Ford on Thursday introduced the beginning of a pilot program permitting Uber drivers in some markets to lease EVs by the week to be used on the ride-hailing community. 

With a pilot program known as Ford Drive, the automaker says that it’ll provide Mustang Mach-E fashions in San Diego, San Francisco, and Los Angeles, with the Los Angeles program beginning Thursday.  

Drivers can join versatile lease durations of 1 to 4 months, and the automobile is delivered inside two weeks of signup. A Ford Drive app is used for automobile funds and repair, and vehicles come from a devoted Ford Drive fleet. Drivers might want to work out their very own insurance coverage, however common upkeep is included. 

Ford Drive – Uber pilot program with Mustang Mach-E

What do Ford EVs price by the week?

Costs will range by metropolis, Ford confirmed to Inexperienced Automotive Studies, but it surely did present an concept of the place they’ll be. These signing up now will see provides at $199 weekly for 500 included miles, or $249 with 1,000 included miles and 20 cents a mile for overage. 

That is a greater deal than what Hertz had been providing on the Mannequin 3 to Uber drivers—round $300 per week, though there together with insurance coverage.

Uber’s Zero Emissions incentive is at the moment one of many firm’s methods of incentivizing drivers to shift to EVs; it at the moment provides an additional $1 for drivers for every EV Uber Rides journey, as much as $4,000 per calendar yr. 

Uber says that in California, 10% of its on-trip miles are already accomplished in absolutely electrical autos, as of late 2022. It’s concentrating on all-electric rides by 2030.

This system builds on one launched in 2022 between Ford Subsequent and Uber in San Diego, together with 150 Mustang Mach-E autos. Ford Subsequent is a unit targeted on future applied sciences, together with autonomous automobile tech.

Ford Drive – Uber pilot program with Mustang Mach-E

Uber-ready Mach-E is BlueCruise assisted-driving-capable

On that observe, Ford Subsequent confirmed to Inexperienced Automotive Studies that every one Mustang Mach-E autos delivered by way of this system can be BlueCruise-capable. Clients might select to activate the characteristic if desired. 

Uber claims that switching high-mileage ride-hailing drivers to electrical ends in 4 instances the emissions-reduction profit versus that of the common automobile proprietor, so simply as with the potential of getting gasoline superusers into EVs, there’s extra of a real-world environmental return, sooner. It’s going to additionally assist reduce the environmental impression of so-called “deadhead miles”—the space drivers must cowl to get to the beginning of a visit and from the top of it.

In accordance with a report earlier this yr Uber continues to work with unnamed automakers on EVs personalized for ride-hailing and supply companies, though an attention-grabbing ride-hailing EV design from Arrival seems to have been scrapped.