The Big Apple has lifted the cap on the number of cars ride-hailing services like Uber and Lyft can have on the city’s roads — but there’s one catch, the vehicles must be electric.
Officials hope the move, which begins Thursday, will help expand the fleet of for-hire cars in the city from the current tally of 78,000 back toward the pre-pandemic number of nearly 100,000.
It’s part of a push by Mayor Eric Adams and the Taxi and Limousine Commission to shift the vehicles used by the ride-hailing services from gas power to being either battery powered or handicap accessible by 2030.
“Anyone with an electric vehicle can put in an application to be a ride share driver, put even more New Yorkers on the road to opportunity, jobs, employment, economic possibilities but doing it in a clean way,” said Mayor Eric Adams, at a pre-rollout event earlier this week.
These new regulations will require that Uber, Lyft and other ride hailing companies move 5% of their rides in cars that are either electric or can fit a wheelchair by the end of 2024 — a tally that already sits at 10%, officials say.
The goal then moves to 15% of trips by the end of 2025, 25% by the end of 2026; 40% by the end of 2027 and then increasing by 20 percentage points annually until gas cars that can’t fit wheelchairs are entirely phased out of the fleets by the end of 2030.
Officials says that allows any driver who purchases a car this year to get the average seven-year life out of a fleet car purchased this year before requiring its replacement.
“This will be a gradual measured transition,” said TLC commissioner David Do.
Ridehailing companies had already promised to switch their fleets over before the city first announced in January that it would roll out the regulations.
These new regulations do not apply to either the yellow or green cab fleets.
The union representing drivers for Uber and Lyft celebrated the new licenses as an opportunity to let drivers who currently lease their cars to finally own them, but is pushing for additional protections including the installation of more charging stations.
“[W]e continue to have concerns over affordability and feasibility for drivers. We all support a cleaner future for New York, but it cannot be funded on the backs of our city’s hardworking Uber and Lyft drivers,” said Brendan Sexton, the head of the drivers guild, in a staetment.
City officials first capped the number of ride-hail cars that could operate in 2018 as it sought to protect the besieged yellow cab business from Uber and Lyft, which were using the vast amounts of money they raised from investors to offer customers cut-rate fares.
The policy, at the time, included an exemption for electric cars, but the TLC slammed that door shut in 2021 when a startup, Revel, attempted to use the loophole to enter the New York market.
Ultimately, the company was allowed to launch its car fleet because it got its application in before the TLC issued its rule change.
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October 19, 2023 at 11:49PM
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NYC lifts cap on for-hire cars — provided they're electric - New York Post
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