China’s new ride-hailing rules allow Uber and Didi to use old bangers

Coming through! Photo credit: Reddit’s PSBattle.

Mr. Bean has a new source of income if he moves to China – driving for one of the nation’s ride-hailing apps. New rules revealed today, set to go into law in November, permit apps like Uber and Didi to use cars that have a mileage as high as 600,000 kilometers. That’s 372,823 miles.

That takes the place of a much tighter rule that cars used by any ride-hailing app in the country cannot be older than eight years old.

[It’s] more aligned with a ride-share model with a large number of part-time drivers.

Didi Chuxing welcomed the new law – particularly the bit about the higher mileage. “[I]nstead of an arbitrary eight-year service limit after which a car is mandatorily scrapped, vehicles on our platform may now run until they reach an aggregate mileage of 600,000 km, which is more aligned with a ride-share model with a large number of part-time drivers,” said the startup in a statement this afternoon.

Uber, while it also welcomed the new law, is holding back on the old bangers and looks set to keep its five-year limit. For now, anyway.

“The new guidelines set the bottom line, and in China every car on the road is required to pass an annual check-up in order to meet all safety and emission standards. Uber will set our standard with a view of what is best for riders and drivers, what will continue to ensure the best possible experience and highest safety. We currently require cars on the platform to be five years or newer – a higher standard than national reg[ulations],” explained an Uber China spokesperson to Tech in Asia via email.

See more on the Uber-Didi battle:

• China legalizes Uber and Didi with new rules. But there are lots of catches
• In China, laid-off coal miners turn to the Uber economy
• Didi immediately one-ups Uber’s $3.5b funding round