{"id":33769,"date":"2023-06-09T09:04:08","date_gmt":"2023-06-09T08:04:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.innovationnewsnetwork.com\/?p=33769"},"modified":"2023-06-09T09:04:08","modified_gmt":"2023-06-09T08:04:08","slug":"what-are-the-benefits-of-electrifying-ride-hailing-services","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.innovationnewsnetwork.com\/what-are-the-benefits-of-electrifying-ride-hailing-services\/33769\/","title":{"rendered":"What are the benefits of electrifying ride-hailing services?"},"content":{"rendered":"

A new study has found that the full electrification of Uber and Lyft vehicles would only provide modest benefits to society.<\/h2>\n

Ride-hailing services Uber and Lyft have pledged to fully electrify their fleets by 2030 in the US.<\/p>\n

The shift would eliminate tailpipe pollution and relocate emissions to the power plants that provide the electricity to charge EV batteries.<\/p>\n

Scientists have thought that this shift would result in a significant drop in overall greenhouse gas emissions.<\/p>\n

However, a new study by researchers at the University of Michigan and Carnegie Mellon University has estimated that electrifying ride-hailing vehicles would only provide modest benefits to society. They estimated that on average, the benefits would be a 3% gain per trip when other costs on society are factored in.<\/p>\n

The societal costs included increased noise, collision risk, and traffic congestion due to drivers travelling to and from fast-charging stations.<\/p>\n

“Our simulation showed that electric vehicles drive greater distances without a passenger than do gasoline vehicles, since EVs have to travel to chargers more often than gasoline vehicles have to refuel,” said study senior author Parth Vaishnav, Assistant Professor at U-M’s School for Environment and Sustainability.<\/p>\n

“Furthermore, fast chargers are not as ubiquitous as gas stations, which means EVs have to travel farther each time they refuel than gasoline vehicles.”<\/p>\n

The study, \u2018Life Cycle Air Pollution, Greenhouse Gas, and Traffic Externality Benefits and Costs of Electrifying Uber and Lyft<\/a>,\u2019 is published in Environmental Science & Technology. <\/em><\/p>\n

The researchers modelled more than a million Uber and Lyft trips taken in Chicago<\/h3>\n

The researchers used a new high-resolution model called AgentX in their simulation. They combined this with real-world Uber and Lyft trip data collected in the Chicago area from 2019 to 2022.<\/p>\n

Chicago is one of the largest ride-hailing markets in the US. Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, the number of daily trips average around 300,000.<\/p>\n

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\u00a9 shutterstock\/Tupungat<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The team modelled more than a million Uber and Lyft trips taken at weekends, weekdays, and during different seasons. Trips before the pandemic started and during the period after the widespread rollout of vaccines were also included.<\/p>\n

A set of standard economic tools was used to express the costs of electrifying ride-hailing services in terms of dollars.<\/p>\n

Although the study results are specific to Chicago, the researchers believe that the findings are likely to apply more broadly.<\/p>\n

The results show that electrifying ride-hailing reduces societal harm by 3% per trip<\/h3>\n

The study found that:<\/p>\n