Uber Technologies Inc. has partnered with Japanese car giant Nissan, who will provide the ride-sharing app with 2,000 of its Electric Nissan Leaf vehicles to be used in the UK - with the main focus being on London drivers.
Transport secretary Grant Shapps has described the deal as "fantastic", as the capital pushes for more and more zero emissions vehicles to hit the city's roads.
Uber has said it will be pushing for all of its 45,000 London based drivers to work its app in electric vehicles by 2025.
Jamie Heywood, Uber's Regional General Manager for Northern and Eastern Europe, said of the deal: “The partnership with Nissan is a hugely significant step towards meeting this goal."
The Nissan Leaf is built in the firm's UK based plant, located in Sunderland.
If demand is high for the vehicles, it's likely Nissan would increase the volume of cars it makes available.
The deal may spark controversy among the capital's industry leaders, as Uber are yet to secure an operating licence.
In November 2019, Transport for London (TfL) made the decision to refuse a licence renewal for the Silicon Valley firm, stating there were a number of safety concerns which could not be overlooked.
TaxiPoint reported on a newly-released letter from TfL which outlined a series of failures from Uber to protect passengers and other road users, including:
- A global phishing scam, involving manipulation of GPS signals to create fictitious journeys for which passengers are charged;
- The use of fake insurance certificates, and Uber’s failure to check start and end dates for insurance;
- Drivers with fraudulent private hire licences using the app to transport passengers;
- Unlicensed Vehicles used to transport passengers;
- Drivers fraudulently replacing account profile pictures with photos of a different individual, to allow others to pick up passengers using their log-in details;
- Drivers using online videos which demonstrated how to fake their locations at airports, to allow drivers to jump queues or find out destinations before beginning trips.
The letter confirms that Uber received 27,799 safety-related complaints between 1 December 2018 and 31 May 2019.
Image credit: Nissan Media
