Uber and BYD announced a plan in July 2024 to bring 100,000 BYD electric vehicles onto Uber across several markets. The first focus was Europe and Latin America, with other regions to follow. The announcement offered access to pricing and financing; it did not say 100,000 cars had already reached drivers.
I want more EVs in ride-hailing because high-mileage cars are a sensible place to cut fuel use. I was too quick to claim the deal solved driver costs. A cheap list price is not a cheap week of work if financing, insurance, charging time, and lost trips consume the savings. The relevant comparison is a driver’s earnings after all vehicle costs, not a press-release count of planned cars.
The U.S. absence also bothered me. Trade barriers and policy shape which cars drivers can buy. But I turned that into a broad claim that American drivers were forced into worse economics without comparing actual vehicles or local charging costs. The cleaner criticism is that policy narrows the choices. Whether a BYD would beat a driver-accessible alternative in a U.S. city needs a real cost comparison.
Uber and BYD also said they would work on future autonomous-capable vehicles. That is a separate, longer bet. A vehicle built to support autonomy is not a permitted, paid robotaxi. I would check how many drivers actually take the EV offer, their net weekly costs, and how long the cars stay in service. Uber’s Hertz rentals raised the same question years earlier.