Uber Comfort sits between UberX and Exec, and for most London drivers it is the easiest step up they will ever make. There is no brand list, no colour rule, no minimum rating and no trip count. Your car either appears on Uber's eligible model list at the right age, or it does not. Every figure below was read off Uber's live London data and its published UK requirements on 4 August 2026.
What Uber Comfort actually is
Comfort is Uber's mid tier. Riders pay more for a newer car with more legroom and the option to ask for quiet or a temperature preference. Drivers get the higher fare without any of the executive restrictions.
Uber runs Comfort in sixteen UK cities: London, Manchester, Birmingham, Leeds, South West, Liverpool, Portsmouth, Southampton, Edinburgh, Glasgow, North East, Sheffield, Cardiff, Nottingham, Brighton and Cambridge. London has the tightest age rule of the lot.
The important structural point, and the one that catches drivers out, is on Uber's own eligible vehicles page: the model list covers every product except UberX. For UberX, any car with a PHV licence from an approved council is accepted. For Comfort, your exact model has to be on the list. A car can be entirely legal, licensed, insured and working on UberX, and still be invisible to Comfort because Uber has never added that model.
The age rule, and why 2026 means 2020
Uber's vehicle requirements page states that a Comfort vehicle "must be no more than 6 years old (London, Manchester, Birmingham) or 8 years old (in all other UK cities)". It adds that the policy is implemented on a rolling basis.
Six years is a rolling cap, not a fixed year, so it moves every January. In 2026 that lands on 2020.
We checked this against the data rather than inferring it. Every single one of the 639 Comfort tagged models in Uber's London list carries a minimum model year of 2020, across 104 manufacturers, with no exceptions anywhere in the set. If a 2019 car is being advertised to you as Comfort ready in London, it is not.
For context, here is where the other tiers sit in the same data:
| Product | Minimum model year, London, 2026 |
|---|---|
| Comfort | 2020 |
| Exec | 2021 |
| Lux | 2021 |
| Exec XXL | 2019 |
Exec XXL being older than Comfort surprises people. It is a seven seater product, the eligible set is five Mercedes vans, and Uber applies a different cap to it.
What Comfort does not ask for
This is the part worth reading twice, because it is why Comfort is reachable when Exec is not.
No brand list. Exec and Lux are restricted to Mercedes-Benz, BMW, Audi, Jaguar and Lexus. Comfort has no brand restriction at all.
No colour rule. Exec and Lux in London must be black, grey, blue, dark blue or dark grey. Comfort has no colour requirement. A white car can work Comfort.
No body style rule. Lux is "Sedans only". Uber's requirements page is blunt about estates: "we DO NOT accept ANY Estate vehicles on Exec or Lux". Comfort accepts them, and the London data proves it, carrying the Audi A4 Avant, BMW 3-series Touring, Skoda Superb Combi, Mercedes E-Class Wagon, VW Passat Wagon and the Volvo V60 and V90, all at model year 2020.
No minimum rating. Uber publishes 4.85 for Exec, 4.9 for Lux, 4.85 for Exec XXL and 4.7 for Assist and Access. Comfort's block on that page contains no rating figure at all.
No trip count. Lux requires over 1,000 completed trips. Assist and Access require over 500 in London. Comfort requires none.
You will see a "100 trips" figure repeated for Comfort on driver forums. It is not in Uber's UK requirements. Uber's help centre says eligibility can depend on "Driver rating or other account criteria, where applicable", which is a general caveat, not a published Comfort threshold.
What Comfort does ask for
The site wide baseline applies to every Uber product, Comfort included:
- A PHV licence from an Uber accepted council
- A 4 door car or people carrier
- Good condition with no cosmetic damage
- No commercial branding
- Licensed to carry a minimum of 4 passengers
Then the model has to be on the eligible list at 2020 or newer. That is the whole test.
If you want Business Comfort trips as well, there is nothing extra to do. Uber's page is explicit: "The same requirements would apply if you would like to opt in to take Business Comfort trips."
Which cars qualify
Six hundred and thirty nine models is too many to list, and any list we printed would be stale within weeks. The useful shape is this.
Every Exec eligible car is also Comfort eligible. All 64 Exec tagged models in Uber's London data carry a Comfort tag too. Comfort is a strict superset of Exec. If you are already in an Exec car you are automatically Comfort capable, and the practical reading is that Comfort is your floor, not your ceiling.
Most Lux cars are, but not all. Twelve of the nineteen Lux models carry Comfort. The seven that do not are the Bentley Mulsanne, Lotus Eletre, Lotus Emeya, Rolls-Royce Ghost, Rolls-Royce Phantom, Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud and Rolls-Royce Silver Shadow. If you are driving a Silver Shadow you have bigger questions than this article.
Exec XXL is the odd one out. None of its five models carry Comfort. They are all Mercedes vans: the EQV, V-Class, Vito, Vito Tourer and eVito Tourer.
Electric and hybrid are well covered. On Comfort at model year 2020 the London data carries the Tesla Model 3, Model S, Model X and Model Y, the BMW i4, i5, i7 and iX, the Mercedes EQB, EQE and EQS, the VW ID.4, ID.5 and ID.7, the Kia EV6 and EV9, the Hyundai IONIQ 5 and IONIQ 6, the Polestar 2 and 4, the Skoda Enyaq and the Toyota bZ4X.
Plug-in hybrids too, at the same 2020 floor: the BMW 330e, 530e, 740e and 745e, the Mercedes C350e and E350e, the VW Passat GTE, the Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV, the Volvo XC90 Hybrid and the Volvo V60 Plug-in Hybrid.
One thing to be clear about. Being electric does not by itself reach Comfort. Uber's Electric product and Comfort are separate tags on separate criteria, and a car can carry one without the other. Check the model, not the drivetrain.
Our full searchable table of every eligible model is in the Uber approved cars list for London, and the rules behind it, product by product, are in the Uber vehicle requirements guide.
TfL's rules sit on top, and they are stricter in one place
Uber's age cap is not the only one you have to clear. TfL will not licence a London private hire vehicle that is more than 10 years old from first registration, and TfL measures age from the date the vehicle was first registered with the DVLA, not from its model year. There are published exemption categories, wheelchair accessible vehicles among them, so if you think you have a case it is worth reading the rule rather than assuming.
For a car being licensed in London for the first time, TfL has also required zero emission capability since 1 January 2023. A vehicle meets it by emitting no more than 50g/km CO2 with at least 10 miles of zero emission range, or no more than 75g/km CO2 with at least 20 miles, and any internal combustion engine in the specification has to meet Euro 6.
In practice, for a Comfort car in 2026, Uber's six year cap bites first. A 2020 car clears TfL's ten years comfortably. It is when you are looking at a cheap older car for UberX that TfL becomes the binding constraint.
If you are still working through licensing itself, our guide to getting a PCO licence in London covers every fee and test with the 2026 figures.
My model is not on the list
It happens, particularly with newer models and facelifts. Uber's requirements page links a submission form for exactly this, and says that "If we decide to add the vehicle model to the eligible vehicle list, it will appear on the list within 4 weeks."
Read that carefully before you commit money to a car. Two things matter. The decision is discretionary, so submitting is not the same as being added. And four weeks is a long time to be sitting on a rental you cannot use at the tier you bought it for.
The safe order is to check the list first, then buy or rent. Not the other way round.
What changed in 2026
Uber updated its Comfort, Exec and Lux eligibility during 2026. The change applies to new vehicles added to the platform from 1 August 2026 in London and 19 October 2026 in the rest of the UK. Uber has said existing vehicles will not lose eligibility immediately.
If you already have a car on the platform, that grandfathering is doing real work for you, and it is worth knowing when it runs out before you plan a change. We covered the Exec and Lux side of that change in detail in the 1 August 2026 rules piece.
Frequently asked questions
Is Uber Comfort worth it over UberX?
Comfort fares are higher for the same journey, and the requirements are modest: a 2020 or newer car on the eligible list, no rating threshold and no trip count. If your car already qualifies, there is no reason not to opt in. The question is only worth asking when you are choosing which car to run.
Can I do Comfort in a hybrid?
Yes. Plug-in hybrids including the BMW 330e and 530e, the Mercedes C350e and E350e and the VW Passat GTE all carry Comfort at 2020 in London. Check your exact model on the list, because trim names matter.
Does Comfort need a 4.85 rating like Exec?
No. Uber publishes no minimum rating for Comfort. The 4.85 figure belongs to Exec and Exec XXL, and 4.9 to Lux.
Can I work Comfort in a white car?
Yes. The colour restriction applies to Exec and Lux only. Comfort has no colour rule.
Can I work Comfort in an estate?
Yes. Uber excludes estates from Exec and Lux specifically. The London Comfort list includes the Audi A4 Avant, BMW 3-series Touring, Mercedes E-Class Wagon and Volvo V90 among others.
What if my car is 2019?
It will not reach Comfort in London in 2026. The cap is rolling, so a 2019 car has fallen out rather than never having qualified. Your options are UberX, or a newer car.
Getting into a Comfort car
The requirements are simple, which means the only real decision is the car. Every vehicle in the Blackties fleet clears Comfort, and most clear Exec and Lux as well, so you are not choosing between tiers, you are choosing how much of the ladder you want available on any given shift.
See the fleet for what is on the road now, or register an account and reserve a car.