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Lyft is expanding its Green mode, which lets drivers choose an EV or hybrid, to additional cities starting April 17.
“We’ve seen an explosion of interest in EVs — and once a driver or rider is on board with an EV, they’re more likely to prefer moving forward,” said Paul Augustine, Lyft’s director of sustainability, in a blog post the company announced the development.
Green mode was first trialled in Seattle in 2019, and is currently only available in Portland, Oregon. Now expanding to 14 cities and territories, including: San Francisco, Seattle, Los Angeles, Silicon Valley, Boston, New York City, Chicago, San Diego, Austin, Denver, Orange County, Sacramento, Phoenix, and Washington, DC
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Even in these areas, Green mode will only be available to riders with a Lyft business profile, for now. However, it only requires a work email to be set up, says Lyft. By selecting the business profile, the driver only needs to select Green mode when setting up the trip.
Under the current program, rides in Green mode currently cost $1 more than standard rides. Lyft splits those dollars between drivers and efforts to grow the EV and hybrid population, according to Lyft.
If all goes according to plan, Green mode will eventually become redundant. In 2020, Lyft announced plans to go all-electric by 2030. In 2021, California adopted a mandate that seeks to make its ride hailing fleet electric by 2030, with regulations phased out starting in 2023 to initiate EV upgrades.
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Lyft’s main rival, Uber, is also targeting all-electric vehicles by 2030. It has taken a different approach, looking to actual vehicle makers to help make ride-hailing more accessible. In 2021, startup Arrival launched an EV designed for Uber and ride hailing, but scrapped the project in 2022.
Lyft and Uber’s efforts to go electric could have a big impact on overall transportation emissions. A 2021 study found that the greenhouse gas footprint when using online transportation services can be higher than driving alone, in part because drivers spend a lot of time “off the road” from one place to another without a passenger on board.
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