Ride-hailing app FREE NOW has set a target for the UK market to make all taxis electric by 2024 and all private hire vehicles by 2025.
It has also announced a commitment today to make all of its trips across Europe zero-emission by 2030.
In the meantime, it is promising to offset all emissions, including through preservation and regeneration of forests and planting more than 20,000 trees across European cities.
FREE NOW, which merged with Kapten last year to bring black cabs and private hire vehicles together in one app for the first time, claims to have the largest electric fleet in Europe and the largest green fleet of black cabs (80% of all electric taxis in the London market are on FREE NOW).
As part of its Green Pledge, it will be working with drivers, passengers, regulators, the Government and businesses in the UK and investing over £20 million into supporting drivers to switch to electric vehicles.
It has also put aside £10 million of investment to support passengers in their efforts to go green and will build greener travel incentives into its loyalty programme
Mariusz Zabrocki, FREE NOW UK General Manager, said: “We are proud to be the only app to offer electric vehicle (EV) booking options, both for PHV and black cabs, to enable passengers to choose more environmentally-friendly vehicles whenever they travel. We are already at the forefront of this with over half of our taxi trips already being completed in electric vehicles and we have the largest green fleet of black cabs in London.
“We are going one step further and pledging to shift to a fleet that is fully zero emission capable as quickly as possible. Working with drivers, passengers, regulators, the Government and businesses we all need to act now to improve air quality in our cities, making them better places to be.”
Last year FREE NOW became the first mobility platform to enable a solely electric booking option for business travellers, after surveying business leaders in the City of London and finding nine out of 10 would be placing sustainability as a priority following the Covid-19 pandemic.
