Uber and LEAF

Greetings,

Back in June I signed up with Uber to do a little driving now and then. So far it has worked out great! I sign-on to the Uber driver app about 4-5 times a week, and end up with deposits of $150-200 per-week. Great way to pay for the lease, and of course I never purchase gas. Plus, most don't know they are riding in a EV, and when I tell them they totally don't believe me!

Anyway, I had a representative contact me from Uber wanting to do a story about EV use with Uber. As far as I know, I am the one and ONLY LEAF driver in the mid-west. But if you use one as well, please let me know!

Cheers!

Ken Broadhead
Ankeny, IA U.S.A.
2013 Black Nissan LEAF

I know of at least three Uber Leafs here in L.A.

I used my Leaf for Uber once. Really just wanted to try it out, since the company intrigues me. I'll probably do it a bit more, but I'm not sure. It works out pretty well, since from 100%, you can only drive for 2-3 hours, but that's the most I'd ever want to do anyway. I did make 50 bucks in 2 hours though, which I can't complain about.

I can't trust that my LEAF has enough range for now, and my Volt doesn't qualify on account of the Gran Turismo style rear seating. Otherwise I'd be all over Uber.

IIRC, there's at least 1 Uber Leaf driver up/around city of SF. I've seen his Plugshare checkins.

I tried to do Uber but Colorado requires a vehicle inspection by a certified mechanic for all Uber cars. I went to severs on the list and they wouldn't touch the car. I lost interest and gave up.

Odd. I got my Leaf inspected and I honestly don't think that anyone even noticed it was an EV. Haha

I am planning to do this too. But I am worried that the range is not enough for us to drive the customers. What if there are no quick charge around the destination?

chuhouse2003 said:

I am planning to do this too. But I am worried that the range is not enough for us to drive the customers. What if there are no quick charge around the destination?

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Even if there were, what if the pricing isn't reasonable or they're broken, blocked, or there's a line?

If I were to do it for a lengthy period in a given day, I'd definitely want to be able to DC FC at a reasonable price.

Can't you cherry-pick riders to stay in a "safe" area?

Valdemar said:

Can't you cherry-pick riders to stay in a "safe" area?

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Yeah, but that hurts your rating. I'm not sure I would do it in LA either. But, Portland has a rather small footprint. Most trips are quite short. I drove for two hours and ended up 10 minutes from home.

Doesn't sound like you're the only uber leaf. I'm guessing you're the only one near Des Moines though, if not all of Iowa or the midwest.

Well, all good questions. I think it depends where you are located. Here in the Des Moines area I chose to log-on to the driver app when I am downtown, or on the way home. I work in the west part of the city, and generally can pick-up a ride for someone at one of the area hotels that need a ride toward downtown about 10 miles away, and then its only another 10 or so home. On weekends I hang out downtown, and most rides I give are no more than 2-5 miles each, so as long as I start with a full charge, I have not had an issue.

The good news is around the western part of the city there are at least 7 charging locations, and they Hy-Vee mega-stores have 4 chargers each, so never ever have to wait on them.

I am not sure if Ubering in a large metro area would work with the limited range issue. But if you live in a medium side location like Des Moines, you really should not have an issue.

I know two in WA that are doing it and they simply select rides that are well within their driving range. One lady did it for 4 hours one day, gave 6 rides, did a charge up (at EvGO of all places...) that she really didn't need and totaled like 50 miles or something

Does anyone have experience with claiming the Federal EV Tax Credit when using a new leaf or similar EV for ridesharing purposes? At one website I found it says:

"To the extent the credit is treated as a personal credit (i.e., attributable to personal driving) any unused credit can’t be carried over to another tax year. However, to the extent the vehicle is used in the purchaser’s business, a proportionate amount of the credit is treated as a general business credit and the unused business credit can be carried over to another tax year."

So lets assume I buy the car this month and use it exclusively for ridesharing and end up grossing $2000 for the remainder of 2016 (after Uber and lyft take out their cut). Then lets assume a tax rate of 25% which would be a tax bill of $500. If I understand the above correctly, I'd not have to pay that $500 tax bill and I could carry the unused $7000 credit over to 2017 and assuming my tax bill is $7000 in 2017, I wouldn't have to pay any of it. Does that sound right?