Thanks to a unique model of alliances between private companies, Chile became the first country in Latin America and the 14th in the world to have the Uber Green travel option.
This alternative allows users of the shared ride app to move around the city in low-emission or 100% electric vehicles, as will be the case in our Latin American country. With this, the technology company is closer to its goal of becoming a zero-emissions platform worldwide by 2040.
The launch of this new travel category was possible thanks to a strategic alliance between Uber and five partners: Enel X Way, Kia, Inversiones Security, SQM and Tucar, which made it possible to make electric vehicles available to Uber driver partners for rent at a price accessible and competitive, compared to a combustion car.
This alliance involved a joint investment of 25 million dollars to promote electromobility in Chile.
How will it be applied in Chile?
In this first stage, Uber Green will be available with more than 250 cars in seven Santiago communes: Las Condes, Providencia, Ñuñoa, Santiago Centro, Lo Barnechea, La Reina and Vitacura.
The General Manager of Uber in Chile, Federico Prada, reaffirmed Uber’s commitment to sustainability for the next two decades and celebrated the path that Chile is beginning to lead today. “This is a milestone in the acceleration of electromobility in Latin America, since Uber Green arrives with a unique implementation model that could be a benchmark for other countries in terms of access to electric cars for driver partners and infrastructure development. place,” he explained.
Step by Step
The alliance model that allowed the launch of Uber Green in Chile began in 2020, when the Chilean startup Tucar created vehicle rental plans specially designed for driver partners who use the Uber app.
Then, in 2021, Enel X Way committed to a network of charging stations throughout the Metropolitan Region and in 2022, Inversiones Security and Kia created the first fund in Latin America to accelerate electromobility.
SQM joined all of them, which with a sponsorship model managed to make the rental prices of these cars similar to those of a gasoline car. To request a trip in this new category, users must enter the application on their phone from one of the communes where the service is already active; Enter the address of origin and destination, and select the “Uber Green” option. The prices will be similar to a trip in UberX, although in some cases they will be slightly higher because they are newer and more comfortable cars.