Can a ride-share driver go Electric?

Here in Toronto, city council is debating a mandate, whereby all ride-share drivers operating in the city must drive an electric car by 2030. Lets discuss this concept in more detail and look at some scenarios. What quality used models are out there that might work for a ride-share driver? What is the charging situation like? We find that for an occasional ride-share driver, even my 2018 Nissan Leaf offers ample range and amenities for the job, provided it can be charged at home.

City council is currently considering a ride-share mandate (source). How practical is this? Advocates point out the lack of charging as a major obstacle. Looking at plugshare at say, the Thorncliffe park neighborhood in Toronto, indeed, there are few chargers available. Some at nearby shopping centers, but that is hardly practical for overnight charging. To be fair, plugshare does show a few condo’s/appartments with L2 charging but we do have a long way to go. For the dedicated, its possible there are some apartments in the area that offer underground parking, whereby you might find an outlet for L1 charging.

How far does a ride-share driver go in a day? Well, 150 km seems to be a common figure (source, and source), although some go as far as 500-800 km by driving for multiple ride-share companies, food deliveries and grocery services. Much depends on where you live? Airport runs seem to be popular for ride-share drivers (source). Taking that as a baseline, its about 30 km from Toronto to the airport, and it can take 30 min to an hour to do. Thus in an 8 hour day, on average, that’s perhaps 8 airport runs (some idle time in between), or 240 km. So lets say 200 km per day for our ride-share driver.

Thus if you can charge your car overnight, my 2018 Nissan Leaf does have enough EPA range to make it 200 km, in particular in city driving where the electric drive train is particularly efficient. Occasionally, our ride-share driver might drive further, hence fast charging during a lunch break would make that quite feasible, I certainly have taken my 2018 Nissan Leaf on plenty of road trips.

Given the modest mileage of ride-share drivers, its quite feasible for a ride-share driver to drive an EV. However, home-charging is a must, preferably a L2 charging station, as L1 charging only typically gets you 100 km or so overnight.