Making Every Day Electric: Electrifying Rideshare Should be a Top Priority in the Fight Against Climate Change
By: Paul Suhey, Co-Founder and Head of EV Infrastructure & Electric Rideshare
Last week, the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) issued a report that the UN Secretary-General described as “code red for humanity.” Extreme weather events, like hurricanes and heat waves, are expected to worsen and become more frequent. However, there is hope that deep cuts in greenhouse gas emissions could stabilize rising temperatures. To have any chance at achieving the rapid reduction of carbon dioxide emissions called for by the IPCC, electrifying rideshare should be a top priority.
The first and most obvious reason is purely from an emissions perspective. Transportation is our largest source of greenhouse gas pollution — a major reason why the Biden administration recently announced a goal of making EVs half of all new vehicle sales by 2030. Within the transportation sector, rideshare is one of the worst culprits, emitting nearly 70 percent more than the trips they displace. Electrifying just one rideshare vehicle will achieve the same benefits as electrifying three privately-owned vehicles.
The second, less obvious reason is the impact that electrifying rideshare will have on the buildout of EV fast charging infrastructure. According to the Department of Energy, there are about 41,400 EV charging stations in the U.S. With automakers and the Biden administration working to put more electric vehicles on the streets by 2030, that number needs to grow to as much as 1.7 million, according to the PEW Research Center.
Nowhere is this need more important than in cities, where most people don’t have access to at-home charging and where the most pollution occurs. Unfortunately, the public charging market right now is abysmal. Most available chargers are already outdated Level 2 chargers which take six to eight hours for a full charge. Right now, charging an EV in a major city is a painfully inconvenient experience that will never convince the masses to go electric. To drive EV adoption, we need more Level 3 fast chargers that are capable of refueling batteries in minutes, not hours.
Cities lack more and better fast charging infrastructure due to a classic chicken-or-egg dilemma. To have any chance at profitability, fast charging station operators need high utilization. By our estimate, chargers need to be in use nearly eight hours a day. At current levels of EV adoption, this utilization is impossible to achieve. The result is that there are not enough EVs for companies to invest in fast charging infrastructure, and there isn’t enough fast charging infrastructure to convince consumers to make the leap to an electric car.
So how can fast charging operators make their stations profitable and solve the chicken-or-egg problem once and for all? One answer, a recent Rocky Mountain Institute report found, is by using electric rideshare to increase utilization.
This requires a big shift, as only 0.5 percent of rideshare vehicles in the U.S. are currently electric. For their part, Lyft and Uber have made commitments to be 100 percent electric by 2030. Unfortunately, because they rely on the gig economy, this is unlikely to happen. Despite potential long-term cost savings, independent contractor drivers are likely to shy away from the higher upfront or leasing costs associated with going electric, and for the few that might consider it, lack of fast-charging infrastructure is a major dissuader.
To actually electrify rideshare and build more fast charging infrastructure, we need business model innovation.
Revel is doing this in two ways. First, we own and operate our rideshare fleet and employ professional drivers instead of buying into the gig economy. Our drivers don’t have to shoulder the cost of going electric, and we can schedule our cars for multiple shifts per day to take full advantage of low EV operating costs. Second, we’re vertically integrating by simultaneously building a network of publicly accessible fast charging Superhubs. Our high-mileage electric fleet brings demand to our Superhubs, and supports our ability to continue building them across cities like New York. With more access to EV fast charging, consumers are incentivized to go electric when choosing their next car.
The recent UN report makes it clear that we need to act now if we have any chance of turning things around. By rethinking the status quo for rideshare and by launching electric fleets integrated with the buildout of charging infrastructure, we can move more quickly towards a zero-carbon future.
