Your next Uber ride will have an extra fee for gas — even if it’s in an EV

Uber is including a “non permanent gasoline surcharge” to fares to assist drivers pay for record-high fuel costs across the nation, the corporate introduced Friday. “Rides clients pays a surcharge of both $0.45 or $0.55 on every Uber journey, and Eats clients pays both $0.35 or $0.45 on every Uber Eats order, relying on their location,” Uber’s head of driver operations in US and Canada, Liza Winship, stated in a weblog publish.

The whole thing of the surcharge will probably be handed on to drivers, and the plan is for the surcharge to be in place for the following 60 days. Nonetheless, Winship cautions that “we are going to proceed to observe fuel costs and should make further modifications.” And this non permanent gasoline surcharge will even be in place for rides or deliveries finished in an EV, “which we hope will function further incentive for drivers to transition to EVs going ahead,” Uber spokesperson Harry Hartfield tells The Verge.

In her weblog publish, Winship listed a few of Uber’s electrical automobile advantages, together with increased earnings for drivers who use battery EVs, a $6,000 low cost off a Nissan Leaf, and reductions on some automobile charging. However a gasoline surcharge and EV advantages will not be sufficient to totally stop the sting of upper fuel costs. As my colleague Andy Hawkins wrote at this time, EVs are nonetheless out of attain for a lot of due to issues like provide chain constraints, low stock, and costly costs. And since there are numerous causes that fuel costs have elevated, together with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, they may keep excessive for a while.