Uber Clean Air Plan: How it works in 2024

The Uber Clean Air Plan was first introduced in 2019 to help clean up London’s air with the aim of fully electrifying their fleet by 2025. To do so, a Clean Air Fee was created to support Uber drivers looking to upgrade to an EV by reducing the cost of the vehicles.

As you may already know, the Uber Clean Air Plan has changed a lot.

The Otto Team are getting a lot of questions about how the Clean Air Plan works and how to use the Clean Air fund in 2024.

To better understand the topics our family of PCO drivers want to learn more about, we’ve invited them to fill out an email survey – and we’re happy to answer these questions now, so that Uber drivers can make the best out of the Clean Air Plan.

Here are the most asked questions:

Adam: How do you build up funds to use within the Uber Clean Air Plan?

Unfortunately, you can’t build up new funds now.

Between 16 January 2019 and 14 March 2022, for every trip you picked up in London inside the M25, a per mile Clean Air Fee was charged to riders, and that went into your Clean Air Plan fund to help you upgrade to a new electric PCO car for less.

After 14 March 2022, you’re no longer getting the additional Clean Air Fee.

However, Uber drivers who have accumulated funds will continue to be able to use their pot to make the switch to electric or help with the ongoing costs of running an electric PCO car.

Rafal: What’s the difference between Uber’s EV Assistance scheme and the Clean Air Plan?

Simply put, the Uber Clean Air Plan is an initiative, while EV Assistance is a way to redeem your accumulated funds.

The Clean Air Plan helped drivers accumulate funds which could be redeemed towards the purchase of an electric PCO car. This has since been stopped with drivers unable to increase their funds, but unused funds are still able to be redeemed through EV Assistance.

Ron: How does it work with Rent 2 Buy +?

Your funds will be spread over the total length of the contract, lowering your weekly payments significantly i.e. monthly payments of £300.

Please be aware that once your funds run out (which for most drivers will be within the first year of the contract), you’ll have to adapt to paying your weekly payments to Otto Car without the Uber EV grant for the remainder of the contract.

Please note, this cannot be used towards the down payment.

Martin: Is there an expiry date for the Uber Clean Air funds a PCO driver has built up?

Uber partners with Clean Air Plan funds have until 31 March 2025 to use their funds to switch to an EV. After this point these funds will be reallocated and made available to other Uber Partners wanting to make the switch to an EV. You can still apply to claim from the Clean Air Plan funds after 31 March 2025 but you may not receive the amount you had previously accumulated.

To claim the funds on Rent 2 Buy + you need to have:  

1. 150 completed trips in your EV in the past 8 weeks
2. An ‘Active’ EV on your driver account

Please note, if you’re not ‘Active’ (having fulfilled Uber rides on at least one occasion in the previous 180 days), the amount of your Clean Air Plan funds will have been reduced to zero at that point. When you became ‘Active’ again, the amounts will be added back with service fees. For more details please refer to the plan’s terms and conditions here.

Nurul: What does Uber Green mean for PCO drivers and how is it different to the Clean Air Plan?

The Clean Air Fee is no longer applied to trips in London, but EV drivers will receive 15% higher rates (compared to UberX) on all Uber Green trips until the end of 2022.

Uber Green is a ride option available exclusively to Uber drivers in fully electric vehicles in the whole of London. It works the same way as a regular Uber, just not applicable for hybrids, diesel or petrol. 

Fernando: Which PCO cars are eligible for Clean Air Plan discounts?

There is a wide range of electric PCO cars that are eligible for the Uber Clean Air Plan, including the popular Kia Niro EV and Tesla Model 3 at Otto Car.

Please note that only fully electric vehicles are eligible, which means hybrids and plug-in hybrids are excluded.

Check out the full list of qualified EVs and Uber’s approved vendors here.

Ravi: Can you use the Clean Air Plan for PCO Car Hire?

Yes. The Clean Air Plan funds can be used for both purchase and rental. In other words, you can use your pot on our Rent 2 Buy + and PCO Car Hire plans.

There is a fixed discount price of £300 per month (£75 per week) for rental EVs which will continue to be applied until all of your Clean Air Fund has been redeemed.

This can either be added to your PCO Car Hire contract with us, or done directly with Uber via the Alternative EV Assistance payment option (ask the Otto Team in the hub for help). Please note, if done directly with us, you’ll need to re-sign a PCO Car Hire contract to the full price once your funds run out.

Hamit: How to find out how much Clean Air funds I have?

You will receive an email update every month with the amount of Uber Clean Air Plan money you have built up — try to search for ‘EV Assistance’ in your mailbox.

Otherwise, you can write to Uber’s support team via the in-app Help section under Clean Air Plan.

We hope these answers will help you better understand how you can benefit from the Uber Clean Air Plan.

Learn more about how much you can save on an electric Uber car on Rent 2 Buy + here.

Or if you’re not ready for a PCO car ownership plan, feel free to check out our PCO Car Hire range here.