The Federal Government is doubling down on its efforts to promote the adoption of electric vehicles (EV) in Australia’s rideshare industry.
On August 1, 2024, the government announced an additional $20 million investment in Splend, a leading provider of EVs for rideshare drivers.
This latest funding from the Clean Energy Finance Corporation (CEFC) builds upon the success of its initial $20 million investment in Splend back in June 2023.
That initial investment helped increase the company’s EV fleet by 500 cars in just six months, highlighting the strong demand for EVs among rideshare drivers.
“Ride share drivers can clock over four times as many kilometres as typical vehicles. So the more we help rideshare drivers choose cleaner, cheaper-to-run EVs, the greater savings they’ll see and the more transport sector emissions we can cut,” Minister Bowen said.
According to industry estimates, EV drivers can save up to 70 per cent on fuel costs and 40 per cent on maintenance costs compared to those driving internal combustion engine vehicles.
The new $20 million investment will allow Splend to expand its EV fleet to 2000 vehicles, enabling an additional 500 rideshare drivers to save approximately $100 weekly on vehicle costs, fuel, and servicing.
According to Splend, it is on track to deliver on immediate goal of 10,000 vehicles by 2025 across all the cities in which it operates.
“We look forward to sharing more exciting news about our plans for the future over the months ahead as we strive toward our mission of fundamentally changing the way people own and operate a vehicle,” Splend said.
It will also introduce more EVs into the second-hand car market.
The transport sector is a significant contributor to Australia’s emissions, accounting for 22.5 per cent of national emissions in 2023.
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