Coachella prepares to launch new Tesla rideshare program for community members

The city of Coachella is getting closer to launching a new community rideshare service that is focused on providing green rides to anyone who needs it.

Last July, the Coachella City Council approved an agreement with Latino Equity Advocacy Policy Institute (LEAP). Councilmembers also authorized the purchase of 15 Model Y Teslas for the program.

"We're excited about this program coming to fruition," said Mayor Steven Hernandez. He added, "we applied, about 4 years ago, to Cap-and-Trade dollars and part of that money was to introduce a rideshare program."

The City currently has a partial fleet. While all of the vehicles are delivered to the city's corporate yard, the City will be working with its non-profit partner to implement the new rideshare services in the next few months.

"Full funding from the Transformative Climate Community's grant is supposed to hit in the fall so we're preparing for that," according to Risseth Lora, Public Information Officer for the city of Coachella.

Each Model Y Tesla can seat up to 7 passengers and anyone interested in booking a ride, once the program is operational, will be able to do so by calling a number. The goal is to eventually create an app to book rides, similar to the way Uber or Lyft operate.

"It's a program thats worked effectively in the San Joaquin Valley and the Coachella Valley is very similar in being geographically isolated as it is. We're a majority Latino," according to Rey Leon, Executive Director and Founder of the Latino Equity Advocacy Policy (LEAP) Institute.

Leon has launched a similar rideshare service in Fresno County called The Green Raiteros.

Once services are operational, the city of Coachella will be locked into a 5 year program.