As New York City continues to attempt to decarbonize the city, Mayor Eric Adams is focusing on the rideshare industry.
In a presentation this week, Mayor Adams proposed new rules that would see all high-volume for-hire vehicles have zero emissions by 2030.
He also noted that drivers would have ‘no new costs’.
However, the presentation did not detail how the city plans to enforce these changes. Many believe it will fall to the Taxi and Limousine Commission to move the changes.
The commission regulates taxis, limos and ridesharing.
Although this seems aggressive, the top two ridesharing companies are already targeting 2030 for the electrification of their fleet.
Both Uber and Lyft confirmed they were on board with the idea.
However, one thing to consider is that the matching charging infrastructure is not in place to support such fleet electrification. Currently, New York can charge around 20,000 electric taxis and rideshare vehicles. However, by 2030, it will need the infrastructure to charge over 100,000 vehicles.
There is certainly more to come, but we will be interested to see how the city of New York foresees these changes coming through. As well, if the city plans to fund or assist in building out the infrastructure necessary to support said electrification.
