Pushing ahead with its ambitious plan to reduce its carbon footprints, American ride-hailing company Uber Technologies Incorporated has announced its plan to deploy 100 Tesla Model Y BEVs in Tokyo, Japan. Tesla Model Y is a battery electric compact crossover manufactured by American electric car pioneer Tesla Motors. It was first unveiled in March 2019, while its series production was started in January 2020. Since then, it has continuously been one of the top selling BEVs worldwide.

Uber has considerably increased use of Tesla BEVs to electrify its ride-hailing service, mainly in North America and Europe. Now, the company is looking to extend its zero-emission electric car service to Japan with the use of the Tesla Model Y compact crossovers.

The company recently announced that it is working with Tesla Japan and a local taxi service called Hinomaru Kotsu to deploy one hundred Tesla Model Y BEVs available through its “Uber Premium” service in the capital city of the Asian country.

Out of the planned one hundred Tesla Ys, the first 30 units are expected to be deployed in November this year, and those vehicles will be based at Hinomaru Kotsu’s offices in the capital city by the end of 2024, all the planned 100 units will get deployed.

Shiro Yamanaka, Uber executive in Japan, said in a statement that he and his team members were very pleased to be able to work with Hinomaru Kotsu to promote zero-emission vehicles in the country. He stressed that use of the Model Y would make the Uber Premium service more popular among consumers.

Speaking on the topic, Yamanaka said, “Uber Premium is a service that allows you to easily and reasonably call a luxury vehicle using the Uber app. in the deployment area. We expect that the demand for Uber Premium will increase further with the introduction of the Tesla Model Y, which is popular as a luxury vehicle.”

Ryokusai Inoue, Tesla’s country manager in Japan, also expressed his happiness on being able to realize an initiative of one hundred Tesla Y units in Japan as well. He stressed that both companies would be able to benefit greatly from the deal.

The deal between Tesla and Japanese taxi service Hinomaru Kotsu seems to be a big achievement for the American EV giant as it would make the battery-electric compact crossover more familiar to consumers in Japan.