America already has a playbook for a mass transition to electric vehicles: Just look at China, said Rebecca Tinucci, Uber’s global head of sustainability, at Fortune’s Most Powerful Women Summit on Tuesday. “Fifty-percent of new vehicle sales in China are electric,” Tinucci noted during a panel entitled “Building More Sustainable Cities.” Three years ago, China was pretty much in the same place as the U.S. in terms of EV adoption, added Tinucci, who noted the EV growth slowdown in America.
A big factor is price: Electric vehicles are generally cheaper in China than in America. But it’s about policies, too, Tinucci said: “There’s two things that make Chinese vehicles lower price and more affordable, which is a key challenge. One is certainly subsidies.” The other, she added, is lithium processing, where China dominates.
Tinucci also pointed to EV adoption in London, boosted by government incentives and initiatives. “30% of our miles in London are EV,” she said. “Here in the U.S., it’s about 8%. So you can see, again, the playbook for how it could work, but we’ve got a lot of work to do.”
Fortunately, lithium-ion battery prices have dropped over the past year, Tinucci noted, which should help the U.S. move closer to more affordable electric vehicles.
“EVs are inevitable,” said Zūm founder and CEO Ritu Narayan, also a panelist. “Climate goals cannot be met without electrification.” It’s why California-based Zūm, which specializes in student transportation services, is focusing on electric buses, she noted.
Still, to really create sustainable cities, everyone has to work together, Elizabeth Baker Keffer, executive VP and chief relationship officer at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, said during the panel. That means at the government, company, and individual level. If we want to move to a new urbanism in the aftermath of the pandemic, which hollowed out cities, the approach has to change, she said: “This move towards new urbanism really does require a sustainable-cities approach.”
Nancy Mahon, chief sustainability officer at Estee Lauder, noted at the panel that her company has set EV goals, responding to the importance of climate issues among its stakeholders, employees, and consumers. Two years ago, Estee Lauder announced its commitment to transition all of its global corporate fleet to electric vehicles by 2030. The cosmetics giant has struggled a bit with EV availability and prices, Mahon said, but she’s optimistic. “We need a more mature market, and we need to depolarize the public discussion,” she said, adding that the question shouldn’t be whether electric vehicles are good or bad.
Many Uber drivers, meanwhile, prefer driving an EV: “It’s cleaner, it’s quieter, they actually get more tips, which is awesome,” said Tinucci. On the Uber platform, drivers are going electric. That’s partly because Uber helps drivers rent EVs and also obtain discounts for them. And it offers added cash as an incentive: In the U.S., the company offers $210 for every 200 rides per month using an EV.
“For our riders, it’s quiet, it’s smooth,” said Tinucci. “This is the preferred ride, and we’ve actually seen demand for our green product.”
