Car Rental Initiative Aims to Promote Green Mobility

Under the name "Green Mobility? Yes, please!" a newly founded initiative drew attention to itself for the first time with a widely distributed press release on November 21, 2022. It states that it is active for more than 28,000 taxi and car rental companies in Germany that want to make an even greater contribution to environmental protection. Already, they help save emissions and relieve road traffic. However, this is far from sufficient for the transition to sustainable mobility.

Therefore, the initiative announces its first own measures and makes political demands. Still this year, together with a partner, it will bring 200 hydrogen-powered, fuel cell electric, locally emission-free rental cars onto the streets of Berlin. In addition, it will offer all taxis and rental cars the opportunity to charge for free at Potsdamer Platz for a year. The initiative also aims to ensure that "more and more taxi centers and app-based mobility brokers" offer green booking options so that customers can consciously choose sustainable mobility. At every train station and airport, "locally emission-free" taxis should be given priority.

The political demands give an idea of who is behind the initiative. The demand for a successor regulation for the environmental bonus expiring in September 2023 for commercial vehicles could also come from the two federal taxi associations. The demand to use bus lanes and public charging infrastructure with all emission-free occasional traffic vehicles, and the demand to abolish the return obligation for rental cars, however, indicate that Uber is behind the initiative, without appearing by name. This is supported by the fact that Thomas Mohnke is the spokesperson for the initiative. He is one of Uber's best-known general contractors.