Uber (NASDAQ:UBER) has a big goal on its hands. The company wants to go zero-emission by 2030. Given that it’s already 2023, that’s a long way to go and a short time to get there. But Uber isn’t treating this like most of us treat a New Year’s resolution. Uber is already working with car makers to create a new kind of electric vehicle to help it meet its goal.
Since Uber looks for these vehicles to work most often in cities, some specific design issues came up. Lower top speeds, for one. Seating areas that encourage passengers to mingle, pointing the seats at each other instead of all in a line. Uber also looked into a line of delivery-focused electric vehicles, including vehicles with only three or even two wheels and a lot of trunk space that allow goods to be ferried from one place to another. The smaller footprint would allow for easier movement within traffic and help get some vehicles off the roads.
Uber has been moving in this direction for some time already, but now, it’s putting on extra steam—or rather extra electricity—to meet this goal. Uber is already bringing in some help from Hertz (NASDAQ:HTZ) to put 25,000 electric cars on the road in Europe. So far, the Uber / Hertz connection has delivered 24 million trips without a drop of gasoline, accounting for 260 million miles. Uber also turned to sustainable packaging recently to help improve its green profile.
Wall Street is heavily in favor of Uber. Analyst consensus currently calls Uber stock a Strong Buy with an average price target of $46 per share, giving it an upside potential of 58.4%.
