Lyft pledges to go all-electric by 2030

Lyft is going all in on electric. So much so that, by 2030, every time you order a Lyft ride, it’ll be an all-electric vehicle that shows up.

At least, that’s the promise company leaders made in an announcement Wednesday with the Environmental Defense Fund. The plan is to switch all vehicles on its platform — whether those are cars from its rental program, Express Drive car rental option for drivers, Level 5 autonomous vehicles, or independent drivers’ personal vehicles — to 100-percent EVs or other zero-emission options. 

Lyft’s own white paper on switching its drivers to electric vehicles banks on a drop in EV prices and the ongoing trend of lower costs for electric batteries. EV prices are steadily decreasing as analyst firm Lux Research’s latest EV report shows with the average EV purchase cost dropping to $33,901 in 2019 from $42,189 in 2016. But all-electric vehicles continue to be limited with fewer options, especially when compared to more affordable gasoline-powered cars. 

“It’s got to make economic sense,” Lyft co-founder and president John Zimmer said during a press briefing about shifting its drivers to EVs. 

Lyft claims going electric is a cost-saver as seen through its rental program for drivers. Drivers in EVS report back $50 to $70 in gas savings. A Colorado driver on the same Wednesday call said that he already uses an EV on the Lyft platform, noting savings of “about $600 per month in gas.” 

That economic incentive is part of the 10-step plan Lyft outlined in the paper, which includes partnerships with automakers for discounts on EV options, goals to make using charging networks 20 percent cheaper than gas, and working with utility districts to lower electric grid pricing.

And no, drivers still using a gas car in 2030 won’t be booted off the app. But Zimmer and the team are hoping that policy, financial, social, and environmental benefits will be so alluring that it’ll be easy to go electric. 

“We want to make it a financial no-brainer,” Zimmer said.

This isn’t the first time Lyft’s made bold promises about its energy use. In 2018, Lyft committed to carbon offsets and refocused on a 2025 goal to hit 1 billion rides with carbon-neutral vehicles. But with this new 2030 all-electric goal, the company’s sunsetting the offsets program. That program allowed Lyft tp say it was a carbon-neutral platform. Now, not so much until (or really, if) it actually achieves a 100-percent electric transition.

Last year, Lyft debuted “Green Mode” in Seattle and Portland, Oregon, as an option to select an EV or hybrid vehicle for pick up. The EV-friendly choice is supposed to come to more cities eventually. In those two cities, drivers have already completed 300,000 Green Mode rides. If Lyft’s plans come together, the whole app will be set to Green Mode within the decade.