Cabify gets €40m facility from the EIB

An agreement for a €40 million loan from the European Investment Bank has been finalised by Madrid-born Cabify, a ridesharing and on-demand logistics provider active in Spain and Latin America.

The loan was obtained through the EIB’s emissions reductions mandate, and the funds will be used to replace the company’s existing fleet with electric vehicles and charging stations in order to decarbonise its Spanish vehicle fleets. Reports suggest the facility is being supplied by EIB credit programmes Connecting Europe and Future Mobility.

As conventional vehicles are phased out, Cabify will invest €82 million to deploy 1,400 EVs for ride-hailing through its app, resulting in an annual CO2 reduction of 9 kilotonnes on average. By 2025, Cabify’s Spanish ridesharing service will have net zero greenhouse gas emissions, and by 2030, this goal will have been reached globally. The logistics fleet of Cabify is already entirely electric.

Vice President of the European Investment Bank Ricardo Mourinho Félix stated that investing in sustainable transportation means building greener infrastructure for a world without fossil fuels. He also noted that the EIB is glad to provide finance to Cabify to electrify automobile fleets for ride-hailing services in Spain and decarbonise urban transportation.

In the first three months of 2023, Cabify will start the next stage of its EV roll out by issuing a request for proposals for suitable EVs and charging infrastructure.

The EVs must meet passenger transport standards and have an operating range of at least 400km. Additionally, they ought to be able to utilise the “fast chargers” that Cabify intends to utilise from its own charging network.

EIB anticipates that its sustainable and intelligent mobility strategy will have assisted in the deployment of at least 30 million zero-emission vehicles on European roads by the end of this decade. After committing to the UN Global Compact and beginning to purchase offsets for all of its carbon emissions in 2018, Cabify is stepping up its commitment to the environment.

In Spain and throughout Latin America, including Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico, Peru, and Uruguay, the platform has more than 42 million registered users and 1.2 million cooperating drivers and taxi drivers.

Juan de Antonio, CEO of Cabify, added: “At Cabify, we are committed to accelerating the green transition in urban mobility in every market we operate.

“This is our core, making cities better places to live, and sustainable mobility is key for that to happen. The decarbonisation of our fleet in Spain plays a central role in this commitment, and the European Investment Bank’s support proves this progress’s strategic impact.”