV adoption both here in London and across the world.
We believe that the time to make this change is right now.