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What is the best car for Uber in Australia?

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Stephen Corby
Contributing Journalist
16 Jan 2025
9 min read

What is the best car for Uber in Australia?

The obvious answer is a Toyota Camry Hybrid. That’s not just because it seems like almost every other Uber you catch is a Camry, nor even because Uber’s own research reveals that it’s the most popular model of car used by its gig economy drivers in Australia, it’s because it really is the best blend of comfort, space and economy for taxi-style work.

Another way of answering which car is best for Uber in Australia is “someone else’s”, or even more specifically, “someone else’s electric vehicle”.

The problem with being an Uber driver in Australia is that if you’re actually going to make good money out of it you’re going to have to drive a lot of kilometres, and that means serious wear and tear for your vehicle, and that your energy costs - be that for petrol, diesel or electricity - is going to have a serious effect on your profitability.

Theoretically, the best case scenario would be for someone to give you their Tesla, or some other kind of EV, and let you put kilometres on it, while charging it as often as possible via a home charger and solar panels, so that your 'fuel' bill is zero, at least on some days (or nights).

If you don’t have a kindly uncle or aunt who’s willing to let you ruin their car, however, you’re going to have to buy one of the best cars for Uber for yourself.

That means you’re looking for a vehicle that’s going to be comfortable - both for you, who has to drive all day, and for your passengers, whose happiness will be measured very clearly and directly through your star rating.

You’ll also want to make sure that it’s one of the Uber approved cars - a list of Uber eligible cars Australia can be found here - and that it’s going to be both reliable and economical.

2025 Toyota Camry Ascent (image: Dean McCartney)
2025 Toyota Camry Ascent (image: Dean McCartney)

In general, Uber driver car requirements Australia are that your car be...

  • ANCAP 5-Star rated for safety.
  • In excellent working condition.
  • No older than the maximum age for the Uber vehicle option chosen (this is different for Comfort and Premier or UberX, the basic level, it must be 15 year old or less - measured by the year of manufacture).
  • A four-door car or passenger van.
  • Have no more than 12-seats, including the driver’s seat.
  • Able to pass a pink slip inspection.
  • Registered and CTP-insured.
  • “Free from cosmetic damage (e.g. scuff marks, scratches and indentations such as hail damage” (this is what Uber says, real-world experience suggests this one is not strongly policed).
  • Free from commercial branding (e.g. graphics or wraps greater than 20 cm by 20 cm), excluding taxi commercial branding (because taxis can be used as Ubers as well).
  • And if you are using a taxi as an Uber, it must comply with all applicable local laws regarding vehicle requirements
  • Must not be an ex-government, ex-driving school, branded or rebuilt vehicle.
  • If you’re thinking that Ubers used to have to be a lot newer than 15 years old when this whole thing kicked off, you’re not the only one.
  • It turns out that’s the rule in some states but not others - in South Australia an Uber vehicle must be no older than eight years and in the Northern Territory the limit is nine years.
  • In Perth, a vehicle must be 16 years old or newer. Uber vehicle requirements in Qld are the same as NSW and Victoria - which means cars 15 years old or younger can be used.

So, if you’re drawing up an Uber car list it’s probably best to benefit from the wisdom of others and have a close look at the Uber car types Australia that Uber itself says are the most popularly chosen as UberX cars.

Estimates differ, but according to Uber’s own figures, around 38 million Australians frequently use Uber and to service that enormous demand there are around 74,000 cars registered with the Uber app as ride share vehicles.

Out of those vehicles, Uber has revealed the most commonly used cars are:

2025 Toyota Camry Ascent (image: Dean McCartney)
2025 Toyota Camry Ascent (image: Dean McCartney)

Toyota Camry: As mentioned, this seems to be widely accepted as the perfect Uber, thanks to its fuel economy (as low as 4.0L/100km, if you’re in a hybrid version), driver and passenger comfort, reliability and boot space.

2023 Toyota Corolla ZR Hybrid (image: Sam Rawlings)
2023 Toyota Corolla ZR Hybrid (image: Sam Rawlings)

Toyota Corolla: No surprise to see another Toyota at the top of the list, and again, this one we’re all used to being picked up in regularly, which is fine, as long as you’re not on your way to the airport with a family of four and luggage (in which case you should have ordered an Uber Comfort - why so tight, eh?).

While the Corolla option does force you to give up some space and comfort, it’s arguably even easier to drive than a Camry, and it might use just slightly less fuel than the Camry (the claim is 3.9 litres per 100km, but in the real world the Corolla will surely do better than the larger Camry).

2025 Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV GSR (image: Marcus Craft)
2025 Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV GSR (image: Marcus Craft)

Mitsubishi Outlander: Once again, the hybrid system and the fuel economy benefits it brings (if you’re able to plug in its PHEV system daily and charge the battery for its electric motor before heading out you might get near its astonishing claimed fuel economy figure of 1.5L/100km) make the Outlander a tempting option for Uber drivers.

It’s also quite spacious and has the high-riding driving position beloved of those who choose SUVs. It’s only a mid-sized SUV, of course, but that still means more space for passengers and luggage.

2024 Mazda3 Evolve SP G25 (image: Byron Mathioudakis)
2024 Mazda3 Evolve SP G25 (image: Byron Mathioudakis)

Mazda3: A bit of a surprising one this, as I don’t recall being in too many Mazda3s personally - and I catch more Ubers than Alex Carey catches cricket balls - but once again, reliability is key; it’s no surprise that all the cars in the most-used list of Uber vehicles for Australia are Japanese.

The 3 is not a hybrid, but Mazda focuses heavily on fuel economy anyway with its engines and claims as low as 5.8 litres per 100km for this stylish little hatch.

One thing to note is that vision out of the rear seats is not great for passengers, and you’re not offering huge amounts of space for them, either. Watch your star rating there.

2025 Toyota RAV4 Hybrid Cruiser 2WD (image: Glen Sullivan)
2025 Toyota RAV4 Hybrid Cruiser 2WD (image: Glen Sullivan)

Toyota RAV4: As one of the most popular cars on the Australian market these days it’s no surprise to find Uber drivers love to drive a RAV4, as well.

Hybrid technology is here to help again (as low as 4.7 litres per 100km, as long as you get a hybrid version), but once again you can tell people are opting for Toyota reliability when choosing to put a lot of kilometres on a vehicle. Passenger and boot space are also far better than the Corolla or the Mazda3 here.

Surprisingly, Uber does not disclose the average age of the fleet of cars it doesn’t own, not does it say what percentage of them are hybrids, plug-in hybrids or EVs.

Uber has recently encouraged its drivers to go electric, however, by offering a service fee reduction for people who choose to Uber an EV.

From 1 July 2022, Uber announced that 'driver-partners' using battery electric vehicles would have a 50 per cent reduced service fee while driving on the Uber platform, up until 30 June 2025. The service fee reduction is capped at $3500 per year, per driver-partner.

Last year, Uber reported the number of drivers using EVs on the platform had almost quadrupled as a result. “This equates to over 500 tonnes of CO2 emissions saved in the last 12 months. That’s almost equivalent to planting 16,000 trees,” Uber trilled in a statement.

2024 Tesla Model 3 Performance (image: Tom White)
2024 Tesla Model 3 Performance (image: Tom White)

The challenge with EVs - and if you talk to drivers it’s an interesting split of loving and defending EV driving and hating and regretting it - is the initial cost of buying one, and the issue of range. If you’re going to be driving more than 400km a day, it could become an issue if you don’t have easy access to fast charging.

There’s no denying, however, that a Tesla Model 3 or Tesla Model Y makes an excellent Uber from a passenger point of view - comfortable, spacious, modern - and the same can be said for the Polestars that are increasingly part of the fleet.

Theoretically, of course, running an EV should be cheaper than putting petrol or diesel in a car, and if you can use solar power to recharge, it’s very cheap indeed.

Speaking of pleasant Uber options, you can choose to run a nicer, or at least larger, kind of Uber, with various options available through the platform that have used various names at times, including Uber Black, Uber Comfort, Uber Premiuer, Uber Luxury car or Uber Max.

Uber Premier vehicles are high-end hire cars that can be ordered, at higher rates, through the app. The list of Uber Premier vehicles is more restricted than UberX and while the must meet the same list of requirements, they go above and beyond that because they must be a 2014 model or newer and “have working windows and air conditioning”.

2024 Tesla Model 3 Performance (image: Tom White)
2024 Tesla Model 3 Performance (image: Tom White)

Uber Comfort is a similar if slightly less posh offering, and the list of Uber Comfort cars includes those that are a 2013 model or later, and “provides a little extra room for passengers.”

While both Premier and Comfort cars are nicer, you’re also going to get a nicer driver, in theory, because you can’t be on that list until you’ve completed at least 500 trips as a driver partner, and over that time you must have maintained a rating of at least 4.85.

Uber Max cars are defined as passenger vans or people movers with room for least six passengers. Pretty self explanatory, then.

Stephen Corby
Contributing Journalist
Stephen Corby stumbled into writing about cars after being knocked off the motorcycle he’d been writing about by a mob of angry and malicious kangaroos. Or that’s what he says, anyway. Back in the early 1990s, Stephen was working at The Canberra Times, writing about everything from politics to exciting Canberra night life, but for fun he wrote about motorcycles. After crashing a bike he’d borrowed, he made up a colourful series of excuses, which got the attention of the motoring editor, who went on to encourage him to write about cars instead. The rest, as they say, is his story. Reviewing and occasionally poo-pooing cars has taken him around the world and into such unexpected jobs as editing TopGear Australia magazine and then the very venerable Wheels magazine, albeit briefly. When that mag moved to Melbourne and Stephen refused to leave Sydney he became a freelancer, and has stayed that way ever since, which allows him to contribute, happily, to CarsGuide.
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