The Impact of Free EV Rideshare on the Electric Vehicle Market

Electric vehicles (EVs) have become a hot topic in recent years, as more and more people are becoming aware of the benefits to the environment and their finances. One of the biggest hurdles to EV adoption is the lack of public charging infrastructure, which has deterred many from making the switch. However, a new initiative is hoping to change that by offering free EV rideshare in Kissimmee, Florida.

The program is aimed at educating the public about the benefits of EVs, and it has been receiving a lot of attention. The question is, will it be effective in getting more people to switch to EVs and will it lead to more EVs on the road?

Joshua Aviv, founder and CEO of Spark Charge, discusses the correlation between more people being exposed to electric vehicles, assessing the Impact of Free EV Rideshare on Market Adoption.

Josh’s Thoughts

“Hello everyone. My name is Josh Aviv, Founder and CEO of Spark Charge. At Spark Charge, we created the world’s first on-demand mobile charging network, where we actually bring the range to you, the EV owner, or to EV fleets. We show up with the push of a button, plug in and charge your car every single day. I think free EV ride share is a great idea!

When we think about it, the more people that we can expose to electric vehicles, the more adoption we’ll see. If people get to experience electric vehicles, especially in communities or places where typically charging isn’t available, or EV ride share, EV ownership isn’t as prevalent. Then we’ll actually see a greater interest in owning electric vehicles.

So I think free EV ride share, giving people rides in EVs is gonna tremendously help grow the electric vehicle market. We’ve even been able to see this with other companies such as Hertz, where Uber drivers now have started to adopt electric vehicles after being able to drive them for a while, and customers are starting to ask more questions about where electric vehicles are, what it is to drive them and things like that when riding an electric vehicle.

So I think this is a great idea. So, when we think about the rising cost of EV, if the prices go too high, we’ll definitely start to see the market take a hit. However there are multiple benefits to owning an electric vehicle above just the lower cost to charge versus gas. There’s a lot of less pollution.

There’s a lot less noise pollution when we think about it. Will higher prices on EV charging affect electric vehicle adoption, absolutely, but it won’t be the end all be all, and I think we won’t see electric vehicle charging prices go above gas prices for a long time.”

Article by Galina Mikova